Sassy September

With school starting it's been a whirlwind month already.  Here are some of the highlights. The Vikings season started with a couple wins!  I decided to make opponent themed hot dogs for each week.  Started with New York style for our 28-6 win over the Giants.  Kraut, onions, and mustard.

Esme found out she will be playing young Elsa in her Frozen Jr play this winter.  Snapped this cute picture of Parker waiting for his van one morning.

Parker had been talking about a "spinner" at Target for weeks.  Jimmy even took him there, but they couldn't find one he wanted.  He wasn't giving up so we took a trip to Menards to find one for him.

Esme started gymnastics the first week of the month.  She will have weekly classes until we decide to stop.  She is loving the first few weeks and always comes away sweaty and tired.

We visited grandpa and nana for a dip in the hot tub with Jameson and Jaxxon.

Week 2 hot dog for our 23-17 win over San Fransisco.  They don't have a confirmed style, but a BLT dog was one I saw a lot in my google search. Bacon wrapped dog with lettuce, tomato, and mayo.

Esme started asking about who her Nana's mom is.  So, I told her about my wonderful Grandma Jensen and the jgreat chocolate chip cookies she made.  Emse was sad she never got to meet her so we made cookies in her honor last weekend.  They were so tasty and brought me back to my childhood.

And yes, they are supposed to be thin with crispy edges and a soft center.

Finally, Esme had her well child appointment yesterday.  She got two shots, but was a brave kiddo and got a new unicorn stuffy to snuggle.

Journey to 100 Parks #138 - Woodland Trails Park - Plymouth, MN

This is the first of the two parks I missed on my original count of Plymouth parks.  This one looked pretty small so we did it first.

There was only 3 features.

Parker was so disappointed he didn't even leave this swing.

Esme humored me for the sake of pictures.

4 swing, nearly nothing redeemable here.  We actually went back to The Meadows Park since it was close by so they could have some actual fun.

First Week of School and Closing the Pool

Another school year is upon us.  Esme started 3rd grade and parker is in 7th.  He will be moving to a new school and starting a new program that focuses more on life skills.  I think it will be good for him.  Here are some comparisons of this year's pictures and each of their Kindergarten pictures.

They got a special cookie for an after school snack on the first day.

The new schedule took a toll on Esme and she took a little snooze.

We also closed down the pool this week. I've had some major trouble keeping up with the chemicals (as you can see by the green water) and decided it was time to drain and clean it.

One last swim before it drains more.  We were lucky to have some dry weather so I was able to get it cleaned and dried out pretty quickly.  I am leaning towards getting a pool membership next year, but will probably still put this up,  I guess we'll see.

Journey to 100 Parks #137 - The Meadows Park - Plymouth, MN

I thought this was the last Plymouth park which is why it's so awesome.  Before declaring that officially I pulled up the list again and found 2 more.  Not sure how I missed them last night, but I think one of them displays the same address as another we've already been to and the other doesn't come up on a map search.  

Key Features

This one has so many things Parker loves.  He immediately found a wheel to spin.

We had stopped at Nadia Cakes as a reward for finishing the first week of school.  They could barely wait to finish before playing.

They had a dual zipline and tri-runner spinning type thing.

I couldn't find an official name for this, but it was a wild see saw/swing combo.  There is some footage in the video at the end.

We all took a ride on the We-Saw!

There was another boy there who I thought was special needs like Parker.  I got to chat with his dad for a bit and him and Parker enjoyed swinging together.  he has some more difficult challenges than Parker and I've been thinking about him a lot since that day.

Easy 10 swings for this one.  We will definitely be back!

Labor Day Weekend

Jimmy worked the weekend so I got to have another morning to work on some last bits of trim.  My mom had the kids and took them to Orono Park again for some paddle boarding.

We had Heidi and Rick over for one last pre-wedding dinner.  Pizza stuffed peppers, salad, and garlic bread was on the menu.

Esme wanted to give them a big hug before leaving.  Can't wait to celebrate these two next month!

On SUnday our church had worship at the park.  The kids did pretty well and lasted through the service.  parker got a little rowdy waiting for lunch.

Esme hung out with her buddy, Asher, for a while too.

That night we broke out Huskeropoly.  Esme lasted about 10 minutes before I had to take over the game.  It was a fun play that we finished Monday morning.

Esme has been asking to do a "Soda Challenge" for ages.  She's seen the one Jimmy and I did several years ago.  We had a diet and zero sugar variety on hand so we used those.

Esme took on for the team and used up my free birthday ice cream coupon from Culver's as a day before school starts treat.

 

And just like that, summer is over!  The heat is sticking around for now, but school is back in session and so is the busy.