Start of Summer 2011

We're already into the third week of summer vacation and my-oh-my have we been busy! Some highlights:

-Mom & Baby class: Every Tuesday morning we have class through Prior Lake/Savage ECFE and I love it. I look forward to going every week because I enjoy spending time with the other moms and seeing Kellen interact with the other kids. Seeing him among his peers really reestablishes my desire to have him in a center. He just loves parallel playing and poking at the other babies, and he seems to have a crush on the teacher's aid as he's always crawling and cruising over to her to see what kind of fun stuff she's got going on. I took a similar class when Kellen was 6 weeks old through the hospital where I delivered Kellen, but this one is much more fun (probably because Kellen can now do more than nurse, sleep and poop). We have another class through Burnsville ECFE that starts in a couple weeks, along with a baby swim class that we're looking forward to.
Being part of these classes has kind of sparked an interest in ECFE, and I'm thinking of possibly getting my ECFE license in the future - since I already have my early childhood license, it would only be a few classes, and there ya go! I just really love the age that Kellen's at right now and think it would be fun to work with families who have young children. Also, this kind of job might allow me to go down to part time, which would be perfect for when we decide to start trying for baby #2. We shall see...

-My sister and two nephews were in town from Colorado, so we went down to Winona to see them for the weekend. Kellen had so much fun playing with his cousins, and they loved showing him all of their cool Star Wars toys - this was the first time they’ve met each other, so it was a big deal! We were also excited to learn that my oldest sister, Stephanie, is pregnant with her second child. She just found out yesterday that she is having a girl! She kept it private from everyone for quite a while because she had a miscarriage over the holidays this past year and wanted to make sure everything was fine before sharing the big news. This will be my mom’s 5th grandchild, so she is quite excited!

-MN Zoo Playdates: Kellen and I have already been to the zoo three times since getting our MN Zoo Membership. At the rate we're going, Kellen is going to be able to name all of the animals at the zoo by the end of the summer (j/k). Although, I heard last night that since the MN Zoo is a Government agency, they might close down because of this whole budget issue. If that happens, I am going to be ticked off and demand a refund!! I have a feeling this whole issue that Minnesota's gotten itself into will work itself out sooner than later (fingers crossed). Anywho, here are some pictures from our most recent trip with some buddies.

-Dan Patch Days: This past weekend was Savage's annual celebration, Dan Patch Days. I haven't been able to partake in these festivities since moving to Savage (last year I was pregnant and it was miserably hot outside so I didn't go, and the year before we drove down to St. Louis to watch the Twins play the Cardinals), so it was fun to finally see what it was all about. Kellen had fun just checking everyone out and playing on the grass while listening to music. He also witnessed his 1st parade! He had fun watching the floats pass by and laughing at mom and dad as we scrambled for candy.

He looks like he's about to cry, but he's just squinting :)

-Splash Pad Playdate: We recently met up with some work friends who also have young children at the Splash Pad in St. Louis Park. It was a blast hanging out with my buddies and catching up (even though its only been a few weeks since we last saw each other). Kellen was not a fan of the bubblers, however. In fact, he wasn't a fan of the water at all. I'm unsure if he was just overwhelmed by the newness of it all, considering he hasn't even been swimming yet, or if he was just hyper-clingy to his mama. Whatever it was, he was not happy to be sitting in the water. He was happy, however, stealing snacks from his little buddies. Here are some pictures from our fun day.



-We've got lots of home improvement plans for the summer. Aaron and his step brother Blake sprayed the ceiling of our 2nd bathroom the other night - man, that job is a messy one! We're still picking up pieces of popcorn ceiling! That was one of the final steps to FINALLY finishing that bathroom. We've replaced the toilet, added a new vanity and mirror, replaced the flooring, added trim, and now sprayed the ceiling. Just a few more finishing touches and we'll be done! Other plans: (1) landscaping (we've added another tree and are in the process of adding 5 new shrubs - our clay soil isn't being very friendly to our landscaping attempts so some of these new shrubs are going in the place of other shrubs that have passed on to plant heaven, AND I recently added some brick trim around the tree in the front, along with some perennials), (2) fixing our gutters (the current one sprays rainwater onto our wall and keeps messing up our nice paint job by our front door), (3) replacing our kitchen sink and faucet (this is well overdue), and (4) putting in a new bathroom fan (the current one doesn't work for crap, so every time we take a shower the steam makes the walls get little water streaks - such a pain in the behind). I'm hoping we can get all this done before I go back to work in late August, because once I go back to work I won't have the time or energy to put towards such jobs!

-Searching for daycares: We still haven't found a new daycare for Kellen. I've toured 3 centers in the Minnetonka area. One of them I am IN LOVE with, but it is SO EXPENSIVE (over twice what we payed for Kellen's home daycare). The other two I'm kind of "eh" about - I think Kellen would be perfectly happy there, but I don't like them as much as I liked the other one. I'm kind of thinking we might need to check a couple more out just to be sure we've covered all of our bases (even though I'm so sick of looking and doing tours), and then we'll probably have a decision made by the end of July. The only problem is that the one that I LOVE only has one opening, and I'm worried it won't be there by the time we make up our mind (if Aaron will even opt for it, considering how spendy it is).

A couple other tidbits:
-I'm really looking forward to a girls trip to WI Dells next weekend - it is going to be SO MUCH FUN and I'm so excited to get away with my buddies!
-I'm starting to think about the details for Kellen's 1st birthday party - it's becoming a much bigger deal to me than I thought it would, so I'm getting super excited about the planning piece of it. Pictures to come in about 1 1/2 months!