A New Place to Explore

The last few months we have been frequenting the Science Museum, and it has become a new favorite of ours. It has been nice to find somewhere new to explore and learn that Jackson enjoys. I think that having friends invite us to go with them that enjoy the Science Museum have helped with our new found enjoyment, along with Jackson getting older.

Here are the highlights of our last few visits:

The thing that sealed the deal for Jackson was all the maps of the world- the one on the lobby floor is by far the favorite. He has been so interested in geography since the spring, and it is great that he can see the diversity and vastness of our Earth.

There have also been so many fun new things he has enjoyed exploring. The wind tunnel was by far the most fun, he would have played there all day. We have gone a couple times on Monday for the Preschool Playdates, and the activities have been awesome. There are so many more hands-on activities in the museum than I remember. Jackson has been so interested in all the science and I love all the areas that encourage his curiosity and learning.

The days were even better since we shared our experience with friends.

If you haven't been to the Science Museum recently we would highly suggest that you go. We also recommend going on Monday's for the Preschool Playdates, children under 5 are free and adults admissions are 2 dollars off, which is a savings of $10.50- what a deal!
Have fun!

Signs of Spring

This afternoon we decided to take advantage of the 50 degree weather. Rain boots were a must today with all the melting snow, along with the need to jump into the many puddles from all that melting snow.

Thanks to finding a pair of rain boots on clearance recently, I was even able to join in the fun.

Jackson noticed that the water was making a river through the ice, so we decided to have some stick races. He thought it was so much fun watching them floating and twisting their way through the makeshift river. As an added bonus his sticks even won the race.
What a wonderful day enjoying the outdoors.

Family Valentines

We spent our Valentine's Day together as a family, especially since Jackson declared Mommy as his valentine this year.

We started the day our at the ECFE Valentine Sock-Hop. We had a great time dancing and seeing friends.
We a festive dinner with heart shaped pizza, chocolate covered strawberries, valentine heart jigglers and heart cookies.

Paul and I did get a chance to go out on Sunday. My brother came over and spent the afternoon with Jackson, for some good uncle/nephew time.
I had a wonderful time with both of my valentines.

Warm Winter Fun

We spent a day at the Mall of America where it was warm and full of fun activities to help with some cabin fever. It was great to be able to spend the whole day with out jackets and feeling toasty.
We made a stop at Underwater Adventures, always a favorite with us. We stood behind Belinda Jensen from Kare 11 while in the tunnel, and embarrassed Paul by talking to her.
Then we went for a few reminders of summer and warm weather to come.
A stop at Met Statium home plate, an excuse to talk about Jackson's favorite- baseball and the Twins.
Then we played a round of mini golf to brush up on our skills. We are looking forward to many more rounds and new courses come summer.
We did a little shopping too along with lunch and dinner.
It was a great day, and we look forward to the no coat days soon to come.

We did also make time for the big game on Sunday. Chris and Rachel hosted a party, so we were able to just go and enjoy the excitement. Here we are with our 3-D glasses, all decked out for the 3-D event during the commercials.

A very fun and successful weekend to help beat those winter blah's.

Sledding Fun

Our ECFE program had a sledding party on the hill at school. They had hot cocoa and the large muscle room open inside for the kids to take a break and warm up.
We had so much fun, and I was thrilled to go sledding for the first time in years (thanks to my new knee).
Here are our highlights:

Jackson with his best friend Aaron and his dad helping them getting to go down the hill.

Mommy and Jackson on our sled ride together.

The dads getting ready for the sled race.

Racing down the hill- they were all smiles and giggles the whole way down.

A New Year

I have been thinking that I would like to have some sort of post that I do weekly to keep me blogging on a regular basis. My friend Erin suggested that I keep track of all the money I save through dicounts and freebies. She is always laughing at me, in a good way, for my sale and coupon combinations, and at all the contests my husband signs up for resulting in many free items or entertainment.
I also read on Elizabeth and Sarah's blogs about project 365, where you take a picture every day of the year. Before my surgery I took a lot of pictures when I was keeping track of all the things we did, and I really enjoyed it. I thought this would be a good excuse to do it for the entire year. I have created a new blog for those pictures and will post a link on my blog.
I would also like to do something to share my knowledge and ideas of fun activities, places and events. I am always trying to find new and fun things to do and keep us busy, and I love to share them with others, because it is always nice to have a new and fresh idea.
I haven't completely figured out how or what my ideas are going to look like, or even how they are going to look on my blog,but I hope to soon. I am looking forward to adding more to my blog and our stories.
Happy 2009 and all that lies ahead!

December Highlights

All of our December celebrations are over, so here are a few highlights from the last few weeks.

Christmas brought us baking and the fun of frosting and decorating both cookies and gingerbread houses. It also meant lots of family along with new toys and games to keep us busy during our whole two weeks off from school.
After Christmas we had birthday celebrations for my sister Laura, Paul and Paul's dad. We enjoyed celebrating with them and ate plenty of birthday cake.
We had a fun New Years and look forward to all this new year has in store for us.
Happy 2009!