September 2011 - Fall Fun!

In September we made our annual family trip to the Minnesota State Fair.  Not everyone loves this favorite Minnesota tradition, but if you can stand the massive crowds (we don't mind it), walking around in the often sunny and warm weather (since sunny, warm days can be few and far between in Minnesota most of the year, we enjoy it while we can), like to people watch (really, who doesn't?), and have a sense of humor about all the crazy foods you can try (on a stick, don't forget), the "Great MN Get-Together" is a good time!

My friend Ellen (that I met in 2000 working together at my first job out of college) has a business (Colorful Cotton Clothing in the Merchandise Mart building - it's awesome tie dye, check it out: http://www.colorfulcottonclothing.com/) at the Fair, so I was working with Ellen while Matt, the girls, my sister Kristi, and our friend Karna walked around.   It was too bad I couldn't be with them for the first part of the day, but they took some fun pictures.  I would meet up with them later that day after I was done working.

Here is Matt and Mckenna with the State Fair mascot, Fairchild the gopher.  As you can tell, Mckenna always has a big smile for any mascot that she meets (cute)!  

Those that know Matt well know that A) he likes to eat, B) he can eat a lot = C) he loves all that is State Fair foods.  Here Matt is eating Alligator on a stick... Mckenna doesn't seem too amused at his offering for her to try it.  "I don't think so, dad!"  I think the look on her face is pretty funny.  By the way, she is really beyond the age of needing to be strapped into a stroller, but with all of the thousands of people swarming around at the Fair, we've figured out that it works well for us to keep her in there and not have her suddenly get lost in the crowd... that way we know she's with us and safe.

"Hey, get that thing away from me!"  She's not a big fan of meat anyways, so she's definitely not going for the alligator.

At State Fair 2011 time, Calla was only 10.5 months old, a.k.a. still sitting still in her car seat, which snapped into the stroller.  Those days seem like forever ago... oh how time flies!

Cutie!!!

Matt's food conversation in his head: "Alligator on a stick? Check!  Now on to the "Big Fat Bacon" on a stick...!" (Yes, that's right, I said BIG FAT BACON on a stick!  The stand sign confirms it!)  Look at Mckenna looking up at that big piece of bacon... funny.

Everyone visited the animal barns... Mckenna and Calla were loving it!  They both enjoy animals and a trip to the Fair for sure wouldn't be complete without checking out the barns.

Yea, time to meet up with my fam!  We also always have to visit the big fish pond - there are a few pretty good size muskies swimming in there, so you know Matt's loving that!

The cow barn!  That's Calla's "I'm so excited I can barely stand it" look.  :)

Between the sisters, Calla is definitely the more fearless of the two.  She was reaching out trying to pet all of the animals (she probably would've climbed in, if she could), whereas Mckenna would be interested, but she would usually need some reassuring and coaxing to get to the point of trying to touch one of them.  It's interesting to see both similarities and differences between the two girls!

Mckenna and I wanted to go on the Big Yellow Slide together - we were both excited!

It's hard to see, but we are a few people over from the right, sitting down on our mat ready to go...

That was so fun!  It's actually quite a bit faster ride than you might imagine.  (And I was a bit crazy excited about the ride, as you can see.)  :)

As babies are prone to do, Calla had a diaper accident and necessary change of clothes. Check out those blue eyes - beautiful!

We heard a lot of "she's so adorable" comments at the Fair... we agree!  :)  You can see her cute two little bottom teeth here - now (at 18 months old... I can't believe I'm that far behind on this blog... ugh) she has almost a full mouth of teeth and her smile looks different with all those pearly whites in there. She is still a little peanut though... she seems too little to have so many teeth now!

Back home, and on to the rest of our September.  Matt thought it would be funny to pull Calla's pants up high... it is pretty funny!  Doesn't she look so little?

And FYI, now at 18 months old, she really hasn't grown much more hair - maybe a little bit, but not much.  Still a baldy! Which I think makes her look smaller and younger than she really is. I remember that Mckenna was bald up until about 12 months or so, so I'm wondering when little miss calla will start growing some locks.  :)

My mom is so awesome.  She comes over to see the girls every chance she gets, which is so fun for Mckenna and Calla, and so helpful to Matt and I.  Mckenna is extremely imaginative, and my mom is all about playing with her in whatever new scenario she imagines up at the moment.  Here Mckenna is pretending that the crayons are people, driving in the cool car (given to her by Grandma Karen and Grandpa Craig), to Mckenna's "birthday party".  Including the crayon guests, my mom, Calla, and I were invited to come to the party too - how nice that we were included!  ;)

Opening one of her "gifts", "Oooo, what could be inside?"  :)

Time for some cake... gotta have the cake!

While Calla chews on the plastic play knife that "cut" the cake...

And Calla can't sit still at the party anymore, so she heads over to the kitchen... :)

The girls love bath time!  They are especially into playing with the bubbles.

Calla had been eating in her high chair for many months now, with Mckenna sitting in a regular chair (with a booster seat), but for this meal Mckenna decided that she absolutely had to sit in her old high chair to eat (for old times sake?), so sweet Calla is relegated to her car seat for her meal.  What a good sport!  My friend Laura gave us this green bib at a baby shower before Mckenna was born - it is super sparkly, the girls (and I) love it!

Hmmm... maybe Mckenna didn't care so much about actually sitting in the high chair as not letting Calla sit there?  There were definite times when Calla was a baby that you could tell Mckenna was still processing the fact that she's not the youngest child anymore... like denying that Calla could sit in "her" (Mckenna's) high chair.  She's pretty much over this now and has fun playing the big sister role.

A trip to MOA (Mall of America) with my mom, and a stop at the Build a Bear Workshop store...

Coloring with Grandma Mary at Old Navy while mom shops... (thank you, Old Navy, for having this coloring station available!)

And of course, one of Mckenna's favorite stores to visit at MOA, hands down, is the American Girl store.  :)

How many hundreds (thousands) of things are there to look at in this place?  ;)

We really have to practice "look, but don't touch" in this store, otherwise she'd be picking it all up and carrying it around with her.

Later in September, we were at Southdale Mall in Edina and they have this cool train in the center court area that the kids can ride, so Matt took the girls for a spin...

Ummm.... CUTIES (all three of them)!

And you know we like to go to Bonfire near our house to eat dinner sometimes.  Sunday nights kids eat free and can make their own pizza, which Mckenna absolutely loves doing.  This evening Dan, Abby, and Ayla (Casey wasn't born yet - 1 more month to go, Abby!) were able to join us.

Have I mentioned how much Mckenna loves her cousins?  :)

They were running/skipping all over the restaurant, no doubt entertaining people as they ran by.  They are only 6 months apart in age, very fun. :)

With kids eat free night comes a make your own sundae... yes, please!

More quality time with Grandma Mary, this time reading on the couch.  Cute.  Mckenna likes to dress up, and many days you can find her ditching the regular outfit she put on in the morning for a leotard and something in her hair... she is definitely all girl!

And this cutie... what more can you say?  Matt thinks the big head pictures are funny... they kind of are!

She's all over the place, playing with everything.  October 2011 marks the end of babyhood, hello toddlerhood!

Realizing once again that I'm so far behind in updating this blog (i.e., I just finished posting about the end of last summer and now it's almost the beginning of the next summer), I need to speed things up.  So I'm going to aim at making the next several posts short and sweet, trying to sum up our fall, winter, and spring with just a few choice photos and stories (I know, this may be easier said than done for me to accomplish).  So... stay tuned... let's see if in the next few weeks I can somehow get this blog up to the present day!  

August 2011 - the final days of summer...

August... the last few weeks of our nice summer freedom. We usually start teacher meetings towards the middle of August, so once August 1st hits we know the end of summer is near.

Calla started to figure out sippy cups during the summer. Gotta love that sweet face! :)

Goof!

We love our walks outside in the warmer months.  We had some things to put in the mailbox, so we decided to walk (about a mile) to the post office near our house.

Every parent of a toddler knows this fact... they want to do everything themselves!  :)

Walking back home.  Mckenna is usually pretty good in the stroller for a few minutes, then she gets bored of sitting and wants to walk/run.  So I kept pushing Calla in the stroller and Matt was on Mckenna duty.

One afternoon it was nearing nap time, and I took Mckenna to her room first, leaving Calla in her activity bouncer to play while I put Mckenna down.  This is what I found when I came back to get her... sleepy girl!

Mckenna really enjoys riding in the bike seat attached to Matt's bike... fun times!

Here is "Chef Mckenna" at one of her modeling photo shoots.  This one was for Play with a Purpose, a catalog for preschools, daycares, etc. with fun educational toys and equipment.  Mckenna has been modeling for this seasonal catalog since she was 6 months old - cute.  They really like her!

Ready to work!  It's usually pretty quick - she smiles, they click, and we're done.  Easy breezy.  And I like how we're always there with her in the room/studio, so she always knows we're around.

Here is how that photo appears in the actual catalog. (A small thumbnail pic taken from their website, www.pwap.com).  At another shoot we went to for the same catalog in the fall, the photographer said that for whatever reason, this picture of Mckenna is one of the company execs favorites, and they blew it up, framed it, and put it on the wall in the front lobby of their corporate office in Edina. When I'm in the area maybe I'll stop to take a look at it sometime. :)

And here are some other photos from the same catalog... the pics seem to save to my computer as different sizes from the internet, not sure why.

And here are a few small ones of Calla, also in that catalog.

We got tickets to see Beauty and the Beast Jr. - the musical that's adapted from the Disney classic, but the junior version only has kids age 17 and younger in it.  It was at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center, and it was awesome!  Mckenna LOVED it!  We didn't tell her we were going until the day before because we knew she'd get so excited and wound up at the thought of going.  She was in heaven!

She sat so still and attentive the entire show, she really enjoyed it.  And the cast, set, music, costumes, etc. were all really well done.  So glad we went.

Right after the show was over, in the lobby when I told Mckenna we were going to go and meet Belle... she could barely contain herself...

...she LOVES Belle and reacted somewhat in shock when meeting her... think like you were meeting your favorite celebrity... star struck!  :)

Oh, the funny things that you do when you have kids that you would never normally do otherwise.  We read in the local paper that a newly built medical building by our house was having a grand opening event for the community, including face (or arm) painting, games, meet snoopy, food, etc.  So we went to check it out.  Mckenna was enjoying getting sparkly flowers painted on her arm, she sat very still and kept staring at it the rest of the day.  We also saw a friend there from their daycare, so that was a hit.

Meeting snoopy!  (I wonder if she's happy??)  ;)

They also had an ambulance there that you could step into, sit, and look around.  It was interesting how frightened Mckenna seemed once they got in there - she didn't like it at all.  (Get... me... outta here!)

Much better from the sidewalk...

But she instantly felt better when she got her first ever taste of corn on the cob.  She loved it!  After a few bites of Matt holding on to it for her, she got the hang of it and took charge herself.

Also in August, Craig and Karen were able to come and hang out for Matt's 35th birthday!  I like to joke with Matt that age 35 means that he's officially an old man, but he doesn't think that's too funny.

Matt likes parties, Matt loves pizza = family birthday party at Davanni's Pizza!

I really tried to get a good picture of Mckenna and Ayla with the balloons, but they were jumping around and the balloons were all over the place... this is the best non-super blurry picture I could get.

I asked the bakery for "any fishing motif" they could create, and this is what they came up with.  It works!  Pizza and fishing, two of Matt's favorite things, maybe not in that order though.

Happy Birthday, Matt!  Note Mckenna's "I heart Daddy" shirt.  :)

Dan snuggling Calla.  Those of you that know Dan know that he's really not into snuggling small, soft, adorable things/babies that much... (enter sarcasm here.)  :)

Grandpa and Grandma love to read to the girls.  They must have been teachers in a former life!  :)

We're back to the Burnsville Performing Arts Center - outside they have a bunch of family friendly fountains called a "splash pad".  We met Abby and Ayla there to hang out on a sunny and warm day.

Taking a break from the water to eat lunch!  Mckenna and Calla always have fun hanging out with their cutie cousin Ayla.

It's odd to think about the days when Calla was perfectly content just sitting strapped into her car seat, watching the world go by.  Those days are LONG gone!

Abby, smile!  :)

Last few pics are at our favorite breakfast spot in Burnsville, Jensen's Cafe.  Again, Calla could hang out in her car seat, eat, smile, be cute... and no wiggling.  It seems hard to even remember those days now, she is so much on the move these days, including climbing up onto everything - she is fearless, for sure.

And this is what our family outings usually come to... Mckenna and/or Calla climbing on and being silly with their daddy... and he likes it!  What a great dad.  :)

In a few days I'm leaving for a 9-day school trip with MA students to Europe, then I'm back for a few days and I leave again for a few more days to a business ed conference in Boston. So who knows when I'll get around to having time to blog again, but hopefully soon.  Thanks for following along!