President's Break - MOA

To think we traveled up to Minneapolis only to attend the Children's Museum would be silly.  While the museum was fabulous and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, no trip to Minneapolis would be complete without a trip to the Mall of America (MOA)!

The following story goes to show that you shouldn't speak to soon:  I was bragging to a coworker the week before our trip, that our girls have really never showed any interest in riding any rides at the MOA.  For those unfamiliar with the MOA, it has a pretty incredible and pretty chaotic amusement park in the center of the mall.

My coworker was astonished that we got away without having had to stand in long lines and battle the crowds.  She wanted to know my secret.  Fast forward now to our trip to the mall.  One of the very first things out of Quinn's mouth as we entered the mall was, "Mom, Dad.... can we ride on rides today?"  Ugh!  Ryan and I tried to blow it off, claiming we would see how things go.  Maybe a generic answer would yield Quinn forgetting about it.  Not so much.  Now the girls were partnered up in trying to sway us into riding the rides.  Quinn even professed that she only wanted to go on one ride.  

Deal, I thought!  One ride.  We can do that.  Compromise accomplished, or so I thought.  Turns out you can't buy tickets for just one ride.  Long story short, we ended up with lots of tickets and lots of opportunities to ride on rides.  Thankfully after two rides, the girls were tired of waiting in lines and the thrill of the amusement park wore off!  I was happy to discard the remaining tickets and start the true purpose of being there - shopping!  

Here is Sullivan and Quinn on the first ride - Diego's Bus.  

It looks as though the woman behind Quinn and Sullivan was riding the ride by herself.  It looks odd that a grown adult would choose this ride to go on alone.  However, I can attest that she does have a young child sitting on the other side of her!

The next and final ride, a hot air balloon ride.  Ryan even joined the girls on this one!

After the riding was done, it was off to the American Girl Store.  Ryan was less than enthused, despite the excitement of both of his girls!  

Quinn even brought her doll, McKenna with us to do some shopping.  

Quinn had never been to the store before and was more than overwhelmed by the two stories of shopping experience the store had to offer. But all in all, Quinn loved the store.  Sullivan loved it more!  After a couple of trips inside the store, a decision was finally made about what to buy!  Decisions, decisions!  (More to come on this later!)

One final highlight of the MOA trip.... the Lego Store! The girls enjoyed browsing through all the Legos and walked away with a set of Legos to bring home!

All in all, a great trip to the mall.  By the end of the day, we had two very different young girls and one very tired big girl!!!  Shopping tends to do that to us!

President's Break 2013

With a few days off of school, we decided to hit the road for a quick getaway.  We loaded up the car and took a road trip to Minneapolis for a couple of days.  It was the perfect getaway - not too far away, but far enough to feel like we are on vacation.

We spent the first day at the Children's Museum in St. Paul.  It had a lot to offer for the girls and filled an entire afternoon of our time.

So after we got to the museum, they had a live animal presentation.  Turns out it was a "Rat Rendezvous" presentation. After the museum worker shared her bit, she invited everyone to come up and pet the rats.  Quinn quickly refused, but Sullivan was more than intrigued.

It took her awhile to warm up to the idea of petting it, and she held back from the crowd for a bit.  But eventually she got up the nerve to approach the rats and even petted one of them.  She seemed to really like them!  I told her to not get her hopes up high for a future pet around our house.  We will NOT ever, I mean never ever, own a rat!

They acted like monkeys swinging from the bars and climbing on the rock wall.

Sullivan drove the bus, while Dad and Quinn took a ride.  It was a pretty bumpy ride!

Somewhere along the way, we came across a couple of very cute turtles. 

They found an arts and crafts center and Quinn created a bug headband and Sullivan color a couple of very darling pictures.

Quinn came across some crutches in the medical clinic and just had to try them.  Graceful would not be a term I would use to describe the endeavor.  Let's just hope that she will never have to really use them!

As you can tell, we had quite an afternoon.  A great way to spend the day - exploring, playing, being adventurous!! 

Valentine's Day...

To show just how much the girls love their daddy, Quinn and Sullivan created a very special Valentine's day gift for him.  

They picked out the color of their hand prints, the font for the words and the period of time depicted on their masterpiece.  It was truly their original work.

Sullivan chose to depict her love for her daddy in days....

...and as you can tell she has loved her dad for 1,404 days!

Quinn chose a much different unit of time - seconds!

The number of seconds she has loved her dad... 214,876,800!!!  Holy Cow!

And keeping with that theme... and because I was curious, it turns out that Ryan and I have been married for 4,219 days (although my love for him is many more days than that)!

Tuttles the Turtle

Meet Tuttles the Turtle...

You may be wondering who Tuttles is?!  Tuttles is Sullivan's classroom stuffed animal pet.  He takes turns spending the weekend at each child's house, playing and experiencing life with each family.   Sullivan was the last to have the opportunity to bring Tuttles home, which means that Tuttles has visited 10 other people's homes.  My inner OCD says "Yuck, Yuck, Double Yuck!!" A stuffed animal full of germs and gunk - eww! But Sullivan was SOOOOOO excited to bring him home that I embraced Tuttles and welcomed him into our house!

It turned out to be a fun filled and great weekend with Tuttles.  There was a lot of cuddles, a lot of playing, and a whole lot of fun!

Tuttles watched Sullivan coloring... he even jumped into the markers!

Tuttles traveled to Nana and Papa's house on Friday night for pizza night.  Sullivan made sure he was safe in the car - keeping him secured under her seat belt the entire time.

He enjoyed hanging out with everyone and enjoyed the great pizza too!

Friday night, Tuttles snuggled in close to Sullivan for a good night's sleep.  Sullivan was ecstatic to have him sleep with her!

On Saturday, Tuttles got to meet more family members.  Judson and Crew came over to play and thanks to Sullivan, had the opportunity to meet Tuttles!  Here are the girls and boys eating lunch with him!

On Sunday, Chef Sullivan had the opportunity to serve up some turtle food to Tuttles using her Lego Cafe.  I heard Sullivan is quite the chef.

As you can see... we had a blast with Tuttles this weekend.  After a weekend filled with fun and activities, we glued her pictures into the journal and shared our fun experiences with her class. Sullivan is SOOO excited and so eager to have Tuttles back at our house soon!

Holding Hands

On our way to dinner tonight, the backseat of our car was eerily quiet.  There was no fighting, no arguing, no squealing, no giggles, no anything.  I looked outside to see if there was a full moon to explain the eeriness, but to no avail. 

Then I turned around to ensure that Sullivan and Quinn were both still alive and awake.  And when I turned around, this is what I saw:

The girls were quietly sitting there, holding hands with one another.  Melt.my.heart!!

It doesn't happen often that they are affectionate toward each other in the car.  The car seems to be the place where the fighting ensues or the silliness reigns.  I will take this sweet, sweet side of them while I can!

Squished...

For whatever reason, this picture got lost in the Christmas photos and never made it to post.  

But it was just too cute not to post....

All us ladies - Gma Jane, Auntie Mer, Quinn, Sullivan, and I - along with the little boys ventured out to do some shopping around the holidays.  Poor Grandma Jane got stuck in the back of the van with all the grandchildren.  She was a busy lady, but judging by the picture, there is no place she would have rather been (I think!).