cabin in the fall

 Dennis was so excited to ride in the cab of Grandpa's pick up.

 GORGEOUS!!! We picked the best weekend to go up to the cabin. September is beautiful in Minnesota. We had high's of 70 and no bugs and look at those trees! It is a slice of heaven.

 Grandpa got a new load of sand for the beach. The boys loved playing in the mound.

The boys going to do their WORK. They gathered fire wood from the woods. 

Randy also installed a great swing with a great view. The rope is so long that the swing goes really high over a hill.

 "Hi Owen. You can sit this close as long as you don't take my food."

 "What are you eating?"

 "I guess it kinda looks tasty..."

 "There. Is that easier?"

 model pose

 Auntie Grandma Starr rode up on her motorcycle. She is so cool.

 We attempted to go to church but we went at the wrong time.

 Zola helped Grandma sew James' Halloween costume HEMAN.

 Zola also liked the swing.

 We attempted to take a nap on the hammock but Dennis wanted to monopolize it when we were on it. One time we even fell off.

I just love these two best friends. Owen is 4 months and Zola 8 months even tho Owen is bigger. 

 They were so cute. They kept holding hands!

 Buster would get so nervous when we went out on the boat. He walked all the way to the end of this fallen tree!

 GORGEOUS LAKE! Don't you wish you could water ski on it? You can't even tell which side is the reflection!

I think I will spend every September at the cabin from now on. :)

september catch up

9/19- Zola at 7.5 months trying out her "new" hat. 

Mommy- Daughter time while Dennis was at school. We enjoyed the beautiful weather!

 Zola is pretty efficient with getting where she wants to go in the walker. She is getting very curious about things and we are needing to baby proof again. I have found this to be a little harder since we have Dennis around playing with little legos and cutting paper with scissors.

She is so proud that she got the crayons!

Dennis' school is 20 minutes away so we carpool with two others and then have a play date in the afternoon. When it is at our house we invite Eloise over because everyone LOVES her. Here is the group: Caroline, Stella, Eloise, and Dennis.

 What cute kids...

 Zola hasn't figured out how to crawl yet.

 I read somewhere that it is fun to take pictures of your kids in places that you frequent often but wouldn't think about it. Here we are in Target. LOVE that store. Zola just started riding in the cart without her pumpkin seat. She loves it... and people love looking at her... including me :)

 We thought we were done with watermelons but this bush was hiding one from us! We got 3 watermelons this year and they were delicious! We had too much so we gave one away...

I think he's got a green thumb.

One day Dennis said, "When I said stop, Buster didn't stop." Wanting him to understand that its important for him to stop when I say stop, I said, "How does that make you feel?" 

He said, "Gorgeous". That lesson fizzled quickly.

pink or blue?

Here is a picture of Dennis when he was 6 months old. 

Pretty close to this picture of Zola at 7 months.

It's a good thing that Zola wears pink.

balloon party

When I asked Dennis what kind of party he wanted, he said a balloon party. And, when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he said a watermelon cake. So, I found a recipe for watermelon cake that tastes like watermelon! It even had real watermelon in it! It was too sweet for me but it was exactly what he wanted. 

We started with a game where they ran around with balloons attached to their ankle trying to pop each other's balloons.

They had a blast. Every balloon had a starburst inside.

Then we did a pinata that Dennis and I made (mostly me because Dennis didn't want to get his hands dirty). We were concerned that it wasn't going to be tough enough to break open. We were wrong. All the kids swung at it and not even a dent. So, I tried but only dented. Ryan had to hit it open and he broke the bat. I guess I know how to make really strong paper mache in only 1 day and 2 layers.

Some other games that we played were balloon rockets and we made yo-yo's. It was a fun time. Then we ate pizza and cake.

Dennis with his bestie Elloise. Good thing I had those balloons on top of the cake because it was too windy to light candles. I brought twice as many balloons but something happened to them between the car and the party. A special 4 year old was in charge of keeping them safe.

Then we opened presents!

It was a good time had by all and we ended exactly on time.