Mary Kate Turns Four!

Mary Kate's fourth birthday was chock full of celebrating. We started the morning at out our favorite bakery, which is always the kids choice for birthday breakfast.

Then we headed to preschool. Mary Kate showed us some of her favorite toys...she loves building with the big "brick" blocks, art and the sensory table.

Ethan came up with the idea to read a book to MK's class on her birthday. She loves all of the books by Laura Numeroff and chose "If You Give a Pig a Party" because it's all about this cute little pig's birthday party.

While Ethan was reading, Mom and Nana put together the birthday treats...chocolate puddings with whipped cream, strawberries, and purple sprinkles. MK was very specific about what she wanted for her treat and it was a big hit with the kiddos and teachers.

After preschool, MK took a three hour power nap, which gave the grown ups time to get ready for the birthday BBQ party guests to arrive. The rainbow cake turned out pretty cute and the kids were delighted to learn it was topped with Skittles and marshmallows.

Mary Kate loved how the cake looked and enjoyed the Happy Birthday to You song before blowing out all four candles.

Mary Kate was very certain about what she wanted for her birthday...a two wheel scooter. We found one with bigger wheels and hand brakes. She was super excited and took it out for a spin right away, despite a little rain. We did manage to get some tennis shoes and a helmet on her before she went for a spin. The scooter is actually pretty big, but she got the hang of it right away and took off around the cul-de-sac.

Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us and our beautiful, giggly, bouncy four year old big girl!

Mother's Day Fun at Target Field

We celebrated Mother's Day by attending our first game at the new Target Field. What an amazing ballpark! We went to the early service at church and then drove in to Minneapolis. Parking was easy and Mom and Nana were two of 5,000 lucky Moms who received cute Twins earrings at the gate in honor of Mother's Day.

This was our first view of the ball park...gorgeous.

On our way to find our seats, we stopped for some face painting. Mary Kate chose a cute teddy bear design.

Ethan went for "Mauer Power." He is a huge Joe Mauer fan!.

We had a fantastic time cheering our team on to victory over the Orioles. After the game, the kids got to go onto the field and run the bases...those pictures didn't turn out...lots of blurry looking kids running. We can't wait to go back for another game! Go Twins!!

Bil Gangl relay

In April, Ethan's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Brass, invited families to participate with her in a memorial relay walk/run for a beloved Mahtomedi teacher, Mr. Bil Gangl. We headed out to the track and had a great time walking to celebrate Mr. Gangl's life and amazing positive impact on so many students during his life.

Ethan was inspired by all the track and field athletes and started off running. He completed a full 1/4 mile lap on pace with a high school runner who was impressed by his stamina.

Then he decided to do a lap or two with Mrs. Brass.

Mary Kate was more into short sprints and the "On your mark, get set, go!" part.

Goodbye Qwest/MSN...hello again cable internet...we missed you!

We've officially given up on Qwest/MSN and switched back to Comcast. Even though it's more expensive, our internet access had become so unbearingly slow, I stopped trying to upload pictures to Blogger in February. Our new connection is blazing fast, so watch out! We've got lots of pictures to post.

We've also switched to Picasa for photo management and it has a "Blog This" feature. Somehow, these pictures are aligned along the left side of the blog...we'll see how that looks after I post this update.

On to some long overdue updates. Let's start with Easter! Easter morning was quite warm by Minnesota standards. Our entire month of April was significantly warmer than usual. The kids were up before 7 am on Easter morning and hunting eggs in the backyard by 7:15. No frost/snow and parkas this year! The egg hunt pics are below, but here is a nice shot of the kids on Saturday before church.

Mary Kate really got into finding her eggs and hamming it up for the camera everytime she found one.

The egg hunting must have worn the kids out a bit...so they decided to relax in the hammock for a while before breakfast.

After church, we enjoyed a nice dinner at Grandpa's and more egg hunting, of course!

Mary Kate's Christmas Program

Well, despite my best intentions, I didn't get too many Christmas updates posted during my month-long break from classes.

Here's a family picture we snapped in front of the tree that turned out OK. We tried to get one with the puppy, but he is just too wiggly! Ethan is looking pretty red-faced, as he spent ALOT of time outside after school shoveling snow...which is definitely one of his favorite things to do this winter. He shovels it into "mountains" which the kids then climb.

Mary Kate's preschool Christmas program was super cute. I do have some more pictures of her with grandparents and classmates before and after the program on my camera, but those haven't been uploaded yet (zoinks!).

The 3 and 4 year old classes did a great job singing and really got into the actions for their songs. Mary Kate's favorite songs were "Children Go Where I Send Thee," "Silent Night," "Feliz Navidad," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

Decorating the Christmas tree

I finished up my Anatomy and Physiology class on Monday night and will have the next 4 weeks off from classes. Hooray! Now on to some overdue and hefty blog updates!

To get things started off on a festive note, here are some pictures of the Christmas tree decorating. We decorate our Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanskgiving. This year, the kids really enjoyed hearing all the stories behind each ornament. Since there were so many stories and memories to share, the decorating took pretty much all afternoon.

This year, the kids made Perler bead ornaments (the plastic beads you arrange on a tray and then iron). The candy cane is one of their creations. They thought the ironing part was very exciting because it melted the beads and "glued" them together.

Mary Kate got hot and ditched her sweater before Mom could get a picture of her in it.

Tucker was eager to help. He must think there are pheasants under the tree, because he kept running under it and then jumping out from under the lower branches. No birds though. When the ornaments came out, mama put him in his crate. He was well behaved in his crate and I'm happy to report that after many reminders of "No!" he hasn't eaten any ornaments or knocked the tree over (yet!).

We finished trimming the tree at about 6 pm and the house was so covered in decorations and boxes, we had a hard time finding the kitchen. Since it was a school night and we needed a fast supper, we went out for a Happy Meal. Ethan was really surprised that Mom was going to allow a visit to McDonald's since she read the book The Omnivore's Dilemma over the summer and convinced the family to swear off fast food based on the horrifying ingredients contained therein! But we didn't eat the chicken nuggets (way too many petroleum products). We had hamburgers and french fries minus the salt. Poor kids...their mama is a little hard core when it comes to nutrition!

And finally, sibling love in front of the Christmas tree...it doesn't get any better than this!

Meet Tucker!

Many of you know that our beloved dog, Beau, died peacefully, but unexpectedly, at home on Labor Day. As a result, the past few months have been filled with lots of sadness for our family.

After Beau passed away, Ethan started kindergarten and Mary Kate started preschool. School activities, especially Ethan's full day kindergarten schedule, provided plenty to keep the kids busy...which was a good thing. At the end of September, Ethan fell while playing outside at our local apple orchard and broke his left collar bone. The following week, H1N1 hit our house. Only Ethan and Mom got it, which we were very thankful for. All in all, though, it was a pretty rough stretch.

Then we received some exciting news. An English Springer Spaniel field champion breeder whom we respect and trust had a litter of pups become available. Although the timing was sooner than Mom felt ready for, the opportunity for a puppy from Mr. Bannie is not something that happens frequently. So, Dad went out and previewed the litter. He liked the overall temperament, energy and alertness of the litter. We decided to purchase a puppy and told the kids. We all went to pick one out. Ethan and Mary Kate fell in love with the same puppy and pronounced him the "most snuggly."

We named the little guy Tucker.

And here he is, under the Christmas tree.

I can't say that potty training a puppy is my favorite thing in the world...but Tucker is extremely intelligent, and after several busy weeks filled with countless trips outside and utterings of the the phrase "do your business!" I am happy to say we are the proud owners of a beautiful, rambunctious, loveable, and house-trained puppy. Hooray!