Science Museum

We headed out to the Science Museum for a morning when we were visiting Greg and Linka for Christmas. I knew that Peter was getting to the age that he would love it, and that Emi would probably like running around. That was a good guess.

 Peter is semi-interested in dinosaurs-- so he liked seeing the skeletons and knew what types about half of them were. He also liked seeing the different sizes that they were.

 Emelia like anything that made noise or that should could play with and the musical steps. I think she may have thought that WAS the museum...  And of course, she asked a lot of questions- what is it? Why is the light there? All sorts of things. There was also a tow for a barge on the roof that both kids like driving and pretending that they were driving to our house in Winona.

 At this point, I think they both enjoy the Children's museum a little more but this was a fun new place to explore with our museum pass! I would also like to try out the History Center up there, but I'm not sure if our pass includes it or not?

Christmas Lights-- Everywhere.

We saw the usual sets of lights- the Holiday Train (which was very very cold) and the Rotary Lights (which was nearly perfect weather). The nice thing about the Rotary lights is that you can pick which day you are going to go and try your best to find a warm-ish night.

 The kids loved  looking in Santa's house and seeing him in there and seeing the pen of reindeer outside. Peter especially liked this little line of penguins outside and they ducked under the ropes to join them.

Lainey's First Christmas

This wasn't Lainey's happiest day, she was working on a cold and some serious teeth; but we wanted to be sure to get a cute picture or two of her with the tree and the lights.Of course, Emi had to hop in for a picture and see what Lainey was doing with the lights.

Christmas Card

After quite a bit of thinking and planning I think we came up with the perfect Christmas card this year. We "waited" for the perfect snow-y day (meaning that we procrastinated and got lucky with a snowy day) and got a friend lined up and went to the lake path for some pictures. Of course, when we were done, all the kids wanted to do was play in the snow and on the swings!!

Babies and Planes

I took Lainey on her first plane ride to visit Kimberly and her new baby, Quinn this weekend. She was amazing on the plane, amazing at Kim's house and not so amazing the first time she saw the BABY getting a bottle. I would say she officially had her first TANTRUM! Crying, head back, roling on the floor. She LOVES bottles- I guess that is all that we can say about that...

We realized that each of the kid's first plane trips involved a trip to see Kimberly in some way.

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Grinch 1 and Grinch 2

Airport fun before the plane arrived

It was a great visit- time outside in the sun, time with good friends and time alone with Lainey. This trip made me feel that a trip alone with each kid, once a year, on a rotating basis, would be a fun thing to do- maybe not across the country- but a day or two to spend time and reconnect- something I would like to try and do.

trains and trees

We went for the first time to a tree farm to get our tree- until now, it had been the gas station, grocery store, garden center... but I think we have found "our spot". Wait and see why that is...

 A field to pick your own tree out of...

 Finding the perfect tree!

 Cutting it down...

 Then... Playing on trains! 

 Watch out Lainey! Pete and Emi are driving!

 Hot cider in the caboose

Three things about Emi

Since just turned three, I want share three things that stand out to me about her at this point.

1. She loves to be your buddy. She wants to go anywhere that anyone is going and offers all sorts of advice and suggestions while out and about. She tells jokes and laughs at your jokes. Emelia helps in so many ways with her sister and spends lots of time laying on the floor with her. She can make her laugh better than any of the rest of us can.

 2. Reading. She would read all day on her own and with you. She will walk away from the TV or playing together to find a book to read. She loves new stacks of books from the library and will spend an hour sitting with Peter looking through them together.

 3. She is becoming brave and is still independent. This works out better than being independent and nervous. She tries new things and after she is successful is so proud of herself! Things still need to be on her terms and her own idea... no chance of planting ideas in her head yet!

 (And she still loves that cat)

Como Park Day

We love going to the zoo throughout the fall and winter. In the summer and spring, it is so crowded that it is pretty much impassable- in the winter- no one is there and you have front row seats for all of the animals. Since it is cooler, many of the animals are more active as well. After we went to the zoo, I asked both of the big kids what their favorite part of the trip was. They both said, at different times, that sitting on the metal turtle, all together, was their favorite part. I'm glad that they enjoy eachother's company... but we saw and heard a lot of animals that day!

Night Riding

With the early nights and the darkness, we have worked hard to come up with ideas to make the nights go by faster.

Fall Biking

We spent a lot of fall biking- to the fountain park, at holzingers and all over town. Emi has gotten to be so fast on her scoot bike and Peter is just a whiz on his pedal bike of course. Peter at one point this fall biked 7 miles with me while I ran around the lakes. Lainey loves riding in the backpack with us as well.