Free Time

The weather hasn't been ferocious, but it's definitely been warm. We've been nipping at 90 degrees for a couple of weeks, so we've been going to the pool a lot, as well as various air-conditioned venues (Children's Museum, MN Zoo).

Water wheels and gizmos at the Children's Museum.

Playing in the pool at the park (or princess paddling in purple pants)

Both Maisie and Ella tamely submit to their daily sun-blocking, although Ella starts giggling and squirming away once I start lotioning her nose and cheeks.

Maisie after the costume parade at Highland Fest.
"I didn't place daddy! I didn't get a place!" regarding her participation ribbon. I told her to beat up the first place kid and take his ribbon and prize candy. What? She gets the ribbon, I get the candy.
"There he is, sweetie! Get him! Get HIM!"

Happy 4th of July!

For the 4th of July, Maisie and I decided to go see the fireworks at Powderhorn Park, since it's just a few blocks from home. Unfortunately... we had a looooong wait for it to get dark!

We had some time to kill, so Maisie got her first Sno Cone.


It was orange...

as you can tell!

After that treat, we wandered around a bit, and found a group giving away native perennials for people to plant in their yards/gardens. Maisie chose a black-eyed susan.


Still no fireworks! We were starting to get bored...



so I bought Maisie a light-up sword to play with. It reminded me of her cousin Max, because I think it looks like a Star Wars light saber. Here she is, making her 'scary bad guy' face.


At this point she was starting to get bored AND tired, so she took to sitting in the stroller and just pointing the thing at people.


Finally - finally! - it was time for fireworks!


And the whole thing was totally worth it.

Ella's 1st Birthday

Here are some highlights from Ella's 1st birthday.


We had the party over at auntie Laura's.


There were water balloons (not pictured) and the sprinkler!


And a pinata.


And of course CAKE!


Overall, a really good day. Happy birthday, Ellie!

Urban legends

There's an urban legend that everyone eats a teaspoon, a pound, two bushels, or some other specific amount of dirt of the course of their lives. The amount varies depending on who you ask, but the idea remains the same.

Ella has been making sure that she gets her fair share of dirt.

Not a lot to say today... Ella had her first birthday, which will warrant its own post soon. It was a fun, fun party. But it's late, and I have a busy day tomorrow, so I'm going to stick to pictures.

First a new favorite picture of Ella, from a trip to the Children's Museum yesterday. Doesn't she look like a big girl?

I love it for that reason, but it also is like, wait a minute - where did my BABY go?? She's walking like crazy, and at just 12 months is already SUCH a toddler.

And this picture of Maisie is from a trip to the park today:

That, to me, is just pure joy.

Tiny Trouble's big sister is home for the summer

Ella can walk everywhere now. This means, in her mind, that she has license to examine and dismantle everything, and will start screaming at the top of her lungs if her investigation is interfered with. She can climb all the of the low-lying furniture without much difficulty, but still gets down half the time by falling off face first. But god forbid you should try to prevent her from climbing up again...she has baby rage issues. Also, forget trying to take away her bottle, even when it's completely empty. She will GET you.

Maisie is trying to find her schedule now that she's home for the summer. We're getting our rhythm, but with plenty of drama along the way. Here's some fun from earlier this week.

Playground at the zoo

A few weeks ago we went to the Minnesota Zoo and discovered a new (to us) playground, just off the Grizzly Coast.

Maisie loved everything about it. She even enjoyed this giant horrible mosquito thing.


Ella, on the other hand, gave it her best "what you talkin bout, Willis?" face.


We've had other adventures recently, notably two trips to Iowa to visit the many Dieter cousins! However, we forgot to take pictures while we were there. So as soon as I steal a bunch of pictures from Clare's and Shauna's blogs, I'll post them here. :)

Busy summer Saturday

Yesterday was a VERY busy day at our house.

Maisie's been taking a dance class through Minneapolis Parks & Rec. Yesterday was her last day of class, which meant recital! I was a little nervous about how my shrinking violet would react to the audience...

but as it turns out, I needn't have worried.

The girls were as synchronized and together as you'd expect a class of 3-5 year olds, performing for their parents, would be.

It was also CRAZY cute.

After the performance, we'd hoped to play on the playground, but the skies were threatening rain. So we went home, Ella and Aaron took a nap, and Maisie and I decided to hop a train to the Mall of America to look for a birthday present for Maya.

Maisie was pretty excited for her first ride on the light rail train!

By the time we got back from the mall, the skies had cleared and it was nice outside, so we all headed out to do some yard work.

Ella, as it turns out, has inherited her grandmas' love of gardening and digging in the dirt.

She also shares her sister's affection for a camera.


Meanwhile, Maisie rode her bike up and down the sidewalk.


It's funny, it wasn't that long ago that she wasn't able to really pedal... she just wasn't coordinated enough. And all of a sudden, she just hopped on and was off to the races!

So anyway, that was our Saturday. Busy, but not atypically so. So if you ever wonder why Aaron and I are often tired... now you know why!

A little talking and a little walking

Ella has steadily been growing more verbal. Instead of some explosion of ability, I think she's slowly been sneaking up on talking without any of us being much the wiser. She's uttered sounds that are similar to words before, but always preceded or followed by baby talk, so that we were unsure it was what it kind-of-sort-of sounded like. But lately she's started to dial back on the baby talk portion, until today I swear she said "hi" and waved to one of the cats when she saw him. If she had a first word, I have no idea what it was. She's also taken to standing up, looking around, taking a step, and then sitting down. Sneaky, right? Apparently she's not going to really start walking until she can chase down Maisie and pounce on her.

I'll leave you with a few of Maisie's computer drawings.

Caroline & Nick get married!

Saturday, May 1, 2010 was Nick and Caroline's wedding day, and it was beautiful and perfect. Maisie and I were lucky enough to be included in the ceremony - me as co-matron of honor with Caroline's sister Dacia, and Maisie as the flower girl. Gramma Liisa and Aaron were Maisie handlers; Auntie Laura played the important supporting role of Ella's babysitter. :) For those of you familiar with the cities, this was at the Loring Pasta Bar.

We were very excited before the ceremony. We couldn't wait to get started!

We were wearing matching dresses - Maisie's is white on top with a garnet skirt, and Dacia's and my dresses were entirely of the garnet satin. We looked pretty cute if I do say so myself!

Everybody took their seats and it was time for us to walk down the aisle!

Blurry, but you get the idea... she did a great job of throwing the petals. :)

Maisie stood on the stairs with me and Dacia.


Caroline joined us...


Eventually Maisie got tired of standing, and had a seat.


Aaron somehow failed to take pictures of her making faces at him, and then shushing the crowd after I shushed her! But all in all she did a great job!

After that it was time to head to the reception, at the Varsity Theater down the block. Maisie was ready to have a good time!


She danced, made friends with strangers, and took pictures with our good friends Andrew, Howie, and Kari Hay.


All in all, it was a wonderful day and night. We had an amazing time, and are so happy for Nick and Caroline. Such a beautiful wedding. But with this flower girl, how could it be anything other than perfect? :)

Writing!

Maisie's Montessori school teaches writing before reading, which I never understood before yesterday, when Maisie said she wanted to write the word "hungry" in magnets on our refrigerator.

We sounded out the word - "hungry starts with 'huh.' What letter says 'huh'? Right, H says 'huh'!" We went through each sound in the word, though I had to help her with the vowels...

And at the end, here's what we got:

HUNGRY!

Maisie wrote that. I couldn't be more proud.

Yard sale score!

I've been looking for some backyard toys for the girls for a while now. I wanted something they could climb and play on... something that they wouldn't outgrow too quickly, but that would still be fun now. I initially figured I'd buy new, but the kind of thing I was looking for ran upwards of $200! Ridiculous!

But then today, driving back to work after lunch, I ran across a yard sale that had a two-level climber with a slide for only $30! I couldn't believe it - what a deal!

Dylan and Gramma came over to help us test it out...

Verdict: it's a hit! Fun for all ages - even 6 year olds. It's versatile - people can slide down the slide on their tummies, backs, or bottoms. And it even lends itself to being a castle or a pirate ship.

All in all, I think it's $30 well spent!

Sunny Sculpture Garden

Last Sunday was really beautiful... hard to believe it's only April, when the temperature gets up towards 70! So we decided that a picnic lunch at the Sculpture Garden would be a great thing to do.

We found a lovely place to picnic not too far from Spoon Bridge & Cherry. I wanted to get a great picture of the girls with that iconic image in the background. Too bad for me, the girls didn't want to cooperate...

Instead, I got a lot of pictures like this:


And this:


So, not really a success... now I understand why professional photographers earn the fees they do!

Maisie and I set off to explore other sculptures in the Garden,


while Aaron and Ella finished up the picnic in a sculpture's shade.

So although I didn't get the photographs I wanted, we still had a great time. We'll definitely be back, and maybe the girls will cooperate with my "SMILE! SAY CHEESE! LOOK AT THE CAMERA!" commands next time... I can hope!

happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all who celebrate! Our Easter Sunday started early.



Ella of course woke up early, so she and I got up and checked out what the Easter bunny brought her. Her basket had, among other things, a rattle that she's really enjoying!

Maisie joined us shortly.

Her basket had a chocolate bunny in it! And just FYI, it turns out that if you let your preschooler eat a chocolate bunny for breakfast, probably your late morning/early afternoon will not be awesome. Lesson learned!

So this morning, the weather here was beautiful - mid 60s and sunny - so we headed down to the Minnesota Zoo in the morning, to check out the Farm Babies!

(For those who aren't familiar, the MN Zoo has a family farm exhibit, with cattle, sheep, goats, swine, and poultry. Every spring, the farm babies are CRAZY popular.)

This farm baby is two days old. TWO! He was born on Friday. Terribly cute.

This farm baby is a little bit older than that, but still also really cute!

On the way back from the farm, Ella got tired of the stroller...

She needed a new perspective.

Funnily enough, some of the real animal superstars of this trip to the zoo were not even zoo animals. There's a little lake chain between the main part of the zoo and the family farm, and at this time of year, there are a ton of Canada geese there.

Everyone loved the geese! LOOK AT THAT BIG BIRD, MAMA! They were a huge hit.