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| Ellie practicing her Princess wave. |
What a great weekend for Willmarfest Celebrations this year! With my sisters and brothers home for the weekend, we got to participate in a lot of fun activities together. We may have to make it an annual thing to have everyone home for this weekend in June. We were able to participate as a family (minus mom, who decided that sleeping in sounded like more fun) in the Foot Lake Four Race. It was a four mile race around the lake. Nick and John were the only ones that actually participated by running, but Dad, Steve, Amanda, Heather, and I all "walked" it and still made it in under an hour. Those that know my dad will understand why I put "walked" in quotations - he is a speed walker, for sure! I thought that was pretty good being that I hadn't had much exercise since having Victoria.
After the race, we took part in the annual fireman's pancake breakfast at the fire station. Yummy! What a great reason to finish a race. I got to see several of my former classmates during the events as well and thought that was kind of fun to see some people that I hadn't seen in over 10 years.
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| Everyone waiting for the parade to begin! |
After the pancake breakfast, there was the Willmarfest parade. Bev and Daryl (who had been watching the girls for us during the race) brought the girls and my mom met us there as well so we were able to enjoy the parade together. It was on the cooler side, but still pretty enjoyable. The only downfall was that there were only a couple of marching bands that participated this year. Because of budget cuts, many schools no longer have marching bands and we all thought that that was quite unfortunate. :( We did, however, score greatly on the candy handouts! Ellie just lured them in...
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| Jonikka & a very tired Ellie watching the fireworks. |
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There was a Willmar Stingers baseball game in the afternoon, but with the girls' naps, we decided to forgo that activity. We did, however, manage to make it to the fireworks that night! We had to wake Ellie up for it so she was a bit out of sorts, but she did seem to enjoy them. As soon as they were done, though, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Fun times!
Is it true? It can't be! But yes, Victoria is already 3 months old! My baby is getting so big. Far too quickly in my opinion. Victoria is such a sweetheart, so full of smiles. She wakes up just the happiest baby in the world. She is a little night owl, but once she's asleep for the night, she does so well and really enjoys sleeping late in the morning. Sounds nice, except Eliana is our early to bed, early to rise toddler. Guess you can't have it all, right?
Victoria sure has been growing nicely! Amazing, since she is still a terrible spitter. It's surprising that she keeps enough down to maintain her weight, let alone, continue to gain! Guess breastmilk really does do wonders! She is such a long kiddo, though, that she looks to be about 5-6 months old! Nick and I are pretty sure that she will be over 6 feet tall if she keeps growing as she does. That's what happens when you have a 6 ft tall mama, and a 6'5" tall daddy! We love you, Toria!
There is something about our bed that Ellie has always loved. I just can't explain it. But lately, especially, she has begged to play on our bed in the evenings before bed. This has led to some pretty fun family times of "tickles and tackles". It basically consists of rolling around all over the bed (with all 4 of us on it - though we have to protect Victoria a bit), then tickling each other until we are all laughing, and then playfully tackling each other. It sounds completely ridiculous, but I have to say, it has been some of the most fun evenings we've ever had! Ellie's giggles are so extreme that we've had to enforce breaks throughout the fun to calm her down so she doesn't make herself sick. Toria is a bit too little to join in the tackling part of the fun, but she has had her share of smiles on the bed as well. But her favorite thing to do - snuggle into mommy's pillow!
