Visit to Madison

First day of summer, time to squeeze in as much as we can into one day! Kimberly was visiting with Quinn from Arizona, so we met up with them in the morning and then stopped into Matt's house for Jack's birthday.
Emelia asked Kim about 100 questions about Quinn. What does he eat. Does he like crackers, pineapple, lemonade, cheese. Does he talk? Walk? What does he do? Does he like me? Does he like Peter? Why does he? Does he like Lainey?  Over and over and over. She also made sure that she got to be the one holding her hand and showing her things at the zoo. We are lucky to have a good friend like that!

Group Photo

Riding on their own in the zoo train

Blowing kisses and laughing

The aftermath. 30 seconds after we started to drive

Finishing off the night with a fun Birthday celebration! 

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.

Happy Halloween!

 As usual, we had all sorts of Halloween Fun in Winona. Including, but not limited to:

 Halloween party with friends! Pinatas, bobbing for apple and Emi eating as many Cuties as possible were the highlights of that night.

 "Real Halloween"
This was the best I'm sure for Peter since he got to wear his train costume. He wasn't able to walk very quickly in it, so for the first time in Emi's life- she was able to outrun him. He was so sad that she was getting to all of the doorbells first... but the extra treats put into his smoke stack made up for it. I also wasn't going to dress up or dress Lainey up, but saw the Cinderella/Gus costume and I just couldn't resist!

 Emi was obviously so so so happy to be a cat. She just loved it.

 We decorated Mike and Julie's driveway with a Halloween train.

 Halloween at the library and the haunted stacks!

 Trick or treating with friends at SMU. These are the best two pictures I have of the group... Our entire group was friends of ours. This was the best thing ever! So fun for the kids to know everyone and for the parents to have friends to talk to. We love our "tribe" here in Winona.

Happy Birthday to Emelia!

We had a busy busy birthday weekend for Emelia- lots of visitors, trips to the pumpking patch and to the river and then a small party with some good friends and family!

Little Biker Gang

Now that school has started and the kids are going to more daycare this year than in the past, we haven't had as much time to play with friends- especially during the day- but we did sneak in a picnic over MEA with Julia, Claire and Evan- oh and Shana - at the fountain park. It was a rainy cold morning and I was sure we were going to have to eat at our house- but then the sun came out and we were set to go!

This was what Peter spent the entire time doing- riding his bike on the ledge around the planter.

Always time for some snuggles!

Look out Winona!