5!

My little girl turned 5 last week.  I guess I have another year or so that she will be a 'little' girl before she turns school age.  I love how smart and sweet and caring she has grown to be.  

We celebrated her 5th birthday at Lake Byllesby Regional Park.  The day was perfect.  Thanks to everyone who came to make the day special for her.  

This picture is appropriate for the theme of the day.  

Meredith's Great Aunt Shirley (and Great Uncle Don) came up to visit for the weekend since her Grandma and Grandpa Carlson were in town.  

Here are just a few more pictures of the birthday girl.  

Meredith's Great Uncle Robin (and Great Aunt Irene also came).  

Not a great picture, but here are the cousins!

Stanley Cup

Last week Greg took Meredith out to get all her hockey equipment.  We were fortunate enough to get one of the last remaining vouchers from the Rosemount Hockey Association to get free equipment.  They had a Try Hockey For Free day that we were unaware of but they had a few leftover vouchers.  Greg took Mer out and she got fitted for all her equipment and it was free!  Except the skates.  Nice, huh???  I have to enjoy it while I can because next hear hockey is going to be high buck.  

Then the two of them headed to Lakeville as the Stanley Cup was in town.  I know, Meredith looks thrilled.  I'm sure Greg was excited to see it though!  

Great MN Get Together

I hate to say it, but I'm getting kind of worn out on going to the State Fair.  It always was one of my favorite things to do in the summer.  I don't know if it's because I have to drag kids with me or what, but I'm just kind of losing interest:-(  I think it's because I spend a majority of the time in the Kidway, or the animal barns or doing kid stuff.  By the time we're done with all of that, I'm worn out.  **sigh**

It was a hot one, but we had fun!  Meredith helped out on the little farm.  At the end you get to pick a food item from the store and of course she picked the dill pickle chips over a can of vegetables or a box of granola bars.  This picture below shows the forced smile she gives me nowadays.  Ugh.  

 

Next stop was the Kidway.  She went on a bunch of rides and had a lot of fun.  

 Next stop was the food building to eat lunch. We met up with my mom, brother, cousin, aunts & uncles!  

 Peter's 'box' lunch.  

Tennis Camp

We've been experimenting a bit lately with sports and Meredith is officially signed up for hockey this fall!  She'll be playing with the Rosemount Hockey Association's U8 girls.  I previously thought she would be a Mini Mite but that is a boys' classification.  There aren't enough young girls signed up to play where they can actually classify them as Mini Mites, Mites, etc.  So they just get grouped into the U8 (under 8) category based on ability.  

Anyway, I'll be posting more on that once she starts in November.  In the meantime, we signed her up for an Intro to Tennis camp last week.  It's just a week long class that teaches the basics of tennis.  How to hold a racket, practice hitting the ball, etc.  

As expected, Mer is just a tad uncoordinated.  But she did okay though.  She said she REALLY liked it and wants to do it again next summer!  

Meredith is wearing the pink shirt and capri pants in these pictures.  Here's an action shot (those are high school boys in the background, not creepers).  

In true Meredith style, she's off in her own world here and not listening.  

That's better.  Now she's listening!

Anna's 1st Birthday

Well folks, we officially made it to one year! My baby is 1.  It sure doesn't seem like a whole year has passed and I had a newborn at this time last year.  I have been very lucky to spend Anna's whole first year at home with her; taking care of my two wonderful girls.  

We had her party at Lake Byllesby Regional Park in Cannon Falls.  They have lots and lots of picnic tables and shaded areas so I figured that odds are in my favor that we could find a nice spot and we did.  We had perfect weather for a birthday party

This is her birthday outfit that I've had for what seems like ages.  

The cake I got with my Wuollets Groupon.  

She didn't know what to do with her cupcake.  

She finally destroyed it with her hands and ate a little.  

Meredith was very excited to help her open her gifts.  

With her baby cousin, Bowen looking at gifts.  

Some of the guests:

Closing in on 1

Here we are in late July already.  Last year at this time, I was big and pregnant and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our second child.  Meredith came a week early so I had my hopes set on #2 coming early but that wasn't the case.  So here we are just a little over a week until Anna turns 1.  It has been a great year and I am so lucky to be her mommy.  She is more than I could have hoped for and I am so lucky to have not one, but two wonderful, beautiful little girls.

Here are just a couple of cute pictures of my baby in case you missed them on Facebook.  

This one shows all four of her top teeth that she is teething right now.  

Anna's first trip to the cabin

In true fashion, I am almost two weeks late on this post.  I can never update my blog in a timely manner so my apologies.  

We spent the weekend prior to the 4th of July out at the cabin.  It's always fun this weekend because many of my wonderful aunts, uncles, & cousins come out and we have a good time.  Not to mention my immediate family.  Meredith and her Grandma went out one day early and we met up with them the next day.  We went home for the night while Meredith stayed and we returned the next day.  The weather was perfect...except for that it was near 100 degrees.  One day there was no lake breeze and the bugs were biting.  But we still had a good time anyway.  

Oh, and what trip to the cabin is complete without a Biff?  The day before we went out, I got a phone call to let me know that the septic system was not working.  GREAT!  100 degree weather and no facilities???  Thank goodness the Biff got delivered that afternoon.  

Here is the grand moment when everyone lined up to relieve themselves.  

Taking a break to hang out with Juana.  

Gotta have some s'mores.  

The weather was perfect for swimming.  The water was warm and no itch!  

My sweet baby :-)

Playing in the sand is always a hit too.  

Happy 4th of July

We spent the 4th of July running errands.  It was just too darn hot to do anything else.  100 degrees is too hot to even go swimming.  

Greg took Meredith to the Apple Valley fireworks though while I stayed home to put Anna to bed.  It was her first time.  I thought she would be scared of the noise because she is kind of skittish about that kind of stuff but she love it!  She was telling me about all the different shaped fireworks (you know those ones that explode like a heart, circle, bullseye, etc.) and how there was even a toilet shaped firework.  LOL.  

Here they are all decked out in their red, white, & blue courtesy of Grandma Schwake.  

  

Meredith got about 10 compliments on this as we were out running errands.  

Ducks

I'm a little behind with updates but I've been wanting to share this picture.  We live near a park with a small lake and there are always ducks on the beach.  One day Meredith was feeding the ducks leaves (I didn't have the heart to tell her that ducks don't eat leaves).  When we got home, I dried out a bunch of old bread for her to bring back the next time we were there to feed the ducks.  She loved it!  They come right up to you.  And I'm a horrible mom...I ignored the signs that said not to feed the ducks.  I did, however, make sure she didn't leave a bunch of bread crumbs floating in the water by only allowing her to throw one at a time and she had to wait until a duck ate it to throw another.  In some way, I felt that was redeeming for blatantly ignoring the sign.  Mer would have been heartbroken.

 Here's an action shot:

Father's Day

It's been a while since I've updated.  I've been kind of busy.  Not busy with lots of exciting things, but just lots of this and that type things.

Besides the weather, we had a great weekend.  On Saturday, Chris came up and we bowled.  I'm happy to report that I WON the first game.  Yes, you read that right.  The second game we didn't quite get to finish because time ran out on our last frame so I guess Chris wins by default on that one.  This was Meredith's second time bowling but it was the first time I've been bowling with her.  Her first time bowling was when we were down in Florida and I was pregnant with Anna.  I ended up staying home because I wasn't feeling well.  She had a blast!

 

Today we visited Grandpa Schwake and Chris at the St. Paul Farmers Market.  At least the weather held out and it was very pleasant while we were there.

What's new with us?

Greg & Sarah:  Not too much.  I got Greg tickets to the River's Edge Music Festival next weekend so he can see Dave Matthews Band.  We got pictures of the girls taken last month.

Meredith:  She has been going to zoo camp and participating in some classes at the Apple Valley Community Center.

Anna:  She's got the most going on.  She has been crawling for just under a month now.  She has become really, really high maintenance.  Seriously, I don't remember it being this bad with Meredith.  She is into EVERYTHING.  Everything a baby shouldn't be getting into.  It drives me batty.  And she is fast.  Like Speedy Gonzalez fast.  She cruises along the furniture.

She is weaning herself of bottles I think.  Ever since she started crawling, she has become very picky about when she will take a bottle.  I have been offering her 3 bottles/day, but most of the time she refuses her morning bottle.  She will easily take one before nap time and before bed time though.

I think she is teething again.  She has 4 big bulges up on top so I wouldn't be surprised if she cut all 4 of them at once sometime in the near future.

She says mamamamamamamamamamama and dadadadadadadadadadadadada.  On command even!

She claps her hands and purposefully plays with her toys.  She even plays together with Meredith.