summer is on its way

I don't know what it was about Monday morning, but the sky seemed more blue, the sun seemed brighter and even though it was still sweatshirt weather, I felt my first taste of summer bliss. We took a family walk to Lake Harriet and it dawned on me that if we are going to go anywhere this summer, we had better squeeze in our trips before the doctors say I can't go anywhere before delivering baby #2.

So I've been in summer road trip planning mode this week. They have to be short trips, they have to be fairly close to the cities and they have to be relatively inexpensive. Any suggestions? Favorite small towns? Favorite state parks? Favorite one or two night destinations?

ladybug cupcakes

On Friday, Annika and I got together to frost Mara's cupcakes. Mara had found a picture in a kids cookbook of ladybugs. Aren't they cute?!!

I helped lead the games at each girls birthday party, and tapped into my inner camp counselor...big time. It was super fun, super comical and super exhausting. This first game was like a cake walk, except the numbers were scattered. When the music stopped everyone stepped on a number, we pulled a number from a hat, and the person on that number got a starburst. That's a winner of a game. Easy and active.

And what is a birthday party without the fishing game?!! The fishing poles were loaded on the otherside of the sheet with a gummy worm and sent back over. Yum and Fun.

Each party was a little different, as Mara's party had eleven kids around age 7 and Sonna's party had ten kids around age 5. Very different attention spans! :) But between the two, we also played Birthday Blanket Name Drop, Birthday Tag, Sonna Says, Duck Duck Grey Duck, Pin the Cloud on the Rainbow, Balance Beam (with a book and an umbrella), Birthday Tag, Stone Stone and at both parties a spontaneous dance party was held shortly after the cupcakes had been consumed, thanks to the sugar high.

rainbow cupcakes

Well, I think we can all agree it was just a matter of time. I finally made the rainbow cupcakes. This weekend was filled with birthday celebrations and cupcakes as Mara had her party on Saturday and Sonna had her party on Sunday.  So I gave the rainbow cupcakes a go, with a sweet request from Sonna to make them like the rainbow cake, but just with tiny cupcakes. They turned out splendidly.

This blog post was sponsored in part by Red Dye #40: Nothing Natural About It.

we never got out a christmas card, so...

...from our family to yours.

Little Little Mama

Ivar at 18 months (He’s one and a half!)

Ivar likes the L sound. We sing Allelu Allelu Allelu all the time. He has started saying a very exaggerated “he-LOW, hello” And yesterday in the car he kept repeating, “Lil lil Mama, Lil lil Mama” And it made me feel good, because this mama is feeling anything but little lately.

Ivar likes to lift up the cushion on the glider rocker and hide his trucks and balls there. So when I go in to read him books before bed, I often feel like I have just laid a few eggs. Sometimes I try to ignore the fact that there is a truck under me, but that’s a hard one to ignore.

I wagged my finger at Ivar telling him no, and now Ivar wags his finger back at me, telling me no.

He loves trucks, tractors, trains, cars and airplanes. We have a Richard Scarry book and he will only settle on four of the pages, the ones that have proper vehicles pictured.

When we are greeted at the door at church, the greeters will always try to talk to Ivar. And Ivar never says hello. He just buzzes his lips and points to the parking lot as if to say, “that’s our car and I love our car, and on the way here we saw all sorts of thrilling vehicles going fast on 494.”

Ivar’s words: ball, bottle, nana (banana), mama, dado, toonsie, kitty, bow wow, bapa, papa, mimi, meow, cheese, mo! (more), baby,  nigh nigh, nose, e’s (ears) tee (teeth), peas (please), am (ham), uh oh, no, esss! (yes), boon (balloon), Onna (sonna), nack (snack), fishy, wada bottle (water bottle), baththththth (bath), neigh, E-man! (Amen!)...

Ivar knows when a conversation needs to end. If he thinks we're talking to long to another person he will smile sweetly, wave and say, "Bah Bye. Bah Bye." He tried this at the doctor today when he was sick of being poked. He also pulls it out when we're talking to friends after church, people we meet while out for a walk, or anyone who seems to slow his pace of life...

So with that, I had better sign off. Bah Bye.