Memorial Day Weekend

We kicked off summer with some great friends in Fargo - the Kaspricks. It was wonderful to leave home for a bit and enjoy the company of friends.

The Kasprick's have 2 girls, one almost 3 and the other almost 18 months. Here is a snipit and a few snap shots of what we did:

Visited Dinoland at West Acres

Played at the park in the good ol' ND wind!

Rode toy cars, trikes and pushed strollers on the driveway

Piled into the minivan - 3 kiddos, 4 adults!

Learned that we have similar trials and triumphs as parents

Acquired clothes for Kiera and baby gadgets (swing, bouncer, exersaucer) for baby Ring

Ate at Applebee's (of course!)

Ate ice cream, freezie pops, Peanut Butter Captain Crunch and s'mores

Sang Johnny Apple Seed at meals (and Kiera sang it most of the way home, adorable)

Became very familiar with the words "mine" and "my"

Turned a crib mattress into a "swimming pool" jumping on it and "in" it

Learned all about water colors and paint and how it can turn into finger paint which turns into bathtime!

Read part of a book

Scott and Josh made the required trip to Best Buy and added Toys R' Us (funny how life changes)

Played with worms

Figured out it is very possible to sleep two adults and one child in a queen size bed

Enjoyed a bonfire and glow sticks

Kiera is a great little road tripper

Kali had a BLAST with Shiloh and Beth - she got run and play with Shiloh, ride in the car, chew a new nyla bone, run around the lake and swim 3 times!! Here's a story from Kali's weekend. As you may know Kali loves her grey IKEA blanket. One night before bed, Beth heard Kali whinning, she went to check it out to see Kali staring at a basket with toys and a grey blanket. Beth gave her the blanket and Kali was off to sleep with it nestled in her mouth. I guess 3 year old dogs need a snugglie too! We love our pooch, she is one tired girl maybe even a few pounds lighter:-) Thanks for taking great care of her Beth.

It is so great to have friends you can just "be" with. It was a much needed weekend for us. Thanks for a fabulous time, Kaspricks...wish we lived closer!

Weekend recap and some other odds and ends

Not many pictures were taken this weekend, but it was a so enjoyable and so fun to watch our little Kiera become more of a sweet little girl.

Josh and I got to reconnect with several camp friends on Saturday, many we hadn't seen in close to a year! Kiera showed us a very shy side, that we had yet to see. She was very quiet and wanted to be with mom the entire time. If someone started talking to her, she would shyly turn her head away. There were definitely a lot of new people to meet, but it was so fun to be with long time friends as our little family of 3.

When we returned home on Saturday we played outside for over 2 hours - blowing bubbles, playing with Josh's matchbox cars, chalk, Kiera's car and all kinds of new sports balls. It's amazing what you can find in a garage!

On Sunday morning Kiera got to spend quality time with Aunt Beth and Shiloh, which is always a treat! Then K and I headed to NE Minneapolis for a Sunday playdate with my former coworkers and their kiddos. I even got to see a high school classmate I hadn't seen since high school! It's so fun to connect with other moms and watch our kids begin to interact with each other as they get older. We made our way out of Minneapolis just in time as an apparent tornado hit north Minneapolis. Thankfully, our friends house and neighborhood were ok.

After dinner we took a chance to go for a little walk between rainstorms. Kali and Josh were already out. Kiera and I put on our crocs, I put on my raincoat, Kiera did not (this will be important later) and we headed out. We headed down the sidewalk and spotted lilacs so we had to go smell them, SOOOO yummy! Josh met up with us as we continued to smell anything that resembled a flower, none of them as good as the lilacs. It began to rain, HARD! Josh and Kali took off and headed for home. I began to unzip my raincoat to protect Kiera from the rain, which is quite an interesting picture when I am also 26 weeks pregnant! Needless to say we got wet, but we laughed about it and by the time we were home, it was sunny, so we continued to play outside. Thanks to the many downpours, there were great puddles to jump in!

Kiera has really started to form sentences, not only repeating what we say but formulating them and completing them on her own. It's such a fascinating process! A little sample...as we were praying tonight I said, "Dear God, thank you..." She said, "thank you, Dear God" and was so proud of herself. While Josh was enjoying breakfast with Kiera he finished his cereal and she said, "Daddy all done...go play!" She loves "exercising" which involves running around the house and today included squealing at the top of her lungs, it made us smile. The other day it was creating an obstacle course with blankets, jumping from one to the other, along with her dolly. She has also become completely attached to her blanket, not sure how it happened, but I hope nothing happens to it because we only have one of its kind! She also is so excited to be able to go with Josh and I to different places, all weekend she kept saying "Me go too?!?" Yes, Kiera, we are excited for you to go, too. While driving she points out every bridge we drive under and eagerly anticipates the next one, even if it's a big interstate sign.

So good, so good!

Self portraits with Kiera, she was willing and that is rare...

My own Camera!!!!

Sweet!!! Mom & Dad got me a Camera!

Let's see how this thing works......

That's working much better!

Feeling better...and hanging outside with Mom!

Easter Clips

Here are some rough cuts from Easter. Basically unedited, but shows what part of Kiera's day was like. With Easter a couple of weeks past, I figured I should at least post something!

Easter Basket Search:



Easter Meal:



Easter Egg Hunt (Yes Kali was very excited!):

Why??? Because it's Sweeet!

Easter, Kiera's Birthday, and Kiera's Birthday Party add up to a lot of pictures and video clips to go through! As time allows we will post these on the blog. For now, here is a short clip of birthday preperations......

All in a normal days supper.....