what have we been up to for 2 months...

Its been a busy summer and its almost over. Isabelle spent much of this summer being a big sister.  I dont think Gina and I could be more proud of her for quickly learning how to be a wonderful sister. She is so thougtful, caring and helpful around her brother. We are very lucky to have 2 kids who adore eachother (for now anyway).  

 

 

 

 

 

In the last year or two Isabelle has turned into a pretty adventurous eater. Before kindergarten we were stuck with hot dogs, chicken strips and mac and cheese. Now she is open to so many different things. She loves tacos, cheeseburgers, rissoto, cous cous, quinoa and whole bunch of things that I never imagined she would eat. As a litte girl she used to hide meat in her cheeks instead of ever actually swallowing it. She loves cooking in general and really loves watching the show at benihana, last time we were there she had some sushi, she didnt like it but I was happy she tried it.

 

We havent had time to get out on the water at all this year, we havent been to a cabin or gone camping. Hopefully we will get back to that next summer when Ethan is a little older. Thankfully Auntie Patty and Uncle Kyle have taken Isabelle out a few times, she loves the water and boat rides. Mostly she loves her cousins and has a blast whenever she is with them.

 



Isabelle's cousin Natalie is finally old enough to really play with her and they have a bunch of fun together. I think Isabelle likes being an older cousin almost as much as a big sister! 

 

Isabelle is so fancy...

 

Biaggi's is one of Isabelle's favorite restaruants, she loves the sgetti but mostly wants the bread you can dunk in the cheese.

 

Isabelle got her very first pedicure last week. I think she looks a little nervous in the pictures but she really liked it and wont stop talking about going back! 

Summer Fun

We are almost a month into Isabelle's first summer at home.  She spent her first 5 summers in daycare. This year she gets to stay hang out with Mom, baby brother and of course Sophie.

Its hard to believe but soccer is over already! We had a really fun season and Isabelle made some new friends in the process. She ended scoring a few goals which she really enjoyed. This will be her last year in co-ed soccer, if she plays next year it will be all girls in the under 8 league. 

 Isabelle and her friend Emma did an art camp at the middle school last week. For 4 days they spent a couple hours working on different projects, I think they had a good time. They stopped me into stops at the park both days that I picked them up.



Unitl kindergarten Isabelle was a pretty picky eater, she just didnt like many things. Eating lunch with a bunch of her classmates everyday really served to broaden her horizons, shes now into taco's, burgers and lots of other good stuff. She really like hardboiled eggs...? yesterday for breakfast she got her favorite...egg man and fruit. 

 Isabelle has taken one dance class throug community ed but has never wanted to join an actual dance class which is wierd because she dances all the time.



One of our goals for the summer was to get Isabelles training wheels off. She had never really shown an interest and we hadnt pushed the issue. Then one day she just says she wants to try. 20 minutes later she was off on her own biking like she had been doing it her whole life.



Along with summer comes carnivals. Isabelle is a total carnival junky. HSe loves the rides, she loves the games, she loves the food, the lemonade, the petting zoos, the whole bit. She loves carnivals. This year she got to take Cousin Natalie on her first carnival rides. They had a blast. We also met Olivia at Father Hennepin and got to ride some rides with her. This week we will hit the 4th of July carnival in Coon Rapids and do it all again.

What a difference a school year makes!

Here is a picture of Isabelle on her first day of Kindergarten.

Here is a picture of Isabelle on the last day of kindergarten. 



It is absolutely amazing to see how much our little girl has grown up in the course of one school year. She is such a bright, fun, smart and caring little girl. We are very proud parents. It is a little sad to watch her grow by leaps and bounds but mostly I am just excited to see who she will become and what adventures she has in store for us.

The Okey Dokey Brothers, Soccer and a Birthday

Isabelle's school hosted the grammy award winning Okey Dokey Brothers for a private concert at the school adn another show that evening at the High School. Isabelle absolutely loved the show and her new CD. We waited in line to get the CD signed and she thought that was pretty cool. On a related note, I lost Isabelle when teh concert ended. The show ended and a rush of peoople got between Isabelle and I. It took me about 4 minutes to find her and it felt like the longest 4 minutes ever.



Isabelle is in the middle of her 3rd year of soccer. She has a ton of fun during practices and of course when we have snacks after the games. She doesnt like the games as much. She does really well but hasnt scored a goal yet. We are working on her aggresiveness a little bit.

With summer weather comes the POOL! Isabelle has already had one good week of pool weather. We were going to buy a larger semi permamnet pool but ended up gettting a trampoline instead. The little inflatable pools will have to work for at least another summer. She seems to have plenty of fun in them.

It is really hard to believe but isabelle turned 6 last week. It has been a really un and unforgettable 6 years. It is absolutely amazing to watch her grow up and turn into such a sweet, kind, caring and fun person. We celebrated with some of her friends at a bowling alley and had our family over for another party. Isabelle got more toys than she needs, she was especially excited about the accessories for her American Girl Doll. Her doll (also named Isabelle) got several new outfits, a bike and horse with a stable.

baby brothers make blogging hard...lets catch up a bit

On  February 18th Isabelle welcomed her little brother Ethan into the world. Today is May 15th...the past 3 months have been pretty busy and I havent made time to blog. So I am going to try and get caught up a littlle bit. I wont have too much detail on baby brother Ethan because he will have his own blog that I hope to get started soon.

Isabelle recently entered the exciting world of American Girl Doll's. The "doll of the year" for 2014 just happened to be a green eyed blonde girl named Isabelle...its seemed like a good fit Isabelle now has a doll named Isabelle. She doesnt have too many accessories yet, but Im thinking that with her birthday coming up in May she might stand a good chance of getting some fun doll items.



Isabelle adores her cousing Natalie. In March Isabelle was learning about Leprechaun's and the teacher described them as little troublemakers that are always causing mischief...later that night Isabelle told us that she thought Natalie might be a Leprechaun..pretty cute little Leprechaun.



In a very short time Isabelle has become the best big sister in the world. We had a few brief moments of jealousy and feeling left out but I think she got over that pretty quickly. Things have certainly changed for Isabelle but she loves her new role as a big sister and has been an amazing helper. 



Isabelle and her friend Olivia both spent 6 or 7 saturdays working on a play at the Lyric Arts Theatre in Anoka. They were cast together as nice wolf 1 and nice wolf 2. They had a great time working as a group to write, build props and eventually put on the play.



Isabelle and I still make regular trips to Cabela's. She loves the aquarium, the trout pond, the animals, the boats and other outdoor toys and of course we hit the free fudge and the shooting gallery every time.



Isabelle completed her first dance class this winter. She has always loved dancing around the house but has never been interrested in a formal class. This was a community ed hip-hop class and I think she really had a fun time.  

As everyone probably still remembers we had over a foot of snow the week of Easter. It was a miserable wet heavy snow that came at a time when we shoudl have been gettign the boat ready for opening fishing. Isabelle was unaffected by the terrible weather and just wanted to play in the snow for 2 hours that her school day was delayed. We made an easter snow bunny. Thankfully he was mostly melted by the end of the day.



Eventually the weather turned aroudn a bit and we were able to have some easter egg hunts outside. What a difference a few days will make!



Ready to be a big sister.

Well it has been a long, snowy and cold winter so far. Its only mid february and it is hard to imagine that we have 2 months left before we get to actual spring. Two years ago it was 80 degrees on St Patricks day so there is always hope. We will be having Baby #2 tomorrow morning. I imagine having a newborn around will take our focus off of the weather and will hopefully get us to spring a little faster. In between ridiculously cold days Isabelle and I did get out ice fishing with Uncle Kyle and Blayne. We fished in a kids ice fishing contest in Monticello. This was Isabelle's first time fishing on the ice and not in a fancy house. She liked it but would have prefered the comforts of a nice warm house.

We chose one freezing cold Saturday to go to the mall of america. Isabelle was excited to build a bear for her baby brother. I hope he likes it. We rode a couple rides at the Nick Universe but the lines were really long and very slow moving. I did ride the rollercoster with Isabelle and she loved it. She is a big fan of arcade games (me too) so we didnt stand in lines too long before we found the skee ball machine. Isabelle has really fallen in love with legos so a visit to lego land was on the agenda. She picked out a brand new lego set. She got her picture taken with Sponge Bob and Patrick and wore some sweet Vikings gear!

The school hoste a movie night. Isabelle sat with a bunch of her friends from school and had a blast eating popcorn and watching Monsters Unviersity.

This week was Valentines day. Isabelle's class had a Vday program and parents got to come to their classroom before the program. Mom was met by isabelle at her locker with a homemade flower. I missed the program but Gina said it was adorable.