The impromptu smores event

As Emma and I celebrated at the princess party, Evan and Tim were at home doing guy stuff. They were driving around in their John Deere toys (Tim on the mower, Evan in his beloved gator) and hauling stuff. They picked up weeds in the garden, picked up sticks, and started a fire to burn stuff. Of course, a fire to little kids always means smores and this evening did not disappoint. When Emma and I got home, the marshmallow bag was half empty and Evan was a happy little dude.   It was a beautiful night for a campfire, so Emma and I put on warmer clothes, grabbed a blanket and headed outside.



The little fairy enjoys smores.




Evan told me that per Papa, the S on his shirt stands for Little Squirt.




Yup, Sage was there too.





Testing out a new setting on my camera.  Pretty cool, I think.



The Surprise Princess

Emma was invited to a Princess Party this past week to celebrate with two of her friends (among others) that are moving away in a few weeks.  The invitation said to come dressed in your best princess dress and to expect some fun princess related things AND a special surprise visitor.  Emma was very excited about this party as she loves dressing up and socializing. So - this promised two of her favorite things.   She decided that she wanted to dress up as Tinker Bell and I did a little crown of braids in her hair and we were off.

We arrived at the party just in time to see the arrival of the surprise visitor: Ariel, who come straight from the castle at Disney World!   Ariel first did some face painting for the girls and came prepared with many different princess drawings and special glitter for their faces.




Emma wanted to be a fairy, just like Tinker Belle.


Ariel then read her story to the girls and brought along the music for her story, just the same that is in the movie. Ariel actually had a beautiful voice in person as she did in the movie. 



Then, her favorite part - more princess dress up! The fairy godmother let Ariel bring along a big trunk filled with princess supplies - wings, magic wands, and crowns!




Practicing her wave and smiles.  She blew a kiss to me as she walked by!



Then, Princess Jasmine was nice enough to lend Ariel her magic carpet so the girls could walk down a red carpet and wave to all the adoring Moms with cameras!

The ladies getting ready to walk the red magic carpet.

Finally, it was craft time where the girls got to decorate their own crown.  Ariel then left to head back to the castle and the girls ran and played outside.

A group shot of all the princesses with Ariel.

Emma had a fantastic time and had fun meeting Ariel and playing with the little girls.  What a great idea for a little girl party and a great way to send off some friends as they explore a new country for a few years. 

The Children's Museum

Yea for fun, fabulous Fridays! 

Today we went to the Children's Museum in St. Paul! I had been wanting to do this all summer. The only time I have been there was when Emma was like a year old - so we were long overdue. Plus, Curious George was there and had a special exhibit, so it was a good time to go before school started.

Packed with 6 kids (as the Kellogg family came along as well) and water bottles, and snacks, and a double stroller, and happy fun attitudes, we drove to St. Paul.

First - second floor (cannot remember the name) where they have the mini grocery store, post office, doctors office, restaurant, and a bunch of pint-size exhibits for the kiddos to touch, explore, and play with. The kids ran from one to another and had a ball.  Then, they made pictures out of fish stamps, which was another hit.  Then... the biggest excitement of all - the water room!  A room filled with tons of water exhibits to play with, splash with, and explore.  This, by far was Evan's favorite room.  He played in this one section with the ping pong balls, water tubs, and piping for a long time. Then, had a fit when we left to eat lunch.  I cannot say if Emma had a favorite room or not. She seemed to enjoy running from one to another with her cousins.

 The next rooms were enjoyed as well. The Curious George exhibit was fun and had a building section with foam blocks and an elevator of sorts that the kids would use to lift the blocks up and watch them fall down. There was a golfing section, grocery store, light station, and slide.  The Science Museum has an art garden that had a painting pond, sand box, musical station, and many, many plants that overlooked St. Paul.  There was one room, which I will call the ant room, that had big tunnels for the kiddos to crawl in.

Overall - a huge success!  Huge. Everyone had a great time (even the babies) and then you throw in McDonalds for lunch and a trip to CandyLand for a snack and this could be one of the best days ever!



Dr. Evan. Paging Dr. Evan.




Three pretty cute monkeys.




Happy with not a care in the world.




A pretty cute little turtle.




The turtle was a big hit.



And - with faces all done up. We had a tiger, camo boy, Kaylee, and hearts.



Candy Land!  Yummy big suckers and great popcorn!



Introducing the Heuer & Kellogg Musical Hour! (a blue screen background to make a music video.)

Procrastination at it's finest form

What is it with summer? Is it the 90+ heat and the wonderfully long days that make me forget about school? Is it that my daughter is out of school and we are keeping both kids up way past normal bedtime to play outside and help in the garden?  Maybe it is the late runs or the trips to St. Paul to run stairs that is doing me in.  Whatever it is that is taking my focus off of school, needs to go away and let me focus again on my studies.....   (sigh)....

So, my whole goal for this summer was to take a break from going to class and to study up and take a waiver exam so I can pass out of one of my classes.  I had really good intentions the beginning of the summer.  I found a past edition book on Amazon, downloaded the current edition power point slides, took a few chapter quizzes on line, and tried. I really did.  Then... summer happened.  The late night laughter, the drippy ice cream cones on the front steps, the impromptu runs through our sprinklers, and the baths in the laundry room to clean little feet of dirt.  The feeling of "I am going to blog tonight and relax"  -or- "I have to watch Dallas" (which - I totally LOVE that show and am sad the season just ended!)  and then I fall asleep content in the fact that I had a nice relaxing evening and did not jam my head with managerial accounting terms and math problems.

Now - fast forward to August 8....  I realize I only have 4 weeks until school starts and I have done nothing.  The guilt sets in that I have wasted another summer (yup, did this last year too!) by not studying and I decide to force myself to do it.  So, I sign up for the waiver test for like August 31 to have a hard, strict deadline.

And - what am I doing?  Blogging and watching Friends. Yup... I can see where this is going.

A fair is a wonderful smorgasbord

Ah! The Washington County Fair! The kids love it, I like it, Tim puts up with it :-)  The kids get so excited when we drive past to see the trucks rolling in and the rides and stands going up.  We always go once a year and try to do it on a weeknight, as we find it to be less busy and more tolerable.

Thursday evening was the big Heuer night at the fair!  After work, we had a quick snack and heading over to the fair.  After spending way too much money on ride tickets, the kids quickly did the "I want to do that one"  "where is the roller coaster?"  "How about the ferris wheel?"  and we started to make our way through the endless rides, games, and food vendors.  For Evan it is still all about the little cars, tractors, and motorcycles that go in circles and allow him to honk the horn. For Emma now, it is the tilt-a-whirl (my favorite!!) the little roller coasters, and the beginning spinning rides.  With the ticket package we bought, they each got to go on roughly 8 rides and that seemed to only take 5 minutes!  Then... the food.

As mentioned a few sentences back, we had a small snack before we headed there, so the food was a bit more tame this year.  It started with a shared twist malt for the kids, a yummy Cuban chicken taco for me, a glass of fresh lemonade, cheese curds, kettle corn, and mini donuts. Yup, that was tame for us.

I always think the fair is fun and the kids absolutely love it. I was hoping that we would run into one of Emma's little school friends, but we didn't. Emma didn't seem too disappointed as she was constantly on a ride, eating some food, or excitedly running ahead.

The day at the farm

As it had been awhile since our last visit to the farm, the kids and I made our way there today to check out the exciting happenings on the farm.  First and foremost - to check out the progress on Mom & Dad's new house.  They are building a new one on the farm after living in the many-times-over remodeled farmhouse since they were married.  To put it in perspective, the living room in the old farmhouse was the original log cabin that the Brunner ancestors built when they moved here from Austria.. so, only about 110 years ago or so...  So - much deserved to retire the old one and build a new one.  I have heard so much about this house, that it was time we drove down to see the progress - AND - to celebrate my niece's birthday as Kristen and the brood were coming down as well.  A very fun trip!

We were only at the farm maybe 10 minutes when Evan decided he wanted to walk to see the house.  We all piled on the wonderful gator and took off down the road, only 1/8 mile maybe, to see the house.  With any construction project comes the expected nails in the dirt, building supplies all over, and the best thing of all - piles of dirt.  I remember when I was a kid and Mom and Dad were putting on the last edition to the old farmhouse (a master bedroom, second bath, and nice basement) and the construction dudes dug huge piles of dirt for the basement.  We played with those dirt piles a lot - primarily dirt fights with our cousins and races to the top to see who was the king of the mountain.  So, who could blame us when we saw the new dirt piles when we wanted to climb to the top.  Kristen and I started the madness (with me beating her to the top and winning the gold medal) and the littles followed suit.



Here they are climbing, sliding, and rolling.  Evan was found doing sand angels as well.  It was a fun time.




Even Charley got in on the fun. While someone had to help him climb to the top, he slid all the way down on his own.




Kate wasn't really all about the dirt.  She wanted to be held.



The three ladies at the top.



Evan had no interest in walking through the house. All he wanted was to throw and play in the dirt.



 As you can imagine, after the rolling and sliding in the dirt the kids were dirty!  The next move? Heading down to Bear Creek to rinse off!  We piled in the gator and made the trip to the creek (pronounced crick, in case you were wondering :-)  )



All piled in the gator.



 The water was ice cold, but it felt good on our hot, sandy feet. We made this trip to Bear Creek twice today!  Once in the afternoon when Papa could join us as well.  The girls enjoyed walking up and down and Evan enjoyed throwing rocks.



Chilling in the back of the gator.



 The rest of the day was spent having a rest time, eating at the yummy Drive-In in Durand, birthday cake & ice cream, and playing outside.  For Evan though, no trip to the farm is complete without helping Papa feed the calves.

Standing at the milk replacer station while Papa feeds the silage.



Stirring the milk replacer to Papa's exact instructions.... or to whatever Evan thinks is best for the baby cows.





Emma and Kaylee came to the barn for a bit as well.




Moo



A good night for some t-ball

Tonight was an outside night.  After eating supper and doing the dishes, we headed outdoors to find some red tomatoes, kill some beetles on the raspberries, and play. 

Emma and I went for a nice bike ride. Tim and Evan played catch and then the family played t-ball.  It was a wonderful night.

Tales from the fourth of July

We had a great week off for the fourth of July.  I posted a few pics already of the kids swimming, deep swimming, and enjoying a relaxing weekend up there.  The things I haven't commented on yet was the weekend after the fourth of July holiday when Kim, Andrew, Kristen, and her brood came up.  Emma and Evan always love it when their cousins come up as they splash, swim, snack, and laugh their way through the weekend.  Everyone made it up by Friday night and the noise at the cabin was instantly increased tenfold!  Kristen and I went for a quick run during movie time and what would be right before bedtime.  However, we were warm after the run and thought it would be fun to go late night swimming!  The kids agreed and raced to go and get their suits on and be the first ones in the lake in the dark.  It was probably around 9pm, maybe a bit early, when we headed there and the water felt like bath water!  It was so nice outside and for the kids it was so unexpected, so it was a nice surprise.  Unfortunately the mosquito's thought it was a nice surprise and wanted to join in on the party as well.  So we weren't out for long, but the kids definitely talked about it after!

Then, the next day it was in the water again.  If you remember, it was like 90 to 100 degrees and a perfect time to be in the lake.  Deciding to shake it up a bit, I thought it would be fun to start an annual fourth of July boat race.  The kids picked teams (Andrew and Kyra were the captains) and they got to pick their teammates, their inflatable boat, and their oars.  They all were so excited during this part.  Andrew picked Evan and Kaylee for his team and Kyra and Emma were on a team by themselves.   Kristen and I tried to wrangle the kids in the boats, tell them what to do, shout directions, and I pushed them out past the dock to start the race.  With a jolly count down, they were off.  At first, it was fun!  The kids were laughing and competing and trying to be the first one team to the beach.  Then, as Kyra and Emma kept rowing in circles and Andrew's team made it to the beach, there were some hurt feeling and tears.  "She wasn't doing it right" "I've never rowed before!"  "It's not fair!"  were some of the things we heard.  But, we tried it again.  Andrew, Kaylee, and Evan were so excited they won and were anxious to go. Kyra and Emma were a bit more hesitant.  We tried it again with the same results.  Unfortunately what I thought would be a fun little race, dissolved into something else.  Maybe we will try it again next year.... but, I am not so sure.

And finally, the next big event for the weekend?  Fireworks!  The Heuer clan went to a little ole' firework shop in Webster, spent too much time and money there (Tim loves fireworks and they have too many cute little ones for kids to resist) and brought the lot back to the cabin.  This was all Emma and Evan could talk about.  So on the Saturday night after the 4th, we started early so we could catch the parachutes, see the flames, and let the kids help a bit with the bottle rockets.

All the kids chipped in to help light the bottle rockets.  Evan absolutely LOVED this.



A picture of the kiddo's together. The best one I could get.




The box o' goodies...




Emma helps to light the pink elephant she had to have :-)





Another must buy according to the kids because "Papa drives tractors!"




Everyone enjoying the show.




A favorite picture of mine... all eyes up towards the sky!



The Heuer Produce Stand

I am so excited and happy with our garden this year.  Past years our garden has been slightly neglected.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  Past years our garden has been very neglected, but fortunately we still got a fair amount of produce.  However because of the domination of weeds, Tim had gone to extreme measures to clear the weeds... aka.. has used weed killers such as round-up instead of using good ole' hands and hoes.  This year, not the case.  We are reaching a point where the Heuer kiddo's can entertain themselves for roughly 20 minutes at a time (some days better, some days worse) and this enables Tim and me to weed the garden.  Sometimes the kids help weed (especially if enticed with $1 allowance to help), sometimes they run through the rows and play hide-n-seek, sometimes they drive the weeds away in their gator. Either way, I get roughly 20 minutes each night at least to weed the garden.  I now find this to be relaxing and rewarding instead of a constant chore.  Probably because this year my garden rocks and I am proud of it.

My tomatoes are taller than me, my newly planted strawberries are looking great, and I added a small bunch of rhubarb as well to enjoy next year.


Not perfect, still some weeds, but it still rocks.




The harvest from this evening.

Evan has now been nicknamed "the tomato whisperer".  Maybe it is because of his size and ability to see low in the plants, but he is able to find all the red tomatoes in the rows.  And, he loves doing this.

The kiddo's happy with their discoveries.



My pretty sunflowers.

So, nightly, we make our way to the garden.  I pull some weeds, the kids grab buckets and find tomatoes or green beans and then run off to play.  Now we know to keep all of our produce up high or guarded.  The first three tomatoes Evan found were eaten by Sage.

Whistle while you work...

Or sing while you bike.

The kids love going for bike rides.  Emma always leads the way, Evan goes next, and I follow the crew to make sure everyone is being safe.  We have a cul-de-sac that isn't even a quarter of a mile away that we bike to quite a bit.  Around and around and around we go....

I thought it was funny tonight as both kids were singing as they were going around the circle:

Emma was singing what she said was a Justin Bieber song - something about "Kiss me, Kiss Me" then, Miss Me or something like that. I had not heard it before and Emma really only knew a few words. 

Evan decided to sing his favorite Larry song from Veggie Tales:
"God is bigger than the boogie man, he is bigger than Godzilla or the Monsters on TV-Oh- God is bigger than the boogie man, and he is watching out for you and me."

Yup, Justin Bieber and Larry the Cucumber - nice picks to sing while biking.  I just had to laugh.

Emma's secret

Emma and I went on a bike ride tonight.  I normally let her lead, as at times she can still be a bit unsteady and I like to know she is being safe, but this time she wanted to ride along side of me.  It is normally very nice to get outside, chat with her about things, and get some exercise for both of us.

Tonight, as we were riding down the road to where we think her little friend Jack lives, she says to me "Mom, I have a secret!"  Yup, I take the bait and proceed to chat with her about this "secret".

Me:  "Oh yeah?! What is your secret?"
Emma: She sighs, glances sideways at me with a bemused look on her face "I think Jack has a crush on me."
Me: acting surprised "Oh really? Why do you think that?"
Emma: Big smile "I just think he does."
Me: "Well, I kind of think you have a crush on him too!"
Emma - acting embarrassed and surprised: "MOM!"

And then she started to say how she thinks she is probably too young to have a crush on a boy and for Jack to have a crush on her, (with another sigh too).  So, I told her that I remember who I had a crush on when I was in kindergarten, which made her laugh and ask about that.

It was a fun little conversation.