MCM

That's right, Emily and I finally made it to the Minnesota Children's Museum for the first time today. It was a cool, cloudy, rainy day so we ventured to St. Paul to check it out. We were there for 2 hours and still only experienced about a quarter of the museum because Emily was so engrossed in the exhibits and activities!! She loved finger/brush painting, the pretend city and of course the water exhibit. We had such a good time that we purchased a membership so we can go back again and again!

Planting flowers, painting and being a police man!

"Wawer!  Bubbles!"

Water, painting and happy for lunch!

Get your groove on!

This summer there was a park in Bloomington that hosted kiddie concerts on Monday mornings at 10:30.  Emily and I made this activity part of our routine and it was so fun!  The park has such a big playground that there was always something for Emily to do even when it was at it's busiest.  At today's visit Emily even refused the smaller, toddler sized playground and only wanted to play at the big girl playground.  Look at the size of the slide (compared to her) that she insisted on going down over and over!

As an added bonus at today's concert, there was a young boy that was driving a remote controlled car around.  Emily had a great time chasing it around and the boy was nice enough to play with her!

We both really enjoyed the music as well.  There were times when Emily danced and times when she observed, but she had fun at each show.  We would normally have a picnic lunch at the park at a mini, kid-sized, picnic table too. 

Lunch time!

Excited to go and having fun dancing!

It was a really fun part of our weekly routine, one that we'll miss! 

Precisely!

If you're in the mood for parent humor, check out this blog that I've gotten into reading: http://jasongood.net/  One post I found particularly funny was: http://jasongood.net/365/2011/08/day-215-approximately-3-minutes-inside-the-head-of-my-2-year-old/

And for all the new parents (including me) out there: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-vienna/latest-parenting-trend-ctfd-method_b_3588031.html

Eating out

Due to the heat wave this week we've been avoiding using the oven in effort to keep the house as cool as possible. So, that means a few dinners out...twist my arm : )

                            "All Done!"

Hope you're all staying cool too!
The Harrisons

Mail call!

This week Emily received her first piece of mail that wasn't from a family member. Mark your calendar, Emily will be participating in the toddler trot this fall! We know she'll do great, just like she did in the diaper dash last year. Hope to see you there!!

Multi purpose toy

I'm sure as Emily gets older she'll start to use most of her toys for purposes other than those originally intended.  Since Emily isn't quite able to spin herself on her sit and spin, she found another purpose for it.

Lots-o-babies!

This week Emily and I went to a playdate at our friends Griffin and Hattie's (Lesley and Nate, too : ) ) house.  I worked with Lesley for a few years before she had babies and decided to stay at home with them and am so glad that we've been able to keep in contact.  Some other friends that I used to work with came with their children as well!  We were lucky that the weather was nice and that Lesley has a big backyard...there were a lot of kids!  Luckily, they did great playing with each other and it was a success until we tried to get a picture of all of them.  This is what we got:

Lesley has said there's no better way to ruin a party (with kids) than to try to get them all together for a picture.  She was right.  The kids were doing great but as soon as they were supposed to sit for a picture the tears and whining began - almost immediately!  Notice that Emily and her friend Quinn even refused to sit!  Thankfully this picture does not represent the good time we had.  Thanks for hosting Lesley, we had a great time!

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a great celebration for the Fourth this year!  In the morning we took Emily to the Edina parade.  She had a good time checking out all of the passing scenery.

Pre-Parade practice marching

Parade Treats

 We then went to a picnic at my aunt's house.  It was fun to see and catch up with everyone!

Hanging out with "baby Max"

Loved blowing and chasing bubbles!

Patrick even let me go to our friend Tricia's house for the evening while he stayed home with Emily!  What a lucky lady I am!

Hope you all had a fun and safe Fourth!
The Harrisons

Summer happenings

With summer here and Emily at daycare only 2 days a week, we're trying to make the most of our time together.

We've been working on our landscaping.  We've never really decided what to do with our 2 large planters in the front of our house but I think we finally figured it out.  Thanks to Patrick's mom, Val, we now have perennial Stella de Oro lilly plants as our base and accented the planters with purple wave petunias.  Top off the soil with a nice, dark mulch and voila:

We know it doesn't look like much but if you saw it before, you would appreciate how much it has changed.  I neglected to take a before picture : (

The dogs love to bark out of the windows at just about everything, you name it!  In order to see out of the windows they have to jump up to see out of them.  So needless to say, they have worn away the finish on a few of our window frames over the five years we've been here.  I took it upon myself to sand and stain the frames.  This brought the window frames back to their original splendor.  Again, something that doesn't look like much but knowing the condition they were in, Patrick and I are very happy with the results.

Patrick and I invested in a bike trailer so that we can take family rides and Emily and I can use it during the day.  She seemed excited about it before we were on the first ride but during the ride just sat and looked around, not much expression so we're not sure exactly how she feels about it but it worked great for us!

Emily and I have been visiting lots of what Minnesota has to offer and have been enjoying the nice weather.  I think it's safe to say that Emily loves water, so we finally made it to a splash pad in Minnehaha Park.  Since I was in the water and didn't want my phone to end up there too, I only got a couple of pictures but Emily enjoyed the water and watching all the big kids running around in it.

We also made it to a splash pad and beach in Blaine with my mom.  Emily was fearless, which is kind of scary.  She walked out into the water up to her chest refusing to hold my hand.  She wants to do everything herself lately.

Last weekend we headed up to Duluth for the day to participate in the wedding celebration of one of Patrick's cousins.  It was a great day.  We visited the Superior Zoo before the ceremony and Emily danced the day away on the dance floor.  The dance floor was definitely dominated by the many kids there since it was an afternoon wedding.

This summer also marked Emily's first visit to the Mill City Farmer's Market.  We're lucky enough to live within a few miles of downtown so we were able to ride our bikes there.  We enjoyed a coffee, croissant and cookie while overlooking the Mississippi River and Stone Arch Bridge.  It was a great morning!

Pre-Ride

Post-Ride

Chocolate Croissant Face

My brother Pat is also staying here a few nights a week to cut down on his commute to work.  Welcome to our crazy home Pat!

Happy Fourth of July!
The Harrisons