The Shower

This past weekend, I co-hosted a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law Ashley. The shower was at my parents' house, and was unfortunately inside due to the stupid-hot temperature. Although our dreams of an outdoor / garden type setting, it still went really well.

We planned this for months, and I think it went over just as well as it could have. We got lots of complements from the guests about how nice it was. Don't mean to toot my own horn, but it's a nice feeling when all your hard work is recognized and appreciated.

Our table settings:
The bride-to-be (middle) along with some friends (friend on right was my co-host, Mercedes):

The quilt. This is a very special quilt because when Sean and his brothers were younger, their grandma had them choose the colored fabric and design they wanted in a quilt. The tradition has always been for grandma to hand sew the quilt and present it to the respective boy's bride-to-be at their wedding shower. Always brings a tear to my eyes when I get to see it:

Zoo with the Girls

Being a zoo member also has it's perks. Each time we go, we can check out different things than we did the time before. This last time, we went with our nieces Paula and Samantha and got to check out the dolphin show, get the girls' faces painted, let Aidan get his sillies out at the playground, and check out the butterfly gardens for the first time.

Ava's finished product:
Samantha, Ava, and Paula and their masterpieces. These girls are so good with the kids, and the kids love to spend every waking minute with them when they are around. Paula even offered to give the kids their bath that night.

We snapped some great shots with the new camera. We had no clue the butterflies actually fly all around you as you walk through the garden - VERY cool:

Aidan checking out one of the turtle statues:

Sweet:

Another Day at the Children's Museum

This whole Children's Museum membership-thing has turned out to be a pretty good investment. We just joined this past February, and have already been like 5 times. Anytime we are bored or it's too hot or raining, we head to the museum.

I had never been to the museum until this year, so each time we go, I see something new. This time, I got to see the dinosaur exhibit - the kids loved it! Even I thought it was pretty cool. There are even real dinosaur fossils on display.

Aidan checking out the T-Rex (pretty sure if he was a dino, this is the one he'd be):
They even have this adorable area for the kids to dress up as a dinosaur and sit in a pretend nest with dinosaur eggs:

He's roaring like a dino:

Ava practicing her karaoke skills:

The Dale Chihuly glass sculpture:

World's largest Etch-A-Sketch:

Pretty girl always ready to strike a pose:

Big man making an ice cream sundae:

I realize this is about 20 days late...

...but I have been very busy planning a shower and I think I blocked the Fourth of July from my memory because it was so rotten for me. We went to David and Jenny's like we normally do, and let's just say Aidan and I had to make an early exit because he was having probably one of his worst-behaved days.

Sean likes to say Aidan is going to be a wide receiver because he needs a lot of open field to run. If he's contained (like in a fenced-in yard) he's one of the best little boys ever. But if you give him wide open spaces, he will use ever last bit of that space no matter what you do.

After about an hour of Sean and I taking turns chasing him down and getting him away from the street and neighbor's lawns, I had enough and decided to call it a night. Oh yah, did I mention his friend Logan didn't even want to play with him? It was a BAAAAD night :(

Aidan and Katie (pre-craziness):
David explaining the rules of the cherry seed spitting contest - kids' division:

And here is what Aidan and I missed...the fireworks:

Family Vacation, Part 10 - THE LAST VACAY POST!!!!!!!!!!!

Please bear with me on this post - there were so many great pics, I couldn't narrow it down any further than what I have below :)

At long last, one of Sean's lifelong dreams finally became a reality: he got to see his beloved Minnesota Twins play right before his very eyes. For Sean's birthday I treated him to a baseball themed dinner at home, and wrapped up some fake Twins tickets as an IOU to go see a game when baseball season was in full swing (yes, I do realize it was back in December, but this was the coolest 30th birthday gift I came up with).

Not only did Sean get to finally see his Twins, but we got to see it in their brand new beautiful Target Field. I guess I know how to pick a hotel, because it was literally two blocks straight down the road from the hotel AND the gate that we needed was right there too. It took us only about 10 minutes from the time we left the hotel to the time we were in our Diamond Box seats.

Sean looks like a little kid on Christmas morning:

Behind home plate:

Boys and their baseball (seriously, Sean looks giddy!):

What goes better with baseball than hot dogs?

After it had all sunk in, Sean looked at me with most sparkly eyes and said "Thank you". I thought he was going to cry:

I know what goes better than hot dogs...COTTON CANDY:

Aidan did sample some Cotton Candy, but he preferred to stick with the hot dog:

You might be wondering why I chose this shot. Well, two reasons: 1) stud Justin Morneau is in the shot; 2) I am trying to show off our new camera's uber-zooming capabilities - this was the opposite end of the field:

MORE-neau:

All-Star #2...Joe Mauer (number 7 - good boy!)

Mauer attempting to bunt. It went foul, but check out the killer action shot I captured!:A view from our seats:

"Minnie and Paul" (as in, Minneapolis and St. Paul):

Sadly, in the end, the Twins couldn't pull it out against Tampa Bay. Although they should have...it was the top of the 9th with two outs, two strikes, and nobody on base. The stupid closer came in and allowed a double, walked the next batter, and then gave up the tying run with a base hit to the next batter. We had to get out of Dodge to make it home at a reasonable time and didn't get to see the Twins lose 4-3 in 10 innings. Stupid jerks.

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!! We left for home right after the game and drove the 9 1/2 hours straight through the night and the kids slept the entire time - and still took huge naps at home in the afternoon.

All in all, we'll call the First Annual Kimble Family Vacation a success. There definitely were some stressful times, but in the end it was all worth it to hear both kids say "you're the best!"

Family Vacation, Part 9

This must be what heaven looks like for little girls. The Mall of America had a Sanrio store completely devoted to all things "Hello Kitty". And right now, Ava is literally obsessed with it!
We didn't even know this store was in the mall, and appropriately, Ava was wearing her "Hello Kitty" shirt that day. She kept walking around saying, "Ooooh, this is pretty! Mommy, look at this!" Ava was able to pick something and finally decided on a new lunch box for school after about 45 minutes:

Too bad...these big guys weren't for sale :(

Family Vacation, Part 8

Day 2 in Minneapolis was a marathon that began with a ride on the train to the Mall of America before the Twins game in the evening. Minneapolis is such a great city with some of the best public transportation options I have ever seen. Why can't my town figure it out?!?

They have a train that ran from Target Field all the way out to the mall, and it only cost about $4 and lasted only about 40 minutes. It was so clean and nice, and the kids loved it - plus, Mommy and Daddy didn't have to deal with the stress of driving in an unfamiliar city.

If you plan to visit the Mall of America, make sure you have a couple days set aside to make it all the way through. We were there from about 10:30 AM to about 5 PM and only made it through about half!

Aidan kept saying, "All aboard!":
Yes we did do quite a bit of shopping, but these days that isn't as thrilling and picture-worthy as the site of my son and daughter having fun riding the rides in the center of the mall.

I think the face says it all:

A view of Lego Land from the Ferris wheel:

Another view from the top:Sweetness:

This ride was kind of a funny story. This ride is called "Swiper's Sweeper" and it is a ride the kids rode last summer at King's Island. Aidan was able to ride this with Ava last year at K.I...well, at the Mall of America, Aidan didn't fall in the height requirement, so had to ride with an adult. Daddy got the short end of the straw:

All the shopping, lunch, and rides proved to be too much for our little guy. He crashed out on Mommy for a solid hour:

Family Vacation, Part 7

There really isn't a ton to report in this post, except the fact that this was our first day in Minneapolis and I really wanted to incorporate a shot of the kids enjoying some of the best popcorn I have ever had!

The hotel was in Minneapolis' Warehouse District and delightfully close to Target Field. Not only that, but the front desk girls provided our kids with coloring books, crayons, beach balls, goggles, and bubbles.

When we got to our room, the kids enjoyed a friendly game of hide-and-go-seek (friendly until Aidan knocked the sliding closet door of the hinges several times):
Found me!

The kids enjoying "Candyland" popcorn. I first sampled this gem when I was up in Minneapolis coaching a volleyball tournament a few years ago:

Family Vacation, Part 6

Our last night in the Dells we headed to town to do the touristy stuff. One of the main drags in the Dells contains all the customary tourist traps: souvenir shops, "Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not", 3-D rides, etc.

There is a cute little courtyard that does a show at the top of each hour depicting the story of "The Pied Piper of Hamlin" complete with metal figures and huge glockenspiel (sp?) that plays a song. The kids were in awe.

Before the show, the kids spent time stealing peoples' wishes from the fountain:
Clock tower:

Momma and her Little Miss:

My two favorite boys:

Towards the end of our stroll, we let the kids choose a special candy from the huge candy store. Ava is modeling her gummi-butterflies below: