Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.  I hope that you got everything that you wanted and your day was filled with joy, happiness, and cheer!

Playdate!

Dear Mom, since I am almost four now I am perfectly capabable of having play dates.  Please schedule them for me every day.  You can even schedule more than one per day.  I am absolutely loving my new friends and I will do almost anything including various chores that you may request of me in hopes of being able to spend the day with one of my friends.  Thank you, I love you, you are the best. 

Signed,

Your adoring little social butterfly Bria.

This little tootsie had a play date today.  This was the second playdate that she has gone on alone and boy does she love it!  She went to visit her friend Madi today.  She got to go to Madi's house last week for a play date as well.  I love hearing all about the special toys that Madi has and how much fun they had dressing up.  I met Madi's mom Andrea in our new ECFE Preschool program.  When she was dropped off this afternoon, she had on this cute hat and cape.  She told me that they belong to Madi, but she is allowed to borrow them and bring the back the next time that we play.  She wore them all afternoon.

I am thrilled with Bria's sudden desire to branch out and make friends of her own.  Up until now, she has been pretty dependent on us.  She never really showed an interest in having her own little friends.  She loves Avery's friends and will always play with them when they are over, but she has never really had her own friend.  Now, she does.  I am so excited to nuture her new found independence and I look forward to many playdates in the future.

Cookie making, A Success!

 We had a blast the other day making cookies.  I was determined to make this baking experience a joyful one for our entire family.  The kids absolutely love any type of baking, rolling, frosting, crafting, and sprinkling so making frosted sprinkle cookies was right up their alley.  Bria and Bennett helped me mix and stir.

Chadd was called upon to roll out our dough while I got dinner ready.

Once the dough was rolled out, we gave the kids cookie cutters to make their shapes.

Bria loved waiting until the was no available dough to cut a full cookie so that she could roll the little dough ball over and over again.

We made a lot of colored frosting!

Avery joined in to help create and bake.

Bria is pouring out some of the sprinkles to be sure not to over sprinkle her cookies.

The end product: Bria's

Avery's

Bennett's.

Gingerbread House

I love making Gingerbread houses.  I realized this year however, that I love making them so much that I cannot be patient enough with my kids to allow them to even have an ounce of fun while making one.  I hate that!  I didn't realize that I was so completely anal that a project which was supposed to be fun for the kids turned into an all out scream fest in which the kids just stared at me unsure of how to proceed.  What.A.Grinch!

I vow to buy little houses for the kids next year so that they can each make their own.  There will be no yelling or anxiety at all.  All was not horrible though and I truly believe that Avery and Bria had fun despite my tantrum. 

We started making the house on Friday night only to realize that once we put the roof panels on we had to wait 3 hours for it to "cure."  The kids were really good about it though and I told them we would do it Saturday morning.  Much to our delight/horror we woke up to a blizzard and all activities were canceled so it was the perfect time to make our gingerbread house.

Within two minutes, Bennett had been yelled at and sent to sit on the couch with daddy.  How can I put this mildly: he is a wrecker.  The kid is creative in ways I could never have imagined.  Again...realizing that I need to relax and let it go next time which I will but man was it frustrating.

The girls each took turns making things.  Avery did the door.  Bria did the windows.  I did the roof(and it ticked me off so royally that I almost threw the darn thing away).  The girls did do a good job and they decorated the whole house with candies.  Bennett was allowed back over while I tried to frost the roof.  I had to use so much corn starch to get it to not be sticky to my fingers that it looked like it was dusted with a fresh layer of powder.  The girls thought it was quite funny.  Thankfully Bennett didn't touch a thing, he was content to just keep eating candy. 

All in all, it turned out pretty decent.  You live and you learn.  At least the girls had fun :)  

My little model

On Wednesday, my neighbor Jen asked if Bria could come into her studio and model a tutu set that she has on hand.  Of course we said yes.  I was a little bit nervous at first because our recent family photo session did not go very well because Bria was just not having it.  She was a little cranky pants and it was very difficult to get a great family shot because of her unwillingness to participate.  However, the moment we walked into the studio and she saw the beautiful background that Jen had put up and the bright red tutu her eyes lit up and I knew we were good to go. 

She posed and smiled and wiggled her bottom.  She curtseyed and giggled and held onto the dainty bow.  She acted as if she was a little pro.  I thought it was so adorable to watch her be a little diva for a day!

Thank you Jen from http://www.elizabethgracephotography.com/ for thinking of Bria to do some modeling for you.

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Kansas City.  It is always a fun road trip to go on with the kids.  I enjoy this time of year so much that even a 6-8 hour drive doesn't bother me(unless I have the stomach flu which is a story for another time).

We decided to stay with Chadd's cousin Marcus and his wife Justine.  They live close to the in-law's in De Soto, they have a 17 month old son Madden and they do not have any cats(Avery is allergic).  So, it was the perfect option for our family and we are ever so grateful to them for letting us stay there.

They have a lovely double sided fireplace where I was able to get some really great pictures of the kids.  I love to dress my family up on Thanksgiving in hopes of snapping the perfect Christmas picture.  While I do not think that we got "that" picture this year...we are having family portraits done today with my Uncle John and it is a sure thing that we will get some really awesome photo's.

Justine and I were going through the photo's from the day and we decided that this picture captured the personality's of each of my children pretty much to a T.  Benny is our little ham, Avery is ready to pose at the drop of a hat, and Breezy is as sweet as ever.

Justine and I at The Fowble's. 

Cousin Erick and Benny boy.

 Justine and the boys!  The three blondies!

Marcus(Chadd's cousin) and Janet.

The Green's.  Adorable family!

Every year, they try to get the same picture of all of the men and then all of the women on the stairs.  With differing schedules not everyone is able to be there each year.  This year almost everyone was there so the staircase got crowded.  It is always fun to go back year to year and view the pictures and how everyone has changed.

Janet pulled out a hat from the closet and I demanded that we do a pic with all of our hats on.  It was pretty funny.

Bria and Great Grandma Green.

The women plus the dog Buster.













Janet and her sister Phyllis found this amazing recipe for the turkey.  They actually brined it in the refrigerator for 3 days before Thanksgiving and I must say that it is the best Turkey that I have ever tasted.  It was like something you would order from a restaurant.  Grandma Green made these delicious dates that I was a major fan of, especially since they had coconut on them which is an absolute favorite of mine.  The food was all so delicious that we were all quite full and borderline uncomfortable after dinner. 

We played pool, listened to the kids entertain us by singing and playing the guitar, played card games, and had great conversation.  It was a great Thanksgiving all around.

Attempt at Aperture

Last Saturday, I had the privilege of taking a photography workshop led by my friend and professional photographer Noemi Hedrick.noemiphotography.com.  I had an absolute blast.  It was all day long and so much fun.  I learned amazing things about my camera, how to position clients for a professional shoot, and what steps I need to go through to start up my own photography business.  I walked away with an increased knowledge in aperture, ISO and shutter speed.  I am having a blast taking photo's of the kids using my new settings.

I am really working on my Av setting which is a semi-automatic mode.  I am in charge of adjusting my aperture value and the camera takes care of my ISO and shutter speed.  The aperture is the setting that is in charge of how "wide open" your lens is.  The lower the aperture value the more open the lens is...generally speaking.  So, I like to shoot close ups of the kids and have the backgrounds blur...a lower aperture value will increase the likelihood that my backgrounds are blurred. 

I also want to get a program for editing my photo's.  The above pictures have not been edited in any program.  These next two photos have been edited in our Window's Live editing program.  I am definitely inexperienced in editing and was just trying to add a little warmth and contrast to my photo's.  Bria also has a huge bruise on her head so I was able to "retouch" the photo's and remove the bruise.  Unfortunately, I did not save the original photo of the two below to show a before and after but oh well.  I am pretty sure that if I go back into the program it will let me revert to the original..I think :) 

I like the way this picture turned out.  She did put on lipstick so I didn't do anything artsy there...it was just her beautiful lips enhanced by some red :)

This picture turned out a little "bright" or overexposed looking...I think.  What do you think?  Noemi told us that we should  look at skin tone to be sure that it is true and not some fake looking tone.  I have been looking at a lot of photo's and I can easily pick out skin tones that appear too blue, red, green or yellow.  This one looks just too bright or something.

Anyways, I will be posting some of the photographs that I took the day of the workshop soon.  We were able to shoot at an outdoor location and we shot a family and also a couple.  It was a ton of fun watching Noemi position the clients, encourage them, get them comfortable and let them know that their pictures were turning out great.  She has so much confidence while shooting that it is totally inspiring.  I hope to be that confident as a photographer one day. 

So, I am trying to take pictures every day using my new settings.  I am dabbling with full on Manual mode...which is interesting, frustrating, interesting and frustrating!  I would love to take photographs of you, your family, your dog or your child to practice...all of this will be free of course and I will give you all of your pictures.  Let me know if you would be interested in allowing me to practice practice practice on you :) 

A Month of Festivities

So, I admit that I have been terrible about posting this month.  It really gets to me when I cannot post, especially when we have been up to so many fun things lately.  That is the point though.  I find when we have so much going on, I simply have no energy left over at the end of the day to post about it.  I lived it...it was fun...on to the next thing.  This evening we got the kids down, I poured myself a piping hot cup of tea and with CP card in hand I mosied on down to the basement computer to map out today's "Super Post."  I am just going to go in chronological order to pay homage to each activity as best as my memory can serve.

Aamodt's

At the beginning of October, Chadd had a business trip to Mexico City and I was on parent duty 24/7 solo for 2 weeks.  At the end of the first week, my mom and I talked about going to Duluth with the kids to do our annual fall trip up there.  Since she has taken a new job she is travelling M-Th and we decided that driving to Duluth probably wasn't in any one's best interest and that we would have a sleepover, hit an Apple Orchard and go for a hike. 

We met my sister, her husband and their new baby Connor at Aamodts Apple Orchard in Stillwater.  It was a first for all of us.  We usually go to Pine Tree or Emma Krumbee's but we decided to venture out this year. 

The place was packed!  They had a lot of stuff for the kids to do like a hay maze, a train ride, a playground, and a hay pit.  There was definitely fun to be had there.  My girls love caramel apples(who doesn't right?).  I got a three pack and the kids were set.  My mom got us Apple brats which the kids wouldn't touch(ding dong's)but they were absolutely delicious.  

The Hay Maze was a huge hit with the kids.  I bet that they would have spent all day playing tag and hide and go seek in there.

I saw this cute little hay bale lying on the ground and because baby Connor was there I wanted to try to get some cute artsy shots of the kids.  These were the best ones that I got.

Always a beautiful smile on this ones face!

Connor really did not like this position AT ALL!  Poor little guy, could you blame him? 

Barn Bluff

On Sunday morning after our sleep over, my mom and I took the kids to brunch in Red Wing.  After that we drove to Barn Bluff.  It is a large mountain (let's be honest, this is MN) hill in Red Wing that has several great hiking trails based upon ability level and sightseeing desires.  We wanted to reach the summit, but we also wanted a river view...so we took a trail and started climbing.  The kids did great.  Benny is a bit putzy but I suppose he is only 3.  We came across some rock climbers all geared up and of course the kids all wanted to do that too.  Well, we had to explain to them that we have no equipment and that they could try it out a different day.

Well, they were not really taking that for an answer and proceeded to scale every rock that they could find.  It was a bit nerve racking, but they were all smiles.

We turned around to head back towards the trail head and share our special treat of hot chocolate.  After our mini break, we realized that we were all pooped out so we headed back to the car and called it a day.

Pumpkin Painting

Every year, we buy or are given tiny little pumpkins.  I never really know what we should do with them so I break out the paints and the kids go to town.

Remax Apple Orchard Event
Our friend Steve(who has also been our realtor in the past)likes to host special appreciation events for his clients a few times a year.  We got invited to this one and we were able to attend.  They had tables set up for just our group, a photography area, the kids activities were free, each child got his/her own pumpkin to decorate, we had cookies and cider and great company.

Duluth
Every year, we try to make a family trip up to Duluth to have a family stay-cation.  We love to observe the beautiful fall colors, go for hikes, visit Canal Park and let the kids have a blast swimming and doing all of the activities we can.

The past two years, we have stayed at the Holiday Inn downtown Duluth.  It is not in Canal Park, but it is right across the bridge from it.  It is a very short walk if the weather is great and you want to head to Canal Park on foot.  We love it because Chadd has hotel points there and we usually stay for free...AND....they always upgrade us to the Kid Suite.  The kid suites are awesome because they are two rooms joined by a common entryway but the kids room is decked out in either a north woods lodge theme or an ocean theme.  They have bunk beds, bean bag chairs, gaming devices, DVD players, an art table with chairs, a CD player and night lights attached to the walls by the beds...it is basically a kid camp out and our kids love having their "own" room.  So do the adults ;) Another great feature about this hotel is that there are two pools.  One has a kid pool with a fountain and then the main large pool and the other has a main large pool and then the hot tub.  So, we travel up and down the elevators making use of both pools.  My third favorite feature about staying here is that kids eat free at every meal...no limit on how many kids either(which is great because people with more than 2 kids know that most places make you buy an adult entree per free kid entree)and they even get free dessert.  You just cannot go wrong!

After all of that swimming we were all tired and went to bed fairly early.  In the morning we ate a great breakfast and we were on our way towards Enger Tower to see what we could see.  I love Enger tower.  It is one of the first things that I search for after driving down the hill into Duluth.  When I was little I would always call it the Eiffel tower, much to the chagrin of my parents.  No matter how many times they told me it was Enger, I would still say Eiffel! ha! 

The tower is pretty tall and you can see all across the harbor of Duluth.  It is certainly beautiful and even better when the leaves are changing.  That day, we saw three bridal party's taking photographs at the park.

There is another special attraction at the park called The Peace Bell Tower.  It is located in the gardens area of the park and came from Duluth's sister city in Japan.  You can actually ring this bell using a large wooden apparatus that is attached to it.  The kids get a real kick out of this.

Another great feature about this park is that it links up with the Superior Hiking Trail.  The kids are usually in the mood for a hike and we lucked out with an absolutely gorgeous day in Duluth.  We hiked for about an hour before it was time for lunch.

After our hike, we got Erberts & Gerberts and took the kids to this amazing park in front of the Aquarium.  They played for a long time and then we were on our way home.  It was another wonderful trip to Duluth for our family.

Pumpkin Carving & Caramel Apples
My sister is now a stay at home mom and I will have to say it is awesome.  She called up and said lets carve pumpkins and make caramel apples!  Her and Connor came out to our house to get to work.  Avery, Bennett and Bria were so excited to see Connor and Aunt Brooke that I wondered if we would ever get to carving/caramel dipping! 

I love this face.  He is thinking, "Ewwww!"

After pumpkins were done, we boiled water to de-wax the caramel apples(thank goodness Brooke had read up on this stuff), heated up the caramel and went to town.  It is definitely not as easy as it looks but we got some good ideas for next year.

Next year we will work on how getting the decorations and caramel to stay put instead of getting so droopy!  They were delicious and definitely worth the effort to make.

I have to post a few pictures of the highlight of the day:

The kids just love baby Connor and they(like me)cannot get enough of the little honey!

Gretchen's Annual Halloween Extravaganza

My good friend Gretchen throws a Halloween party each year for our ECFE crew.  We have added and lost members over the years but it is delightful to see how with each year these kids grow and change. 

We played two games...one was pin the "O" on the Ghost and the other was a Candy hunt.  Both games went extremely well and I think that we should make it a permanent part of our yearly routine. 

Oh Dorothy, where is Toto?

The Swan Princess

Annabelle telling Avery to shake her tail feather

The crew



Preschool Party

Today we had our preschool Halloween party.  The kids were invited to come dressed up in their costumes and there was a candy exchange.  You wouldn't have been able to find a happier group of 3 year olds anywhere else.  It was so cute to see all of their little costumes and the excitement on their faces as they watched each little friend go around the circle to hand out treats.

The kids came home the other day with Bat Hats.  They were adorable and I got a few pictures of them wearing the hats.

Done!  Thus concludes the month of fall festivities that I have not blogged about.  Phew!  I feel a great sense of relief.  There are officially 3 days left this month and I have a few more things planned.  Avery has no school tomorrow so we may try to go to the Zoo.  Saturday, I will be attending an all day photography workshop that I am uber excited about and Sunday is....oh yeah Halloween!!! 

Wishing you all a very safe and Happy Halloween!