October 2011 - birthday month & more fall fun...

The month of October will always be worthy of its own special blog post because of all the many fun events we have going on in our lives, including both the girls birthdays, our annual family apple orchard outing, halloween, and other busy fall activities. Realizing that I am almost one full year behind in posting on this blog (i.e., it is almost September 2012 and I'm just now blogging about October 2011 - yikes!), although it may be hard I'm going to try and sum up the winter 2011 and spring 2012 in two seasonal posts to speed things along. (If you are thinking this may be a near impossible feat for me to accomplish, you would be correct.) But, I can't skimp on the month of October... ever. :)

We started off October with the main event - the girls joint family birthday party!  We had about a week before their actual birthdays because Craig and Karen were going to be in town, Matt's parents, and we wanted to include them in the party.  It was both fun and crazy to see our two little peanuts turn one and three!  Especially Calla turning one - I consider that the somewhat official end to babyhood and the start of toddlerhood.  Bye bye baby, hello little girl!

As you can see from one look at her face, she enjoyed her cake - her first major dessert and taste of sugar that was all her own... a rite of passage! At age one, Calla is curious and always on the move.  She is a "life of the party" type of girl - always ready to put on a smiley and/or silly show for anyone that wants to watch.  She is a sweetie, and loves to follow around her big sister and try to act like a big girl herself.

Mckenna enjoyed opening all of her presents, including several princess themed gifts, including this cute purple flower wand. Older cousin Sarah sat next to Mckenna during present time and helped her open her new gifts - fun!

Grandpa Craig, Grandma Karen, and Calla with her cute new hairband and puppy.

And here is the Cinderella dress (from daddy and mommy) that would be her halloween costume just a few weeks later.  She loved it and still does.  Pretty much any dress up costumes/outfits are a major hit in our house.  At age three, Mckenna is an imaginative and creative girl.  She loves to create dramatic play scenarios like pretending to go camping, go to dance or gymnastics practice, shopping, etc.  Mckenna seems to be a bit less of a firecracker than Calla is, but is still very social and likes to be with and play with others.  She has an emotional streak in her and can change from happy to mad and back again at the drop of the hat, but as her 3rd year of life has moved closer to her 4th birthday, we can see her being able to control her emotions a bit more and have moments of being calm and level headed.  Mckenna loves to read books, color, dance, sing, dress up, and help mom in the kitchen. She is a real sweetie and often tells us how much she loves us... such a special thing for us to hear from our precious little girl.  ;)

Mckenna also got a waitress outfit from Grandpa Craig and Grandma Karen, and some baking accessories to play with too - cookies, a platter, and more.  Mckenna and cousin Ayla enjoyed taking cookie orders from the birthday guests.  :)

Then on Mckenna's actual birthday, October 16th, we headed to Emma Krumbee's Apple Orchard in Belle Plaine.  It is fun to think back on when Matt and I would go together before we had kids, and then with little Mckenna, and now with the two girls.  It's an outing that we look forward to every October.

Calla was naturally hamming it up for the people sitting around us.  What you see is what you get with her... just a really sweet, fun-loving girl that is (usually) always smiling, laughing, and on the move!  Love her!

Mckenna picked out cinnamon apple french toast for her birthday brunch, and it came to the table with a candle.  It was fun to sing to her and watch her blow it out.  And just like the one lone guy in our family, I think she had picked up the bacon and took a bite before the waitress even set the plate down on the table. Like father, like daughter!

It was a pretty chilly October day, so we were all bundled up... with birthday hats on, of course. ;)

Pumpkin pictures with my sweeties...

This is what happens when you wait almost a year to post pictures... Calla looks so LITTLE here compared to what she looks like now!  Munchkin!! :)

Gotta love that round, bald baby head - love it, love it, love it.

Seriously, this girl makes fun wherever she goes, whatever we're doing.  I love that about her!

Sisters birthday party at daycare!  I love that they can have so much fun at daycare, celebrating birthdays and holidays.  All the kids get into it, and it's such a fun atmosphere to be a part of for Mckenna and Calla.  Here is how Mckenna showed how old she was on her fingers... she would put up all five fingers, and then try really hard to figure out how to put two down so she was just left holding up three - so cute!  Now, at almost age four, she can put just the three fingers up, no problem. :)

Birthday treat time!  The girls brought cupcakes to share with their friends, decorated with play rings (in the shape of a pumpkin, or course) with a princess picture on it - cinderella, jasmine, belle, etc.   It took me forever to make them look so perfect!  (Hahaha... nope, I can't take credit for making them - just kidding.)

And of course, another birthday celebration, this time on Calla's birthday (October 19th).  It was on one of my days off from school, and Matt was working.  I was running errands in Eden Prairie and last minute decided to get some lunch while we were out, so my parents came and met us at the Original Pancake House.  Yummy!  Our waitress asked the girls if they wanted a muffin treat for their birthday, so Mckenna settled on the chocolate chip muffin, and Calla had a blueberry one.  They came to the table with candles and we sang, it was cute.  And because I wasn't planning on eating out when we left the house that morning, I didn't have bibs with me, so I did the old napkin tucked into the shirt collar trick.

Hmmm, I wonder if Mckenna likes her muffin... I can't tell.  ;)

One of the perks of having birthdays three days apart and having the girls close in age is that we can do some joint things like birthday parties (at least we can now, while they're still young - I'm sure that will change as they get older), and going to the doctor for their yearly check-up.  Of course I have to snap the baby in the scale picture!  I don't have their stats in front of me as I write this, but Calla was in the low range for weight and percentage, and high in the height category - she's a tall, thin girl.  Mckenna was in the low-mid range, around the mid-30th percentile for both height and weight.  We are so thankful to have healthy, happy girls!

I think because of Mckenna's play doctor kit that she has at home, she really enjoys having her own blood pressure checked, heart listened to, etc. - kind of cute.  You can tell that she was loving this, pretty funny.

At age 3, most kids have a vision and hearing screening at their doctor check-up.  Again, because Mckenna likes role-playing at home, she seemed to enjoy this teacher/student interaction between her and the nurse, and it was fun for me to watch in the hall through the doorway.

I also thought it was cute when she put these big earphones on and had to listen to descriptions and point to certain pictures.  For each one, she would pick up her finger in the air and kind of slam it down to the correct picture... you could definitely tell she was concentrating and wanting to do well.  She passed with 100%, so that was nice to hear (no pun intended!)  :)

Also in October, we went to Sever's Corn Maze near our house in Shakopee.  We had been there once before with our neighbors, but Carter and Mckenna were little and in strollers then, so this time it was much different with two little girls running around.  We all had so much fun - I'd say it was hands down one of my top best and most fun days of 2011 - I loved it!

First we stopped at the gigantic "bouncy pillows" - Mckenna loved trying to figure out the hugeness of it all, while Matt and Calla watched from the sidelines and took some pictures.

On to the giant corn pit.  It sounds a little odd, but was really a lot of fun!  We jumped around in it, rolled around in it, crawled around in it... and tried to keep Calla from putting the corn in her mouth.  :)

On to the exotic petting zoo.  These poor animals obviously aren't wired to be penned up in a small space with people grabbing at them.  These camels were pacing around their small pen and swinging their heads.  This was meant to be a picture of Mckenna and I, but when Matt snapped it, the camels head swung right in front of Mckenna's face... pretty funny.

At first when we were near the camels, she thought it was fun...

...but after several times of the large camels head swinging around and hitting whatever was in its path (like us), Mckenna got kind of scared.  I don't blame her - they were a little crazy!

The kangaroos...

Feeding the ostrich corn kernels!

Big corn maze...

...and little corn maze.

One of the last things we did was stop at the play set... the girls were having a blast!

Calla started walking about one week after her first birthday, right around this time.  So it was still a new and exciting phenomenon to see her walking around... it was so much fun!

And our very last stop before leaving Sever's Corn Maze was where we started - the jumpy pillows!

On our way out, Mckenna wanted to hop on the tractor, but after our many hours of fun, the girls were fading fast.  We had an awesome family day!  If you live in the Twin Cities or are visiting during October, I highly recommend going to Sever's Corn Maze in Shakopee - so much fun!

Halloween 2011!  These next few pictures were taken at about 7:00 in the morning, before we headed out to daycare.  This cute Chicago Bears cheerleader outfit was given to us by a family at MA's Bloomington campus when I was pregnant with Calla, such a thoughtful gift for Mr. Johnson, a well-known Bears fan by all.  Calla makes a pretty cute cheerleader, don't you think?  :)

Da Bears cheerleader and Cinderella - bright and early, excited to be dressed up for their daycare Halloween party - fun, fun, fun!  About 90 minutes after these pictures were taken, we were blessed to have a new nephew come into the world - Casey John, born to Dan and Abby.  Such an exciting day!

Even our daycare provider gets into the Halloween spirit.  She loves the kids in her care, and we feel so blessed to have our girls there with her.

For the past few Halloweens, several of the kids on our block (and parents) get together for a pre-trick or treating dinner and pictures - thanks to our neighbors for hosting!  We love living in a neighborhood where everyone talks and looks out for one another.  Don't the kids look great?

Cinderella is going to protect the Bears fans from all the crazy Vikings fans in our neighborhood - don't mess with the girl in the ball gown and her Chicago posse!  :)

Mckenna was SO happy when we got home from going around the neighborhood... she made sure that we laid all of her candy out and looked at every single piece.  She was loving it!  :)

My parents came over too and helped hand out candy while Matt and I walked around with the girls that evening - so helpful!  And it's hard to notice, but even Nemo has a little doggy Bears jersey on.  :)

We had some professional family pictures taken in October to document Mckenna turning three and Calla turning one, so I want to post a few of those, and then I'm going to attempt to tackle some broader seasonal posts to *try* to catch up to present day.  Stay tuned...!

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!