Pinatas have come a long way!

One of Lillian's requests for her 4th birthday was a Pinata! We were able to go to MI for her birthday this year to also celebrate my mom's birthday, which is only 2 days before Lillian's. The first step was for her to choose a pinata, which was a task because of the variety!! She decided on a Disney Princess Castle. And, then the cool thing about this pinata was that you didn't have to hit it with a big stick to break it open! Instead, there were a bunch of strings on the bottom where one string would open the trap door that would let out all the candy! I didn't know how it would go, but it was fun to watch the kids each pull out a string to see if the candy would come out! Even a little bit suspenseful!! I think Lillian was pretty pleased at the whole thing:)

State Fair 2009

We had a lot of fun at the state fair this year!! Since the girls are older, we lasted 8 1/2 hours this time!! We were all pretty worn out by the end! The girls did the little farm hands exhibit again. They did kids rides, which they loved!! We ate a bunch, and the highlights were cheese curds, a peanut butter cup shake, the apple cider freezies, the chocolate rainbow ice cream, the dole whip, and fries (that's what I can remember!). We also made it on the Kare 11 news at 4 by just sitting in the audience! It was a lot of fun! Also, after making it to the fair many years, one thing I had never done was ride the giant slide! That was my goal this year, and I did it! Going down the slide was so much fun!! Hannah also loved it, but Lillian to our surprise didn't enjoy it that much. Maybe she'll like it better next year!

My first 5K!

Last week I did something that I really thought I would never do! I ran a 5k! I never thought this would happen, cause I am actually not really a fan of running! It's hard to run for long periods of time! A couple months back though, I started going on the tread mills at the Y to change up my routine. It took me weeks to even get up to running a mile straight! Then I moved to running on their indoor track. And running a mile here or there. Then some girls asked me if I would be interested in a 5k. Since starting to run a bit, I thought maybe I would try one at some point, but didn't know if I could do it so soon! The two girls who asked me to do this particular 5K also went camping at Lake Elmo, so we all went for a run together. It felt like we went forever, and it was only 2.25 miles! Then over the 4th of July in MI, Bill and I went for a run and went 3 miles. I ran two, then walked for 1 tenth of a mile, then ran the rest. So I figured that it could be do-able to do the 5k.
It was an experience! The race was right in down town Minneapolis. Hundreds and Hundreds of people ran! We started in the middle, and at first it was even hard to get pace, as we were passing people, and people were passing us! Andy, who was also running with us, even stopped to get cheese curds!! And then caught back up with us! At first it was kind of fun, with all the people, and the excitement of running, but then it started to get tough! I was glad to make the one mile marker! It was really nice to have Bill and other friends push me to keep going! We made it to the bridge we had to go over, and I was really wanting to stop and walk, but I kept going!! Then we got pretty close to the finish line and my feet were even starting to go numb!! But Bill and Andrea told me to keep going! I'm like, "but it hurts!!" But they were like, "you can do it!" And finally, I crossed the finish line in about 38 minutes!! I ran the whole entire thing, and didn't even stop once to walk!! It was a very tough, and very fun experience! I can now say I ran a 5K! I'm not sure if I'll do one again, I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Dance Camp

This past week Bill has had another week of Mandatory unpaid leave, so we decided to sign the girls up for a dance camp, since he would be around to help get them too and from! The girls LOVED it!! It was for 4 days, 2 hours a day, and was through Spirited Feet. They learned dances, and had story time, craft time, and snack time. On the last day, the last 15 minutes of the time, they performed the dances they had learned! It was so fun to go see!! Hannah did a wonderful job, was serious about getting the moves right, but also was having fun!! Lillian was cute! She new most of the moves, but got distracted by the fact that there were people watching her! I was so glad we were able to do this for them!

More camping!

This past weekend we got to do our second camping trip of the summer! This time we just went to Lake Elmo. We got to camp in the modern camp ground, and that was cool! For the first time in our marriage, we camped where there was running water and flushing toilets! 4 other couples came, and three other children, two of which were babies both under 6 months of age. The weather was nice, as it didn't rain at all! Hannah enjoyed riding her bike to the near by park. I got to go for a run with two other women, and I also went for a bike ride. The girls waded in the water, as the water was still pretty chilly! I pretty much stuck my feet in and said no thank you! There was lots of good food, fellowship, and campfires! It was a fun weekend!

Easter Candy!

So, when it comes to holiday's, and the candy associated with them, Easter is by far my most favorite Holiday candy. There's just something about chocolate in the shape of an egg! And all those pastel colors just scream "eat me, eat me!" My favorite would probably have to be the reece's peanut butter cup eggs....Yum! I like the milk chocolate solid eggs, the mini cadbury eggs, lipstick eggs(malted milk robbin's eggs), and the milk chocolate eggs with the shell. Now, there are some Easter candies that I don't perfer! Like jelly beans are just not my thing. Also, Peeps! I just don't understand them! They are really cute to look at for sure, but sticking one in your mouth is just not good! Especially if they have been sitting out!! I don't understand how that makes them better! All and all though, it's just a yummy time of year!
I hope you all have a very Blessed Easter!!
He is Risen, He is Risen indeed!

I finally opened it!

So, remember that huge, 5lb Hershey bar I got back a couple months ago? Well, I finally opened it! I brought bars to my niece's baptism, and I decided to make Hershey oatmeal bars so that I could put this huge candy bar to work!





It is so big!!


We put a dollar next to it just to compare!
So, what will I do with all this chocolate you may ask?! Well, I used a tiny bit for the bars. I tired some, and it was really yummy! Some has been sitting out on the counter. Also, I made up three zip bags full and put them in the freezer! Maybe I will bake more with it. And, we are going camping a couple times this summer, so I see a lot of smores in our future!

Putting them together

These are some pics of getting the beds together.

Last Week

Last week Bill had to take a week of mandatory unpaid leave. Usually when Bill has time off, it's because we have plans, or we are going on a vacation. This time we planned to stay home since he wasn't getting paid. The week seemed to go so fast! We got to go to the zoo, work out together, watch Wall E for the first time, get errands done. It was also nice, cause some friends provided us with meals too, so I didn't have to cook much! So, although his next check will be smaller, it was a blessing to have Bill home for a week. I think he needed to be able to sleep in a bit! He has two little videos on his blog at the moment. One called An Early Spring Bike ride, and Lilly's birthday blizzard, which you will have to scroll down a bit to see. You should check them out by click here:)

Dorothy Day

This past Saturday, with our five oaks small group, Bill and I were able to help out at the Dorothy Day center in St. Paul MN. This is the first time that I have ever done this! It was a neat experience. We had to help make the meal, and then serve the meal to homeless people. I got to help with the baking, which was a lot of fun! We made chocolate chip cookies and biscuits. The mixer was huge!!! I don't even think it would have fit in my kitchen! And, the quantity we made was crazy! Just to make the cookies we used 25lbs of flour, 9 lbs of chocolate chips, and 12 cups of butter, plus a 3lbs can of shortening butter! We also made about 770 biscuits! Thanks to Pam and Steph for babysitting! And, if you are interested, Jeremy made a cool slide show video of pictures. Click on the link if you would like to take a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y_e8iDRRc0&feature=channel_page

A fun investment!

So, we were able to get Wii fit. It's been a lot of fun so far! They weigh you, and give you a BMI. You can set goals, and they track everything for you! They have Yoga, Strength training, Aerobic exercises, and Balance games. You can even go for runs! You just run in place and your mii runs through a scenic path! Hannah is pretty good at the running, and Lillian is really cute when she does it! She kind of doesn't get the whole running in place thing, so we often have to tell her to back up from the TV. There's a lot to unlock, so it will be fun to keep playing!

A really fun and relaxing weekend!

So, Bill and I had the wonderful chance to go to the Bethlehem marriage retreat this past weekend! Our friend Andrea encouraged us to go, and then volunteered to watch Hannah and Lillian for us! What a blessing! The retreat was at a hotel and conference center in Chaska. A very nice place to get away! The speaker was great! It was wonderful to not have to cook the whole weekend! We got to play racket ball, have wonderful conversations, and play games with other couples. It was just a really nice and relaxing time for Bill and I to spend together.


They had a sweet heart banquet where they encouraged people to dress up a bit. This is what we wore.

A Cool Thing we got to See

This morning we were driving to a brunch at our church, and as we were coming down 35E in Eagan, we got to see a really pretty rainbow. Bill said that it must have been an ice rainbow, since of course it was not raining, and it was really cold out! It was fun, cause some other people at the brunch said they saw it too. And, we found out that it is actually called a Sun dog. I wish we would have been able to take a picture, but a friend looked it up on Wikipedia, so here's the link if you wanted to check out what one was in the scientific terms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog

A first for Lillian!

On Saturday afternoon we got to take Lillian to her first movie at a movie theater! We all went at saw The Tale of Despereaux. It was a pretty good movie! I'm not usually big on movies about mice and rats, but this was OK. It was all about heroism and truth and being noble. And both girls enjoyed it. It was fun to see Lillian sit in her booster seat eating popcorn and watching the huge screen! She is growing up!

Checking it off my list!

I, as I am sure that many other people do, have a list of stuff that I would like to do in my lifetime. I so far have been to a couple of Detroit Lions games, a couple of Detroit Tiger's games, and a Detroit Piston's game. Going to a Detroit Red Wings game was still on the list!
For Christmas we asked Bill's parents for Wild tickets, so they graciously gave us the money to buy tickets for when we wanted. We were looking online, and the Red Wings were going to come to town to play the Wild this past Saturday or in February, so we decided that we would try and go in February when they came. But then cool things started happening, like someone calling and saying they wanted to take the girls over night. Then we had to try and find tickets, which online they seemed really high priced. So, we randomly tried Craig's list. We found someone selling their two season tickets at face value. And they were willing to drive to West St. Paul to drop them off! And, they were 8 rows up from the ice! And, we avoided all those ticket fees! So, we very excitedly went to the game on Saturday night. It was a fun game! It went into over time, and then into a shoot out! The Detroit Red Wings won by one goal! Couldn't of asked for a much better game! It was so much fun to see Detroit too, and now I am able to check it off my list!

Another Really Nice Date!

Last week our neighbor called. She has been a waitress at Kinkaid's in Downtown St. Paul for about 10 years now. She said that she was able to invite two guests to come and have a free dinner, and she wanted to know if we wanted to go! We were honored! So last Thursday we went there for our first time. It is a really nice place! And, where we were sitting, we could see all the lights at Rice Park.
The food was wonderful! We split and appetizer, which was brie coated in panco bread crumbs, with macadamia nuts, and a honey and balsamic vingear glaze. We spread it over cibatta bread, and it was yummy! Bill had some clam chowder soup. Then for dinner I had the sirlion steak, and Bill had the prime rib. Both were excellant! Then for dessert!


This was the turtle cheesecake! It was heavenaly, and may have been the best turtle cheesecake that I have ever had!


This was their burnt creme. Their version of creme brulee. This was also amazing! So good infact that we polished off together, and took the rest of the cheesecake home to finish later! It was so light and creamy!
It was a wonderful dinner, and we were so blessed to have our neighbor think to invite us! Thanks Gen!!

A Very Nice Date

Last Friday Bill and I got to go on a very nice date! We decided that we would just go to downtown St. Paul and see what we could do. There was this restaurant that Bill had always wanted to go to, so we decided to go there. It was called Pazzaluna. We split a margarita pizza and a caesar salad. Both were delicious. Then since we split a meal, we were able to try the chocolate gelato with chocolate sauce! It was very yummy! FYI, the pictures are from a cell phone.

Then we went and walked through rice park to see all the lights. Very beautiful.Then we kept walking and ran into the Well Fargo Winter skate rink. It was free to skate and rentals were only $2, so we decided to skate! It was very fun to skate out doors. The whole while we were out it was snowing very beautifully. We would stop on the ice rink and look up, and with all the huge buildings surrounding us, it felt like we were skating in a snow globe! We skated for about 15 minutes maybe, and then kept walking. Our last stop would be this really yummy candy shop downtown called Candy Land. I got a turtle, and Bill got some black licorish candy. It was such a nice time!

One of the Best things I've Ever Received!

I just have to say that Aunt Bea Rocks! She goes to Hershey PA every year on business, and says that sometimes she smells chocolate in the air! How cool is that? But a sad thing happened this year. She found out that the Hershey factory is moving to Mexico! How crazy is that! How sad! Anyways....in past years she has brought me back some pretty cool stuff, like the world's largest Hershey's Kiss, and a big Hershey bar with my name written on it. I didn't think you could top those things! Although, I think the thing she brought me this year takes the cake by far! The World's Largest Hershey Bar! Check this thing out!


It's so huge! 5 luscious lbs of pure Hershey's chocolate!


There is 50 servings. If you do the the math.....there is 240 calories per serving. So, if I ate the whole thing by myself that would be a whopping 12,000 calories! I haven't opened it yet. I need to wait a bit, cause when I open it I know there is no going back! But don't worry, I won't eat it all myself! My two little girls wouldn't let me get away with that:)
Thanks Aunt Bea!

A Good Movie!

Last week Bill and I got to go see the movie Fireproof. It was a very good movie! And I would recommend it to anyone to go and see it! Just maybe bring a kleenex:)

check it out....

http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/

A Very Fun Date!

Bill and I got to go the Water Park of America for free! It was fun to check it out. For a hotel water park, it seemed pretty big. It wasn't as big as an outdoor water park, or anything like that. It had a group slide, two inner tube slides where you could ride single or double, and then 3 body slides, two of which were closed. It had a big kid area in the middle, which we didn't check out cause our kids weren't with us:) They had a pool, a wave pool, a lazy river, and a surf/body board wave. The group slide was so much fun! It felt so long, as it would weave in and out of the building. It was really cool when it got darker outside! We also rode the inner tube slides a lot, which were also fun when it got dark, as they weaved in and out of the building as well. I wasn't too big on the body slide, cause the space was kind of small, and you didn't know where you were going to end up! The two inner tube slides also ended up right in the lazy river, so that was fun. We also had a good laugh, cause Bill wanted to try surfing. After watching him not be so successful at it, my guess is that it's a lot harder than it looks! He was able to laugh about it also, so that was good! And at least he tried it, cause I did not! It was a very fun date, and we were both glad that we got to check this water park out!