Fall 2013 - seriously.

 Emma started first grade this year!  She has an AMAZING teacher, and we feel very fortunate to have Emma in her class.  Emma continues to enjoy school, and it is so exciting and fun to watch her learn and grow, explore and discuss new ideas and concepts.

 About mid-September Carol (Olive's daycare) suggested that she thought Olive was ready for potty training - a few weeks BEFORE her second birthday!  So, off we went to buy some padded thick training under ware.  The first day I thought we were crazy and there was no way she was ready.  But by the end of day two she was basically potty trained!  So easy this one was!  She has gone through a couple of days where she decided she simply was not going to take the time to bother with the bathroom.  But those moments were short lived!

 The weekend of our 13th Anniversary and Olive's second birthday, we went up to Duluth for the weekend.  It was SO lovely!  We get a hotel room that has a second room for us to stay up once the girls are in bed.  We enjoyed a few swims in the pool and hot tub, some dinners out, three trips down to breakfast in one morning, a lot of time searching through rocks on the shores of Lake Superior,  misguided trip to a haunted ship and of course a horse drawn carriage ride.

 Olive eating the frosting off of her kitty cat cake made by Grandma Loerch.  Unfortunately we had to put Tommy (Tom Tom, our 17 year old cat) to sleep this fall, and Olive LOVED that the cake reminded her of him.  We had a nice celebration at home with family.  

 Elliott and I took Emma to see a production of "Charlotte's Web" at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis - WOW!  It was AMAZING.  She got all gussied up in her purple dress and red boots.  It is always nice to get away with big sister.

 A common sight in our house as of late....

 Getting the last drop of ice cream!

 Happy Halloween Batgirl!  She IS saying "Cheese" in the picture, by the way.

 And here is Wonder Woman....  Hand made by Grandma Loerch!  ADORABLE!

 Little Sister like Big Sister

 Olive reading to Bali.  Bali is redeeming herself a bit, finally:)

 A sweet note Emma left for our Elf on the Shelf

And finally - out new craft table/room!  I was inspired by Holly - and I LOVE IT!!!

Summer 2013

 Emma's last day of Kindergarten!  

 I adore this picture of Emma - SO excited that she lost her big front tooth!  As of the date of this posting she has lost 7 teeth - the latest JUST TONIGHT!

The day after school got out we all packed in to the truck and drove out to Michigan (me and the girls for three weeks!).  We were able to stay at Elliott's mom's for a few days with Jason, Holly and the girls, visiting form SLC.  We were all out for the week to celebrate Grams' 90th birthday!  It was such a fantastic time.

After Grams' party we headed up to Mackinac Island for a week of relaxation/chaos:)  Olive and Skylar hanging out...

Skylar and Olive practicing with the bike pump - can you guess who showed them how to do this?  Hmmm... Elliott Patterson.

There was a butterfly house on the island, and Emma seemed to have the magic touch!  At one point she had five butterfly's on her at once!

The boys and their girls.

After our fantastic week and a half with the Patterson side, we headed over to my Dad's, who lives only an hour away.  They have a pond in their backyard, and Emma LOVED fishing, putting the worms on, taking the fish off - BRAVE GIRL!!!!

Chilling out with Papa Jim

AFter a week at my Dad's Elliott flew back out for a weekend stay at the Hunting Cabin that my dad is a member of.  So nice to have him back:)

Big girl!!!!!!  

Watching a the rain storm...

A trip to Como Park with the girls and we were fortunate enough to see the gorillas out and about.

In the summer rain storm, the whole neighborhood came out to play!  It was SO much fun to watch all the kids together, doing exactly what kids should do.

 A moment I'll never forget...  At Como Park, Emma was watching the gorillas at the glass, and one walked over to her, put up his hand and she matched hers to it!!!!!!!!!  It was amazing.

Sweet girl in her first piggy tails.

FINALLY!  WE LISTENED!  Emma has been asking for a year to get her hair cut.  For some reason, we finally listened.  She had grown it long enough that she could donate it, and while Elliott and I got teary eyed, the smile on her face was priceless.  This is a moment I will never forget.  I can;t believe we waited so long, as the short hair now seems SO HER!  I adore it - and her.

At the end of August we took a last final fling getaway with my mom and Denny.  We rented a cabin up on the GunFlint trail, as far up in MN as you can get.  20 miles off the main road, then 10 miles in on a gravel road!  Talk about quiet.  These pictures are from the beautiful Gooseberry Falls, where we stopped on the way up.  So beautiful - can't believe I have not been there before!  Will for sure go back again!

The view from our deck!  Utter solitude...

Evening campfire - our little pyro enjoyed every minute!

Life with the Girls

Life with the girls lately has been pretty fantastic.  I love the ages that they are, watching them both learn, grow, explore and play in their own wonderful ways - often together.  Wherever Emma goes, Olive is pretty close behind.  Especially if Emma has a friend over in the house, Olive will not be left out!  It is sweet to watch her charge up the stairs after the big girls.

Emma is counting down the days until she will be a 1st grader - although I am certain she is going to miss her fantastic teacher.  I am enjoying any alone time I can find with Emma as of late, I think she needs a little alone time - focus solely on her!  We have been garage sailing, I took her to a dance concert and out to eat super late, we had a fire just us two girls last night - those are special times for me and I can tell she feels the same.

Olive has been such a joy to watch as she takes on the true toddler stage.  She is fairly independent and knows what she does and does not want - and is not afraid to let you know!  She LOVES to be outside as much as her big sis.  She could spend all afternoon pushing around a little stroller with nothing or anything in it.  She also loves to play and draw with chalk, kick the ball, or go visit one of the many dogs in the neighborhood.  As a matter of fact she is down right exuberant at the sight of any dog, bird, gopher, butterfly, airplane, or animal!  She'll let out a little squeal and then her whole body does a little jump.  Very sweet.

 Emma is the queen at making Olive laugh or giggle and took over here.  We love uncanny resemblance to my late Grandma Dorothy in the above picture.

 Playing hide and see with Daddy!

 One of my favorite pictures of her so far this spring.  She has that little pout on...  We have had not had very many warm days, so anything even close to warm we have been out in full force.

 Above is just a sampling of an afternoon of play in our neighborhood, especially after school.  There are a number of children missing in this picture, but I think you get the point - a plethora of kids to play with!  I love it.

 Emma reading "Goodnight Moon to Olive" - Olive trying to say cheese to the camera!

 Emma and Daddy had a special sleepover in the basement a few weeks back - he let her stay up as late as she wanted, certain she would konk out "any-minute" - she lasted until midnight!!!!!!   He build this awesome fort in the basement and the kids used it to play in for a number of days to follow.

 Emma has one very exciting night a few weeks back - she lost TWO teeth in one night!  They had be ridiculously loose for a long time, and finally one kept getting stuck pushed backwards!  Finally I told her she had to pull them, or had to let dad do it.  So, Elliott got  the bottom one out, and she chickened out on the top one.  We said no, no, she had to do it.  So she grabbed the kleenex, pulled, I said "pull hard", and out it came!!!!!!  She was ELATED and SO PROUD!  I told Elliott that that was one of those moments that I specifically remember as a child, and it was so exciting to see her joy and rememebr how genuine it was.

 The picture below is one of my most favorite pictures ever or Emma.  That smile on her face is what true joy and happiness looks like.  I hope she continues to find it many times throughout her life.

 We/I had a simply lovely Mother's Day... .spent the early morning freezing with my mom and the girls at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market - bought lots of veggies and herbs to plant.  Emma and El went golfing, so I was able to plant lots of what I got that afternoon.  My mom and Denny came over for dinner, and El made us steaks on the grill with bakers and corn on the cob!

 THEN!  I was surprised with this fantastic wheel barrow (I had actually mentioned to my mom that I would like one, and she passed the message on to Emma who passed it on to Elliot!).  Can you see the excitement on my face??????

Me and my girls.....  I feel very blessed to be surrounded by such love.