Here we are, almost halfway through June already! This has been a
very busy month for us, but it has been a really fun start to our
summer! Hope everyone else is enjoying the great weather this year and
getting out and about with family.
We have been frequenting the Willmar Stingers baseball
games (we have Season tickets since Nick is the Official Stingers
Dentist!), and we realize that with the arrival of Babe #3 not far off,
we need to hit the games while we can. Thankfully, Ellie is a big fan
of attending the games (of course, I'm sure the hotdogs, treats, and
watching the new Stingers mascot, Barry the Bear, have added to her
enjoyment of hanging out with her parents at the games!). Victoria does
not last nearly as long at the games as she's far too interested in
climbing around on everything, but we try to stay as long as we can,
even if it only means a few innings before we have to head home and put
her to bed.
The Kandi Mall hosted a carnival to
celebrate the end of the school year for kids, so we were able to check
that out with Grammy and Papa one day as well. Both girls have no
reservations about rides, so we are thinking that a trip to Valleyfair
at the end of summer will be imminent. In fact, both girls rode the carousel 3 times and
cried each time they had to get off! Ellie was even adventurous enough
to try a mini-rollercoaster with her dad. She, of course, picked the
front seat of the coaster, and despite a very serious look on her face
during the ride, she had a lot of fun and wanted to go again.
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| Nick and Eliana on the crocodile rollercoaster. |
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| Ellie enjoyed the motorcycles. |
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| Ellie took Victoria for a little drive in the cars and once V loosened her grip on the car, she had lots of fun "steering"! |
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| Grammy, Ellie, Daddy, and Tors on the carousel. |
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| We started Ellie on the most boring ride (a train) to see how she'd handle the rides. She wasn't impressed, but was begging to go on more! |
We've
still been taking many walks around the neighborhood these days, though
I have been more hesitant to go with so many contractions happening.
But if we do all go, we've been very fortunate to see many of the
turtles from our marsh laying their eggs. It's been an interesting
science lesson of life for Eliana. She has no hesitation about going
right up to the turtles and "petting" them, but we also have many
snapping turtles in our area and have had to remind her that she is not
allowed to touch them unless mommy or daddy are with her and say it's
okay. While on our walks, Victoria has recently started ditching her
car in favor of walking/running after her sister. While it brings a
smile to our faces that she loves and looks up to her sister so much,
chasing after her is almost a losing battle for me these days!
Thankfully, Nick has been great help with the girls and I can count on
him to race after one (or both) of them if they get too near something
they shouldn't.
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| Victoria loves being chased and I was thankful her Daddy was able to catch her! |
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| Ellie watching one of the painted turtles laying its eggs. |
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| Mommy and the girls out for an evening stroll. |
Lastly, both Eliana and Victoria
started swimming lessons this month! They attend two nights a week at
the YMCA. Ellie, our little waterbug, LOVES her lessons and is always
looking forward to them. She has a hard time getting out of the pool at
the end of class. Her one downfall with the lessons is that she has
needed several reminders from her teachers that there are times when
she's not allowed to get into the pool - there are 6 kids in her class
and though she isn't the smallest, she is the youngest and sometimes the
bigger kids are allowed to slide into the pool and hold onto the edge
while the teachers are working one-on-one with other students. Of
course Ellie feels the urge to follow (and thank goodness she can climb
in and out of the pool easily!), but she is instructed the she's
supposed to sit on the edge until the teacher comes back to her. We are
working on that, but we are just so thankful that she loves the water
so much!
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| Eliana (white swimsuit) at her first swimming lesson. |
Victoria is in the Mommy/Daddy/Me class, so Nick
gets to swim with her while the teacher instructs them on different ways
to get the kids comfortable with the water and to trust whoever is
holding them. Her first class wasn't the best experience as she
screamed the first half, but to be fair, she was still recovering from
Hand/Foot/Mouth Disease and wasn't feeling 100% yet. Her last few
classes have gone MUCH better, though, and she really seems to enjoy
being in the water, though I doubt she will ever be as much of a
waterbug as our Eliana!
