back to school

Expert preschooler Abigail - now a Rainbow! - will be a big helper getting Nate settled into his first day of preschool as a Bluebird! Sniff sniff.

choo choo party

Thomas had a sweet load to pull today .. the cupcake train!

Nate gets the train table warmed up before party guests arrive.  We had the party at a fun historic B&O Railroad Station ... Nate does love choo choos.

Train time for the 1 and 2 year old set.

Cupcakes!

Train station fun.

Eloisa & Abigail.  Big Sisters.

Back to the trains.

And then outside on the platform for real train viewing! (with Walter!)

Nate stands on the old baggage cart for a better view of the approaching train.  (Papa's office is in the background.)

Abigail gets away from it all in the old phone booth.

MORE TRAINS!  LOUD TRAINS!

Back home, Nate eats some lunch and plays with the great helicopter he got from G&G for his birthday!  Happy birthday to our big boy!

 

nate is two!

Happy Birthday to one sweet little dude! 
Pizza dinner with new "neighbors" Uncle Dan, Aunt Anna, and Walter!

Nate was interested and sort of puzzled by the blowing out the candles concept.

Garbage truck from Grandma & Grandad - HUGE hit!

 

trucks book with aunt jen

Two thumbs up from Nate!

west coast adventures

pacific

Made it!

breakfast with dee dee

True to form, Nate slept in until 9am OR time (noon at home). Snoozy dude.

pop pop!

We made it to Eugene...first stop was Pop Pop's!

more mn

Picking carrots and showing them off....

swimmin

Farmy weekend ended with a fun swim in beautiful Lake Superior...

Sand + water + friends.

Busy kiddos.

 

 

The ladies get overdue catch-up time.

More catch-up.

Sand fun and fortress building.

 

 

 

Blog buddies for many years, Abigail & Annabelle met in person for the first time last weekend....by the end of the weekend the shyness and 4 year old unpredictable moods were starting to evaporate and they were ready to chum-around.

 

Time for lunch.

Don't think we could have planned this pic... looks like Nate is helping Melissa carry things!

Many many thanks to our weekend hosts!

Look out for these three!

 

midwest

We buckled up our seatbelts last week and hopped on the airplane to Minnesota!  We had lots of fun with Grandma & Grandad (which we hope they did a better job of photo-documenting than we did...).  Nate & Abigail ate popsicles and more popsicles and in general had a great time.

The weekend was spent with farmy friends in northern Wisconsin....big fun for both the kid- and grownup-sets.  One of the highlights was the field games / Olympic events / farmy decathalon...which began with the shoe toss (toss with your feet, not with your hands). Jason and Mel-frou may have had the home court advantage on this event.

Farmhouse!  And Sarah E!

Kiddos prepare for shoe toss.

Next event: tricycle time trials.

I think we can safely declare Louis the winner of this event.

Curious and opportunistic kitten checks out a beer bottle.

Vintage 2010 kiddos.

So much cuteness.

Shucking the sugar buns(z) sweet corn. Delish.

Did we mention kittens?  These two kitties got A LOT OF LOVE, some forms more gentle than others.  Abigail loved holding the kitties....as did a certain almost-two-year-old-Nate.

Nate had his hands full with lots of things over the weekend, being in truck and ball and trike heaven.

The rarely spotted Nate-kitten-truck trifecta.