Hooray! Max is 3 today!

11-23-11

If there is one thing to pull me out of blogging retirement, it's my baby's birthday that does the trick! My Maxwell turned 3 today! 3 years ago I met him on the outside for the first time. What an amazing thing! Now he has been here for 3 whole years! I am a proud mama!

Max at three: potty trained this past week, right in time for his big day. Still loves to play cars, LOVES his stuffed puppy dogs, thinks his sister is okay, sleeps in a toddler bed (about 10-12 hrs), goes to ECFE( alphabet zoo and numbers, too with mom) on Tuesday's, took a sports class and thought soccer was great, still squeezes into his cozy coupe, likes play dough and painting. He has run 3 races and will "run" his first 5k tomorrow! He is a pretty good eater, is 39" by mom's calculations, and close to 40 lbs. He is shy around new people and "revs" his engine instead of talking to them. He loves to pretend his is a race car or a puppy/kitty. He loves his bedtime books. He knows his colors and shapes. He can count to 12 most times and can recognize numbers to 10. And he continues to have great curly blonde hair! So much more to him...

Today we, as a family, went to the original pancake house for his favorite breakfast food.. pancakes! Then, Max, Grace and mom headed to the Maple Grove community center to swim while dad headed to work. I am happy to say everyone had fun and it wasn't as bad as my preconceived notions lead me to believe!! On the drive home Max says to me. "mom, i'm happy i'm three, are you happy?" Then we came home for a special cupcake with a #3 candle to blow out. Grace had great timing and took a 4 hour nap and I got to spend some quality time with my favorite little man. We played outside most of the time. Colored and he helped me clean the floors for his birthday party on Friday. He is a great helper with the swifter and cleaning toilets! Gracie woke up about 3:15, she ate and nana Mary came to hang out with the little one so mom and dad could take Max to the movie theater to see the Muppet movie that came out today! He liked it! We liked it! Then we headed to my mom's to retrieve the little one and Max got some birthday presents! It was an all around great day with so much to be insanely grateful for. A wonderful feeling heading into Thanksgiving! We are blessed!

Have a Terrific turkey day!

Our garden 2011

-This year we grew strawberries, cucumbers and sugar snap peas in the circles by the house. The cukes have been plentiful!

We have had a great crop of raspberries. Our best year yet! Thanks to my friend, Nancy from work! And even our blueberries produced a handful!

In the main garden we had/have carrots, lettuce, cantaloupe, watermelon, magic purple beans( thanks again to Nancy), mini pumpkins, broccoli, tomatoes ( best tasting ones I've ever eaten!), squash that I never produced, giant pumpkins that never produced, a few pepper plants, spearmint and peppermint and basil!





We have never taken advantage of eating this much out of the garden! Lots of fresh salads, cucumber waters with fresh mint, I froze a few meals worth if beans tonight and we are going to can some tomato sauce tomorrow! For the first time we even have both melons producing! They both have a bit bigger than softball sized fruit right now!



The really exciting part is that I brought my mini pumpkins and ome purple beans to the MN stare fair this year! I am not sure what happened with the beans ( i dropped them off but Robb said he didn't see them there today when we went with work) but



my pumpkins took FIRST place! I am pretty excited! Thanks to Jen who told me and my mom for sending me some pictures!

The pirates of the Whitefish chain!

Circa July 2011


- what started out as a fun idea turned into a reality for these three boys! The imagination of my husband and his dad grew into a pirate ship...


With flags that we sewed out of old t-shirts....costumes compliments of my amazing mother-in-law's handiwork! They even hand swords and eye patches!






A treasure map that the boys followed ( and Robb got poison sumac from hiding the flags) and a hidden treasure. Candies, monies and cars!





Aarrrrrr! Matey!

Elm creek swimming lake

We have been here a hand full of times this summer. We load up the "buggy" our burley and bike up to the beach.


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It's especially fun when we pack a picnic and play at the newly remodeled park!

Max and his puppies

-This is my son Max! These are his puppy friends ( all 15 of them!) and two kitties!

They are his best friends and constant companions!

From R to L: Mitty, Mitty kitty, Bulldoggy, Blue ( from blues clues), Pink Dots, Blue Dots, Buster, Bella, Clifford ( aka Cliffy), Blu, Lucky, Bogie, the Christmas pooch, Taco, Cody, Brownie, and I am not sure the Ty beanie has a name!

He is happiest when they are all in his bed with him! You can find him having them talk to one another, give puppy smooches or lick us!

My sweet boy!

August recap 2011

I have so much to recap. After the fun wedding and family time in Hayward we came home. Our kids now strongly dislike any time in car beyond going to Target, 3 minutes away!

That next week we finished up swim lessons! Our final night I got to Jaskson pool and realized I didn't have my suit just Max's and Robb's. So, I called Robb and asked him to bring it( he was home with the sleeping Gracie). When he got there he surprised me with only bringing my top piece! Decisions had to be made.... So, in we go, ten minutes late, with me in my top piece and Robb's bottoms! Hot stuff, I tell ya! Can not tell you how embarrassing that was. However, I got got through it and just hope to not see any of our swim friends again!

The second weekend we had a Headlee ( Robb's moms side) family reunion in Pequot! We just drove up for the day. It was at Robb's uncle Dans house. I am so glad we went. There was a great turn out and it was so nice to spend time with all his cousins and aunts and uncles. Robb's grandma was not able to make it to the party. Too much effort to get her there and then i think she falls asleep if over stimulated! And she probably would have been with the 11 brothers and sisters and their families all there!

The third week, the kids and I had a fun day with my friend from work Jen and her two adorable kiddos! We went to the St. Louis Park splash pad and park. It was great, fun to see her out of work and my kids were exhausted afterward! Then, Thursday I meet up with my cousin Katie and her two kids for a fun day at the zoo!

Did I mention that this was also the week when we found out our Volvo wagon was dying? The battery drained twice during that week and the fuel pump was leaking. So, on the 20th we got a new car! A Subaru Outback! I will be the one to drive it! Hoping to keep it nice. We went with it on the recommendation of the Goodyear station manager. He said they have great resale value, don't break down too much and are pretty fuel efficient!



We still are search for a name for it!

The 3rd weekend, well we bought the car, then headed to the westmoreland birthday party. This years theme was carnival! I helped run a booth that the kids used a sling shot to shot at numbers hanging down for a sting! Both kids got goodie bags and a tie dyed shirt! The special treat instead of cakes was three kinds of homemade ( of course!) ice cream sandwiches! They even had cotton candy! Huge hit with Max!


After that party we had the Dalbec annual luau! First one in the new house. I really enjoyed it!

This past week we have celebrated my mom's 54th birthday! Happy birthday, nana! She had 3 cakes at work and brought one over to share with us! Then next night we all went out to eat at the Olive Garden! I thought we were brave to go out to eat with the kid!


This weekend we will finish up all the loose ends because I start back to work on wednesday! I hope to post about the state fair and our fun upcoming play dates!

Book Family Hayward time

Following Mat and Sarah's wedding we woke up and drove to Hayward, Wisconsin. The trip took us about 7 hours with a few stops in there. We pulled into hayward in time for Robb to hit the links with my dad and uncle Dan. I finished the voyage to the cabin with a littel fuss yet safely. By now the natives were getting restless and I can't say I blame them.

My uncle Bob, my dad's eldest brother, has this magnificent cabin on Teale Lake. We all gather there every August and every other Christmas. I have been fortuntate to be apart of it most years. This year we had 42 family member in attendence. We go to a fish fry on friday nights. The crowd gets pretty rowdy and the fish is always good! Saturday we mingle, catch up with everyone, some play golf, some go into town. I ran one last errand before "hosting" a baby shower for my cousin's Dave and Lisa who are about to welcome their Son Clayton to this world. I had a lot of fun organizing the shower and I think they got some pretty cool stuff!

This is Lisa, Uncle Bob and Dave. Clayton, too!

Hayward 2011

Wish I had a family picture of all of us and some of the shower, but alas, I was too busy to get some pcitures! So glad we got to spoil Lisa and Clayton. Can not wait to meet the little man!