Weekend Fun

My friend Brianne had a LuLaRoe party at her apartment about an hour north of our house on Saturday.  I finally got my first pari of leggings from them and am excited to try them out!  Chelsey was back in town from New Jersey so we took the opportunity to get together for dinner.  I worked in the morning, so I brought Esme with to give Jimmy a little relief.

Esme and Dani

We headed out to Jimmy's Pour House.  I couldn't convince them that I knew "Jimmy."

 There was a table next to us celebrating a birthday and Esme locked eyes with the cake.  The other table was watching her and we started talking.  It turned out the guy's birthday was the day after hers!  Then they offered her a little slice and of course I said yes!  I fed her with the fork to avoid a big mess, but she was loving it!

 They had a big list of beers on tap and the food was delicious!  I got an appetizer combo of boneless wings and potato skins (which were really just quartered potatoes!)  I am not a big beer person, but I tried Shock Top Ruby Fresh and it was so good!  I see it is in season from Feb-April, so I may have to go track it down soon.

 Sunday was pretty chill.  Esme wore one of her new dresses to church and we checked out Powderhorn Park in south Minneapolis in the afternoon.

 An ice cream truck came by so we all shared a Hawaiian Punch Bomb Pop.

The weather turned cold and icky, so I am glad we got out when we did.  It might even snow this weekend!

Church Bowling Night

Our church is moving to a bowling alley.  Pretty fun, huh!?!?!? It has been a pretty dead place for a while.  We thought for years that it wasn't even open until we figured out there was another parking lot.  Our church hosted a bowling night there before we take over and demo it all.  The worship team played family friendly cover songs and we packed the place.  The few regulars that came were shocked at how busy it was.

Jimmy was still recovering from allergies and a bad cold, so he stayed home with Esme and I went bowling with Parker.  We went one other time and had a lot of fun.

 I had to hold his hand most of the night or he would try to run down the lane (and succeeded once!)  We got on a lane with our friends Caleb, Cindy, Russell, and Paul.

 It was slow going, but we made it through a whole game (after bedtime) without any major meltdowns.

It was a great way to honor the history of our new church home.  I look forward to sharing the transformation with you later this year!

Easter 2017

We had a great Easter this year.  It was Esme's final first holiday since Easter was before her birthday last year.  I totally spaced on baskets for the kids and ended up at Walmart at midnight...  They ended up getting some pretty great stuff.

 After church we had lunch with Jimmy's parents, sister and our niece.

 It was a gorgeous day and we got to spend lots of time outside.

 We headed over to my parents mid afternoon.  We dyed eggs, went for twister rides and had dinner.  My brother, sister-in-law and nephew joined us as well.

It was a great day celebrating family and the Resurrection!  He is Risen!

Girl's Day

I took Friday off to spend the day with Esme for her birthday.  We originally planned to go to the newly renovated children's museum, but the opening got delayed a couple months.  So we kind of went out without a plan.  First stop was breakfast with dad at work.

Then we went to Como Zoo and Conservatory.  It was a little chilly and a lot of animals were still in for the winter.  It was still a fun first zoo trip for Esme.

Our next stop was lunch with Nana.  We went to a Chinese buffet.  Esme didn't eat any, but it was yummy!

I picked up a donut for her to "eat" after dinner.  I may have helped a little, but I think she enjoyed it!

It was a great girl's day and a great birthday!

Esme June - One Year Old

Esme is one year old today.  She finally started crawling on her knees this month, can sit herself up and is pulling to standing on a regular basis.  Just last week she also started cruising along furniture, so walking shouldn't be too far behind.  She is sleeping really well, but occasionally fusses a little when we first put her down.  She can easily be soothed with a pacifier when she stirs in the middle of the night.

She weighs in at 21 lb. 12.5 oz. (78th percentile) and is 30.5" long (90th percentile.) We switched her over to mostly 18 month clothing.  We still need to get some more pajamas, but then we will be set for the summer.  She is still in size 4 diapers during the day but we are using size 5 at night.  We started transitioning to whole milk a couple weeks ago and are just burning through the last of the formula.  She usually has 4 bottles per day and is eating 3 meals. She has gotten a little better with self feeding snacks, but doesn't do well with most foods yet.  We've tried so many sippy cups with no success, but she did start drinking from a straw in the last day or two.  She still will not pick the cup up, but has never held her bottle without help either.  

She is getting very vocal and makes several consonant sounds.  She has said "mama" and "dada", but we aren't sure they are directed towards us.  She has started clapping for us when we ask her to and when we do it.  12-15 months is usually when imitating activities start to rev up, so we will be looking for that as well.  We are waiting for the rest of her 1 year pictures to come back from the photographer and I will share those when I get them.  Here is a video of all her weekly pictures, which shows how much she has grown.

 She's been obsessed with the blocks for weeks, so I stopped trying so much and just let her play.

Esme's Circus Birthday Bash!

We invited everyone over for lunch immediately following the dedication and planned her party at 2:00, to which more people were invited.  I borrowed an elephant costume from my friend Cindy and it was perfect for her invitation.

We had a nacho bar, fruit, chocolate cupcakes and funfetti cake.

I saw this on Pinterest and knew it would be perfect!

There was a threat of rain leading up to Sunday, but it held out until after the party.  It's always nice to have the outdoor factor in play for a big party.

It took me months to decide on a cake design.  There were so many (complicated) possibilities and I just wasn't up for anything too crazy, so a circus tent it was.

Esme was our Ringmaster and needed something that fit the role.  I made her a dumbo first birthday onesie with heat transfer vinyl, a tutu with tulle and ribbon, and a top hat head band.  She was ravishing!

Over 20 people joined us to celebrate her birthday.

She got so many great gifts.  Several outfits and dresses for summer and lots of new toys.

I didn't want her to destroy the dumbo shirt, so I made a separate one for the cake smash.

She dug in right away, but it was pretty slow going.  As mentioned, she isn't much of a self-feeder.  I helped her break it open at one point, but she got her share of sugar.  Here is a shortened video or you can scroll down to the pictures.

We are so grateful for everyone that joined us and made Esme's day the best!