The Splatter Sisters

Today we saw The Splatter Sisters live at Nicollet Commons Park. The video in the link was a good indicator of what it was like, but then place the concert at an outside water park. There are tons of kids' bands here in Minnesota. And they really do get the kids going! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the band, as once we stopped playing in the water and really sat down to watch them, Morgan got Cranky (capital C for a reason). We had to head home :(

On another note, I was allowed to watch Tessa's swim lessons today (Thursdays are the days parents can watch) and she is such a little fish. I can't believe what a difference three weeks of swim lessons make. One more to go before we are finished with swim lessons for the summer!

And, on to a few countdowns:

8 days until Nate's mom and Steve come visit! Yea for visitors. Can't wait to show them around Minnesota. (Tessa really, really wants to take them to the Mall of America, or to her, the big mall). Anyone else want to come for a visit? I'd recommend coming during the warmer weather! It's beautiful now!

16 days until I come home to OH for a visit! I bought our plane tickets on Monday to come home for three weeks! So excited to see everyone and celebrate Christine's wedding luncheon and Cortny's baby shower. Fun stuff!

This Week in Pictures

Alright, I will try to be brief as this post will cover lots of random events. We discovered a pretty cool new splash park/playground. I am totally overwhelmed and impressed with the park system here. Not just every suburb, but every single neighborhood has a playground. From our house, I have a playground about 4 houses away. There are two others that I could easily walk to. There are also splash parks everywhere. Kind of surprising considering it is quite cold for a large portion of the year, but my kids have loved seeing all of them!

Our newest find is called Kelley Park. I'm going to give it a B overall. The splash park was great, and the kids loved that it was also part playground. But...there were a lot of stairs. A lot. And Morgan is still a bit hazardous on the stairs, hence the B. Will we go back? Probably, but only when with Daddy and we have two adults.

Tessa got some new clothes with my Gymbucks (and Morgan too, though all of his are for next summer). Tessa loved these bows for her hair.
They also discovered that our neighbor a few doors down has some rocks. Lots of them. And they are fun to play in. Enough said. Put Morgan outside in our backyard and he immediately makes a beeline for the front yard and saunters down a few houses to these. We really need a fence...
This photo so clearly demonstrates Tessa's view on sharing with her little brother. I don't think I need to explain.
More pictures from Kelley Park splash park.
Morgan loved these two fountains. He especially liked being inside them.
And once we finished playing in the water, we moved right on to the playground.

And swim lessons have still been awesome. Tessa is now in her third week of daily lessons and has improved so much. Yesterday at the end of class she showed me how she could jump in, put her face in and swim to the wall (about 8 feet) all by herself. So proud of my little fish. Speaking of fish, her lessons are at a school on a street called Fish Point Road. I think it's kind of cute...

Tessa's doll (named Anna) also got a new bathing suit as a little bribe from Grandma after the really rough first day of lessons. Now Anna gets dressed for swim lessons too!
And last but not least, Tessa helped me make cupcakes the other morning while Morgan napped and he was really excited about the cupcakes. I think this is the first cake he's ever eaten. He really showed no interest on his first birthday.
So it's been a good week/week and a half here. Swim lessons are going great. Soccer is going well. Morgan is mobile as ever and the weather is nice. And tonight, should our third trip to the Apple store in 10 days go well, my Ipad should be up and running (apparently you need the updated system for your MAC to install the upgraded ITunes, which involved another visit to the Apple store). I'm making Nate go this time :)

Soccer Stud

Where have we been? Computerless. It has been miserable. Out computer has been flickering for awhile now and since Nate ordered an IPad for me for my birthday, I thought I'd take the computer in to see if it could be fixed. And it could, but they needed it for 5-7 days. I braved the Mall of America by myself with both kids, waited FOREVER while an Apple Genius diagnosed the problem, and have been waiting ever since. Turns out 5-7 days actually means business days. Who knew? Thankfully, they finally called today, on business day #8 mind you, to say that it was ready. And no charge. Bonus! (It had been to the Kenwood Apple store about a year ago for a repair and apparently this issue was related and thus free. Boo ya!

On another note, Tessa started YMCA soccer last weekend. I am the coach. Three year old soccer is pretty entertaining. My skills we focused on last week pretty much were which way we were going and not to touch the ball with their hands. This week we are going to work on dribbling.

I think she likes Mommy being the coach. What do you think?

I'll be posting a lot in the next couple days, as I have a lot of pictures from the past 10 days.

Take Three and Four

I am soooo glad we stuck with swim lessons. The first two days were a bit rough, but yesterday and today were good. Really good. And I am so impressed with the school district, who the lessons are through. The classes had between 4-6 kids apiece depending on age and ability. But Tessa was not having it. And her class of four kids had two instructors. And one of them just became her instructor. It has helped so much. Tessa is comfortable with Whitney now and today actually asked me if she could go to swim lessons every day from now on. It is very important to me that both of them learn to swim on their own, for safety purposes mostly. But hey, I LOVE to swim. So my kids better prepare on spending lots of time in the summer at the pool. And I don't want to be worrying about them constantly. So swimmers they must be! Today was the 4th day of lessons and parents were allowed up on the observation deck for the entire lesson. Tessa did great! She got in right away, kicked on her front, floated on her front and back, jumped in (a lot), and even swam around without Whitney's hands if she had the noodle.

The session we are signed up for lasts for two weeks and I already talked to the woman who runs the program today to see if we could get Tessa in Whitney's class again if we sign up for the next two-week session. She said that could probably be arranged, as she has seen the drastic transformation over the past four days. I'll leave you with a Tessa quote from right before bed last night.

Mommy: Tessa, I'm really proud of how well you did at swim lessons today. You had fun today, didn't you?

Tessa: It was a little bit fun (smiling).

Mommy: I'm glad. Night night. (turn off light as I'm about to leave her room).

Tessa: Mommy?

Mommy: Yes.

Tessa: It was a little bit scary too. But I did a good job. (Swooning with pride over herself).

Mommy: Yes, you did. Love you.

Hopefully we can have a similar experience with preschool in the coming months...

30

Thirty was...well, uneventful. Didn't really do much to celebrate. I know, shame on us. My loving husband did order me an IPad, which we've both been kind of drooling over. Currently, it is in Hong Kong, though I am looking forward to its arrival.

Tessa had her first swim lesson on Monday (without me in the water) and boy was it traumatic. There were probably 100 kids there in the pool and mine was the only one screaming for mommy, throwing a fit, refusing to get in, etc. I posted about the predicament on Facebook and was given the suggestion of tough love by several - basically just leaving her. Which I ended up doing. I had a nice chat with the instructor and just said, "She is going to cry, but I am okay with it unless you really need me." And I left. I peeked in after about 7 minutes and she was still crying for me, but was at least in the water. After about 15 minutes, she wasn't crying anymore. I'll say it was a mini-success. As a bribe, I promised a McDonald's lunch if she got in the water and tried. She did.

The above picture was taken the first day before we went back to the pool. Below was the first day after they led her to where her class met. She was terrified!
And Morgan, well, he is busy as ever. He has such a happy disposition, which is a welcome change from the baby Tessa was. He rarely cries and is full of adventure (which hopefully will not ever lead to losing him in a public place. He is known to wander).


I got the basketball hoop/slide/soccer goal out from the garage this morning and set it up in the basement for the kids. It was a hit with Morgan. He shot hoops for a good hour. Bliss!

There is a big festival this weekend called the Aquatennial, which is a water related festival at a lake near downtown. There is a giant sandcastle competition, among other activities and contests. We are definitely planning to head there on Sunday and perhaps we'll enjoy a dinner out as well to really celebrate 30 in style!

What Not to Wear

I have never considered myself to be a fashion plate nor a guinea pig for new fads and trends when it comes to clothes and shoes. But...I at least try to match. And when I found out I was having a little girl four years ago, I thought surely I was going to parade her around in adorable dresses and matching outfits from Gymboree. And she certainly has these things, yet chooses not to wear them. I know, I know...I should appreciate her individuality and let her choose her own clothes. But it is so frustrating when she wears the same three outfits (usually dresses) over and over or dresses herself like the picture below when she has tons of adorable clothes.

Regardless, I love her and her individuality. Just wish she would actually wear all (or even most) of the cute clothes I buy for her. At least most of them were purchased last year on the cheap, but still...

I ran into another mom at the Lifetime pool last week when Tessa was wearing an outfit similar to the one above. Her daughter looked equally matchless, and even sported rain boots in 90 degree heat. We had a nice laugh at their matching sense and she shared her business idea: a sticker that she could slap on her daughter every day that simply says, "I dressed myself." Genius!

Happy Fourth!

We didn't see any fireworks this year. Or go to any fancy parades. Just had a casual, calm fourth of July at home. In fact, I think we were all asleep before the fireworks would have even began. Morgan enjoyed a popsicle. I still can't get over how big he is getting!

And Tessa did sparklers for the first time. I think she was pretty scared of them to be honest. Look at her face in the second picture. Cracks me up!

As for me, I've been trying to keep busy. We went to the zoo yesterday and I attended my first MOPS book club this morning to discuss "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." All the ladies bring their kids while we discuss the book. It was a fun time. There was a little girl there named Grace that Tessa played with for a little while outside on the swingset and I think she had a good time. Morgan was a bit cranky, though I guess that is what happens when you're up at 5 a.m. with no nap until 11. Anyone have any tips on getting my kids to sleep later? They are still morning birds, unfortunately....