What We've Been Up To...

 

It's been a little hectic here with back to school and back to work for me. Here are a few updates:

 

Maria started her second year of preschool.

And has already been on a field trip!

 

 

Maria & Emma started dance class. They LOVE it! They can't wait until it's Wednesday each week.

 

We took a family vacation to Duluth for Joe's inline skate marathon. It was less than ideal weather with them fighting the wind the whole way, but it was still an enjoyable trip.

 

We got a new car!

 

We celebrated Oktoberfest for the first time.

 

Maria and Emma both had their first hunting experience with daddy, and were actually mostly quiet!

 

 

Natalie tasted her first rice cereal and loved it! She's six months old already next week!



 

 

We picked pumpkins from our garden to get ready for Halloween!

 

It's been a busy but very fun few months. Hope you're enjoying your fall!

Classroom Makeover

During the school year I spend almost seven hours a day in my classroom.

 

That's a long time in the same room!

 

For the last three years, I hadn't done much with my room. I hadn't made it my own. It didn't feel welcoming to come to every day of the school year with it's enormous high walls, huge pipes decorating the ceiling, dirty white walls, and not much bulletin board room. Oh, and let's not forget the completely mismatching tables. (half were rectangles, half were trapezoid tables).
 

 

So this summer, I spent some time painting and decorating to make it feel more inviting.

 

Portions of the walls became blue.

Different sections of my room became different countries.

 

The rubric that I use for grading became real and visible.

AND I GOT ALL NEW MATCHING TABLES AND CHAIRS! YAY!
 

I'm excited to start my new school year on Tuesday with a new feel to my room.

 

What do you think?


 

A Weekend Away Part III

For us, this summer meant a lot of traveling. Lucky for us, we enjoy it and have wonderful parents who take care of our little ones while we are away! We are very thankful for them!

 

This past weekend we were able to enjoy a trip up to the North woods for a wedding. Even though I was a bit under the weather, we still had a wonderful time.

 

We left early Friday morning and started on our six hour road trip. It seemed so quick after our Chicago get away a month ago! We checked out the resort scenery and headed up to our condo. Joe immediately found the pitch and putt golf course at our resort and played it 9 times while I napped hopping to get rid of my cold... no luck. Later that evening we checked out the Superior National Golf Course across the road. I still wasn't feeling strong enough to play, but enjoyed the scenery of the mountains and Lake Superior and driving the cart! :)

 

The next day, Joe played some more golf while I rested and then we headed up to Lutsen Mountains to check out the Alpine Slide. I was a little nervous. I had never heard of it before. I thought it was a big slide that went really fast straight down the mountain. It wasn't what I was expecting. You got to sit in a little yellow slide where you could control the speed. It went around curves and up and down. It was worth checking out.

 

Then we played the pitch and putt at our resort before we got ready for the ceremony. I only lost by one stroke on my first time out for the summer, so I was pleased!

 

It was the PERFECT day for a wedding. The people up there said it was the nicest day of the summer. We were very lucky! The wedding was held right on the shores of Lake Superior. It was beautiful! We are so happy for my roommate and her husband! :)

 

 

The ceremony was followed by supper on the outdoor patio, and a bonfire by the lake. It was so much fun!

 

Congrats roomy!

 

 

A Cowgirl Party

A week ago today, one of my sweet little girls turned THREE!

 

 

It was a perfect day!

 

She had only been talking about and planning her big day since, oh, I don't know... her last birthday! For the first six months of being two, she thought the next birthday needed to be a Daisy Duck party. However, when a certain birthday catalog arrived at our house with more options than we could even think of, the plan changed. She knew what she wanted...

 

A COWGIRL PARTY!

 

It all started with these cute plates:

 

Then we made these invites:

 

Made this cake (idea from Kara):

 

Made some yummy s'more bites:

 

Decorated a bit:

 And we were ready for a cowgirl party!

 



 

Happy Trails to You!

 

 

A Weekend Away Part II

Last weekend, we took the girls on a mini vacation. The girls had been begging to go to a hotel for months, and since summer is quickly disappearing, we decided to pack up the bags and head to Brainerd for a few days.

 

We took off in the morning, and got into town early afternoon. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the course. (mini golf, that is...) Pirates Cove is the place to be for golf! The girls slowly tried to figure out the whole golf thing, but it went more like this: Maria would put her ball near the hole and hit once then pick it up and be done. Emma would bring her ball to the hole and push it in with either her club or her hands. It was pretty entertaining. Either way, they enjoyed themselves and all the pirate decor!

 

 

That night, we hit the pool. This was probably their favorite part, seriously. Next time, we might as well just go to a hotel nearby! ;) They swam for over two hours before we headed up to the room to order pizza. The girls hung out in their "bedroom" with the "hot pool" and watched cartoons while waiting for the pizza to arrive. They loved this "hot pool" because the water coming out looked like a waterfall!

 

The next day, we had breakfast and were off to the pool again for some final swimming before we checked out. Once we got all packed up, we were off to Paul Bunyan Land! We went here last year and decided to go again because it is the PERFECT place to bring this age of kids. They rode all the rides several times, visited with Paul Bunyan, and hung out at the petting zoo. It was a great day!

 

Our final stop of the day was an ice cream shop! YUM

 

Then back in the car we went to go home. It was the perfect vacation for us. Two days was just right to have some fun and not get too overtired. And Natalie was a trooper! She enjoyed her first of many vacations as well!

 

And I leave you with our family picture from our trip. Last year, a certain young lady in our family was crying her eyes out during our family vacation picture... this year you get...

 

 

...her butt. Yep, the memories! :)

A Weekend Away Part I

Joe and I took a small trip the other weekend to Chicago to visit some good friends from college. They live in Indiana, so it was a good place to meet up. We had never been there before, so Joe was eager to visit the oldest stadium in baseball.

 

We didn't want to drive the whole way to Chicago in one day, so we decided to spend the night at a casino in Wisconsin. Joe came out 50 cents ahead! Yay! Here is the waterfall inside the casino we stayed:

 

 

The next day, we made it to Chicago! We were staying near the airport, so we had to take the subway & the bus line to get to Wrigley Stadium. Lucky for us, we met a couple on the bus that just happened to have two extra tickets on the lower deck above the Cubs. We couldn't pass up the offer of these great seats! They sold both the tickets to us for more than we could have bought one ticket in the worst seats there! score! :) Plus, we got free cowboy hats!

 



And Joe caught a ball during batting practice, which made his day of course!
 

Then it was off to meet up with our friends. We had a GREAT time exploring Chicago's downtown. We walked through Navy Pier and had a great lunch:

 



We took in views of the city:
 

We strolled through Millennium Park to check out this strange looking mirror:
 

We tried the famous Chicago Style Pizza:

 



And of course, became experts of the underground subway system just in time to go home.

 



 

All in all, it was a great trip! It was nice to get away for the weekend and visit our friends. We just wished they lived closer!