Fourth of July weekend

We had a great weekend celebrating the fourth as well as celebrating birthdays!!

The fourth fell on a Friday so we were treated to a three day weekend with Patrick! We began the day Friday with Edina's parade. We have now gone two years in a row and Emily has loved it both years. She loved seeing everything in the parade and running out to get candy! This is definitely a tradition we'll keep.

Enjoying a pre-parade smoothie!

Ready!

On Saturday we ventured out to the Carver County Fairgrounds to the Taste Of MN. We had a good time wandering the grounds while sampling the food and getting Emily on some rides.

Sunday was a busy day that began with brunch to celebrate Katie and Laura's birthdays. As always, we had a lovely time with family and wish them both a great new year! 

We wrapped up the day with Emily's friend Abby to celebrate her 3rd birthday. We went to MOA and the girls had a great time going on all of the rides geared toward toddlers. We followed that up with dinner, presents and cupcakes. It's amazing how fast time goes when you're watching a baby grow up, I still remember that day three years ago when we met Abby for the first time. Happy birthday little sweetie!

Happy birthday Abby!!

We had a great weekend and are looking forward to the Saints game next week and our Mille Lacs vacation at the end of the month!

Sleep over fun!

This weekend Patrick headed into Wisconsin for a bachelor party while I headed north to spend some time at our friends Jeremy and Matt's cabin so Emily had a sleepover at grandma and grandpa's house.

She had a great time hanging out with both of them as well as GG and aunties Tracey and Katie! Below are some of the highlights of the slumber party!

Here she is showing off a new nightgown that grandma got for her!

On another note, we came home today to see that our planter boxes are doing great and the flowers seem to be in full bloom!!  We're still waiting for lillies in other areas to bloom, but we'll take what we've got for now!

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday and happy birthday to my sister as well.  She turns another year older tomorrow and we're really looking forward to seeing her, Marcus and William in July!

Perfect Summer day

Today was a perfect summer day!! Emily and I hopped on the bike around 9:00 this morning and headed to nearby Pearl Park loaded with toys, swimming gear and lots of sunscreen. We spent all morning and into the afternoon playing at the park and in the wading pool. Emily had a great time playing with the other kids!

This evening we followed up dinner with some local, home grown strawberries right from the neighbor's yard - thanks Jim!

I'm very lucky to have this time off in the summer and now that it looks like the major rainfalls are going to hold off for a while, I'm looking forward to more fun summer days in the near future.

First week of summer vaca!

I have been on summer vacation for two weeks but this was the first week that Emily and I had days off together. This year Emily is going to daycare on Mondays and Thursdays, which leaves the other three days for our own adventures!

We started the week off with a low key day playing around the house and the yard as well as a trip to the library where Emily picked out multiple books. It is nice to switch up the books for bedtime reading!

We followed that with a trip to the MN Zoo on Wednesday with friends Max and Charlie (and my friend Jody) we spent all morning and into the afternoon there playing, looking at animals, enjoying the new carousel, checking out the big bug exhibit and having lunch. We both had a great time and can't wait for out next play date with those Kocur boys!

That evening we went to Aunt Katie's house for an Arbonne party. The highlight was definitely the foot spas and we even walked away with some new purchases that we're looking forward to trying out.

On Friday we met Emily's friend Graham for a play date. We hadn't seen him or his family for about a month so it was nice to catch up and have some fun with them. He is as cute and funny as always! We also visited Grand Ole Creamery on Friday night for our first cone of the season and it was delicious!!

Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of our neighborhood group. The celebration began with a parade right down our street! Emily and the other neighborhood kids were out to cheer on the parade as well as score some decent candy stashes! After the parade, Patrick and his dad went out for a bike ride while Emily and I went to the nearby park to continue the neighborhood celebration. There was pony rides, face painting, games, food, performances and bouncy houses - Emily even had her caricature drawn! It was a fun outing for both Emily and I.

We wrapped up the day BBQing and enjoying some margaritas with Patrick's dad. A very nice end to a great day!

A quick side note - we have gotten so much rain this month that lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, basically every body of water, has risen to unprecedented levels. We live close to Minnehaha creek so we checked that out yesterday and the levels are so high that the water is out of the creek and is covering the biking and walking trails. We even saw ducks and someone kayaking down what is typically a bike path today! The falls are roaring like never before and according to projections it could take until close to the end of summer for levels to return to normal. It's crazy!

Happy summer solstice and the official beginning of the summer to you!