Independence Day

We stuck around here for the HOT holiday this year (noticing a theme this week.....HOT), took in a parade, and hung out with friends.  All in all, great day (minus the HOT part)!

We went to Forest Lake for their 4th of July parade.  FYI- this parade has been going on since 1924 and has never once been cancelled due to bad weather!  Check out this super cute, little old man driving the tractor, love his umbrella too!

Henry, sporting a sticker for his 6th district of MN congresswoman.

When asking Henry - what's your favorite part of the parade?  His response - "fro more canny" (throw more candy)!

"Big" high school lacrosse boys, whoa, really "big"!

The highlight of the parade, a bus!

After a long nap, we headed over to the Hausmann's for our annual 4th of July BBQ.

Ok, I cannot stop giggling over these pictures :)  He may look like he's in a terrible panic on the way down the slide, but he couldn't wipe the smile off his face or stop clapping after landing in that nice & cool pool at the bottom.   Pretty soon he'll be doing flips down the slide, like his new buddy, Tommy!

After a delicious dinner, as always, onto the main event, FIREWORKS! 

(Good idea Henry, better hold on to that Anna's hand just in case you get scared.)

Thanks again, Hausmann's!

100 degrees

What's a boy to do when it's this hot outside?

First off, we froze a dozen little animals in this huge ice block, then Henry had to break them free!

He almost has his first escapee.....red horse!

Yeah, red horse, you're free!

Working so hard, getting so sweaty :)

After going inside to cool off, this is what we saw when we returned.

Next up, painting!  

I do love trying new paint recipes - this one was corn syrup, dish soap, and food coloring, pretty easy.

Next, Henry got to bust out a birthday present (yes, I still have a couple more on reserve), LOVING his "choo-choo's" (train set) from his great-auntie, Jackie!  Apparently I should have waited until Phil got home to teach him all the names of the cars, oops, I thought the engine was the "caboosh" and then the "caboosh" was the passenger car, my bad.

Lastly (yes, to spoil our dinner), a quick trip to DQ for some "ice coom" cones, such a treat on this hot, hot day!

Minnehaha Falls

On this HOT-HOT-HOT morning, we got going early (crazy, I know, the Krump's up early? what?), stopped for coffee and carmel sticky buns at Isles Bun & Coffee (if you've never been, you need to check it out, delicious), and headed to Minnehaha Falls to see the falls and catch up with Phil's buddy, Brian, and his dog, Dylan (Henry was a big fan of Dylan).    

Yep, Henry's pointing out where exactly those beautiful falls are.

"In, in, in" he kept saying, wanting to go swimming :)  Luckily he got his swimming fix in later in the day when we headed to the beach.

Why is a bacon & eggs shirt so darn cute on a little boy?! 

What we've been up to this week.....

Let's see.....

splash pad

beach (it's like his own mini construction site "dig, dump, dirt")

park ("more slide")

turning lights on & off & on & off (he can reach the light switches now, yikes)

Burley-bike rides

fawning over the construction site across the street ("man working")

water table on the deck

homemade popsicles (frustrated him more than anything when the fruit was frozen inside the popsicle)

wagon rides

making the big switch from whole milk to 2%

playing at my Oma's house

Lucy's birthday ("sheven")

reading books

StoryTime at the library

coloring (very minimal, I might add)

trucks, trucks, more trucks ("play outside")

shopping at Target

art projects (5 minutes, maybe?)

jello (as you can see below, we thought it would be cool to eat jello out of Little People blocks)

and one good lookin' haircut!

whew, the boy's been busy this week, can you tell he LOVES summer!

art project vs construction site

We decided to bust out Henry's new 'painting smock' for our afternoon art project today (after a full morning of the park, splash pad, and the beach with Henry's buddy, Harrison).  The plan was to make bubble paint, which of course I found on Pinterest!  All you do is put food coloring in bubble solution and then blow the bubbles onto the paper to make some beautiful artwork :)  As you can see here, all is well, we're making art!  And check out that fancy bubble blowing gun, too!

And we've had enough!  Take this paint smock off and give me my front end loader, please!

Come on, how can I possibly come up with an art project that would compete with THIS going on across the street.  Yes, we have our very own construction site right outside Henry's bedroom window, the boy was pumped (to put it mildly) when that excavator showed up today.

When the workers left for the day, all I heard the rest of the night was "more man (that's what he calls the workers), more dump, more fill, more dump"!  

Definitely his fav right now.....construction sites!

A picnic & puppets in the park

The Shoreview Puppet Wagon was out in full force on this past Monday evening, and a beautiful evening it was.  We enjoyed a picnic at Bucher Park while catching a puppet show (or "papa show"), super cute!

Henry got to meet the "actors" after the show.  Here he is, wondering where all his furry little friends went?

Well, we liked it so much that we have July's Puppet Wagon performance marked down in our calendars, I wonder if it will be the same cast?

The big 0-2

Henry's actual birthday was this past Sunday, aka Father's Day as well!  We headed to Stillwater for the morning with Grandma & Grandpa Olin and Sonja too.  

First stop, Teddy Bear Park of course!  I think he ran, literally ran, for 45 minutes straight :)

More water, more water!  So parched on this hot day :)

Starving now!  Must have snack.  Must sit with Daddy on Father's Day!

Then we hit up Leo's for lunch (they claim to have "the best burgers in the valley", and boy would I definitely agree; and the malts/shakes = deliciousness).   Henry's choice for his birthday lunch.....a hot dog and mandarin oranges.  Chowed it all down, just couldn't get enough.

Check out the super cute dessert they brought the birthday boy!  

We had the big 2-year check-up at the doctor's office today.  Here are the stats.....

Weight 26 pounds, 12 ounces = ~50th %ile

Height 34.5 inches = ~50th %ile (Dr. Sakkal didn't believe this measurement.  He asked me, "Was he, how do I say this, 'uncooperative' for his measurement?"  Of course he was squirming around!  The doctor said, "He's always been tall and skinny and he still looks tall and skinny to me."  So his guess was that Henry was more like in the 90th %ile as in his previous visits.  Apparently, the height of a child at 2 years can predict their height as an adult.  The doctor believes Henry will be 6ft, 1in - we'll wait and see :)

Head Circumference 19 inches = ~50th %ile

All in all, no concerns from the doctor.  He asked me if Henry eats his fruits and vegetables.  I told him that he would eat fruit all day long but veggies are a no-go.  He said, "We don't tell the kiddos this, but as long as they eat fruit & meat and drink their milk, we don't care" so that sure made me feel a little better!