Swimming and Snuggling and Saturday Rides

My work recently launched a corporate partnership with Lifetime Fitness.  They subsidize a portion of the membership fees if you go at least 10 times per month.  The subsidy can also be used for a spouse and children.  We are all signed up for a very reasonable out of pocket expense.  We can also get up to $40 more credited from insurance if we each go 12 times per month.  The club closest to home only has a lap pool, but we can take the kids to the leisure pool in Plymouth or Maple Grove.  We have already been twice and I hope to take them at least twice a month.  They also have an outdoor pool that will open this summer.

 I forgot our water camera the first time we went, so I only took the picture above.  Parker surprised both of us by going down the waterslide.  He's gone up a few stairs at other places, but never taken the plunge.  Now it's one of his favorite things.

 I quickly learned that I would need to go with him up the slide to make sure he waited to get the ok.

We never really got Esme a birthday present.  We have very generous friends and family, so we often wait until after holidays or birthdays to get them things. She's had a Paw Patrol Skye TY plush for quite a while and got Marshall one for Easter.  She's been obsessed with both of them since then, so we completed the set by getting Everest, Zuma, Rubble, Chase, and Rocky.

Jimmy unboxed them earlier in the afternoon, then we let Esme open them later.  She was so excited!

 She always knows if one is missing and likes to carry them around the house.

 We kicked off Twister ride season this weekend as well.  It was still a bit chilly, but summer is coming!

Easter Weekend

We had a fun and relaxed Easter weekend.  We went to the Crystal VFW fish fry Friday night.  We did this with my parents a couple years ago and decided to try again. This one was closer for us and had much better parking.  All of us agreed it was a great meal too, so it may become a new tradition.  Esme brought along her new friends, chicken and bunny (she's very literal with naming.)

The kids shared a chicken tender plate and we enjoyed fish, baked potatoes and coleslaw.

I worked Saturday morning, but Jimmy took the kids out to an Easter Egg Hunt near my parent's house.  Parker isn't nearly as competitive as his peers and Esme was on the young side of her age group, so the pickings were slim.  Esme was still able to snag some cookies and Parker got a chocolate bunny.

Parker even snuggled up to the Easter Bunny.  This one is less creepy that some that I have seen.  He was really intrigued by the teeth!

I threw some baskets together last minute (like, went to the gym at 6am, then stopped at Hy-Vee before coming home last minute.) They each got some Peeps, a Kinder egg, bouncy balls, and a plush toy.  I got them all dressed up for church and we hit the road.  Esme looked so grown up.

We lunched with Jimmy's family followed by dinner at our house with my family.  The only picture I got was of Esme playing with her cousin, Emma.  

We hope you had a great Easter with family or friends.  He is Risen!

Happy Birthday Esme!

While we had a great time partying last week, Esme's actual birthday was Sunday.  We went to church, played outside, and had a special birthday treat.  She has really enjoyed throwing a super ball against the garage door and chasing after it.  She gets about 18" away and chucks it!  One of these days it's going to knock her in the face.

 I stopped at Hy-Vee with the intention of getting some donuts, but then I saw this adorable cookie!  We sang her "Happy Birthday" after dinner and shared the cookie.

 She had one more birthday celebration at daycare yesterday, then we celebrated at Life Group with her birthday buddies, Chuck and Vicki.  Three years went by in the blink of an eye!

The Once-Again Toothless Wonder

Parker's peers have been losing teeth for years!  I have wondered when he would join the club and how exactly he would react to it.  I've been asking about it at each dentist appointment and she was able to tell it was just barely loose at the last one.  It wasn't until Monday that I noticed it had become very loose.  He didn't want to wiggle it too much, but did let me touch it from time to time.

 I let his teacher know about it, so she could keep an eye out while he was at school.  Sure enough, it popped out in the lunch line at school today.  She said he acted surprised when it cam out, but it didn't scare him.  It came home in a cute little tooth caddy.  I remember getting a necklace as a kid.

 I had to look back, but it turned out to the same tooth that came in first.

 We aren't going to do the tooth fairy in our house, but we did celebrate in our favorite way.  Chocolate on chocolate donuts!  Congrats on your first lost tooth Parker!

Esme's Pawsome 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated Esme's 3rd birthday yesterday (officially 3 on April 14th.)  We had a Paw Patrol party with a focus on Everest.  Lunch was a hot dog bar.  The menu was:

Traditional hot dogs

Natural casing hot dogs

Beer brats

Baked beans

Chips

Toppings: chili, shredded cheddar, french fried onions, fritos, tomato, onion, olives, onions, pickles, sauerkraut, pepperoncini, bacon, ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, hot sauce.

Puppy chow

Vanilla cake

We opened presents after lunch.  I was trying to hide the big one for last, but Esme insisted on opening it first, then insisted on unboxing it.  

She was distracted for a whole, so her best buddy, Miggy, helped to open some of them.  He liked the bed tent she got, but was unimpressed with the sparkly clothing.

She had a good time once we got her refocused.

Cake was next!  I intended to place an Everest figure on top, but underestimated the difficulty of finding one is store.  After a fruitless trip to four Targets, I settled for a puptag made of candy melts.  I made trees from pretzels and candy melts along with piped snowflakes.

 used a tie-dyd technique inside the cake with purple and teal.

Parker was talking about the birthday party all week and was so excited when he finally got a cupcake!

All our friends were gone before I could slow down enough to take a picture.  It was such a great day celebrating Esme!

Nap Time = Party Success!