Farmington Fun

It only took us 6 years to get into the Farmington's hometown festivities, a.k.a. Dew Days. Today the girls and I checked out Family Fun Day, which involved snow cones, lots of games such as; kid bowling, bean bag toss, pull a rubber duck out of a pool...all the classic games! All of this fun was free! Let me tell you, this stay at home mom is really getting into free activities, I even double discounted my coupons at Rainbow Foods last week, but that is an entirely different post. Enjoying the wonder of sugar juice on ice.
Animal balloons! yup, those were free too!

A little sister love while we wait in line for our next game. Take note of the bouncer in the background. Elsie LOVED it! Margot freaked out, which required me to scramble into the bouncer to get her. It was not a pretty sight...I was wearing a skirt and pulling a freaking out toddler out of the bouncer. I'm sure everyone in line got an eye full.

Summer Cut

Drum roll please...Elsie had lots of her hairs cut this weekend. Here she is with her sassy new hairdo.

Here's how the family is reacting to this sudden change:

Elsie - "I'm a short-haired Tangled princess now!"
Anne - I'm excited to have back 30 extra minutes of my life each week. The upkeep of Elsie's long hair was getting a little much for me.

Margot - Less hair to pull and play with, so I'm guessing she's not a fan.

Sören- He'll be patiently waiting for her hair to grow.

S'mores Disaster

Well, just when you think you know your kids you make the rookie mistake of giving them a sweet, delicious s'more, expecting them to go crazy with delight. When in reality I almost went crazy listening to Elsie and Margot whine about how messy/sticky this classic summer treat is. After we assured the girls it's ok to get messy, hey it can even be a little fun, they decided to take a breath and dive into their treats and yes, they loved themself a s'more. Elsie's enjoying a second helping.
Margot feeling uncomfortable about the mess. I don't know what this girl is worried about...she is a mess every time she eats!

Here is Elsie's first reaction to a s'more. Priceless. (good thing there's no video. all you would here is me sighing and saying it's no big deal)

A Trip to the Windy City (edited)

The Erickson crew took our show on the road last week. We drove to Chicago on Monday and spent three days enjoying the windy city. We made a pit stop in Wisconsin Dells on Thursday and enjoyed waterslides, card games, and adult beverages with my sister and her family.

Soren here, chiming in (all blue type is me) w/ my 2 cents as an edit to this post after it went live. You see, I'm of the opinion that this post isn't Anne's best work. She agreed, and asked me to chime in. One thing to note: It's not entirely Anne's fault if her original post was lacking. Margot is acting like a full-fledged 2-year-old this week, complete with crazy tantrums and Elsie rarely takes naps anymore (read: naptime is Anne's prime blogging opportunity). So if Anne is off her game, we can hardly blame her.

Chicago lived up to its windy city reputation when we were there. Soren had to chase after two hats. Elsie spent lots of time hiding in the stroller. Not the most compelling photo, but certainly tells the story. What's with the twisty leg in the upper-right corner? Oh, that's me. Nevermind. Might be time to teach Anne how to crop photos ...
Don't blow away Margot! In case you were wondering since Anne neglected to inform you, this photo was taken at Navy Pier, where we spent half a day keeping the girls busy inside because the wind was intense the threat of rain was imminent. Somehow, we spent about an hour looking at an impressive collection of stained glass ... WTF? I guess all that NPR is turning us into a new brand of weirdo ...




Margot being super silly in her pack and play. Both the girls did surprisingly well sleeping at the hotel. Although the city noises, especially police sirens, were a little troublesome for E. Nothing to add here except Margot is crazy ... usually in a good way.

Family dinner at Gino's Pizza....yummy deep dish pizza. I have no idea why Gino's Pizza is highlighted. I asked Anne and she doesn't know either. I asked her if she tried to link to the Gino's Pizza website. Her answer, "No, but that would have been cool." See, totally not on her game with this post, right? But, you get what you pay for ...

Picnic lunch while we were on the road. I didn't mean for this picture to get on the blog post, but here it is and I can't figure out how to delete it and I'm running low on my patience and time, so you get to see this random pic. You know what else you get? Random, inconsistent spacing before and after photos, inexplicable centered text from time to time, etc. It might be time for us to upgrade our blogging software. Wait, what was I saying about "you get what you pay for?" Nevermind.
Anyway, other things we did in Chicago: Went swimming daily in the hotel pool, ate Chicago dogs and Italian hot beef sandwiches in the hotel room, learned that takeout in the hotel room is much less stressful than bringing a 20-month-old to a restaurant, taught a 3-year-old that it's not just OK but actually a really good idea to learn how to go to the bathroom during long road trips away from home. Oh, and we spent the better part of a day at Shedd Aquarium, which is awesome. But you'll see none of that here. Not because we don't have photos. But rather because we're not going to post them. Always leave 'em wanting more ... that's our motto, I guess.

Easter Festivities

We spent Easter Sunday with my side of the family and had an egg-celent day. (man, I am so bunny, I mean funny!) I admit that I stole this way too cute bunny cake tradition from my friend Katie's family. The kids had so much fun decorating and eating the cake.
Margot looking marvelous! (and on a sugar high)

Elsie and Margot digging into their treats from the Easter bunny.

Surprise visit from the Easter Bunny (aka my cousin). Margot is so excited she can't even open her eyes.

A Work of Art

We went to an Easter Carnival a few weekends ago and waited very patiently to have Elsie's face painted. Elsie loved the butterfly and had a tough time taking a bath that night.

A Stranger in the Night

Last week I woke up to Elsie screaming and as I walked to her room I prepared for lots of different scenarios such as: a nightmare, upset tummy, needs a glass of water. It turned out a box elder bug had made its way onto Elsie's bed and was taking a nap on her special pink blankie. I have to admit that this is a great reason to scream in the middle of the night, poor lady. It took about an hour of stories and being on bug patrol before she was back to bed. The next morning she came up the stairs and tells me "Well mom, I think that bug might have been thirsty and was looking for a home." Life isn't as scary when the sun is out and now we were ready to make nice with the bug. So, here's Elsie making a home fit for a bug:

yes, she has a tutu on with her jammies, makes sense, right?