Tae Kwon Do

After Evan was able to break a board with his hand trying out Tae Kwon Do, we had to sign him up for trial classes. So far, he has loved them! He has a smile on his face the entire time!

The Twin's Game

Tim received Twin's tickets from work, so off we went last Friday night to the game. We played against the Kansas City Royals and had a great time. We kept the kids occupied with food and with the promise of fireworks after the game.

Egg Dy-ing

36 eggs done in less than an hour. I should have bought more! The kids really got into it this year. They tried to tie-dye eggs, polka dot eggs, 3 tone eggs, tattoo eggs, you name it. It was fun and colorful!

Easter fun!

The kids loved Easter.  They both declared it their favorite holiday. As with any holiday, both kids got nervous about the dog that lives with us, who is capable to hunt and harm a bunny.  Their resolution??  Lock Sage in her kennel around noon, give her bones and treats and toys and don't let her out until after they found their eggs and baskets.

While it was a busy weekend with an Easter Egg Hunt, a birthday party, a dinner party and church, we had a GREAT time.

We celebrated with brunch at the Kellogg's after our hunt.  Then - we had another hunt!  Luckily the weather was beautiful and we could be outside!

Crazy Hair Day

Evan wanted to get ready for crazy hair day tonight after bath...

He spiked it himself.

Gulp...

Well - you know it has been a long time since the last post when google doesn't recognize the address when typed it.

Wow....  over a month...

And I can honestly say, it was okay.  I have to let go of some guilt and updating the blog is a good one to get away from.   Not that I want to stop sharing stories with my few, dedicated readers, but honestly -- we are getting too busy.  My class is incredibly busy this semester and I don't seem to find as much time to work out lately, so the blog has to be pushed.  And.. I am okay with that.  The Heuer's are settling in, the kids are getting older, and honestly it isn't a huge priority now.

Sorry guys.

But - we are all good.  No worries there. The kids are thriving, keeping me on my toes, and are loving life.   Tim and I are doing great.

So - is this the end?  I cannot say for sure.  Maybe if I can squeeze out an extra 30 minutes of my day I will find some time for a few pics, but then again, maybe not.

Keep on, keeping on.....

I leave you with a few pics of my Hawaii trip - which was Legend- wait for it- dary.  It was great and warm and beautiful with yummy food.  All needed for a fabulous trip.

Good times

Well... at least someone still enjoys the snow.  (do I start every post lately with a comment on the weather? It feels that way!)  Anyway - as beautiful as the snow is, I am ready for spring.  But the kids are STILL loving it. Especially because this winter has been a doozy for them with cold & snow days off from school. This past Friday (2/21) Emma woke up to the news of no school.  Her comment?  " I just KNEW that we wouldn't have school again!"  Yup, this little lady is starting to expect it now :-)

So Emma and Evan stayed home with Tim while I ventured into work.  It is a good thing that I now have a very short commute as the roads were bad, even in the small little town of Lake Elmo.  The kids colored, watched TV, played cars, wrote stories, and basically enjoyed another free day from school.

That night the three of them headed to the cabin while I stayed at home and enjoyed a girls night out with friends.  It was a night of reminiscing about Croatia, eating good food, and enjoying company other than our children's for a bit.

Saturday, I headed up to the cabin to join them.  Luckily I was able to hitch a ride up with my sister-n-law Jill, so I didn't have to drive on the roads by myself. Also this way, the Heuer house didn't have 2 cars at the cabin.

We drove up to the cabin where it was like this:  (pretty beautiful, I think)

Deep, deep snow with large piles of it everywhere!!  Because we had too much on the roof of the cabin, Tim  & Dad spent much of the weekend doing this:

Looks life fun, right?

Tim - I think you missed a spot.

Probably telling me "no more smart comments"

While Tim was doing that, the kids were doing this:

SLEDDING!!  We have a really good hill for sledding at the cabin and the kids took advantage of it! They were out there numerous times during the weekend.  Their cousins Brandon & Jordyn were up also and took in the fun!

Evan and Brandon

Jordyn and Emma

The 4-man Bobsled team

The big hill 

At the bottom

I think the kids were out there 5 times this past weekend.  Once after supper around 7pm to do "night sledding".  Although Evan was scared that a bear was going to get him.

We also enjoyed a wild turkey supper up there with Tim's family, visited, and just relaxed.

Other than the bad roads, this past weekend was a really good one!

Our Annual Trip to Wisconsin Dells

Oh what excitement this trip brings! The kids were bouncing off the walls the whole week before we left for our trip to the Dells. "Mom - when is the trip?"  "Mom - when do we leave?"  "Mom - how many days are we staying there?"   Yup - the annual trip with my parents, my sisters, and their family.  We rent a big condo with 5 bedrooms, full kitchen, 5 bathrooms, 2 full living rooms, game room, washer/dryer, etc.  It is fun.  If you are 7 and 5 years of age, I don't think there is anything better.

We left last Saturday morning around 8:30 to stop at McDonald's for breakfast per a request from the 5 year old.  From there - we made the long trek to the Dells.  We got there a little after noon, waited a few minutes for family and room keys, unpacked, and made it to the waterpark around 2pm.  We stayed at Kalahari for the second year in a row and the kids had their bucket list of things to do while we were there. Both of my kiddo's were pretty brave this year and both enjoyed a few more rides, including the big hit: The Master Blaster.  Emma got up the nerve right away to try it.  It took Evan to the second day and after much discussion and many "No's" at first, eventually he said "Well, I supposed I could TRY the Master Blaster"  and he seemed to enjoy it.

As always the adults hit up the Outlet Malls that are right by, we spent many hours in the waterpark, and Evan even enjoyed a bit of their theme park and played miniature golf and a ropes course.  I have to admit, it is nice as the kids get older and they can run up the slides to wait in line and I just wait at the bottom for them if I don't feel like going.  There isn't as much stress to keep the constant eye on them and they are having so much fun!

This trip is definitely a Christmas gift that is LOVED by our family and we look forward to it every year.  No pictures this year, but you get the idea :-)

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day isn't normally a huge deal for the Heuer household.  However as the kids get older and have parties in school, it is hard not to get wrapped up in the excitement.

Emma gave out Despicable Me valentines in school and had a "lunch in the classroom" event that I was able to attend.  She wanted Subway, so I brought in a few subs, beverages, and chips for us to dine on while she laughed and giggled with all of her friends.  Then, the class did a presentation on the 7 continents for the visitors. It was a lovely way to spend my lunch hour.

Here are a few pics from the event:

Emma was the narrator for the 7 continents presentation.

The whole class view

Tim attended Evan's preschool conference this day as well and received a glowing report on Evan. His teacher feels as though he is more than prepared for kindergarten and will start teaching him small words and better sounding out techniques so he can start reading.  I am not sure how interested he is in reading thus far, but we will see.

Valentine's night was pizza, sushi, and fondue!  A random assortment yes, but they covered requests from everyone in the house.  Evan and Emma wanted Little Caesar's Pizza and breadsticks. Tim and I got Sushi and then we ended the night with chocolate fondue with strawberries, pound cake, and shortbread for dipping. It was fabulous!

Plus, what was even more fun was that I bought Tim a card and some yummy homemade chocolate truffles from a chocolatier in Hudson.  He got me nothing. (which, we normally don't do gifts and cards on Valentine's day so it isn't a big deal)  BUT - I still had fun playing the victim on this one!

We had a great night.  The kids loved the parties and fondue and really liked the family time.

Let it Snow

Yup... more snow... more winter... and more polar vortex coming up.  Lovely.  While I am a fan of winter, this one packed a doozy.

The kids still love to see the white falling down and had to go outside to build snowmen when both got home from school.  They didn't last long - they made a small snowman, came in for carrots and such for body parts and decided they wanted to stay in.  The snow is up to Evan's shoulders in some parts of the lawn and Emma's chest, which makes the walking hard for them.

This just makes my soon-to-be Hawaii trip even more alluring.  (like Hawaii isn't alluring enough :-) )

Responsible

We got a nice note from Evan's pre-school teacher a few days ago saying that he had been nominated to represent the word Responsibility at school.  She said that Evan exemplifies what this word means and is incredibly responsible in the classroom. He is always doing as he as asked and is a good role model to the other students!

Of course, Tim and I are very proud of our responsible little boy.  (He is in the K line, second in from the left)

Apparently this award gets your school picture up on the wall and lunch or snack with the principal!  I love seeing this stuff come home from the teachers.  For both Evan and Emma we get great feedback on their performance in school and their behavior while there.  So, even though I am constantly stressing about it, Tim and I must be doing something right!

Some Mom and Me Time

Looks yummy, doesn't it?

Emma got a "Just Mom and Me Book" for Christmas and ever since she first paged through it, she wanted to do the Spa Day.  The book had several recipes for at-home treatments a little lady could do with her Mom and the one in the picture above is the banana-honey mask.  (and it appears that we should have mashed the banana up a bit more)  Basically, you mix banana with honey.  That is it.  Rub it on your face and let it dry. Then wash it off and put on some moisturizer.  It definitely tightened up my face a bit and Emma had a great time. (Evan thought it was hilarious as well)

The next one we plan on trying is the natural exfoliatent:   Baby Oil and brown sugar.

More pictures to come after we try that one!

Going to the cabin

All packed with his entourage and ready to go...

Blurry, yes,  but I had to take the pic. He packed this all on his own.  His penguin Peep Peep, his duck Duckie, and Baby Bear from Croatia.

What the kids do on cold days

Wowza...

Can you say too many days off of school?  So far, with holidays included as well, Emma has had 8 days off from school in January.  5 days for the cold, 2 holidays (New Years and MLK) and one random Friday off before MLK day.

So, suffice it to say that the kids are going stir-crazy.  We have been mixing it up a bit between Tim staying home, myself staying home, and occasional days to Theresa's.  But still.. stir crazy.

I was at work on Monday and Tim was home.  I came home to this:

Anything for a buck, right?    The kids were so excited about their art sale and Tim mentioned that they had been working on it all afternoon. So, of course, I bit...

Just in case you didn't know... there is an art sale

Mom!  Reminder - we are having an art sale.
(and yes - this is punk Emma.  I told her the hat looked cute on her and now she wears it constantly)

And I get to the top of the stairs and see a line... for the art sale.  It made me laugh.  Then - they were pretty adamant that I had to stay RIGHT there.  So, I looked a bit closer at the line of stuffed animals waiting to get into the art sale.

Each stuffed animal had money laying on them... you know... for the admission to go into the art sale.

Evan had raided his piggy bank to put money on each animal.  And then because Evan had his money out, Emma told him that he had to pay admission to get into his own room to see his own art work.  And because Evan adores Emma, he paid her.

Then.... Tim told Emma to give the money back.

And then, I was finally allowed to continue to the art sale. But was told I was in the wrong line and I had to go into my bedroom to the end of the line.

When I walked in, I saw this.....

One large "stuffed" animal waiting to go into the art sale.  I laughed hysterically.

I have to admit - this was pretty creative.   It was fun to see their minds at work with this one while on a day off.  They were not just sitting in front of the TV or playing on the iPad,.

So - I went into the art sale and bought a piece of art from both of them.  Evan drew the Grave Digger Monster Truck and Emma did a portrait of me.

So sweet!