Happy Birthday to Miley (Part 2)!

Even though we celebrated a lot on Miley's actual birthday, we wanted to have a little get together with our neighbors to celebrate as well.  We have been so blessed to have the most wonderful families as our neighbors.  I truly consider them to be my best friends up here, and I know Miley feels the same way about their kids.

So, on Saturday, we hosted a little get together to have lunch and just to have an excuse to hang out and let kids play together.  I am definitely not my sister when it comes to cakes, so we let Miley pick out a cake at Target...it was actually really cute and just the right size, and she seemed excited enough...

Our friends came over for a lunch of pizza, veggies, and watermelon, and the kids immediately got to playing and the adults for to visiting.  The guys were hooping to play some bocce ball, but that came to a halt when all the kids started interfering, so they were resigned to visiting like the rest of us!

Despite a specific request in the invitation to not bring gifts, all of our neighbors showed up with presents for Miley anyway.  She was so excited to get a new Fancy Nancy book, a Merida doll from "Brave" (kind of perfect, considering that is what we did on her birthday!), and a little Merida doll and a coloring set.  After opening presents, we brought out the cake.  Now for the past two years, Miley has cried when everyone starts singing Happy Birthday to her.  We thought this year she would love being the center of attention and not even think twice about it.  However, she still hid behind dad during the song.  No tears though, so I guess that is progress, right?

After cake, we just let the kids run around and play some more.  Everyone started making their way home at about 2:30 or 3:00...we couldn't believe how fast the time went!  It was such a fun way to spend  Saturday, and we are so glad that we were able to celebrate Miley's birthday with such fun people!

Happy Birthday to Miley (Part 1)!

Can't believe I am saying that Miley is FOUR!  We had lots of birthday fun this year.  First with Grammy and Poppa, then today, on her actual birthday we let her choose what she wanted to do.

*Warning*  Picture overload in this post!

Miley invited one of her favorite friends, Kayla, over to have lunch and to go watch the new Disney movie, "Brave," with us.  Since the day was all about Miley, we let her pick out what she wanted to have for lunch, and she chose macaroni and cheese, applesauce, and juice.  We let the kids eat, play around for a little while, and the open Miley's present from Kayla - some My Little Ponies!

After, we let each girl have a cupcake before we left for the movie.  During the movie, both girls seemed to be a little scared but afterwards, they said they loved it, so I guess we can count that as a success??

That evening, we let Miley choose where to go for dinner and she decided she wanted Taco Bell (fancy, right?).  After dinner we came home, and Miley opened presents from family.  She was thrilled with all of her new goodies - a Rapunzel doll, clothes, a doctor kit, some play food for her kitchen, a LeapFrog Scribble Writer, a princess game for her Leapster Explorer, and some money.  She and Landon didn't waste any time playing with all of the new stuff!

It was a perfect day.  Miley got to have some fun with a friend, but we got to have a nice, relaxing evening with our family.  I don't think we could have asked for a better day, or a better 4 year old, for the matter!  Happy birthday to Miley!

Stay tuned for part 2!

 

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad, father-in-law, and baby daddy that a girl could ever ask for!  :)

We tried to make Cameron feel special on the day...letting him relax, and making him his favorite dinner.  Plus he got this little gem that Miley made for him (a koozie).

I am so thankful to have such great father figures in my and my kids lives!  We are so lucky!

And We're Heading To the County Fair

For the first time in the five years that we have lived here, we decided to bring out our inner redneck and check out the Hennepin County Fair.

It was pretty small, but was perfect for our kids.  It was only about a mile or two from our house, so it was easy to be able to go, stay for a couple hours, and get home quick.

We started out watching an "Agri-cadabra" magic show.  The guy doing it was pretty funny, even for Cameron and I, and the kids had fun learning about some animals, and food that is grown on ranches/farms.

After the magic show we made our way to the petting zoo area where we were able to pet and feed cows, goats, rabbits, pigs, etc.  Our kids definitely loved the pen with all the baby goats the best!

Then it was time for some rides.  Miley is finally big enough (and brave enough!) to do some rides by herself.  Poor Landon had to sit this part out because of being too small.  We started with the ponies...

...then made our way over to the carnival where we let Miley pick four rides to go on.  We must have picked a great time to go, because we never had to wait in line, and she was often the only kid on the ride!

All in all, it was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon (now that Cameron has his half-day Fridays for the summer...yay!!).  And now, we may be able to skip going to the crazy State Fair!

Every Now and Then...

I am always missing the Wyoming sunsets.  For some reason, it just doesn't seem like we get quite as many beautiful sunsets up here as the people in the mountains do.

But ever now and then we get some great ones.  And then we take pictures.  Because we just have to prove that we DO get some beautiful sunsets sometimes!

We Love Having Visitors...

...especially when it is Grammy and Poppa!

We were lucky to be able to convince my parents to come up here very last minute for a trip.  They have been very busy the last few months traveling, working on house projects, and helping my sister move and with her little family, so we were thrilled that they took the time out of their crazy schedule to come up and see us!

We managed to do the usual things while they were here...shop, eat at some good restaurants, shop, visit, shop, and just enjoy each other!  We squeezed in two movies, and a couple games, which is saying a lot for us on top of everything else we were doing.  They also got to visit a good friend who has been receiving some treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, so we are glad that they were able to take a day to do that.

In true Wendy fashion, I was a camera failure while they were here...as is usually the case when I am having too much fun!  However, one night while we were here we did a "pretend birthday" for Miley since they were going to miss being here on her real birthday by just a few days (don't mind the swimsuit in all the pictures below...she had just come in from playing in some sprinklers!).

The main reason we wanted to be able to celebrate with them was so they could give Miley one of her presents...her very first bike!

She was sooo excited, and is so thrilled to have a "big girl bike."  She has loved spending hours a day riding around our neighborhood, and mastering it.  :)

As always, the trip was too short (for us anyway!), but we were so happy to have them for the time that we did.  Now we are just trying to convince them to come up again sometime soon...maybe in the fall??  :)