Boating Adventure

We had an impromptu opportunity to join Uncle John and Aunt Michelle on their new boat on the St. Croix River, this boat has been a dream of Uncle John's for a long time and after all the fun Andrew had he made add it to his list of dreams too! Andrew especially loved going down into the cabin area because it was like having his own play house on board...it was a gorgeous Fall day and we are SO appreciative to John and Michelle for sharing this fun adventure with us...we hope we will be invited back again next summer (hint, hint!) I think you will enjoy the goofy pic that Andrew took of Uncle John too!

Carving Pumpkins!

Well the time has come to carve those amazingly huge pumpkins...and here is how they turned out. Andrew enjoyed sorting out the seeds from the rest of the slimy center so that we could try and grow pumpkins in Daddy's garden next summer!

Apple Orchard

It's that time of year again...and we have so far every year gone to an apple orchard and this year was definitely my favorite trip because Andrew was VERY involved in the picking of the apples and enjoyed the entire visit! We had a wonderful trip as a family and Andrew was thrilled with his apple choices! We have had alot of fun making apple crisp, apple bars and just enjoying them fresh!

Pumpkin Fun!

This year Andrew is definitely more into the Fall themes including the fun of picking out pumpkins, which was a special treat for us this year because our friends who great amazing pumpkins in their garden allowed us to come pick some out...as you can see the kids had a blast and the pumpkins are HUGE! What fun they will be to carve and decorate the front of the house with!

John Deere Fun and a Parade!

We were blessed to be included in the fun of riding in the hay wagon behind a great John Deere tractor for the Rosemount Leprechaun Parade, it was a BLAST! We had so much fun going through the parade but even more exciting was Andrew was allowed to drive one of the John Deere's all by himself! It was a fun day with great friends - here are some pics!

Look out fish, here they come!

This summer is Andrew's first year of fishing even though he requested it last year. He and Daddy went and bought all the necessary gear including the Cars Lightning McQueen fishing pole, because who could starting fishing with anything else? So much to my surprise Andrew is quite the fishing pro already, he has yet to have an outing (except where there were no fish) where there not fish that were caught! He averages about 3 catches (and releases) per trip with Daddy. Andrew quite frequently request to go with Daddy and they seem to be really enjoying themselves. Daddy has not been quite as successful in catching fish, but in his defense he spends alot of time being the GREAT daddy that he is and helping Andrew (ie; baiting the hook, reminding Andrew to real in extra line, taking the fish off the hook, rebaiting the hook...and repeat!).

I was finally invited along this past week to check out the scene...and here are some pics from the evening...look closely you will see the fish! They blend in a bit with the background (oh and they aren't super huge but quite impressive I think!).

Allowance for a Camper?

So we decided that now that Monkey is 5 and is desperately wanting some new toy every time we come near a toy section of a store that is was time for him to start earning an allowance...and Mommy is ready for him to work more on some chores! So he has a set of chores that need to be done daily and once those become the norm then we will add to the list, so far so good! Monkey is realizing how far (or not far) a dollar goes in the lego section at Target...so far he has not been upset about it which I am so thankful for.

In line with thought, we were driving home from running errands one day and Andrew spotted a 5th wheel camper in the Sam's Club parking lot, and he quickly said "we need to get a camper!" (this is not a new conversation, ever since enjoying the Ottosen families motorhome, he has desired to own a camper - thankfully we have been able to just enjoy theirs to date. So my response to him was "well they are very expensive so I don't think we will be buying a camper", and his response was "grandpa lou could buy us a camper" (the humor here is Monkey has yet to figure out that Grandpa doesn't party with money that easily!) So I responded "well that's alot of money I don't think Grandpa could buy that for you" and Monkey said "well he will just have to do more chores and get more allowance!"

These are the moments that I don't know how I keep the van on the road due to internal laughter exploding in my body!

So I told him he would need to call grandpa about that...and so right then and there we dialed grandpa to let him know Andrew needed a new camper! No worries Grandpa we aren't expecting a camper...but thanks for sharing in the humor. Andrew did get a camper for his birthday from Uncle John and Aunt Michelle - it is the lego version and it is SO fun...so that will need to suffice for now!