5 years Old!

NW turned 5 a few weeks ago and once again she had multiple parties. She had one with her friends, one with just us and another one with the whole family. There are more pictures floating around so stay tuned for those.

The sisters on the car ride at Como Town.

This package from the cousins wrapped in streamers stumped her for a while. It seemed to go on forever. Usually she would have lost interest and moved on, but she knew there was something good in there somewhere.

Aftermath of opening the ball.

Non birthday related..we repainted our bedroom. By "we" I mean grandpa Jim and I. We did the bulk of the work and NW did this wall from about 4' and down.

There is something about the rain that makes these two want to go outside. So we grabbed our umbrellas, put on our rain boots and stomped around.

A bookstore in Stillwater has story time on a trolley.

More people on a trolley.

Whenever we head to Home Depot we end up riding on the lawn mowers. It doesn't matter which kid I bring, they both want to race me on the riding lawn mowers. We ride them all and race against each other. People look at us a little funny but it's worth it.

Let's go fishing!

 I took the girls to do a little research. A customer owns a restaurant and they wanted some speakers looked at, so I took the girls there to check it out and we had lunch. The owner of the restaurant was there too. She took the kids to the bakery display and let them pick out whatever they wanted for dessert. Talk about a great way to make friends with a 4 and 2 year old. They thought she was the coolest person ever.

She picked chocolate.

She picked vanilla. All she ate was the frosting, then she was full.

Time to pick the cukes and zukes. Rough year in the garden though. There were only 3 things to pick.

So we went fishing...grandpa John was the mastermind behind going fishing. He bought the girls fishing poles, life vests and everything they would ever need to fish for Sunfish. The fish were biting too. They could barely get their hook into the water and they would have one on the line. Grandpa John and I quickly fell into a rhythm. He unhooked the fish and baited the hooks as fast as we could pull the fish out of the water. It was a blast. LW was a little scared of being on the dock and did not like the fish at all.

They were all about this size. We threw them all back.

More trip pics

Sorry for the delay in getting these pics up. I'm sure both people that read the blog will understand.

Welcome to Paul Bunyan Land. Not at the old location, the new one outside of Brainerd. I guess it's not even that new of a location, one of the guys told me that it has been 13 years since they moved. All of the same rickety old rides, just at the different location.

For those of you that are not familiar. Paul says your name when you walk in and welcomes you to the park. It blows peoples minds. It was exactly as I remembered Paul as a kid.

The man.

Me and the man.

That's not a real cowboy. But the other two people are real.

They thought it would be funny to put me in jail...It was.

Don't worry, she's just acting. She can get out and she knows it.

Cool as a cucumber flying this plane.

Every small town has a larger than life statue when you enter town. Deerwood was super creative with theirs. It is a deer jumping over a piece of wood. I think they could have done better.

Bay Lake Trip

We went to Bay Lake for a "trip". I was instructed that this was a trip and not a vacation. Evidently calling it a vacation implied that there would be some relaxation. As long as I wasn't expecting any relaxation I wouldn't be disappointed and should be able to have more fun. Well it worked. We had alot of fun at the lake and all of the neighboring cities. We hit up every city park within a 30+ mile radius. More pictures to come.

Here is the view from the cabin.

These 2 did get some time to relax. Here they are chilling on the couch eating ice cream and watching TV.

Putting the hurt on a pizza at Rafferty's Pizza in Brainerd.

That look is well worth the 50 cents for the ride.

A place in Nisswa put glitter on your eyes for a dollar. Guess who picked two shades of purple? We ended up going back to get here eyes done twice. We had a rough morning and the tears washed off the first round. So once we settled down, we went back for seconds. This one lasted until bedtime.

Turtle races in Nisswa. We stumbled across this and did not plan on it at all. There were 300+ people there to race turtles on a Tues at 2:00. Don't these people work? We each "rented" a turtle for race. When it came to race time nobody wanted to touch the turtles...so dear old dad did it. We didn't win and we didn't even come close.

Serious face with Superman ice cream and a mini donut. Doesn't sound bad to me. Not sure what the sour look is all about.

It seems like every town had a huge statue as you came into town. This one is in Crosby on Serpent Lake. It's right next to quite possibly the best park in the world.

Going to town on a couple pieces of corn at the BBQ place in Crosby.

This is the big fish in Garrison. LW wasn't  a fan of any of the statues. So you wont see her in any of the pictures.

The Cousins are Back in Town!

The kids could not be more excited. The cousins are back in town! They are going to be spoiled and expect this is going to happen every other week. Grandpa Jim had surgery on Tue to remove a cyst and everyone came back to town to support him and help out. The surgery went smooth and he is already back on his feet. He's not picking up the kids or playing on the floor yet, but that will come. We are just happy to have him returning to his normal self and have a huge weight off his mind.

Kate is in town this time. LW is happy, she has someone to pal around with.

Clowning around on the ottoman in their PJ's and getting ready for the sleepover.

We are huggers. Here LW is giving the other LW a hug and a kiss.

Cousin Fun

Half of the Wings of Tulsa were in town last week. Boy did we have non-stop fun. It's great when we can get some of the cousins together. We did miss Kate though. We seemed to do almost the same thing every day. We woke up, got dressed and headed to a coffee shop and then a park before nap time. LW was the only one that took a nap, it would have been nice for the rest of us but why waste your time sleeping.

Talking to mommy on the phone.

Playing on the bike rack in front of the Angry Catfish.

Lots of hugging, laughing and holding hands with these three.

BFF's coming back from the park.

We could be dad's of the year. Who else would let their kids have chocolate chip cookies for breakfast?

Daves, a frog and a lawnmower

Recognize this place? Yup, Dave's is  open for the season! We have been there twice. I'm trying not to overdose on popcorn too early in the season. The kids would be there every day if they could.

Not sure why, but they both felt the urge to kiss this frog at Bachmans.

 Uncle Bruce brought his riding lawnmower to Gramdma M's house to mow the lawn and aerate the grass. NW didn't know that mowing the lawn could be this much fun.

Uncle Bruce is showing her what everything does. He controlled the throttle, but she did all of the steering. She was a little apprehensive at first. But she got comfortable in a hurry. LW was a little under the weather and not feeling the whole riding the mower thing. We tried and she resisted.