Ellie day!

Before my nieces go to school, I like to treat them each to their very own special day! It's fun for them, and it really means a lot to me. On their day, they get to pick out whatever we do, where we eat, etc. So for Ellie day this year, she came to stay with us the night before, and first thing in the morning, she wanted to play dress-up - in my closet! She loves all things girly - especially my "fancy" stuff! Gavin even got in on the fun and put on some of daddy's clothes. Then we went to eat lunch at taco johns and headed to the beach for awhile. We got ice cream and hung out at the park after swimming. Then we headed to the spa for a pedicure. I did learn, that from now on Gavin will not be joining me and the girls at the spa - the spa really is not designed for little 4 year old boys - plus, it's much more fun if I can get a treatment too! I loved that she wanted Ellie day to last longer. My favorite part, besides all the one on one time with one of my favorite girls - was when Ell was running around the park yelling "This is the best Ellie day ever!" I think she enjoyed herself - but i really can't wait to do it again! Ellie celebrated her 6th birthday this month too. Happy Birthday sweet girl - we love you so much!!!!

cool clubs.

for Gavin's birthday this year, Bryan and I got him his very own set of golf clubs! He was so excited, and just like someone else I know ( ahem.... Bryan) Gavin has been obsessing over golf! He had to fill up all the pockets right away with tees, and balls and my old glove. He's so proud of them - and I think him and Bryan are going to have lots of fun next summer!

next....

We were able to have Gavin's birthday party at the lake again this year - and we had so much fun! Gav choose a pirate theme for his party - we even had a pirate flag, pirate hats, a cool cake and a pirate ship pinate - Gavin used the dock for his plank! He was so spoiled and got all sorts of fun stuff! He still talks about his party and how it was so cool! We were able to spend the rest of the week just relaxing at the lake. Gavin and Owen worked hard on learning how to swim - and they both were doing so good by themselves! Owen even jumped off the dock all by himself - granted there was no one around him at the time, and it scared the living daylights out of us - thank goodness his life jacket worked perfectly! What a little daredevil! It's hard to think that we'll have to wait until next summer to enjoy the lake again - oh please winter - go fast!

wow!

Whew - it has been a long time since I have blogged! We had such a busy August - and now it's nearly the end of September - slow down!!! I have a lot to catch up on! We started August by celebrating Owen's 3rd birthday! We had a party at his house and had tons of fun playing in the water and eating cake! That same weekend, Bryan, Gav and I went to Underwater World at the Mall of America and visited Nickolodeon Universe as well - which meant Gavin got to meet Sponge Bob and Patrick! He loved all the animals at the aquariam - especially the jelly fish and the sea horses. He picked out a few rides that he wanted to go on and had an absolute blast! He rode the kids rollarcoaster, the fly boat, bumber cars with dad, and the flume with me - so fun!

Gavin

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Happy Birthday little buddy!

Today my little Gavin turned 4 years old! He is so smart, so talented, so sweet and so amazing! He is everything that we ever hoped that he would be - and feel so blessed everyday that he was given to us! Happy birthday buddy - hope you had an amazing day! We love you more than there are words to tell you!

eventful day....

We had quite the eventful day today. We slept in this morning after a long night with the Hinderks last night. Gavin and I made a trip to the store to get donuts for breakfast - I was feeling lazy and that's what Gavin wanted for breakfast. We ate our donuts and juice outside and just had a little chat about nothing. After lunch with Bryan, Gavin had his very first dentist appointment. He did so well - they told me they wouldn't do anything that he didn't want them to do - well he let them do everything - clean, polish, examine, xrays and floride - $145 later, we walked out of the office with little shining teeth with no cavities! We stopped in the parking lot to talk to two very friendly policemen - they gave Gavin a badge sticker- which he thought was super cool. Then we made a quick trip to target, and stopped downtown to walk around the farmer's market. Gavin had a little boy make him a balloon sword, and I got some delicious homemade bread. I don't really need to go there for the vegetables, my parents have an awesome garden, and are very generous with their delicious veggies! We spent the rest of the afternoon just playing and hanging out by our little pool. While Bryan and I were grilling supper, I sat down on the deck to look at a magazine - Gav came out to sit by me and insisted that he had to put up the umbrella on the table. He got it part way up and stopped, put it back down and said... "there's something in there." I asked him what and he thought a little while and then said "a frog.... no - it's a raccoon!" I laughed and thought he was kidding. I told him he better get down because if there was a raccoon in the umbrella, it would probably bite him. Then he changed his mind and said "no - it's a rat." Now there was no way that I was going to look under that umbrella even if I did think he was kidding. We sat there for awhile longer and then Gavin went and got Bryan and told him that there was a raccoon or a rat under our umbrella. Bryan started to lift the umbrella up, thinking Gavin was just kidding. Then I saw it - at first I thought it was a big bull frog - but then Bryan yelled - it's a bat! I don't really remember what I did, but I might have thrown the chair I was sitting in and just tried to hide. I might have also screamed and startled the neighbor. Gavin hid under the table - a smart move I wish I would have thought of. That gross, nasty thing was hiding in my umbrella - yuck - I will never be able to open the umbrella again without thinking of it - I hate things like that! After supper, we headed inside and made some homemade cookies and now it's time for bath, books and bed. It was such a great day - minus the bat.