4th year Slideshow

HERE is the link to Sidney's 4th Birthday video slideshow. I call it my "labor of love" every year because I search and search for all the best pictures, peruse iTunes for just the right songs and then inevitably something goes wrong and it takes me twice as long as I had anticipated. But in the end, it's always worth it as I see the girls' eyes light up and tears come to my (and my moms) eyes as we watch the previous year in pictures. 

FOUR!!

Well, she's not quite four yet, but today was Sidney's birthday party. She picked out the theme herself, and as you can tell, she was pretty excited about Strawberry Shortcake!

And who knew there was a helium shortage?! Only 6 balloons were allowed. huh. Made for some great conversation later and quick research on Maddi's "space phone" as Zevlen calls it.

 We didn't actually do any swimming, it was a wee bit windy and the girls didn't even ask to go in. I think they were both too excited. 

My best friend Kari came through with THE MOST ADORABLE Strawberry Shortcake cake! And might we all add that it was delicious!! Sidney was giddy for this cake. She couldn't take her eyes off it and climbed right up on the table to get a closer look.

 After some discussion about Sidney's American Girl doll's dreadful hair, Vicky took matters into her own hands and in about 10 minutes, whipped up this creation. WOW! No need for a trip to the AG Salon now, we have Vicky!

 Let's just say she got a few presents.

 Grandma Jan made her a new quilt....and knows that because it doesn't match the current room color, it means she'll be doing some painting too :) 

 Both girls made a haul on American Girl stuff thanks to Grandma Sheri. Yes, even Regan got presents today. 

I made another slideshow DVD. 

my mom cried. 

To her credit, when I watched it the first time, so did I! And then I complimented myself that if I could make it and still cry, I have done well :)

 We sang "Happy Birthday" to one very excited 4 year old and one very proud big sister (with candles decorating a second cake from the talented Miss Kari!).

 And what's a birthday celebration without a family picture. 

 Happy Birthday Party Day sweet Sidney! 

Now give me just one more day to soak you in as a 3 year old, and I promise not to cry when I wake up and you turn FOUR!

Thanks to everyone for coming to help celebrate Sidney's 4th Birthday!

We love you!

School work: "Gold Star!"

Here's a peek at what Regan worked on at school the first week. It's clear they are working on a variety of things, from handwriting, to numbers to coloring to following instructions. I was a bit worried (yes, worried), when she didn't bring home any homework until Friday. I think we're just easing into the routine. 

She certainly earns a "Gold Star" as we call in in this house for her work. Here you go Regan, catch your star...."chhhhiiiinnngg". 

"beer"

I get to hang with Sidney on Fridays. We usually try to incorporate some sort of learning into our busy day. This afternoon, as she worked on a workbook (sidenote: she both started and finished the entire book today), I was explaining "different" and "same". 

I asked her to tell me each of the items in the row and on this particular row she said

"beer" in her oh so cute almost 4 year old voice that sounds a bit more like "be-or"

I think the workbook author was shooting for "soda pop", but I accepted her answer of "beer"

and credit Ryan to her knowledge :) 

Back to school

It's that time of year again, today we headed back to school! Regan started the first grade and Sidney started Pre-K. They were both a little nervous the nights leading up to today. Thankfully they both slept amazingly well, woke up happy and we even had time to play a game of Old Maid (their favorite card game) before heading out for pictures. Unfortunately, Sid was being a stinker and wouldn't partake in any picture taking this morning. I didn't argue, as I tried to keep her in a good mood. 

Regan was up first for drop off. First grade here we come!

 Mom and Regan

 Dad and Regan

 First grade friends

 Getting acquainted with her desk. When I picked her up at the bell this afternoon and asked about her day, the first thing she wanted to tell me about was how she organized her desk. She went on and on about where she put the crayons, erasers and scissors in the box, the folders, and notebooks and other supplies in her desk. Someone follows in her mama's organizational style :)  

Not only would Sidney  not let me take her picture at home, but she wouldn't let me take pictures at school either :( Oh, and she picked out her own shoes today....pink with sparkles of course. 

She's a girl that knows what she wants! 

Little did she realize that I brought along my phone and snapped a few as she entered her class, elated to see 10 of her friends were joining her in the new PreK classroom! 

I picked up the girls early from school, as tradition, and both of them complained that I came too early! I guess that's a great sign on how their day went. Here's to a great year! 

Labor Day Weekend 2012

The end of summer has come, and with it, is our annual outing with my dad's side of the family to the cabin. This year, we ventured to a resort we hadn't been to and it proved to be a good time. Then again, anything on a lake, with a campfire, surrounded by good people is a good time for us. We're pretty easy to please when it comes to cabin life. 

Here's our weekend, mostly in pictures. 

The fam standing on the very very long dock which proved to be a good place to catch perch and sunfish. 

Ryan and Grandma Jan went out golfing so Papa took the opportunity to take the girls out for their first spin of the weekend. They were in their glory! 

Oh boy this girl is going to break hearts some day. With her beautiful sun blond hair and her piercing eyes. I love her to pieces!

Regan and I, this year with Sidney, took a turn on the tube. My cousin has a nice ski boat and her husband is sweet enough to pull us back and forth. Unfortunately, we didn't get any action shots. The girls giggled like crazy as Dave made figure 8's and we bounced high off our seats. 

I had high hopes of getting one-big-family picture, considering Ben/Jon were in town, but looking at all 400 of my pictures from the weekend, apparently we missed our opportunity. 

But we got one with the grandparents! 

There was a full of cobwebs/spiders lovely swing set/play ground built on sand and the girls had a great time getting dirty. 

The rest of the crew took the girls out for some fishing from the boat, an experience they are sure to remember for a very long time. Ryan and I got to hang back on dry land and R-E-L-A-X! 

Sidney caught the biggest fish on their adventure, and she's a pretty good fisher-woman when she tells the story: "Mom, it was dissssss big!". 

I love sunsets. I love them even more over the lake. 

The girls adore the moon, finding it no matter how tiny it is. We had no trouble locating it and it's beauty reflecting on the lake. I could have sat for hours watching it....oh wait, we did, we were on vacation! 

I got a call one night from my mom in the fish house as I was busy with the girls: "Liz, you have to come down here, and bring your camera". As Papa and Dave were busy cleaning fish, Ryan just had to check it out. But he's not real into fishing these days.....and had a trouble stomaching the smell :) 

Regan waiting for her catch of the day: 

Which didn't take long and her shriek was always priceless "I GOT ONE!" as we cheered her to reel and reel and reel. 

She caught a lot of seaweed throughout the weekend, so the moments when she caught actual fish were a pretty big deal. 

The girls have 2 cousins who are pretty close in age and they have a lot of fun burning off energy. Let's just say the decibel level at the resort went down about 100 after we all left :) 

It's pretty incredible that they see each other once a year yet always pick up where they left off the year before. This year we were joined by Hannah (girlfriend to my cousin's son) and Regan/Sidney just adored her! Seventeen and beautiful, thankfully she did great letting the girls hang on her all weekend. 

THANK YOU EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY MOM AND DAD, FOR YET ANOTHER MEMORABLE LABOR DAY WEEKEND! 

1st grade-Meet the teacher!

Someone tell our sweet 6 year old to slow it all down! 

Tonight we ventured to her school, walked inside and made our way PAST the kindergarten classes. 

It was onto first grade today. 

Regan was apprehensive this week, nervous beyond words, not sure she was ready to start school again. She even wondered if her teachers name was something along the lines of Mrs McMeanie (that made us laugh, pretty good joke for a kid). 

But she was pretty excited after she met Mrs M (who is not mean at all, but in fact quite funny herself....I wonder if she'd find Regan's joke funny). And she was even more excited after she discovered her desk!

In Kindergarten it was a "table spot". 

But not in First Grade; she has a real desk. 

I'd really like to go back in time 6 years, and start all over. Swaddle this sweet baby, rock her sleepy eyes to sleep and be the one to meet her every need. But alas, it's a part of life and I'm so excited to bask in this moment and help her love every second of her big girl life.  

MN State Fair 2012

Opps! It seems that I've neglected to post pictures from our annual State Fair outing. It's tradition to attend the fair for an entire day, braving any heat and crowds. The girls are clearly activity lovers and they look forward to this outing each summer; this year they lasted 9 hours without so much as a whine. We were joined by Grandma Sheri, Grandpa Arnie and Shane and Amy. The more people who come with means the more food we can try! This year it was: frozen grapes (my fav), caramel apple, frozen banana (Sid's fav, she ate TWO!), cheese curds (Ryan's fav), french fries (oh wait, Ryan's fav), fried pickles, snow cones (nope, now this was his fav), big pickle (ok, maybe THIS was his fav!), red velvet funnel cake, beef jerky, turkey sandwich (now this, he adores), nut rolls, scotch egg (oh yea, and this one too), nitro ice cream. I give up, clearly he loves the fair! 

Regan started out the morning with a caramel apple....keep in mind she's missing her top two teeth so eating it became one. giant. mess. 

Oh for the love of the fair. 

 Lucky Grandma forgot her camera so instead of being behind the scenes, she got to be IN all the pictures! 

 Sidney tried her hand at milking a cow. 

ok, not really, but it really does squirt out water when pulled correctly!

 Rides, rides, and more rides. You would've thought since we were JUST at Valleyfair, they would be tired of rides. Nope, never. It's easiest for me/Grandma to take them early in the morning and spend time on rides so we don't have to be at the kiddie midway all afternoon. This is always their favorite "ride".

Did I mention it was hot hot hot!? There were a lot of snow cones consumed. Ryan may have hit an all-time record number; maybe around 7 or 8! 

 Ahh, and for an hour, this wee one slept. I didn't want to disturb her slumber (remember, she is not good at sleeping), so I didn't get a picture of the corn dog in her right hand as she snoozed. What a sight! 

We tasted a lot of great food, saw a lot of crazy happenings and rode some fun rides. Thanks for a wonderful State Fair outing!

School preparations

This week is a full moon. We know that because Regan's emotions tend to ebb and flow with the moon. It never fails. You would believe it if you lived with her. Wowzas she's on a roll lately. I first gave her the benefit of the doubt with the whole "school starts next week, let's chalk it up to nerves". But holy moly she's like a calendar when it comes to that moon. So lately she's overly dramatic, extra whiney and not much can make her happy when she's in one of those "states". Ugh, it's exhausting. Good thing we love her so much!

Speaking of school, tomorrow we get to meet her first grade teacher and check out the classroom. Grandma Sheri took her clothes shopping a couple of weeks back.....

I think she has enough clothes to never have to wear an outfit twice!

Girl time

The girls have been begging to go to a place where they can have their nails done. So after much avoiding, I finally took them. As if it wasn't obvious from the picture below, they were in their glory. Sidney wears her emotions directly on her face, and you could just see her face go from excited, to nervous to thrilled to proud of herself for allowing someone else to do her nails.
And she loves the result! 

Regan sat patiently, having received a mani/pedi before and knew exactly what to expect. This time she even turned on her chair to get a back massage...this girl is hooked! We may need to set up a fund for regular girl outings!

Surprises!

Back HERE, I commented that I had a surprise for Ryan this weekend. Thanks to Leigha for babysitting, we were able to go on an adventure/challenge to remember forever!! Unfortunately, due to the rain, we opted to leave all phones/cameras in the car so you'll have to take our word for it and trust these pix I found on their website. We had done a zipline while on our honeymoon, and when I came across this new place, nestled in Jordan, MN, I knew we had to check it out.
 Incredible doesn't even describe it. The morning started out with the challenge 'high ropes' course. It was overwhelming and made both of us dig down deep inside to pull out some inner strength. We climbed up to roughly 40-50 feet high and started the ropes course. Mom....these pictures alone would make your heart jump out of your chest, I can't imagine having you watch us do this in person! At one point, we both commented "how in the world did we sky dive?!" because we were so scared standing so high off the ground.

Ryan started out first, after all, it was HIS surprise! In hindsight, this wasn't my best decision for the day. So it goes....

He climbed this "cargo ladder" type deal, with his harness clipped to the tight wire above him, and then started on the course. It's set up in a square, so one works their way around each of the various "challenges", all basically with just a tight wire to stand on and often nothing but a harness to really hold onto. 

The biggest challenge proved to be a section, roughly 20 feet long, with separate wooded swings about 3 feet apart, suspended on the tight wire. Our job was to step onto each swing (yes, it's moving, and yes, we're still 50 feet above the ground!), and now it's RAINING pouring! Ryan thought he was going to die, his whole body was trembling as he hung on tight and listened to the staff coaching him from the ground. He made it across, and his arms are incredibly sore tonight. He scowled at me as he watched me quickly hop through the area, using my arms to steady me, not pull me. (he learned that part later). Again, this is all done 50 feet above the ground! We had the safety of a harness holding us up in the event we slipped, but who wants to test that harness!? 

The high ropes course ended with a quick zipline to the ground...making it completely worth the effort. After this challenge, we went on to the "Leap of Faith"....mom, you might just pass out reading this. We climbed a telephone pole, 35 feet above ground....and then I STOOD on top! Yes, I stood on top of a 35 foot pole (again, with a harness); Ryan opted out of this part, figuring he wouldn't be able to balance. After that, I took the "leap of faith", when I jumped off the pole and reached to the trapeeze like I was in the circus! I was the first in the group to actually reach and hold on securly to the trapeez, and the whole group cheered. It was amazing! Except then I had to let go, now close to 36 feet above the ground, with no net!? Thankfully I made it safely to the ground :)

The next part of the adventure was what we were really looking forward to. The zipline. Our previous zipline experience was in Kauai, where the scenery was amazing. Today's zipline was way way way longer at 1700 feet (combined) and 100 feet above the bluffs. Although it wasn't Kauai, it was breathtaking.

To get a short (very cheesy!) video glimpse of the zipline, click HERE.
Another couple we met today mentioned to us that this was a heck of an 8th anniversary present and holds the bar high for the coming years! We all thought a trip back to Hawaii was a good gift :)