It's back to school...

Today is the first day of school for my little guy. He had a really great summer - taking rocket making classes, swimming, going to VBS, camping on the North Shore and visiting out-of-state relatives.


Peter Hobart always has a great Welcome Back celebration for the kids - complete with a bubble machine and parents lining the sidewalks cheering the kids on their first day of school.



Have a great school year!

Apple Pickin' Time

The weather has been unseasonably warm this last month of summer - yesterday was in the mid 80's. The funny thing is that the beginning of the summer was cold - yes, cold. We only made it to the pool one time - and then it wasn't incredibly hot, just barely warm enough to go swimming.

Anyway, I had these big plans to go to an apple orchard and wear "fall like" clothes and maybe get some pictures for our Christmas letter...no such luck. Plan B - wear what you want, let's just pick apples and have fun!

I can always count on this boy to be a real ham!

It was a beautiful day...

Cornballs!

Our favorite orchard is Apple Jacks...it's a small, family owned orchard. It's just big enough to have a nice variety of things to do and small enough that you don't have to park 3 miles away, fight the mobs of people and be bombarded with too many activities ($$).

Happy Fall! I need to get to making apple pies....

State Fair time...

The State Fair is a BIG deal in Minnesota. I hate to admit that I have been to the fair more times since my son was born than I have in my entire life. Yes, I was born in Minnesota and lived here all of my life but I had only been to the fair once before my son was born. OK, so maybe the fair is a BIG deal to some people in Minnesota.

It is definitely a BIG deal to these two kids:

Bumper Boats - a big deal.

Joe Cool.

Can you believe this...he is only 6 yrs old! My boy is holding hands with someone other than is Mama!

And I think he likes it!

My boy was so brave...going on the pirate ride all by himself.

No visit to the State Fair is complete without at least one order of cheese curds - they are evil. Our friends with introduced us to deep fried green tomatoes - YUM. Sorry no photo - I ate them too fast.

Good grief!

My other handsome boy...

Good grief ~ who would have thought a life-long cat girl would loose her heart to a dog? Yes, this guy makes my heart melt. Just look at that face...

It's back to school time!

Yesterday was the first day of school in our district and, as you can see, my boy was just a little excited. Although we had a great summer together and he did a TON of fun camps, outings and other adventures, I think he missed seeing his friends everyday. He is quite a social bean...

Look at these two boys ... goof balls! My cousin was in town for business with her son the other day so we arranged for the boys to spend the day with each other. For anyone that only has one child, you know how truly wonderful it is to take care of other children. I know this sounds weird but having more children around actually makes my job easier ... they entertain each other! Unfortunately, my son has no first cousins on my side of the family and only 2 cousins his age on my husband's side of the family... and they live 8 hours away. When I was growing up, we spent so much time with our cousins - Mom's and Dad's side of the family. I feel bad that my son won't have that same experience. So we improvise! Second cousins work just as well as first cousins.

Where has the summer gone?

Is it possible that school starts in about two weeks? September 1st to be exact. I know, I know, many schools around the country normally start before Labor Day but in Minnesota school normally doesn't start until later because the State Fair is a BIG deal (it runs until Labor Day). It almost feels sacrilegious to start so early. Oh well, here are some fun pictures from our "Summer of Fun". Enjoy...

Being silly with Auntie on the 4th of July.

Toured our state's capital building and gardens on beautiful day.

Ate plenty of ice cream!

Had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa!

Who is this cute guy? Oh, our new puppy, Seer!

Went to a great BBQ at great-aunt Sharon's house!

OK, this is just a fun picture...I love bees.

My garden ~ not really. I am envious of my Aunt Sharon's tomato plants...they are amazing!

Flirting with Coach Wendy. Goof ball!

Our good friend, Miss Myrt joined us for a Little League game!

Strawberry pickin' at Apple Jacks (yes, it's an apple farm in the fall).

What have you been up to this summer?

Allow me to introduce...

... the latest addition to our family - Seer. He is a one year old Golden Retriever mix. We just adopted him from a wonderful agency called RAGOM (Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota) today. He is still very much a "puppy" although he is full grown ~ we've got plenty of work ahead of us. He is small for golden standards - only weighing 43lbs. He is such a sweet boy!

Thanks to the wonderful folks at RAGOM and Seer's foster Mom, Denise, for helping us adopt Seer.

Plenty more pics to come!

Father's Day at the Dome!

Today my husband took our son to a Twins game for Father's Day. What a great father-son bonding experience! They went with other folks from our Little League organization and were allowed to go down onto the field to run the bases.

He looks good in a baseball uniform!

Yesterday in the 85 degree heat...walking in the Parktacular Parade.

Pirate birthday cake

I found the cutest cake ideas on the Betty Crocker website last night. Here is my version of the pirate birthday cake....I am giving it to a special boy I know!


It's the first time I've made a cake like this - and it was really very easy! I would do some things differently next time but it definitely got me over the fear to attempting a theme cake. Already I am "looking" at candy differently ~ "how can I use that on a cake?" Check out the Betty Crocker website for yourself! They have great "how-to" videos and quite a few girl AND boy ideas.

My Little Sous Chef

Meet my little sous chef! Every time he hears me pulling out the gear to start baking, he runs to get his apron, chef hat and of course, his stool.

Reporting for kitchen duty!

Patiently waiting....

"Daddy, come check this out!"

Last Day of Kindergarten

What a party we had today at Peter Hobart! There was face painting, space bouncing, ring toss and the incredibly popular dunk tank. The morning started out dunking the SLP Fire Chief and continued with a 3rd grade teacher from Peter Hobart as well as Mayor Jacobs. Keep in mind the temperature this AM was in the 50's and never got much above 60 degrees. Talk about dedication to the kids! Thanks to the Peter Hobart PTAO for raising the money to give the kids a wonderful last day of school!

First Little League Game

Sam has another game coming up this weekend so I figured I had better post pictures from his first game before the season is over!

It's so fun to see 5 and 6 year olds playing baseball.....who's on first? Organized chaos! Needless to say, Sam did score a run. It's all good fun.

growing up too fast...

My son is growing up too fast! A couple of night ago he says "Mama, now that I am a big boy, can I sleep on the top bunk?" Until now, we made him sleep on the bottom bunk and told him he could move to the top when he turned 6. Well, he's not 6 yet, but he rides a big-boy bike with no training wheels, finishing kindergarten soon, loosing teeth at an amazing rate - so how could I say "no"?

The only problem is that now it's nearly impossible for us to have our special "cuddle time" when I tuck him into bed each night. I thought he wouldn't care but he said to me last night, "Mama, can I sleep on the bottom bunk again?" He is still my little boy!

Little League season begins!

Little League practice started this past weekend. Yes, he is still wearing his "church shirt" during practice. He is playing for Sam's Club this year - how fitting! Their first game is this Saturday. Good luck!

really nice folks

We met some of the nicest folks on Saturday at an event sponsored by the Minnesota Kite Society. Who knew there were groups of people that held meetings, planned events and had a website all about flying kites. It's pretty serious business! At this event in St. Louis Park, we met a bunch of really great people that demonstrated and even shared their kites with us. This is my son with a gentleman that makes his own kites. Sam was really in love with this American flag kite not only because it looked like our flag but because it was the biggest kite there!

Little League try-outs

On a chilly Saturday morning my son had tryouts for Little League. He was just a little excited!