family fun day, harvest and the zoo

Another funfilled week and weekend for Isabelle. This weekend my work hosted a family fun day and the kids got to play on a bunch of inflatable toys, play some games and have a picnic. It was a little chilly but quite a lot of fun.

Jumping in the bouncer never gets old for Isabelle...

Isabelle also enjoyed the gigantic inflatable slide. It was a long way up there, but pretty quick coming down.

Isabelle's daycare took a field trip to the Minnesota Zoo on Friday. Isabelle had a great time at the zoo. Thankfully they took some pictures...I remember when she was way to scared to get this close to the animals...not anymore.

What a cute chick(en)...

We spent some time "harvesting" a lot of fruit from our backyard this morning. We have 3 apple trees but only one had really nice apples on it this year. the other two have been sick and I may have over pruned them a little this winter. Hopefully they will come back strong next year. Both of the pear trees produced a lot of pears and we are now going to attempt to can some pears so we can enjoy them all winter long. We also got a big bowl of rasberries...

picking and eating some rasberries...

pears pears everywhere...

not letting summer go yet

Summer is winding down but we arent ready to let it go just yet. This weekend we found one last carnival for the summer and tackled one more landscaping project.

Isabelle and Cousins Kaylee and Blayne had a fun time at the Osseo Lions Roar Days. We rode a few rides and played a few games and had some greasy corn dogs...washed down with mini doughnuts. Isabelle and I went on the ferris wheel for the first time. She liked it but was a little scared when we were stopped on the top for a while.

Isabelle got to spend a little time with her friend Emerson during the vikings game on Sunday. Isabelle really misses Emerson now that she doesnt see her at daycare everyday.

This summer was not kind to the hostas that had been planted in our front landscaping. They were big, overgrown and generally not that healthy. So we dug them all out, split them into much smaller plants and replanted a few of them. Check out the Before (acutally mid-project) pic below and the final picture above.

Labor Day Camping Trip

We spent Labor Day weekend camping with the Ohme's at Kiesler's Campground in Waseca . What a great trip! This was Isabelle's first camping trip and I cant believe how well she did. It was a gorgeous weekend but was a little chilly at night.

The campground had a lot of activities including an arcade with ski-ball and a few other games..and a little pink car that the girls liked to ride.

Eric and I found a turtle on the road and brought it back to the campsite. The girls had a ball with it. We made a nice little cage (home) for him and the girls pretty much stared at it for most of a day. There were a few tears when it was time to release the turtle, but the next day we brought him to the lake and let him go.

The girls had a good time painting rocks...who knew how much fun that was? I now fear that every rock in my backyard landscaping will eventually be painted...

The girsl didnt take a single nap the whole weekend but they did snuggle up in the tent for a little quiet time and a movie.

Ice cream cones at the resort store!

On Sunday we rented a pontoon and spent a couple hours on the lake. It was windy and a little chilly but the girls seemed to enjoy the ride. We spent some time fishing and Isabelle was a little disappointed in Daddy for not landing any fish. We had a few fish on but never got one in the boat.

Sunday night the campground held a kids dance with a DJ. The girls danced for a while and had a good time...Isabelle got a box of popcorn and a free ride home on my shoulders.

Isabelle turned out to be quite a little trooper...brushing her teeth by the fire with only a bottle of water and her headlamp.

Long fun filled days make for very tired little girls...they both fell asleep sitting by the fire!

All together we had a fantistic labor day weekend!

camping prep

Isabelle and I spent this evening getting our "gear" ready for our labor day camping trip Isabelle is pretty excited to camp for the first time. Hopefully all goes well, the weather is looking pretty good and the campground we are going to has a ton of activities so she will have plenty to do. I am sure I will have many more pictures to share after the trip.

Isabelle spent a lot of time "vaccuming" our tents and she was pretty excited about her fancy new head-lamp.

the penny carnival and "camping"

Last week Isabelle and I got spend almost an entire week together. We had some trying times but all together it really was a great week. We went to a park in Otsego for a penny carnival and Isabelle got to hang out with her friends Olivia, Abigail, Dane and Cash. The kids played games, won prizes and jumped in the bouncer. All of that followed by pizza for lunch...what a day.

One cheesey smile, one normal smile...

Who doesnt like PLINKO!

Dane, Olivia and Isabelle in the jumnper...

Ring toss...Isabelle went zero for eleven but won a lolly pop anyways...

Isabelle and I spend a fair amount of time at Cabelas. The place is basically valley fair and a zoo all wrapped in one. Every time we go we shoot at the range, eat some fudge, play some video games, check out the fish, see the animals...and now our newest activity; pretending to camp. Not as fun for me but she seems to enjoy it. She will get her first taste of real camping over the upcoming Labor Day weekend.

a week at the lake!

We had a great week at the lake last week. Thankfully we missed all of the 100+ temps and 115+ heat index...it was hot at the lake but that is why we spent a lot of time IN the lake. We spent a ton of time swimming but also took some boat rides, did some tubing, fished (on the dock and in the boat), but mostly we just relaxed! Isabelle and her cousins were constantly busy and not bothered by the heat and humidity.

Isabelle caught this sunny of the dock with Papa...

Rain boots, PJ's and fishing rod...pretty cute....

Uncle Andy spent most of his vacation swinging...

Believe it or not we found a couple nights that were cool enough to have a fire and make some smores.

Driving the big boat with Uncle Kyle...

again, rain boots and a fishing rod...

finally summer

Isabelle is enjoying the heat! Sprinklers, fishing in the pool, washing cars...hopefully we got more than a few days of this nice warm weather!

Unfortunately this is the most fishing we have done all summer...

Isabelle followed mommy's lead and washed her car too....

such a good little helper...she only washed one little spot but it was teh cleanest spot on my car!

more carnival rides

Isabelle is officially a carnival junkie! She is in love with the rides and the games and the corn dogs. I cant say that I blame her, they are quite a bit of fun. Last weekend we attended The Rockin Rogers Days carnival. The dragon roller coaster is her favorite, followed by the super slide, kiddie tilt-a-whirl, jeeps and spaceships...this was the first time she had been on the pirate ship ride, she loved it but Mom was sort of scared....

fish, dily bars and a bday party

Last weekend Isabelle and I went to Cabelas and they had a kids fishing pond in the parking lot...free catch and release...Isabelle thougt it was a ton of fun. We caught two but then she expected that we would continue to catch them one after another. she didnt want to touch the fish but was pretty curious....

Isabelle is a huge fan of dairy queen (or any ice cream) and has recently transitioned from the bananna cream pie blizzard to the cherry dipped dily bar...she polished this one off in about 3 minutes without saying a word....

Isabelle got to spend some time with her cousins at Blaynes, 3rd birthday party. The kid had a great time on the trampoline and in the gigantic inflatalble pool with 2 waterslides. I am not sure if she loved the hat though....?