State Fair

We did it...we came home from our last weekend at the lake this summer and got back into the car and went to the Great Minnesota get together - the State Fair. You'll see how many people were there in one of the attached pictures. It's all about the food so we enjoyed a soft pretzel and cookies for dessert. Maeve loved them! She had grilled chicken for dinner....probably one of the only things that we could find that wasn't deep fried. We enjoyed food from Holyland, a local Greek restaurant - falafels, chicken gyros, and a mediterranean lemonade (Kate's favorite thing at the fair!).

We also enjoyed time at West Battle Lake for the last weekend at the fair since we'll be heading to California next weekend. Maeve loved spending time with her Grandma and Grandpa Kirchner as well as riding on the boat, going for wagon rides, playing at the park and grilling in her play kitchen set. One thing that she couldn't get enough of this weekend was picking up all of the acorns that were falling off the oak tree.

6th Wedding Anniversary

This weekend we celebrated 6 years of marriage. We celebrated with family and friends all week long. Last weekend, we went to a new wine bar since we had live-in babysitters for the weekend! On Wednesday morning, we met up in downtown Minneapolis for a wonderful breakfast of crepes and coffee and last night we went out to a new restaurant where Eric enjoyed suckling pig and mussels, Maeve loved spaghetti noodles, and Kate had sausage and pasta. And to top off the week of eating and drinking, we celebrated 6 years since our honeymoon in Spain with Paella. Maeve loved it too - it had sausage, shrimp, and vegetables in it.

Enjoy the pictures of food as well as our fun dinner out with Maeve last night. We picked up dessert to go and were home by 7:30. Sounds like our life with a toddler!

Summer visit from Edmonds family

We did so much this past weekend since Grandma and Grandpa Edmonds, Anne, and Finn were visiting. Here are the highlights from the weekend that I'll share in words and in pictures:

• Backstage tour at the Minnesota Zoo - we were up close with the sharks, fish, sting rays, and eels. Check out the pictures where we were at the top of the tank where the divers go in. Finn loved every animal. Maeve preferred to keep her distance. Finn loved his first carousel ride but Anne lost her sunglasses on the ride! We saw a ton of mama and baby animals and a training demonstration with the brown bear


• Finn and Maeve played with clay, shopped at the grocery store, played in a rock band, and slid down slides at the Children's Museum


• Eric made a deep-fried turkey and there were almost NO leftovers. We hung out with Maeve's friend Charlotte and her parents, Craig and Meredith, where they experienced their first deep-fried turkey.


• We went swimming at Jan and Steve's and played with cousin Will


• Eric and Ed worked on house projects like hanging up diplomas in the office and building and hanging shelves in the basement to hold Kate's Chevron car collection


• Sadie turned 11 years old and we celebrated with Dairy Queen ice cream


• Had lots of fun on wagon rides. See this video of Maeve showing Finn her favorite thing to do when we turn the corner to our house after a night time walk  - 


• Swinging at the park- Maeve made sure that Grandma was having just as much fun as she was and demanded that she swing next to her


• Playing with the splash table and house outside and trying to stay clear of the bees that are everywhere!


• Exploring play dough and making fun things with it