supper can wait

Have I mentioned lately how much Parker LOVES being outside?! This boy can't get enough of the sunshine & fresh air...which is a joy for Clay & me (most of the time!).

Yesterday, we went to the pool & the park; when we got inside that evening, Parker with the big grin on his face was chanting, "owshide, owshide, owshide." What does a mother do? Dinner was prepared & placed on his tray, drinks & silverware were set out...

...supper waited :)

random scribblings about our day

Went to the gym at 8:30am for a wake-up workout...it woke me up...
Ate a salad topped with turkey, cheese, tomatoes, bacon bits, & other good stuff for lunch...
...then completely wiped out the healthy lunch with pizza at Cici's for dinner.
Wanted to bathe Parker before we left Cici's...how can a little boy stuff so much pizza in his mouth at one time anyway??
Had a fun movie night last night with Clay complete with coke & popcorn...watched one of our favorites: "Shooter" with Mark Walberg
Loving counting to 3 so we can hear Parker reply, "Teeeee" after we say, "One, two..." It makes us so happy!
Visited with a girlfriend for a few minutes today...Cristie, let me know about the park tomorrow! :)
Am working on a cute mini album as a gift for someone special...don't you wonder who it is?!
Need new running shoes...badly!
In the mood to dust my house right now, but afraid I won't be able to go to sleep afterwards if I do!
Washed my one load of laundry today
Wishing that we could have made my Great-aunt Vivian's 100th birthday party today with the rest of the family!
So excited for 2 of my best girlfriends who are expecting & am praying for them every day!!!
Target today: milk, oj, bread, grapes, stouffers lasagna, lettuce, cheese, yogurt, pretzels (Parker loves those pretzel sticks!!!), frozen mixed veggies (P loves these as well!), frozen pizza for a lazy meal day...& that was my list!
Not wanting Clay to leave tomorrow
Wondering if Parker might be coming down with a cold...let's pray he's not!
Loving Parker's 18 month pics that we picked up today
is it supposed to rain tomorrow?
time to go to bed? yup.

Children's Museum in St Paul

This morning, Clay, Parker & I left out with Bella & Michelle to head to the Children's Museum in St. Paul. What a fun morning!!! (I don't know which was more fun...watching Parker mesmorized by everything & having fun playing with all the new stuff or checking out Clay as he played with the "inventions" & excitedly showed each kid that came up to his area how to work the toy machines. My husband really gets into this kind of stuff!) :)

Bella & Parker loved playing in the waterworks area. At this particular station, you could place plastic balls inside different parts of the tube & the balls would shoot through the tubes & come out one of the ends.

Loving those presh pigtails, Bella girl!
Parker's sweet & curious expressions were priceless throughout the morning.
Here, he was a construction worker. There were about 12 different jobs for the kids to do at this 2 story station. Parker's favorite job was loading the blocks on the belt & turning the wheel so that the blocks would fall into a bucket (soon to be whisked away by another worker to start at another station!)

The kids enjoyed storytime with Clifford!

My favorite room was one that the kids could literally run around in by themselves with hardly any supervision. This room was filled with different outdoor adventures, such as "the prairie land," "the Bluff Caves," "the Pond," "the Forest" (which was the one Parker was playing at in the picture!) and several others. Everything in the room is kid friendly!!! The forest was a winter wonderland with ice blocks for the kids to build with. (and what a gorgeous view of a part of the downtown area out this window!)

The Children's Museum was such a fun, educational experience for the kids today!! Both Bella & Parker fell asleep as soon as we left the parking garage! They had obviously worked so hard at their play today! :)

If you are in the Minnesota region, the Children's museum is free every 3rd Sunday of the month! What a fun outing to treat your kids to! We'll definitely be going back for more fun soon!

Almond Asparagus

I wanted to share one of my favorite vegetable dishes. It's so easy to do & also extremely yummy! :) The recipe came from myrecipes.com and they got it from the March 2002 Southern Living magazine. After cooking this side numerous times with dinners, I have slightly altered how I fix it for a family of 2 1/2 (in terms of servings that is!). Here's the original recipe & instructions; my notes are below.

You will need:

2 pounds fresh asparagus

2 TBS butter or margarine

1 TBS lemon juice

3/4 cup slivered (or chopped) almonds, toasted

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Snap off tough ends of asparagus. Cook asparagus in boiling water to cover 3 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain.

Plunge asparagus into ice water to stop the cooking process; drain.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add asparagus, & saute 3-5 minutes. Toss asparagus with lemon juice and remaining ingredients.

Makes 4 servings.

Carrie's notes: I usually just take out a handful of asparagus, toss it in the skillet with some water, cover & boil on med-high heat for 3 min. Then, I drain the water from the skillet, throw in some butter, a touch of water, the lemon juice, salt, pepper & chopped toasted almonds, cover & cook for another 2-3 min on med heat. (I also stir it occassionally.) Our family's preference is crunchy/hard vs. soft asparagus, so cooking it this way does not make it very soft. Also, we like to eat it warm :) so this is the very last thing I do before serving the plates.

Bon appetite! :)

Duluth '08 Mini Travel Album

I am so excited! I just finished this cute mini travel album from Archivers and Little Yellow Bicycle; it's filled with fun memories from our weekend trip to Duluth last August. It was so simple & fun to put together!

I have really been into mini albums lately because I feel like it's a realistic project for me to start in the middle of the day when I have 20 minutes to work on something other than housework, cooking, emails, etc. Gradually, I am catching up on our family albums, but the process is going to take a lot more than a few weeks of an hour or two here or there. So, how fun when you need a confidence booster or that sense of accomplishment to be able to sit down and in just a couple of hours (or less!) complete your own mini album!

Mini albums can have an easy beginning, middle & end (like this travel one that I did) or they can be an ongoing small project such as the "Minnesota favorites" album that our family has & continues to update as we discover new "favorite places" in Minnesota!

Here's a page by page of the travel album (you can click on the pics to get a closer look!):

All products by: Little Yellow Bicycle

I LOVE this travel collection by Little Yellow Bicycle! It's one of my new favorite "travel" lines!

"Summer, must you leave us so soon?!"

These last several days we've been enjoying the beautiful weather by swimming at the pool, playing with our friends, & basically doing as much outside as we possibly can!

I remember this time last year...the last days of our Minnesota summer went by soooo fast. This year, I told Clay that I didn't want to miss a minute of it! :) And yet at the same time, I can feel fall slowly approaching (& you know what comes here fast & hard after fall!!!). The afternoons & evenings are starting to cool just a little & the days aren't quite as warm...

What are you doing during the last days of your summer?

bella & parker

What: Playtime at Applefest at Kelley Park in Apple Valley (which just happens to be the park that we play at all the time that is right beside our apt complex)
Who: Bella & Parker
When: Friday, July 31 6-7pm

"Just give us juice & goldfish & we're good to go!"

These two went up & down the slides together so many times that I lost count!

The instrumental band that was playing, the warm weather & cool breezes, & the Culvers ice cream stand attracted a lot of oncomers. I think the party was just getting started as we were leaving!! There were lines of cars filing in as we were heading home! these two...
...laughed & played so hard together...
...read books together...
...even watched a little tv together...(I think it was a commercial that had dogs in it!)

Bella, let's play again soon please!

Parker

laughter & cherries, evening playtimes & more!

What do pizza, a little wine, good friends & great conversation usually mean?!

Girls Night In!!!

Last night, I was so excited to join Kelley, April, & Cathy for a fun Girls Night at Cathy's place. We haven't all gotten together since spring 2008...sad, I know...but we seem to all live quite the busy lifestyle through work & our families! :) Though it had been awhile, we had 4 great hours of catch up time, a lot of laughs, & for dessert sweet cherries & wine! Yum!

Remember girls, we promised each other it wouldn't be so long before the next time!

(It's a fun story how we all met...I'll have to share sometime!)

And guys, if you ask us really sweetly, we might let you tag along for the fun on our next get together! :)

Tonight, Parker & I joined Michelle & Bella in Burnsville for Wednesday in the Park fun! The kids really enjoyed some end of the day playtime while the moms relaxed (well, when we weren't chasing the kids, that is :)) to some easy listening from Paula Lammers & Cloud Nine

Enjoying the easy music & the gentle breezes...

So cute watching the two of them playing together & enjoying the night out!

Bella & Parker were having so much fun dancing, picking up sticks & walking up to random people to excitedly hand them their treasure find (aka the branches) :), walking up & down & up & down the hill, & playing in the grass!

Our little place on the hill...

yep, that would be Parker playing with one of the many sticks that he found!! By the time the night was through (ahem, we were there for an hour), we had collected enough branches to build a small raft for our next outing at the lakes!!! Watch out Huck Finn, this kid could probably build a raft by accident faster than you could spit out a fib!

Kisses to you!

Love my little man!

A view from the top...everyone was sitting on the slope of this hill in lawn chairs, on blankets, & at tables to listen to the jazz style band that was playing tonight.

P.S. On the "chasing the kids" note, after I ran to grab Parker 3 times when he made his way down the hill, behind the staging area, beside the parking lot & around the other side of the hill, Michelle asked me why I even bother going to the gym when I have him to keep me busy & in shape. I laughed & told her that I work out to keep up with him! It's amazing how even after 5-6 days of intense, high aerobic & strength classes, my 18 month old can still run around a playgym faster than me! Go figure. ;)

cute things at 18 months & other randomness!

While working around the apartment late yesterday afternoon, I paused to take a quick pic of this...Clay had Parker out on the balcony so that they could watch the people, cars, dogs & airplanes go by! :)

Fun times at the park in Apple Valley yesterday evening

A sneak peak of the mini album I'm working on... :)

A few other random things about Parker at 18 months:

Parker eats cauliflower like candy...

His last tooth is coming in (before his 2 year molars)...his bottom right canine

Parker begs for strawberries, blueberries & grapes like a little boy begs for a new toy...he whines for more until we either run out or give in :)

Parker now sleeps in our bed for his afternoon naps...wish I had been doing this all along...he slept for a whopping 2 1/2 hrs today (I think we checked on him like 12 times to make sure he was still breathing!!!! Clay was like, "Should we wake him?" I looked at him & replied, "Don't you dare! He'll wake up when he's ready!" :) I actually have some time to get things done during the day now!!!

cookout+volleyball+fireworks+FOOD+friends= Good Times!

Last night, we went over to Jami & Tom's for a cookout & just some good 'ole summer fun! Jami did a great job of planning...delicious food & drinks, a volleyball game down at the court, visiting time & dessert inside the house & then the firework show (courtesy of Leprechaun Days at Rosemount!) :)

It was fun meeting new friends, enjoying the incredible weather, sharing good food & watching the kids play together! I only wish I had gotten some better pictures!!! Here are a few random ones from the evening...something you can't see from the pics...Greta & Parker playing together most of the evening. After the volleyball game, we were getting ready to head back up towards the house. Parker decides to take out towards the playground instead; Greta starts to follow close behind. It was so cute watching Parker stop for a quick second to turn around & check to make sure Greta was still behind him. He did that like 6 times! We were cracking up watching it!!!

Yummy food! (I brought my fruit pizza!) :)

Lynnette & McKenzie - After like 5 pics of McKenzie, I finally got one that wasn't too blurry; she was in between her dance moves in this one!

Kim, Lucas, Kim & Jami watching the volleyball game! (Parker & Greta have close-up seats on the outside of the court!)

Just happened to catch this shot of Clay jumping up to hit the ball!

P.S. All the guys were really going out during this game; afterwards, they were all talking about how sore they were going to be the next day...hey! it's all about the game though, right?!

Parker was into everything outside...especially getting Greta to tag along & try & "help" their daddy's on the volleyball court!

Doesn't Greta have killer eyes?! I keep telling Jami they're going to have problems when she gets a little older!! "Watch out boys! Here I come!" :)

Thanks for the fun time Jami, Tom & Greta! Same time & place next year?! :)

Marketfest fun

I have to toot some horns for my hubby! He just got back from a trip that put him over 1000 hours of captain flying time...it might not make a lot of sense to anyone, but it's really good for him! And I am sooo proud of him for working so hard to make that happen! I love you, baby! :)

So to celebrate, I wanted us to do something fun for the day. After lots of research in the late hours this week (late hrs meaning 10:30pm for me! ha!) I decided on a MN State Park...I changed my mind this morning & decided we were going to White Bear Lake for the afternoon & early evening. I wanted to visit a park there & pop in for their annual Marketfest! So first, we stopped at Lakewood Hills Park to let Clay...oops, I mean Parker...play on the playground.

I have to say that we really are blessed to have an amazing playground area right outside our apt complex in Apple Valley. Though I wasn't impressed with the playground area here, the park itself had gorgeous picnic areas & rolling hills with great walking trails!

My silly husband trying out some of the kiddie playground equipment at the park! He was impressed with this little contraption that spun you around and around and around...
"Look Ma Ma & Da Da! There's an airplane!"

Parker helping Clay push his stroller through Marketfest

Where we ate dinner downtown...The Washington Square had a fun come & go atmosphere as well as good food! We enjoyed watching the vendors setting up & seeing the people walking by from our table...we had a great view of the bustling downtown area!

People were lined up on these walls to relax & enjoy the band playing nearby...I thought it was cute!

us...

lots of people enjoying the games, vendors, bands & food

Every Thursday night during Marketfest, they have a different band come out & play! The whole time we were walking through the crowds, Parker was dancing to the tunes...so cute!

One of Clay's favorite parts of the evening...looking at the antique car show!!! Parker wanted to take a ride in this 1960 something Cobra...I wonder why?! ;)

...glad we ventured out to a new area to enjoy a special annual tradition of the community! Another fun day comes to a close...