Doin' the Laundry

What a goof! Kaia hauled both my laundry baskets downstairs. She's sitting in one, on top of her pillow, reading a book to her baby. The other is next to her, in it lies Dora, covered up with a blanket, obviously taking a nap. Kaia is really developing her imaginary play! Love it!

Jam Session

Cassie got Kaia a little guitar from Ecuador, and she plays it all the time. She sings real songs, nonsense songs, anything. I'll hear her singing ABCs, for example, she'll end the song, and say "How bout Jesus Loves Me? OK. 'Jesus loves me this I know...'" Once in awhile she and Mike will jam together. It's so cute. She even dances while she plays.

First Day of School 2009

Today was our first day of ECFE. I have been anxiously awaiting the start of school year activites. This year both Halle and Kaia are in a multi-age class together (last year the class was for Kaia while Halle went to childcare). We play for awhile and then the parents go into another room for parent discussion. This class is a book study on the book Top 20 Parents. Seems interesting enough, I'll keep you posted if I learn anything ground breaking. The girls did really well and had a lot of fun. The class is small, only 4 moms and 6 kids, of which my two are the only girls. I figure we'll all get to know each other really well.

IPhone Pictures

Mike sent me some pictures that he had stored on his phone from the last few weeks. I can't seem to fix the formatting...no idea how it got this way, sorry. The first three are from a trip to the park. Kaia's hair is the best! The last two are from the State Fair. They have an exhibit there called "Little Farm Hands" where kids get aprons and John Deere hats and pretend to do farm like activites. Are we in Minnesota, or what?

Can You Believe It's September?

What a beautiful weekend! One of the warmest weekends all summer, and it's the middle of September. We even took out the pool (AKA the "kool" according to Kaia) for maybe the third time this year. The girls had such a good time splashing and playing. We tried puting the pool under the slide this time. Boy, that was fun! Kaia went down a zillion times. We'll definitely do that again! Halle was fearless as usual. She climbed in headfirst, splashed like mad, and kept trying to climb up the slippery slide over and over again. Seriously, that girl is trouble.

Here's another funny from the weekend. We went on a walk on Saturday. As we walked by a pond, Kaia said, "Mommy, look at those corn dogs!" They were cattails. And yes, they do look just like corn dogs. I suppose vegetables grow on plants, why can't corn dogs? What a world that would be....

Bad Hair Day

Halle woke up from her nap like this one day. I think it's the hair gel made from bananas and macaroni and cheese.

Digger!

We're getting neighbors! There is a house being built next door. Kaia and Alex got a kick out of watching the excavator dig the basement last week. A bunch of lots have been sold around us and are either being built on right now, or are very close. It won't be long before our street is filled. Very exciting!

Mini-Cassie

This is not the first time Halle has tried to put on shoes...hers, mine, Kaia's, Mike's. She works so hard at it! If you didn't already know, my sister, Cassie, is obsessed with shoes. I believe Halle may be headed down the same treacherous path...

I forgot to mention that I finally joined Facebook this weekend. If you're on there, find me. Wow is it overwhelming! There are people out there I haven't talked to in ages. It's fun to learn what everyone's doing. But mostly I want to keep in touch with my out of town friends and family. But, no worries, I will NOT neglect the blog. Blog, first, Facebook, second.

Labor Day Recap

We had a nice weekend at home. No visitors, no set plans, there were actually moments when I was bored. On Friday morning we all went to the State Fair, ate some cheese curds, huge bucket of chocolate chip cookies, and lots of milk. Our new tradition: go to Sweet Martha's Cookie Jar, pay $14 for a pail of cookies, then walk a few blocks to the All You Can Drink Milk barn, pay $1 for as much ice cold milk you can drink, then pig out. Mmmmmm. We also watched a magic show (lame), toured the "Little Farm Hands" exhibit (fun for Kaia), and went to the Miracle of Birth Center to see all the baby animals. We got to see a cow and calf just after giving birth. Kaia took a look at the cow's afterbirth and said "That one's bleeding, Daddy" but it didn't seem to bother her. Then Kaia and Mike watched a pig giving birth. Again, didn't seem to bother her, "Here comes another one, Daddy!". I guess it will be easier to explain where babies come from when she finally springs that question on us!

The rest of the weekend was spent golfing, garage sailing, playing The Newlywed game, playing at parks, bike riding, playing poker, watching movies, shopping, frisbee golfing, and waiting for the Hemmila baby to arrive. He/she is a week late already!

Here are some pictures of the girls during playtime. They are SO silly...must take after Mike...

Yup, she's sitting in the bin.

And apparently eating something very delicious from the cup...a malt perhaps?

Kaia reading to her Care Bear. She's been pretending A LOT lately. And she's been obsessed with Care Bears, we've got a collection started.

Hey Kaia, smile for the camera. Frrrnt!

Wednesday Update

This weekend, we took a family trip to Winona to spend some time with our friends down there. We had a really good time, minus the fact that Halle did not sleep well Saturday night. I was busy trying to catch up with everyone while chasing around the girls that I didn't take a single picture. Heather took some though, they're posted on her blog, The Bradbergs, the link is listed on the right.

I can't not post any pictures, so here are a few from a month ago when a few college friends came to visit. These are Sarah's girls. Bunch of cuties.

Halle and Olivia. Olivia is about 4 months older than Halle. Everytime I looked at her, I couldn't help but think, "this is exactly what Halle will look like in 4 months". The blonde hair, the chubby cheeks, and their personalities are similar too.

Grace and Kaia. The girls played so well together.