Minnetonka Apple Orchard

The kids and I met up with friends Emily, John, and their almost 1 y.o. daughter Abby for an afternoon at the apple orchard. I LOVE the fall, but we haven't ever really done an official trip to the apple orchard, so I was glad we had a chance to do it this past weekend. There was a ton for Madeline to do, and lots of cute photo ops with the kiddos.

At one point, Emily and I were chatting away and she stops and was wondering "where is Madeline?" I had seen her duck into this little house but didn't really worry about it. So, when Emily asked, I knew I had to get her. She was in the chicken coop!! I'm a terrible mom.

Valley Fair Day

Every 2 years, my company rents out Valley Fair (a mid-sized local amusement park) just for the employees and our families. We went with friends Abby (who works with Nathan at Cargill) and John, and their 2 kids, Amanda and Dean. The kids get along so well and are about the same age, so they all had so much fun together. And the weather was absolutely beautiful - ~85F and it's almost October!

We didn't know how Madeline would do on all of the rides because we haven't really done anything like this with her, but she absolutely loved all of them. Well, actually, the Frog Hopper wasn't a hit. I think that may be attributed to my COMPLETELY TRAUMATIC experience on the Power Tower 4 years ago when I was a week pregnant with Madeline (and obviously didn't know it). So, it's in her blood to hate rides like that.

Joke is on Daddy

Poor Nathan. A year or so ago, I taught Madeline to knock incessantly on the bathroom door when Nathan was in there. It drives him absolutely crazy. And now Henry is in on it.

1983 called....

Not too long after Henry was born, Nathan and Uncle Erik huddled together and searched for the perfect nickname for our newborn son. It didn’t take long for them to congratulate themselves on the perfect nickname….. HE-MAN!!! Now that Henry is nearing his first birthday, Nathan has decided that Henry is going to have a Masters of the Universe birthday party, and he’s been bidding like crazy on eBay for He-Man memorabilia. He is so excited about this lot of figurines and we already have the He-man cake pan at home! Wish me luck… How am I going to frost that cake?

Madeline Update

Lots of funny comments from her lately:

1) At the grocery store to a teenage boy with long hair: “Mommy, is that a boy or a girl?”
2) During the same trip about a man in huge overalls: “Mommy, he lives on the farm.”
3) When being questioned about her ouchie: “I am not going to talk about it.”
4) Clarifying Mommy’s ‘It’s not a big deal’ comment: “It’s not a big deal, Mommy, but it’s a little deal, right?”

She is really into jumping these days – over Nathan’s legs, off the stairs, down the hallway. Not sure what that is about. And she is still working on writing her name.


Henry Update

He cut his 4th tooth last week, so he has two on top and two on the bottom. He’s been pulling himself up to standing for awhile, but now he’s starting to let go and balance himself. He’s also been starting to try to climb things – like trying to get up on the couch or climbing into baskets. And, finally, we can get him to boogie. He has two signature moves – the head roll from side to side and the hip wiggle. Both pretty cute, but my favorite is the first because he’s got an enormous head and it looks like it’s so much work for him to deliberately move it.

Pictures!

We got pictures taken with a photographer that my friend Emily found. We had used her back in May for Madeline's 3 year and Henry's 6 month photos, and loved the pictures, so it was an easy decision to hire her again. The goal this time was Henry's 9 month photos (a bit late), but tried to grab some pics of Madeline and our whole family while we were at it. The family pics didn't make the highlights, so I doubt there was one that turned out well. (Henry was squirmy and Madeline stuck out her tongue the entire time!)

Here is the linkto some of the pictures.
<http://jlphotographybyjoey.typepad.com/blog/2008/09/mr-h-miss-m.html>

Summer is over :(

Well, you are probably checking in on us to see what fun we had over Labor Day weekend, so we'll fill you in on our simple but fun weekend. We swam, we ran through sprinklers, we walked around. We climbed the maze, we jumped into balls. We laughed, we cried, and we scolded Madeline when she was rough with Henry (see exhibits A and B below). We made some enchiladas, baked a pizza, and ate some "Old McDonalds." We weeded, cleaned the house, made some messes, and tried to clean them up. We watched Madeline put together big girl puzzles, play computer games, and write out her name for the first time -- all by herself. (Mommy teared up with pride to realize that her little girl is actually writing her name!!! and Daddy laughed at Mommy.) We bought Mommy's favorite childhood book (The Monster at the End of this Book ... featuring Grover -- those were the days before Elmo even existed), and read it over and over again to Madeline, who loved it just as much as Mommy does. We watched Henry bounce his ball, resist all forms of baby food, and stuff his face with big boy food. We comforted poor Henry as 2 new teeth popped through. We watched the movie Michael Clayton, and actually thought it was decent enough.



All in all, it was a quiet weekend but we enjoyed the time together as a family. It's sad to realize it's September already and summer is over, but, then again, Nathan is ready for football season. Hope you all enjoyed your 3-day weekend as well!