Pine Tree Apple Orchard

What is fall without a trip to the apple orchard? We spent a beautiful afternoon in White Bear Lake yesterday and came home with a big 'ol bag of Honeycrisp apples, absolutely delicious!

Somebody hated sitting on the hay bale, must have been too scratchy, no smiles for me here :(

We sat at the picnic tables and shared a snack.....an apple, of course! Henry was totally flirting with an older girl here, no joke, and it was not his mama!

Best part of the trip.....walking in and out and in and out and in and out of this dirty little house. Who knew?

Yum, the apple-ing process.

At last, we made our apple purchase. But how in the heck am I going to carry these to the car?

Here we go.....

Seriously, 6 pound bag of apples.....and sooooo proud!

back together again

The gang is back together again, yessss! That's right, another session of storytime at the library is in full swing, and Henry's lovin' it!

Here Henry is with his buddy from down the block, Ari, and another little girlie from the neighborhood, Arianna. They'll all be classmates together some day. Is that hand-holding I see going on? Or maybe it's toy stealing I guess.

Last week after storytime, Katie was in town and we all went out for lunch. Somebody was super excited:)

Now that's the double chin I know and love on my little string bean!

15 months

Today, the big man had his 15 month check-up with Dr. Sakkal. Here are his stats.....

Height = 32 3/4 inches = 93rd %ile

Weight = 23 lbs = 30th %ile

What a string bean (on that note, I wish he would actually eat a string bean once in a while.....veggies are not on his list of favorite foods by any means), tall and skinny! The doctor said he's got 16 out of a possible 20 pearly whites (baby teeth, that is), in other words he's got the mouth of an average 2-year-old! Apparently, those other 4 teeth typically don't come in until they're closer to 3-years-old.

Here he is stretching out after all those shots in his poor little legs:( 3 shots today, such a brave boy! Just getting ready for his afternoon nap.

All ready for his nap, favorite blanket in hand :)

Wait.....better check what's going on outside first.

Wait.....better sprint around my crib for a little bit too!

Ok, night-night!

Go Vikes Go!

Poor Henry was rooting for his Vikings today and they had to go and blow it in the 2nd half......again :(

Here he's showing us all that he would like more Vikings TOUCHDOWNS please!

Oops, he's got his sports mixed up, wearing Vikings gear and reading a Twins book with his Dad!

He was so mad after the loss today, that he tried ripping his Vikings shirt off and pushing every button on the remote trying to turn the tv off!

On a better note.....how much fun is it when you can put your feet up on your bike and dad just pushes you around on it? Let me tell you, it's tons of fun!

Baby, it's cold outside

Brrrrrr, it's cold outside this morning! We had to dig out and dust off Henry's hat and mittens for our walk.

Flashback.....this was just about 1 year ago on one of the first cold mornings, all bundled up in his bear-suit :)

What is this.....the first-day-of-school photo? Look at him posing on the front porch! We'll call this the first-day-of-cold-weather photo instead.

Henry has made quite a bit of progress in how he treats his mama's flowers this summer. We started the summer with him grabbing and pulling off every flower he could get his little fingers on, and now he likes to "smell" every flower he walks by, such a gentle soul! Sometimes I think he might forget how and try to "smell" the flower with his mouth wide open (as you can see below) and other times he knows just how to do it and gets that cute little nose in there and takes a big sniff! I had to get a picture of the last of my summer flowers today, as we're supposed to have frost tonight!

South Dakota

This past weekend, we hit the road to SoDak and had the opportunity to be a part of an extremely special event. We ran the Sioux Falls 5K Miracle Challenge, in which all monies raised went to the Children's Miracle Network. The Krump's were on Team Tiny Miracles, a team constructed by some very good friends of ours who had to deliver their twin girls far too early. We got to meet their beautiful little baby named Kailey (who just turned 1 this week) and honor her twin sister, Breley, who passed away. Go Team Tiny Miracles!

It's take a lot of creativity to pass the time of a long car ride :)

Henry got to meet a new little girlie-friend named Paige and they had quite a swim date together. Poor Paige looks like she can't get far enough away from our handsome Henry and Henry looks like he's loving her!

What a beautiful day we had for the 5K run. Henry and I strolled through the course together while Phil tried to keep pace with his buddies and Senator John Thune (Phil was so bummed I didn't have the camera to get a pic of the two of them).

After the run, our friends had a great BBQ at their home. They had a beautiful ceremony where we all released a balloon in memory of their little girl Breley and for many other beautiful little babies that are up in heaven with her. Purple is the color to raise awareness for premature births.

We headed back home after the BBQ, of course making a few stops along the way:) This boy loves his steering wheels!

We made a quick stop at an apple orchard for a snack, some apple streusel, delicious!

Sunglasses.....check, cell phone.....check, coffee mug.....check!

Livin' on the edge

.....and by livin' on the edge,  I mean playing in the water table without a swim shirt or swim hat on, woah, I know, crazy!  Hopefully that silky smooth skin didn't get a sunburn today.  We figured we'd go wild as it may be the last day we play with the water table, with it almost being the middle of September and all.  Oh, what a fun summer we've had!      

 Who needs a sippy cup when you can just drink right from this purple toy-thingy, right?

So busy.....the game of choice today was this.....transfer water from the water table to the bucket, dump that water on the ground, laugh, repeat!  It was the best!

What?  Are you serious?  Is summer really over?  Nooooooo!

monkey climber

Dear Finley, 

Thank you very much for letting me borrow this toy for the past few months.  When you said you had a blast with this toy, you weren't jokin'!  Much to my dismay, my mama told me today that apparently when you can climb in and out of it by yourself, it's time to put it away.  I've thoroughly enjoyed the Baby Einstein tunes and will miss them dearly as well.  You're the best, can't wait to take you out for an ice cream cone :)

Love, Henry