Sledding

We took Maddy sledding a couple of weeks ago for the first time. She went down a few times with daddy then was ready to go by herself. Here is a video of her solo flight:

First cup of hot chocolate , yummy

CNY #2- Toddler Tuesday Celebration @ Mall of America

This was today's fun event at the Mall of America. They had some crafts for the kids, yummy snacks & a Lion Dance was the highlight of the day. Most of the kids were scared of the lion, but enjoyed the drum music. Maddy danced her little heart out to the music, which was very cute.

A quick snuggle with Daddy before things kick-off

Sadie & Maddy playing with Legos early in the day @Legoland

Charlotte in her cute Chinese outfit

Tracy & Charlotte working on their activity

The Lion works the crowd

Ava, Hope & Olivia checking out the goods

CNY Photos #1- Party at Rivards

This was from the party we attended on Saturday at the house of one of the local Red Thread families. There were at least 20-25 kids with syblings & parents. All the kids loved the play house they had in the basement, I think at one point in the evening there must have been about 10 kids piled in there. We had such a great time that we were one of the last family's to leave. Here are the photos-

Danika (one of the newest edition) & Olivia

Maddy's funny face

Our attempt to get a group picture

Playing in the supercool playhouse

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Blessings to you & your family as we enter the year of the ox. We went to a really fun CNY party on Saturday & will be going to another one tomorrow at the Mall of America (Toddler Tuesday). I'll post pictures from both events tomorrow.

Craftiness

With winter in Minnesota being in full swing, I've been trying to spend a little more time on craft projects (scrapping & card making). I have gotten a few new fun tools & stamps, one are these cute Asian themed stamps I picked up at Archivers-

The other tool that I just bought, which I am starting to love is the Cricut Expressions Machine:

I was really not planning on buying this machine since we have a small house & my crafting space is limited, but it was a great deal from an Ebay store & it came with 3 cartridges & free shipping. Also, I was able to buy a couple more cartridges for $38/ea which is a steal compared to other prices I have seen.

The main driver behind getting this machine was Matt. We stumbled upon the infomercial one night (which I had seem before) & he was like 'man we need to get that machine!' His main motive though is creating stickers & decals for hi motorcycle. I am really excited to attend my next crop night so I can use the machine & share it with friends.

Birthday Party for Brianna

We got together with Maddy's travel group (minus 1 due to sickness) to celebrate Brianna's 2nd birthday today. Her picutre is above. We had a lot of fun including decorating mini albums & picture frames. Maddy was much more interested in getting her hands on the markers rather than using the foam letters & stickers to create a masterpiece. She had a great time digging thru the bowls of stickers to pull out all of the ladybugs.

I was also amazed that the girls stayed so occupied with the Play dough that they received in their goodie bags. Part of it for Maddy was being able to play with the plastic scissors since she's always getting told 'no' when she goes after Mommy's scrapbooking scissors. Quote of the night goes to Matt for sniffing the Play dough while saying- ' Ah, the sweet smell of childhood.'



I wasn't camera ready for the cake & singing, but here are a few pictures from the event:

On the way to the party- is this a sign of things to come?

Patra & her daddy having cake

Ava playing with Playdough

Maddy & Mommy working on decorating her picture book

Daddy reliving his childhood vicariously through Maddy's play dough

Happy New Year & a trip to the zoo....

I want to wish you all a very happy & prosperous 2009! We had a quiet evening at home for New Year's Eve. Today, we met up with one of Maddy's travel group sisters at the Minnesota Zoo. It was a chilly day for a visit, but we managed to stay inside & ride on the monorail so we dodged the cold.