Ella's self-portrait

Ella drew this picture of herself after she bumped her head. Sad, right? But also - wow! I'm really impressed with her drawing ability.

Laskiainen 2012!

It's a full Laskiainen recap! :)

For those who don't know... Laskiainen is a traditional Finnish festival that is celebrated the first weekend of February every year. It was co-opted by early Christians but predates them, and originally marked the time when Finnish women were supposed to be done with their spinning and begin their weaving for the year. By now the days are getting longer, and it's easier to spin in low light than it is to weave. (Or so I'm told.) How sliding is worked in: Finnish women traditionally wear their hair up in braided buns. You would unbraid your hair and let it fly out behind you when you go sliding; the longer your hair flies out, the better your weaving will go. Or the higher your flax will grow. Or something. Anyway, sliding.

Palo, Minnesota has been celebrating Laskiainen since 1937, and it's one of the nation's oldest ethnic festivals (according to the Laskiainen brochure I picked up this weekend). Here's the view from the top of their sliding hill! They create a HUGE slide with ice, that goes down onto the frozen lake. It's super fast, pretty bumpy, and crazy, crazy fun.

As you can see, you can get pretty far out onto the lake!

(the second pic there is from Sunday, which was much grayer and overcast than Saturday was.)

The trek back up to the top of the hill was pretty intense, and on Saturday we'd have to wait in line to get to the top. The kids amused themselves playing "mountain climbing" while I held the line for us.

After all that climbing, sledding, and hauling around kids... today I am super sore! My back, legs, and arms are all achy and sore. But we had just a ton of fun. I think this is going to become an annual tradition for us, just like it was when I was a kid - and like it was when my mom was a kid, too, and her parents took her to Laskiainen in Palo.

Laskiainen snapshot

Of course the girls had to get their faces painted... :)

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Ice skating in Gilbert, MN

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Dance class

The girls are taking a weekly jazz/tap/ballet class at the Y. It's pretty much the cutest thing ever.

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Going for a walk

Aaron, Ella, and Ella's bunny took advantage of yesterday's unseasonably high temperatures to go for a walk (and send me silly pictures).

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Let it snow?

Aaron took this picture of the girls a few days ago. They were going to play outside after Maisie was done with school. As you can see, they're both ready for snow... hats, snowpants, boots, and mittens all ready to go! Unfortunately, Mother Nature's not cooperating. I don't know where they found that sad little patch of snow, but it's almost certainly gone by now- it's been in the 40s the last few days.

I'm too much a life-long Minnesotan to enjoy this. Sure, it's nice not to have to worry about snow emergencies and sub-zero temps, but 40s? In January?? It's just not right. If I wanted a rainy, brown winter, I'd move to Portland. As it is, we haven't been able to go sledding once, and the only ice skating we've done was indoors. Outrageous!

Bring on the snow!

Pizza night!

Nobody was up for cooking tonight, so we went to our favorite family-friendly neighborhood pizza place, Jakeeno's.

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Coffee break!

Aaron had a dentist appointment this morning (no cavities! Good job honey!). Our dentist's office is right across the street from my office, so I got to hang out with Ella while he was at his appointment. We went to the Barnes & Noble for a snack.

It was a really nice break from my workday... I wish I could meet up with her for a coffee every day!

Girl Team!

The girls refer to themselves & me as the "girl team." Today they requested a girl team adventure. Okay!

We went to the zoo! It was a lot of fun. Nothing really special - just the three of us hanging out and having a good time. We toured the trails, hit the gift shop, and rode the monorail.

it was really, really great. :)

Playing Barbies

First, I said that the picture-a-day was an aspirational goal, right? I will keep trying...

Second, the girls got a lot of Barbie's for Christmas from Grandma Jo, and a Barbie dollhouse from Santa. They spend a lot of time playing Barbies these days. The dolls' conversation when I took this picture really made me laugh...

"should we all get married to each other? Girls can only marry girls, not boys. Let's go to Texas and get married!"

I think Texas is about the last place for two girls who want to get married are going to go... I wanted to tell them they could just go to Iowa instead!

Getting ready for bed

The girls are watching Dinosaur Train, their last show of the day before bedtime.

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Reading together

Aaron and Ella, reading together... a favorite activity.

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I mustache you a question...

We had a lot of fun over at Auntie Laura's house today, playing with some press-on mustaches we got Dylan for Christmas. It was a hilarious play date!

A picture a day, for a year

The past few months have brought a lot of changes, including a sadly reduced blog output. To remedy that, I'm going to try to post a picture a day, from this Christmas to next. I enjoy writing, and don't do it often enough; plus, the girls are growing up right before our eyes. They're changing so quickly it's hard to believe.

So, merry Christmas, and welcome to day 1 of a year of pictures!

These pics were taken at brunch today at Common Roots, in uptown, with Gramma Liisa and her friend Joanne.

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Testing

This is only a test...

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Fall festival

Yesterday was the annual fall festival at Maisie's school, Sunny Hollow Montessori. ("Fall," even though it was 80 degrees out!)

One of Maisie's favorite teachers, Shanna, is an excellent photographer. She took some beautiful pictures of Ella. Enjoy!

Playground day

Last Saturday, Aaron had to work, so the girls and I were trying to figure out what to do. We didn't have a ton of time before lunch and nap, so the children's museum was out. But it was beautiful outside, and not disgustingly humid. Playground time!

The girls spent a lot of time climbing on this... climby thing.



I have no idea what to call it! There's one at this one playground, but I've never seen them anywhere else.

Whatever it really is called, Maisie quickly decided that she was a spider, and it was her web.

In this picture, she's lecturing me about how she's going to eat! me! up! if I get any closer to her web. Duly noted! Ella didn't get eaten, though - she was a baby sister spider.

Her climbing wasn't as successful, despite Maisie's encouragement.

When she couldn't get up that one, Ella tried a different tack...

But that wasn't successful either.

So the girls moved on to a structure that they could both enjoy: the pirate ship!
While Ella peeked out through the porthole on the bottom...

...Maisie kept out a sharp eye from the deck. Which is necessary. After all, there's strange animals in these waters....

Maisie's first manicure!

Okay, not technically a manicure - just a salon color. But still, it was a lot of fun.

A few days ago, I took Ella to the Minnesota Zoo's new penguin exhibit. It was a members-only preview, and I wanted to take Ellie because penguins are her absolute favorite animal, and because I rarely get to do fun things alone with her. We had a blast! But predictably, Maisie wanted to do something just with me. So a few days later, we went to get our nails done.

Maisie seemed a little skeptical when she was choosing her color...

sparkly pink, naturally!

But she loved the end result.

Afterwards we went to Pizza Luce and I tried to get a picture of her nails. First I asked her to hold up her hands in front of her face...

which didn't really get me the results I was after. So I just had her hold them out so you can see the sparkles, as well as the designs on her thumbs.


Lovely, isn't it?

Ella turns 2!

(or, as my mom said, "How the hell did that happen?")

Ella's actual second birthday was on Monday, and it was a pretty low-key affair. Aaron & I gave her some gifts, there was a candle and a cupcake, and that was about it.

So today, we had an actual party to mark Ella's second birthday. And it was super fun!

We celebrated at Sibley Park, a lovely little park with a wading pool, jungle gym, and sandlot that's not too far from our house. We were joined by a number of awesome individuals: Gramma Liisa; Auntie Laura, Dylan, and Dan; Wally & Mary Jo & their two sons, Jack & Charlie; Rebecca & her daughter Sophia; Nick, Caroline, and their dogs; and Brian Clark and his dogs. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to spend the afternoon with!

So what I love about having a birthday party at a park, indoor playground, or the like, is that I don't have to actually plan anything. As a result, my photos are kind of haphazard - as was the party. I hope this just gives a sense of what an awesome time was had by all!

Dylan, the girls, and the teeter-totter


Ella's lack of a swimsuit isn't going to keep her from enjoying the pool, with Gramma Liisa:


The children kibbutz on proper present-opening technique.


Ella enjoys the slide with Auntie Laura


WOW this is high up!


It's not a complete showing, but it's a good representation, I think. We all had so much fun!

As for Ella, at 2, she's really a wonderful person. Her language is really taking off, and she's regularly coming up with 3- and 4-word sentences. It's so exciting that she can tell us about her observations! I can't wait for her vocabulary to develop further so we can really hear about what's going through her head.

Ella is a sweet, affectionate girl who loves to play, be read to, and to help us out around the house. Whenever anyone's in the kitchen, whether we're cooking or doing dishes, she will be there saying "Ella help you?"

So far our Ella has shown herselve to be a smart, capable, confident, headstrong, loving person. I canot wait to see what the future holds for her!