July Recap

We are pretty behind on July happenings, so we will just condense them all here :)

We visited Blackberry Farm in Aurora, and had a lot of fun! Evelyn loved the pony ride, and the train was also a hit. 

We spent the Fourth of July with the Nelsons, because Uncle Frank was in town! Annalie had a blast rearranging the rocks in Grandma's garden--Maggie the dog enjoyed eating them.

She put herself in here.

Evelyn invented some game involving "Bad Guys" (Grandpa Wally and Maggie) and running back and forth through the yard... 

The game also required a lot of "making plans."

The following weekend, Auntie Kirsten was in town! Annalie was a big fan :)

Amazingly, a family photo!

Look who else showed up!

Evelyn is OBSESSED with mermaids right now. This is her homemade tail, made from a pair of my old pajama pants. 

Backyard fun... 

Minnesota Trip

We had a great trip to Minnesota! 

On the way there, we stayed a night at Great Wolf Lodge in the Dells. It is about halfway to St. Paul, and was a great way to break up the long drive. There were zero pictures taken of our fun in the water... Suffice it to say, everyone enjoyed themselves. Favorites were the wave pool and the splash pad areas. Evelyn even went under the gigantic bucket! She also thought it was pretty cool that we shared a room.

Evelyn and Hadleigh (2 years old now) playing on the neighbor's swing set

Annalie has a new love for dogs! 

 Yes, Magnus really is this big

We went to the beach...

Evelyn loved playing in the water. She went all the way in up to her chin--we still can't convince her to go all the way under.

Annalie fell asleep as I was holding her and we were walking in the water

The girls had fun playing together at the house. Well, there were a few issues with sharing and headband snatching, haha. Despite their differences, they still wanted to play with each other pretty much nonstop!

Here's smarty pants writing her H's

Wagon ride

Evelyn opened up an "ice cream shop" between the dining room and patio. Hadleigh was an eager customer.

Shucking corn with Uncle Dave

Bubbles!

Whatever this game (run by Auntie Tessa) was, it kept these two busy and laughing for quite a while.

Thanks to the Johnsons for hosting us! 

New Hair!

Someone finally got her first haircut.... and an ice cream cone to boot  :)

Before

During--she did a great job!

After!

Dance Recital

Earlier this month, Evelyn had her first big dance recital!
We couldn't film the actual program, but we were able to record at the dress rehearsal. Below are Evelyn's ballet and tap routines. She's on the far left...

After the routines, the ladies headed over for their photos. It will be interesting to see how this group shot turns out... the nice photographer wasn't too specific with posing instructions.

Annalie Grows Up (video)

Each month during her photo shoot, I took a short video of Annalie. My hope was to put them all together to have a time-lapsed movie of her growing up. I don't think my filmmaking skills will be sending me to Hollywood anytime soon, but I'm happy enough with the video :) 

Everything Birthday!

We had a great week celebrating Evelyn's 4th birthday!

Birthday morning--Annalie is practicing her "look at all those presents!" face.

 Finally the birthday girl woke up! She was pretty excited about her big tin of cheese popcorn.

Elsa shoes were also a big hit

Birthday donut!

Evelyn had dress rehearsal for her dance recital that evening (more on that later!)... Afterwards, we all met at the train restaurant for dinner. 

On Saturday, after her recital, Evelyn's grandparents, Auntie Maureen, and Uncle Dan all came over to celebrate. 

 She loved all her gifts--an Anna doll (to go with Elsa), new clothes, two play tents, two hula hoops, two unicorns (next year the Grandmas might get different wish lists, haha!), a camera and roller skates!

Evelyn requested chocolate cupcakes :)

On Sunday we had the easiest "friend party" ever, and invited our neighbors over to play and have hot dogs. We are so lucky to live by such great friends! 

New bike! She's slowly getting the hang of it.

 Evelyn had such a great birthday that she is already asking when she will be 5.