Libby's Third Birthday Party

We had Libby's third birthday party this past Saturday at a place called the Java Train. It is a neighborhood coffee shop that caters to Mom's and their children. We rented the downstairs party room for the morning. I can say this without prejudice, we had seven of the cutest girls EVER, all in one place. Last year, Libby was very bemused by her birthday, and never got that it was about her. Trust me, she got it this year! :) She loved every single minute of it. We did a princess pinata for the kids to smack at. It's a lot harder than it looks. I loved having it because I think it is great to show kids they can have fun, wait their turn, and cheer their friends on-all of which happened. Even our littlest ones, Amelia and Chloe, took a couple of very nice whacks at it (with a little help from moms). Turns out the best thing about the pinata was playing "tether ball" with it after it had been busted open. The "sticker the tail on the donkey" game went much the same way, but I had to laugh that when I told Libby to put the tail just where Merlie's is, she chose to put it on the nose! But the hit of the party? Running from one side of the room to the other and hiding behind a curtain there and then running back across again, screaming at the top of their lungs. It was high entertainment that must have gone on for almost 1/2 hour. Libby does not quite know how to "whoo" when blowing out candles, so luckily, her friend Lexa was there to help her blow out the candles. All of the presents were so lovely and thoughtful. It was so nice to have everyone gathered together and to see the smiles on all the girls faces, but mostly that of my almost three year old, Libby. Happy third birthday, our little love and light of our lives!

Been too long!

Why I try to post once or twice a week! I use my blog as more of a diary than anything else, and everyone is welcome to read it, or skip to the pictures. I hate when I have so much to catch up on. Summer has blown by. Heck, the years have blown by. Eric and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary on the 17th. We have Libby's third birthday on the 27th, but are celebrating on the 22nd. Then, BAM, summer is over. Thank goodness for the State Fair!

Libby had her three year check up. She is 38 inches tall and 30 pounds, putting her at 70% and 50 % respectively. She is doing just great. What a trooper when she had her three shots, I was so proud of her. She has 20/30 vision in both eyes, which is where they want you at three, so that is great.

We have had such a busy summer between play dates, vacations, and a few classes. We had Libby's final little program for her toddler tumbling class. I recommend it highly to anyone in St. Paul. Miss Amy is a wonderful teacher and somehow controls a class of 3 and 4 year old's with no mishap. Libby was the youngest in the class and it was clear she did not always know what was going on, but she always did it with a smile. Found out that Miss Libby can do perfect sommersaults, which we had never seen. Libby was supposed to attempt cartwheels at one point. Miss Amy had this to say, "Why those are the most hopping cartwheels I have ever seen!". Will just say we have to work on the cartwheels...We went to Rena's after wards, and there are pics of our bathing beauties also attached.

Tenzing's birthday was Sunday. Libby and the T-Man had not seen each other in over 8 days, so they could barely contain themselves. We had a lovely afternoon. One of the items in the gift bag was a balloon pump and balloons. Let's just politely say that Eric took over the launching of balloons so that the children would not get hurt-yeah, right.

We had a rough night last night. Libby was up several times and Merlie was completely tweaked out by the storm. I am very tired today, but almost happy it is raining, as I am a slug and do not want to leave the house.

Getting very excited for Libby's birthday party on Saturday. How the time has just flown by. I still cannot get over listening to her and her little friends talking to each other. Annie was over the other day, and I heard such incredible dialog. "Annie want me to push you in swing?". "No, I swing by myself". "OK, want to play in the sand box?". It's so cool.

Tornado warning in effect, so off to the basement.

That's So Naughy

Yep, "that's so naughty" has become Libby's catch phrase for anything and everything, whether it fits or not. When it does not, I completely crack up into giggles, and then she says it over and over again.

We had a lovely dinner at Colleen and Doug's on Saturday night. Molly, our guide from China looks exactly the same. We were happy to hear that she married (by civil ceremony) and will be having a traditional wedding this fall in her husband's village. It was also nice to meet David Pan, the man who makes your arrangements for travel and hotels when you are in China. A pleasant addition was Vivian, who is a guide in another province. We had many laughs. Molly was so sweet and brought both Jai and Libby a kite. Libby and Jai played together the best they ever have and it was wonderful to see. They only had a few skirmishes, where as before, that was pretty much all they had. We have noticed Libby's interaction with other kids has changed so drastically this past month. Most of her friends are within two months of each other, and they all seem to make the big leaps around the same time. I love listening to her when she is talking with Jai, Tenzing and Lexa.

We went to MOA yesterday to see Kai Lan as part of the Toddler Tuesday series. Lexa and Rena met us there. Neither girl would get near the poor person in the Kai Lan suit, but both enthusiastically did the dragon dance. Libby and Lexa are terrors together. They seem to bring it out in each other. There were two very tired mamas who finally left the mall :)

Libby seems to be the one amongst her friends who is really shooting up. Her shoe size went from a 6-1/2 at the beginning of summer to an 8! She has grown probably an inch taller, yet her weight still hovers at 30 pounds. I do have to brag about how silly and funny she is. She makes me laugh just about every day. Her smile is so big and open, I just love to see it on her face.

We are looking at doing an addition to the house to increase the size of Libby's bedroom, get a pantry and also a very coveted closet. Our first contractor came over with plans yesterday. I am shocked to say, Eric actually liked them! We are waiting to get bids from several others and will then make the big decision; add on, or move.

A gorgeous day here, and we are off to enjoy it with other moms and kids.

Family Vacation Up North

We had our family vacation with my side of the family this past weekend. We met up at Eagle Ridge, part of the Lutsen compound. When looking for a place to fit all of us, I also looked for places that would be teen and toddler friendly. This turned out to be a great place. Our one bedroom faced Moose Mountain and had a nice size balcony off of it. Loved the view each day. The alpine slide, gondola to Moose Mountain, and swimming pool were all located nearby. All of the kids, plus adults, seemed to have a great time. The weather report had said it was going to be in the 60's and rainy, but we lucked out and had weather in the 70's and only an occasional rain shower. Otherwise, the weather was just lovely. I had brought sweatshirts that never saw the light of day :) Grand Marais, one of our favorite little towns, turned out to be having their Dragonboat Festival that weekend. We went into town Saturday to watch the races in the harbor. Got to skip rocks and watch a few of them. When it started to rain, darn if we did not have to duck into Sven and Ole's and have pizza! That afternoon was our family cookout and we had a beautiful spot by Lake Superior, or Gitchee Gume, as Eric taught Libby to call it. Again, the weather was on our side and we had a fun afternoon of jarts, Frisbee, eating and laughing. Just as we were calling it quits, the wind came up and the rain came down-what timing. Most of the family left on Sunday, but we planned to stay until Tuesday. We took a lovely canoe ride on the Cascade River. This was provided by our hotel for free. Had a young and very funny college student give the tour. Libby did not enjoy it much, but I do not think she liked being in the life vest they provided. It was pretty big and restrictive. However, the next day we took a drive up past Grand Marais and went hiking at Devil's Kettle. Libby was awesome. She rode on Dada's shoulders on the way to the falls, but when we got there, she walked the 176 steps down, all the paths and the 700 feet up to the next observation deck. We were pretty proud of her. Eric had promised her a "magic pic-a-nic" somewhere on the lake, but it was raining like crazy at this point. Found a spot, the clouds parted, we had a lovely lunch, made it back to the car, and it started to rain again. The North Shore is one of our favorite spots and Eric is already talking about going back there next year for another vacation. Gee, I don't even have all the clothes from this one washed and put away yet! :)

We had a great time, but are happy to be home again. Had a call from my friend Colleen, who is waiting word to travel back to China to get their little boy, Shen. The guide that most of us had while in China, Molly, is in the US and they are having her to dinner Saturday night and invited us. We are thrilled to be seeing Molly again. Words do not come close as to how much more than a guide she is to us parents when we are in China. I hope she will remember us and be amazed by Libby. Libby had been the smallest, and I will admit it, most whiny, in our group. She is now so strong, funny, and independent-not the little barnacle Molly would remember.

Trying to get back into the routine of things, and one of the things that makes me saddest is that Libby gets up again at 6:30. The whole time Up North, she got up at 8:00 at the earliest. We loved it.

Aaaaaahhhhh, vacations and the price we pay for them!

Princess Libby

Trying to play a little blog catch up while doing about 100 things. We leave Thursday for a family reunion with my side of the family. We have each rented units at Lutsen's Eagle Ridge complex. It is gorgeous up there and we are looking forward to seeing family and then having a few family days together after everyone leaves on Sunday.

In other news, I had a girlfriends weekend a few weeks ago. It was far too fun and I laugh just thinking about it. Eric took Libby to the Dragonfest that day where they met up with Leeanne, Ron, and Ellie as well as many other families. The pictures with the little girls in it are from this event.

Our friend Michelle's daughter Malia had her 3-1/2 birthday about a month ago and it had a "princess" theme to it. Libby had not known what a princess was, but was quite mesmerized by the dress-up dresses, princess watch in the goody bag and everything else. She still has not seen any of the Disney movies, but points out the princesses everywhere, because, well, they are everywhere. A friend had given us winter pajamas with Cinderella on them and Libby now insists on wearing them every night (good thing it is cold here). She told me at Target the other day that she wanted the princess cake and pointed to the one on the counter. I am just flabbergasted by such devotion to something she knows nothing about. Mind you, I am not rampantly against it, just gobsmacked at how she has glommed to all of them. I guess we are having a princess themed birthday this year :) Thank you to Michelle for the lovely photo of Libby in the Mulan costume.

We had our first carnival on Saturday. Libby, Tenzing and Ellie shared a little car that went around the tracks. Ellie, the thinker in the group, became upset about the idea of the car going off the tracks. I can pretty much assure you that Tenzing and Libby never would have thought of this. Libby smiled as if her face would break in two and waved and waved. I think she is ready for the good ol' Minnesota State Fair that is just around the corner. Thank you Leeanne for the photo of the kids in the car!

July 4 Pics

We had a very fun and low key July 4th, We went to St. Anthony Park for their annual parade. Only locals are in the parade, so it is very, how shall we say it, small town. No big marching bands and fancy floats here, no sirree. There were jug bands, people pushing their push lawnmowers, people riding unicycles etc.. and it ends with the neighborhood kids riding their decorated bikes. We love it. Everyone winds up at a park where old and young hangs out and picnics. We met Tenzing and his parents for the parade and then ran into a whole bunch of other folks we knew. The little blond in the pics is our friends Josh and Sarah's daughter, Nevellie. She is one of the few who can keep up when Libby and Tenzing are together. (She also eats her sandwiches from the inside out) The one pic of Lib feeding Tenzing cake cracks me up. Heather and I just looked at each other when she did it. No, we are holding off on planning the wedding....for now :)

After naptime, we had a great time at a party at our friend Molly's house. Another laid back, but oh, so fun time with friends. Libby now looks at me hopefully each day and says "party tonight?".