Let the birthday celebration begin ...

Arik's birthday is officially on Monday, but we decided to start celebrating last night. We headed downtown to a new place called The Black Sheep. They specialize in coal fired pizza. Needless to say, it was EXCELLENT! We split a tasty salad, some roasted vegetables, and a meatball and ricotta pizza. Everything was delicious. The place is really small, but well worth the wait for a table!

After dinner we walked around the NE Minneapolis area, and then along Nicollet Mall.

We topped off our evening at Cafe Maude for dessert. You can rarely go wrong with pistachios and chocolate :)

A huge thanks to the Hanson's for watching the gremlins while we ran away for a few hours. What a fun summer night!

The Hanson's take on Black River Falls, WI

The whirlwind of August has officially begun. We started off with Amy's birthday, and then this past weekend, we headed to Black River Falls, WI for the 2nd Annual Sherry Family Picnic. For those of you who are new to our family tree - this is Arik's Mom's side of the family.

I don't know if we need to do more road trips or less, based on the behavior of our two small children. They were pretty good at times, but the ride down was pretty much a 2-hour argument between Matthew and myself. That is one strong willed child!

But we did eventually get there, and had a great picnic at the Lunda park. Aaron was in charge of grilling, so everything turned out perfect. There was a ton of great food and great family conversations. We had some minor head injuries with both kids, but they appear to be ok. Poor Amy went running across the pavillion and smacked her head right into a picnic table. Ouch! It looked pretty bad, but she bounced back quickly. Bruises are no stranger to her little forehead!

Matthew saved his head injury for later in the day. He was watching Kade and Jett do some fishing when he slipped off of the rock and smashed his little head too. That bruise may last a while. Poor kid. It was a bad one. The good thing about picnics is that there is never a shortage of ice packs!

Lunda Park has a great little water park inside it. We spent some time playing in the zero entry pool and going down waterslides. The kids had a blast.

The added bonus in Black River Falls, is that the Holiday Inn has a little kiddie pool and waterslide too. That led to even more fun (and more exhaustion) later on in the evening, and this morning before we left.

Matthew also remembered (from a YEAR AGO), that this was the hotel that served Fruit Loops. This is not a cereal that we buy at our house, so he was sure to inhale 4 bowls of it before breakfast was done. What a weirdo!

We had a couple of battles on the way home, but for the most part, the kids were pretty good. They were really tired, and after some lunch took great naps in their own beds. Enjoy the photos. Until next year Black River Falls ...

Potty Training

It is fun to start posting conversations between myself and Amy. For so long, my only source of funny banter was Matthew - that is no longer the case. Amy is proving to be quite the character on her own.

She has been working hard on potty training at daycare. I learned the hard way with Matthew to leave it to the experts :) She is doing so well that I even bought her some Pull Ups this week at Target. She is so proud of them, and tells anyone who will listen that is a, "BIG girl!"

So here comes the funny conversation. Every night I have her sit on the potty before she gets ready for bed (or whenever she asks). Tonight was no different. It was a bath night, so I had her get undressed in her room, and then she took off running for the bathroom. I lagged behind because I was putting her dirty clothes in the laundry basket .. and picking up a couple of other things ... when it suddenly got really quiet. This is what followed:

Me: "Amy ... where are you?"
Amy: "Amy baf"
Me: "Are you in the bathroom?"
Amy: "Yeah!"
Me: "What are you doing?"
Amy: "Amy potty on a floor"
Me: "What? Really?" (as I go running down the hall!)
Amy: "Yup!"

And she did. There it was ... a nice shiny puddle on the bathroom floor. She pointed at it and proudly said, "Amy potty on a floor."

Excellent. So ... it might be a while until we are ready for the big girl underwear she got for her birthday - but we'll keep trying!

We had a little talk about where we go potty. I think she gets it. Let's hope that next time the potty goes in the toilet! Have a great weekend everyone!

Children's Museum

One of the best gifts you can give young families is a membership to the Minnesota Children's Museum.  It is the gift that keeps on giving all year long!  I took the kids there this morning while Arik was golfing.  

Here are a few photos from our day.  There was hardly anyone there, so we go to spend a lot of time in the new "circle" exhibit, crawl through the ant tunnels, play in the water (well, Amy had more fun playing with the hand dryers as evidenced by the pictures), do some pretend grocery shopping, and even make it though story time.  

I had some tired and hungry kids by the time we left!

Tim & Michaela Get Married

Ok, it is official, I am taking over the blog.  That's right, Arik may have started it .... but clearly I will be the strong finisher.  He is too busy with all of his work-related blogs ... so the family news will be coming from me.

For my first post in a long time, I thought I would share a couple of photos and funny stories from my cousin Tim's wedding this past weekend.  Matthew was the ring bearer.  As you can see from the photos, he was quite the handsome guy.  

Going into the big event, we thought that he and the flower girl were 50% at best for walking down the aisle without assistance.  They became fast friends in the last 20 minutes before the ceremony, and were able to walk down all by themselves!  It was great.  They did such an awesome job.  

Funny Story #1:  

The good and bad part of being a parent of a small child in a wedding is that you get to sit very close to the front.  That works well for letting your child come sit with you during the ceremony ... but not so well for the groom's parents who are trying to enjoy their son's special day right in front of you.  My apologies again for Matthew's blurted out comments, and goldfish spilling all over the wood floor in the middle of the vows.  Oops.  I gave him something to eat so he would stop talking.  I didn't know he would spill it 10 seconds later.  Live and learn I guess.  

Funny Story #2:

Although this one came first chronologically, I didn't hear about it until after the ceremony, so I will post it here.  Apparently as the kids were getting ready to walk down the aisle, Matthew leaned over to Ella (flower girl) and said, "Hey ... do you wanna go split a jelly sandwich?"  That's right ... pick up lines are flowing at age 4.  I don't even know what to say about that.  Should I be proud?  Should I be frightened?

Funny Story #3:

I am pretty sure Matthew is more in love with Michaela than Tim is.  He was smitten by her the moment he saw her in her gorgeous gown.  From the minute we sat down to dinner, he wanted to know when he was going to get to dance with her.  Apparently dancing with his mother was nowhere near as exciting.  

After the obligatory first few dances were done, Matthew got his wish.  He got to dance with Michaela.  She gave him a kiss on the cheek when they were done dancing, and afterwards, Matthew looked up at me with this happy dazed look and said, "Mommy ... now I am married to Michaela!"

I just died laughing.  He wanted it to be true so bad!  Sorry Tim, Matthew has his first crush on your wife.  

Enjoy the photos!

Amy's Glasses

We recently did some spring shopping for the kids.  One of the things they need every year, because they ALWAYS lose them, is a new pair of sunglasses.  I took the tag off of Amy's tonight, and let her wear them around the house.  As you can see, she really likes them.  What a ham!  She kept posing and yelling "cheese!" for Arik.  It was so funny.

Home alone...with my kids

Nothing terrifies Mom-types more than leaving their children "home alone" with Dad for a few nights. But that's exactly what happened to our family this weekend as Angela took a jet airplane to Tampa Friday night leaving me to fend for myself with the two little gremlins. 

Friday night was relatively uneventful. Dinner, a few books and it was already bedtime. Saturday was a little more interesting. We headed over to Woodbury to hang out with Grandma Jane and the Martel family for baby Landon's shower. Amy actually learned how to kick a ball in Grandma's backyard--I was pretty proud of her. The kids ran around all morning, which is key for getting them to sleep more than half hour at a time. My brother came over that night--the kids always love hanging out with him. We caught the tail-end of the Masters and even got Matthew a Batman PJ set at Target (he was begging for this all weekend).

Today we again made the trek to Woodbury--this time to visit my parents. We watched the Masters, had an easter egg hunt and played outside. All in all, a very fun day. And for the most part, the kids were well behaved. 

The pics tell the story...