Christmas revisited!

The holiday season is always so much fun! This year I went digital with my Christmas Scrapbook (in 2010 my family one will be digital as well) Here are some of the pages I have done. I do have a few more to do. It was so much fun to create them! Enjoy!!

Holiday Baking

Taking an hour out of a busy work week to make cookies with the kids is a PRICELESS thing! The holidays are so busy and we often get so caught up in it that we don't take time to really enjoy it. It is so important to take the time to build those special memories with our kids! I have fond memories of making cookies with my mom and sister when I was a kid. I can remember making frosting for the cut out cookies with my sister- and trying to make the cookies look as good as a picture and eating the stars for the peanut blossom cookies. Ahhhh memories that make me smile. I hope that my kids look back at their childhood holidays and smile too!

YUMMM!

Santa comes to the neighborhood!

Christmas is full of tradition for our family. One of the fun traditions comes from the city we live in. Each Christmas Santa comes around the neighborhoods on a fire truck! It is sooooo much fun to see how excited the kids get when they hear the sirens of the truck and police car. Dayne went running this year when he heard it! They waited with their coats on for about 30 minutes! After they get to see Santa waving and get a candy cane, they give a canned good to one of the fire fighters and it goes to a local food shelf! The holidays are so much fun with all of the special things we do!

Visit with Santa!

This year we headed to the Mall of America with our great friends to visit Santa! We made an appointment at 10am to see him and boy were the kids excited. I think it helps that Lylah saw Santa earlier that week at my school so she was so excited to see him again. Waiting outside of the Santa Experience-- ahhh they love each other!Rich checking out the picture that Lylah's friend brought to show SantaSanta gave Lylah and Dayne "five" for being good kids. They told him what they wanted- Lego's, trains, and games for Dayne and dolls, "water slide" (I have no idea??) and princess for LylahBoth of them actually were so excited to sit on his lap! A HUGE improvement over last year.

SinterKlaas visited our Beau and Belle

Each year Sinterklaas comes to visit and it is always fun for the kids to see what surprises he brings. The kids left a shoe by their bedroom door (you are suppose to leave it outside but it was so cold the kids thought Sinterklaas might want to warm up) for Sinterklaas to leave some treats. As you can see Lylah was so excited to open up her princess toy it went flying! Dayne got some fun cars and they both got lots of books!

Our Masterpieces

Our beautiful Belle and Handsome Beau!

Trick or Treat!

Halloween this year was a lot of fun with the kids. This year I let the kids decide what they wanted to be. I really wanted them to match but gave up when Lylah saw the picture of a Sun costume in a magazine. Once she saw it that was it! She was going to be the Sun! It should have been an easy costume to make- but who knew finding a yellow sweatshirt be so hard! But we did finally find one and Lylah became the sun! Dayne wanted to be a Super Hero because he said he WAS a Super Hero. So I looked online and found a Super Hero shirt with a silver cap! It was pretty cool and he LOVED it!

We have a few traditions when it comes to Halloween. We go to the Clubhouse to the party. Here Lylah is playing the Pumpkin Walk! Next stop was story time. The kids listen to a story that really isn't too scary!

Since Halloween was on a Saturday it was hard to keep the kids from Trick or Treating so at 5:30 we headed out! They were so excited. Another tradition is for us to Trick or Treat with Dayne and Lylah's friends William and Bennett and their Dad. It is a lot of fun and this year we really had to run to keep up with them.

Our Super Here Dayne!

Our Sun Lylah

I started a new tradition for myself to run in the Grey Ghost 5K Run in Anoka- the Halloween Capital of the world. It was a lot of fun to run with my friend Brenda and hundreds of other people. Many of them were even in costumes! I plan on running it again next year!

The IRON Girl Duathlon

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the end of September I participated in my second duathlon- The Iron Girl! It was a 2 mile run, 19 mile bike ride, 2 mile run. This time I was running/biking alongside about 900 other women, 2 of which were my good friends Brenda and Carrie. The run was around Hyland Lake in Bloomington. It was a very pretty run. I was very happy with my time. I was in a pretty good mood when I headed into transition to get my bike. The crowd was so great cheering everyone on. There is nothing better than seeing my kids cheering for me! GO MOMMY! A smile crossed my face and I knew I could do it!! It wasn't until I saw the STEEP hill I had to head up on my bike that my mood started to change. Knowing I had to do the hill two times didn't help any either! The bike route was pretty hilly but a nice ride over all. After the 19 miles I started the run which ended up being more of a walk/run... but that was okay. I did my best and even beat my goal time by 5 minutes! I was so proud at the end to be with all these amazing women whose ages were from 16 to 70 years old! I hope I am still doing these races at 70! Now I am already thinking about next year's Iron Girl and improving my time! Biking into the second loopRunning to the finish line!Almost there!I did it!!Carrie, Brenda, and I at the end of the race!! Don't you just love our medals!

Apple Jack Orchard

Ahhhhhh APPLES! We just LOVE apple season here in Minnesota because it means HONEY CRISP! The most wonderful apple in the world. Well, at least until the Sweet Tango is in wide release because I hear it is even better. Oh how I love those mad scientists at the University of Minnesota who came up with these terrific apples. Each year we head out to get these tasty treats. Last year we discovered Apple Jack Orchards. You get to pick the apples yourself right from the trees! We went with our super good friends Tonya, Tessa, and Anthony. It is so much fun to watch the kids pick the apples. I just wish Dayne went for bigger ones. Pick some good ones kids!!

Dayne proud of his apples!

Lylah didn't want to smile for me!!

The kids took a ride on the Cow Train! They went all around the fields in their "cows"
The kiddos! Aren't they so cute!

Going to the orchard always makes us realize that summer is really over and fall is here.
Until next time!
Melyssa

Kindergarten Here he comes!

Kindergarten.... my baby is in school! Where has the last 5 years gone? It went by so fast. I know he is ready for this new adventure but I don't know if I am. It is strange to think of myself on the other side now. After teaching for more than 10 years I am now getting to see what it is like to be the parent at Open House and Conferences. I will be helping with homework now instead of just giving it! I will have to make sure he reads his 20 minutes each night and get a good night sleep! But he is ready and so excited. He goes to school all day every day of the week. He has a fantastic teacher that I know he will learn and grow with. I am pretty lucky this year he goes to the school I teach for Kindergarten since not all schools in our district have All Day Every Day Kindergarten. He will go back to his home school as a first grader so I am enjoying the extra time I have with him. So the adventure begins. I am so proud of him and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for him! Dayne and his fantastic teacher!

The Second Happiest Place on Earth

... well according to Dayne anyway! We took a family vacation to the Wisconsin Dells. We met the rest of the Carlson family there- well minus Jeff and Mary. It was a lot of fun. When we got there we went on the Dells Army Ducks. It was cool to ride in the vehicle on both land and water.

Later in the evening we went to the Tommy Bartlett Show. It was kinda cheesy but a fun experience. This is how we found Dayne and Lylah in the morning-- oh so sweet!Of course we had a blast at the Kalahari where we stayed. Dayne was a little fish! He thought the whole trip was WAY COOL! Dayne thought the Lazy River was cool because he could touch the whole time! The nice life guard helped pull Dayne out of the tube after he went down the slide!Rich and Lylah on the Lazy River. It took a few tries to get her to go on the tube... As long as the water was not falling on Lylah's head she loved it! All the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Carlson. I just love how Dayne is sitting- such a boy!A family photo in the lobby. We hope to go back again next year with everyone. The kids loved to see their cousins, grandma, grandpa, aunt, and uncle. A special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Carlson for treating us! We had so much fun!