Paul Bunyan Land

Back in August the girls and I took a trip to visit my parents. I will have to say that it was one crazy trip with to many kid activities.

My mom wanted to take all her grand kids to Paul Bunyan. All find and dandy but when there is only 1 adult and 5 kids, 3 being younger then 4, I thought someone needed to go with. Low and behold, it was not me. Thank goodness. I needed a break, so did EKW.

CMW to this day still does not like the 'big man'. That is Paul Bunyan. She says, 'he is scary'. When you first come into Paul Bunyan Land, your name is taken and Paul is a gigantic statue that welcomes you with this jolly lumberjack voice, stating your name. My mom commented that each time they walked passed him, she hung on to her for dear life. (I would have a picture but my camera taking the pictures did not come back with a Paul picture.)

From the looks of the pictures every one had a great time. CMW went on all the rides possible. Her Mawga P even had to get off the swinging ship do to sudden sickness from riding the 2nd time. Poor Mawga, but she certainly was a good sport about riding rides. And a bonus! This Mawga P. also went on the ferris wheel for CMW, due to a fear of heights she does not like to attempt rides such as these but like I said, she was a good sport.

Here' the troop, my sister the only one not available.

The Mawga P with CMW and cousin J.

I believer this picture is next to big Paul and CMW is covering her ears cause he is loud.

Now that September is here, hopefully i'll be back to posting more.

But I assume, like usual my sewing will take over. :-)

Meet the Pony!

Back in July, after vacation, we went to visit lexie's parents to celebrate her moms birthday. We also managed to fit in what CMW is been wanting to do but it just never gets done; to ride the pony!

So here she is. Meet Duck! She's the pony at my parents place, owned by the sister and husband.

CMW had a good time and I think once was enough but she would go again if given the chance.

And this is Cousin Z! Isn't the cowboy hat a good touch?!

A few of the kids watching the pony get saddled up.

After all the kids got a ride, my sister rode her for a little bit and boy did she get a ride of her life. I don't even know if she's ever had such an exciting ride before. We now know that pony can buck and rear like no other. My poor sister got the brunt of it too but now we also learned she needs a little more work before any younger person decides to try Duck out on their own.

How about you, have you had an interesting ride that includes a pony?

Vacation Fun !

We took a family vacation with Jim's family to the North Shore. All 13 of us stayed at one rental house up the shore in the middle of the woods for 6 days.

Jim, myself and the girls did some decent hiking even with the parks being closed,we enjoyed the sunshine, water, our time together and the extended family.

Cousin J and CMW at the zoo. While most of the adults went to see the Glensheen Mansion, the dads took these two to a kid friendly attraction.

EKW walking the shore

We visited Two Harbors and wanted to go see the pier/light house but there was construction and would not allow visitors. So we walked the water and picked rocks, watched the boats get loaded up and visited the train.

We went to Gooseberry and Temperance state parks and forgot our camera, so no photos there. But Jim did swim and participated in cliff jumping, CMW thought it was to chilly to swim. EKW and mom stayed out of the water.

We also spent an afternoon in WI, we went swimming and hiking. Here is one of the water falls. It was a nice park with a decent swimming beach and hike.

And one thing I enjoyed but would never advise anyone else to pay was the train ride from the historic depot/train museum. It took us to north Duluth and back. It was nice to just sit, watch and listen to the speaker but I would rather paid for the trip all the way to Two Harbors and actually get to see more of the lake.

We also hit up the Alpine slide at Spirit Mtn. on our way home. I would say, that's worth the price. CMW went with her mom and dad. The trip down was just as fun as the trip back up.

Among all this fun, we managed to squeeze in time to visit friends and it was So.Worth.It.

Next years vacation: TBA

Friday Fun at the Pool.

This was a long week, no dad (he was on a work trip), coming back from vacation sick and the weather was a bit to warm to spend a super long time outside, lets not mention those skeeters. So I got the idea, 'we'll go to the pool on Friday!' just to have some fun. I planed to arrive in the AM, and then run errands and get home for afternoon rest time. Wrong. The pools don't open until 1:00pm. I wish they opened sooner since I don't enjoy being out in the hot sun, let along needing to put gobs of sunscreen on. But I rolled with the change of plans and just swapped the schedule and it worked fine. CMW had a great time and so did littler sister. I have not ventured this route this summer since I knew it would be a little tricky watching CMW since she's a fish. And EKW, she likes to be free but you can't let a little one like her wander. She did do great though, we tried out the life jacket some and the the 1ft. pool as well. And thankfully it was not as hot as it has been. Now that we've been, I know i can manage both of them and we'll be planning a few more outings before they close up for the season.

Wish I had a few pictures to share but the camera was not in my possession!

Happy Weekend!

A little apron project !

I received this apron as a gift from my SIL for Christmas, it was such a simple (a kit), fun project, but I couldn't leave it simple. I had to make it a little more user friendly.

The changes I made:

- it's reversible by using a batik fabric from Indonesia, my girlfriend Krisanne sent me some time ago. I am excited to finally use it and feel its put to good use!

- the neck strap I attached using a D-ring so I don't have to tie it.

- I places the pockets at an angle instead of straight since I always seem to be uncomfortable when my hands are in the pockets of an apron.

And BONUS: what I love about this apron the most is it's super long ties!! It goes around and ties in the front leaving room to slip a towel in between the straps.

Some of you maybe know how you always loose your towel in the kitchen, right? Well this way, it always sticks with me. :-)

CMW trying on my apron & does not like pictures taken of her.

Here's me with the full few and my slanted pockets! :-)

Flowers and the Girls

A little of this and a little of that...

and mostly pictures for my family and friends who enjoy checking out our family!

EKW in the swing, she certainly does enjoy this activity, especially with her sister.

A white lily I transplanted 2 summers ago and finally came up. I was excited, these flower are just beautiful.

Celebrating Eleanore one more time with our good friends G & L!

These pink lilies (hard to tell here) I have been trying to grow on the north side of my house for 3 years and they have finally bloomed. Boy was I excited when I saw them this week one early morning!

CMW accessorizing EKW, she actually did very well! These girls just have some fun some days. :-)

And last but least, a goofy picture of CMW!

4th of July Fun!

We headed to the Waa cabin(s) for a little fun in the sun. It's a little complicated but we spent time at the cabin on Lake Sallie and we spent time at the 'work in progress' cabin on Silent Lake as well.

beach fun at lake sallie

We played on the beach, CMW went swimming with her dad and her mom. Eleanore enjoyed the waters edge even though she did venture into the water a little as well. And we had a little fun with fire works, and kid safe ones, like sliders and little snaps you throw on the ground and go 'snap'. Harmless besides the noise. :-)

Eleanore and cousin L @ Lake Sallie.

Climbing on the hearth, never a dull moment with her.

On the 4th we went to Erhard MN to celebrate the 4th with a parade and since the little place we perched at did not have anyone near, we made out on the candy. A little to much and I started to say 'no' half way through to candy givers.

A fun story coming from the parade includes a banana!

A float was giving out banana's and we of course receive one. All of the candy we were gathering we put in the front stroller seat along with the banana, well Eleanore could see there was something good coming from there and went to check it out. CMW did not approve of her interest in candy (either did this mama) in which she grabs the banana and say 'here Eleanore' and sends her off to her dad.

It was just a comical moment and Eleanore gladly accepted.

Eleanore, the banana and her daddy!

And last but not least a trip to Silent lake is never with out working, so Mr. Waa helped his dad out and I got the pleasure of watching the girls. Not so simple in a construction zone, but we made it out with no bumps or bruises. Eleanore did find everything imaginable, climbed on every latter, up unstable steps, step stools, piles of wood, the dust, and much more! CMW was ready to go home and was just content sitting in the swing sorting through the candy stash and waving at her dad has he went up and down on the fork lift putting in windows.

It was a warm, wonderful 4th and as a friend puts it 'this ones for the memory books'!