Como Town/Zoo Visit

We normally get a season pass to Como Town and visit a number of times throughout the summer.  This year our first visit was on August 20th when Brian was at his annual guys trip in WI.  Our day started out with my Mom and I taking the kids to the Mpls Farmer’s Market to get some fresh produce.  From there we thought we would spend a few hours at Como Town/Zoo but ended up spending the entire day there!  We had a nice picnic lunch, went on some rides, and of course saw some animals. 

It was also James’ first visit to the zoo!  He LOVED it!  His favorite were the flamingos, ducks, seals, giraffes and tigers. When he would get excited he would make grunting noises and flap his hands at the animals.  The girls and I enjoyed looking at the new polar bear even though he was sleeping the whole time.  He was huge!  There were also grizzlies from the North Dakota zoo visiting and they were pretty cool to watch as well. 

We ended the day with dinner at Gabes by the Park.  I worked as a waitress part-time there while saving money for our wedding so it was fun to go back and see how it looks 10 years later.  It was a very fun and busy day and we were lucky enough to have Grandma Sharon along with us to the enjoy the good times!  Oh, and Brian also had a fun time away on his guy’s weekend.  He always enjoys spending time with his Chicago buddies who he doesn’t get to see often enough.

Happy Birthday Uncle Mike

Tonight we got to celebrate Uncle Mike’s 45th birthday at Buca with Aunt Corrie, Sam, Dan, Pete, Grandpa David, Grandma Nancy and Grandma Sharon.  He had no idea that all these people were going to be there to help him celebrate.  What a nice reason to get the family together!

The night started out a little rough though as when I picked the girls up from school Kate was crying.  When I asked her what happened she said that a boy was calling her and Uncle Mike names.  When I asked her what he called them she said “Fart”. I tried not to laugh as she truly was very upset about this and it shows just how big her little heart is that she was so sad they were making fun of her uncle.  I foresee many more sad moments like this in our future!

Happy Birthday Mike! Here’s hoping you have a great 45th year!

Three Days of Fun!

I can’t believe it is 11:30pm on Sunday night and I am still awake after the crazy busy weekend we just had…probably the busiest of the summer, but also so much fun!  We were lucky enough to have our Tynan friends (who live in Omaha) spend the weekend with us. Here is a quick rundown of the festivities!

Friday: Mall of America for rides ALL NIGHT!  James even stayed awake the entire time until we got into the car.  We got home around 10:45pm!

Saturday: Last swimming lessons for the girls and James.  Unfortunately they didn’t pass but made a ton of progress and are excited for the next session. The Tynan’s went to American Girl for brunch.  Quick shopping excursion for Bridge and me.  Tasha and Steve’s house warming/wedding celebration in the evening.  Ended the night with a Wii tournament between Sam, Bridge, me and Brian.  Sadly, my tennis skills were the worst of the group but I got the most exercise for sure!

Sunday: Guys went golfing, moms and kids went swimming at the neighbors pool, birthday party for Molly, and then another swimming pool party for the neighborhood kids at night.

When the kids were saying their good-byes Kate said to Maggie, “I’m gonna miss you Maggie.”  That pretty much sums it up, we are gonna miss our friends.  Hopefully we can see them again this winter.   Here are a few pics of the kids having a blast together.

 

A Perfect Summer Weekend!

It has been a while since I have taken the time to update the blog and this weekend definitely deserves a post! While it was one of the busiest weekends we have had this summer, it definitely was one of the most fun as well!

Saturday was jam packed! It started with swimming lessons for all the kids and then we went to Parker’s Lake for Brian’s company picnic. Following that we headed over to Minnetonka Regional Park where we spent 3 hours swimming! By the end of the day Katelin was officially scooping and kicking all on her own with her head fully submerged in water!  She was probably swimming at least 10 feet by herself which is a HUGE accomplishment!  Annie was doing pretty good too but her big accomplishment was floating on her back all by herself with no floaties or support!  We hope to get in a few more practices before next Saturday for their swimming lesson test.  Practice is really the most important thing and just letting them have fun in the water!  Even James enjoyed the lake this time too!  Then Brian had a great idea to have dinner on the deck at Fletchers.  Hard to believe that I worked there for four summers about 15 years ago!  While it seems to have changed a lot, it also seemed the same.  Kate said something that made me laugh…as we were looking at the dirty water by the dock she said “Good thing we are human!”  She didn’t want to have to live in that water.  Too cute. It was a perfect day and once again James was so well behaved for having no nap all day.  He even slept until 10AM this morning (14 hours)!!!

Today we had the annual Wayzata Fire fighters family picnic at the fire house in Wayzata.  The girls had fun on the bouncers, Kate loved the water slide, and of course the ride on top of the fire truck was awesome as usual!!!  Brian’s best part was the food…he managed to eat 6 ears of corn, ribs, and chicken!  We remembered to bring the camera along so we got some good pics of the fun day.  I am guessing everyone will sleep really well tonight after all the sun and fun we had this weekend!

Family Photo Op!

 

James, playing on the fire truck!

 

Ice Cream Treats!

 

Kate on the water slide!

 

Annie Bananie having fun!

 

Kate on top of the fire truck going for her ride!