3 Years Old!!!

What a great weekend filled with family and tons of fun. Liesl turned 3 and we celebrated first at Auntie Alicia's cabin then on to Nana and Papa's. We are so lucky for so many things!

Swimming with Dad!

Our little fish is learning how to swim at the YMCA and she can actually move forward kicking now. That may not seem like much but we are so proud.

We are now confident that we can go on a boundary waters trip with Liesl. She is one heck of a paddler!

Feeding the chipmunks and squirrels at the cabin is one of the most exciting activities. At one point the squirrel nibbled Nana's finger and Liesl spent the rest of the weekend yelling at him everytime he came near.

This is the first time Liesl has ever roasted marshmallows and needless to say she loved them!

It is pretty great how we get to do fireworks for Liesl's birthday every year. What a great time for a birthday.

Yes there is a giant spider inside of that necklace!

It is real but this one is dead.

Liesl has a wonderful balance of princess and bug lover.

So, I have mentioned Liesl's love of bugs before, right. Well, for Liesl's birthday present Auntie Alicia found a bug holder necklace, this spider happens to be not living anymore but she had a live one in the bug holder for a couple of hours.

Once again Nana has pulled off a cake made to order. Here is Liesl's robin icecream cake as requested.

Our friends Erin and Esmae came over for popcorn and a movie for Liesl's birthday night. What fun hanging with the girls.

Auntie Karen sent a new raincoat for the birthday girl. As always our Florida family did not disappoint and sent the cutest Disney raincoat ever. Liesl wore it for the rest of the present opening. Thank you to everyone who made Liesl's 3rd birthday so very special.

Grandma's Marathon Weekend Fun!

I decided to post this photo first even though it is the finishing photo of the marathon. Dave did very well in the marathon this year especially considering the heat (it was miserable even for the spectators). After this photo was taken he showered and headed off to Alpine Valley to see his favorite band, Phish, in concert. Auntie Laurie ran the whole thing this year too but Liesl was napping at Jude's house when she was finishing so I did not get photos of her. You will have to check her blog for thos photos.

Happy mothers of the Whippersnapper racers, Liesl and Jude. Can you believe there is a photo of Laurie and I on a blog? That never happens!

There she goes! She got a ribbon and a bottle of water and some yummy snacks as a prize, it was super fun and Liesl has been asking to run in another race ever since.

Here we are at Jude's house on the morning of the marathon watching the racers from across the bay and cheering. Then we had a hearty breakfast of homemade power bars to get ready for watching the rest of the festivities and races.

Here is the runners' biggest fan. She sat there for over 1/2 an hour just clapping and cheering while we waited for Dave to arrive. Enjoy the following video of Dave at mile 25.5, looking great!

Fairy Girl with a Pill Bug (so perfect)

Hanging out in our beautiful fairy-like yard with our little fairy princess Liesl, digging for worms and bugs. Liesl can now tell the difference between millipedes and centipedes (I can't but she can!).

So, here she is once again with a bug in the bucket. This bug was particularly big and scary (in my opinion) Liesl dug this giant beetle up and promptly stuck it in my face saying "Look Mom!"enthusiastically. Now the bug was a little to close to my face and I proceeded to scream (it was really big) I scared Liesl and she started crying! I felt so bad. She loves bugs so much. So I then tried really hard to explain that I was just suprised and that it was indeed a lovely bug. We kept it in the jar all day just admiring it's largeness and creepiness and loveliness.

This photo is in here for Alicia and Heather. I don't know which one of you bought this interesting skirt, but in the bins of beautiful clothing that we have been handed down, this is the one item that she imediately needed to wear. She danced around all afternoon in this ensemble.

Happy Mother's Day to every Mama!

Beauty Queens!

Liesl loves to dig in my purse to find special lip glosses or lip stick. Liesl is very good at putting make-up on other people. Putting it on herself is a little more challenging.

The river is rushing now. We love to take walks down to the park.

Here is one crazy skiier who was hiking up the ski hill and then zooming down and gliding across the pond. He made it across every time (that we saw anyhow).

Another snowy day at the park.

Amanda and Cal were visiting and Amanda needed to stop by Amazing Grace to see if the scones were as good as she remembered!

Liesl got all dressed up for Jude and Rory's Birthday party and had to dance around for the camera. It was a really big deal because Dave had to work and I had my final curling game (we won yessss!) and we couldn't go. So auntie Laurie and family picked up Liesl and took her up to Virginia for the big bash all by herself! We heard all about it but you will have to check the other blogs for photos of the party.

Helping dad with the construction.

Yippy it worked. These forts are soooooo cool and easy to make and it all packs into a bag. I highly recommend this particular toy. We love to bring it outside to make forts in the summer too. (thanks karen and family for the gift you see it is still being used)

Yoga takes loads of concentration.

Fun with Cousin Cal

Amanda, Cal, Liesl and I took a nice long walk today and it was glorious. I think it may have been 55 degrees and super sloppy and wonderful! We went to Olcott Park to play and swing. We had some fun with the color settings on Manda's camera too.

We found a worm! Alive and huge, Liesl named "him" Cathy. We brought Cathy back to Nana and Papa's house so that they could all meet and then Cathy went to sleep in Papa's garden.

Cal's first time on a swing!!

Cal and Liesl are riding the bus courtesy of bus driver (puller) Nana.

Fairy kisses, Be Mine!

Valentine Kisses from Liesl.

Today she is a woodland fairy and yesterday she was Minnie Mouse (I always have to be Mickey).

Electrifying!

Winter in Minnesota. Time to turn up the humidifier a few notches eh!

You can be bob the builder too!

Auntie Amanda brought Liesl a hard hat and goggles to go with her tool set. I think the hat is particularly lovely on Amanda.

Girlfriends are neat!

Last week was super cold -50 wind chill and school was even cancelled. This was the perfect reason to call Isla and Erin to come over since Erin is a school teacher we were thrilled to call them up on a Friday morning and have them to tea. Erin reads a story to our little Princess Liesl and little Princess Isla.

Liesl and Isla showed us some amazing dance moves and gorgeous dresses.

Tea and fairy cakes time! We so enjoyed having tea together (moms got coffee). The girls are getting so good at pretending and playing that Erin and I actually had some adult conversation instead of refereeing the girls.

So the girls don't only play dress up and drink tea. Another day, this time at the Pep's house, the girls had a great game of hockey in the basement! It is so fun to have girlfriends.

Silent Night - a la Liesl and green monkey

Liesl loves to sing. She learned Silent Night as well as many other holiday songs. We have tried to capture them on tape and here is a pretty good one but you might have to crank the volume. Enjoy!

Fashion Show!!

We travelled out to PA for New Year's celebrating and to spend some time with Dave's family. I forgot the camera so I have to get photos from other people. However these hats were a gift from Dave's Mom. She knows I have a love for all things vintage or antique. These hats are hand made by one of Liesl's great great great aunts (I think, maybe great grandmother, I better find out). So she decided she wanted to have a fashion show. Some of these photos I am floored at how much she resembles my childhood photos!

Snow and more snow!

Liesl is loving her new skiis (they have frosty on them). We "skiied" up and down the block a couple of times the other night.

Dave gave us matching aprons. Don't we look the picture of domesticity!!!

If you turn your back on the mixer with whipped cream in it this is what you find!

Halloween is so fun with these little ones all around! We had a little gathering of friends who don't get many trick or treaters. We got around 150 again this year. Liesl was a witch this year. She tried out the broom and the rake and settled on the bike for witchy transportation! We had a great time peeking out the windows, screaming TRICK OR TREATERS!!!!!, and just hanging out. Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Guts!

Liesl has loved this book from the moment she could see past her nose. She chose our pumpkin faces by picking out of the book.

Pumpkin guts are truly endless fun. Liesl was pretending that the guts were worms (she pretends everything is a worm). So our pumpkin guts worm would go to work in the pumpkin and go grocery shopping in the other pumpkin etc.... She is developing an amazing imagination and pretend plays all the time.

These are a little spooky. I was monkeying around with the twilight setting. Getting a 2 year old to hold still long enough to let the picture capture is really hard. These were the best ones.

More harvest fun!!!

These photos are a from a harvest festival held down at the bayfront. The kids had a great time checking out the chickens and the kites. Isla, Jude and Liesl all had a great day. (these are a little late in posting but at least it is still harvest time!)

Here we are in the yard raking round 1. We will have to do this at least 3 more times this fall. We have a beautiful yard with tons of trees, and our neighbors have tons of trees. We also have hedges that happen to trap all of our leaves and our neighbors leaves in our yard. So we have endless amounts of fun jumping in the monsterous piles.

Ooh La la!

Liesl has a book called Fancy Nancy, those of you with little girls probably have heard of her. So Liesl loves to wear dresses no matter what. Thank goodness the layered look is so "in" right now. She has been quoting Fancy Nancy lately one of her favorite lines is "Ooooh La La my family is posh!" another is "Whats that word again, oh yes, accessories" Now when Dave asked her if I was posh the answer was a big ol noooooo!

More Autumn Bliss!

Liesl and I went on the vista cruise earlier this fall and I just got to posting those photos. We had a glorious trip around the bay and saw the giant windmill parts that are being shipped all over the world. You would be amazed at how huge these things are up close, and they were not even put together! We really are slowly evolving toward helping our children and grandchildren live healthy and safe lives. Wind baby wind - Sun baby Sun!

Baby Esmae and Liesl are little birds in a nest of pine needles and leaves!

Just hanging in the yard. Some friends came over to play and rake with us this weekend. We had a lovely lunch and hike and of course picked more apples!!