horseback ridin'

Addison has been asking to ride horses lately so we called Aunt Sharon and asked if she had a horse that she could ride and... meet Star, a beautiful white horse that was the perfect size for Addison to ride:-) Addison was a lil hesitant at first riding on the horse by herself... but after a few minutes she was riding like a pro!! 

Addison N Star

 (daddy making sure she doesnt fall off and aunty Sharon guiding the horse)

feeding Star after a fun ride

Who needs a saddle lets ride bareback!!

Thank you Aunt Sharon for letting me ride your horse!

"POTTY" like a RockSt★r

my "potty" rockstar

Well, we did it!! we are officially potty trained here in our household, it was a process of many...many...many months and down to an ultimatum(we were at the end of our diaper pack and you knew she was ready when she opts not to use the big girl potty cause she knows she has a diaper on!! so we took the risk and went straight to big girl underwear) and we did it!! YAHOOOOO! so we threw our first ever "potty" party! We invited all of Addison's friends to come and "potty" like rockstars with us:) What a fun way to celebrate my lil girl!! Good job baby girl!! mommy and daddy love you:)

the spread...

the party favor: big kid underwear, potty treats, and a fun Kazoo to let cheer them on when they go potty!!

snack time

Pink Fire Trucks

Who said fire trucks could only be painted in Red?!!???
We made it out to Home Depot today for the kids workshop, the theme was fire safety. They had the Eagan fire dog there, fire trucks out for the kids to see and the kids put on their aprons and built a wooden fire truck and painted it as well.  Addison decided to build the new future of fire trucks...and they come in the colors of Pink with a mix of Yellow in it!!!

Happy Birthday to Our Sweet Lil' Bella Babe

(c) Annie Torrini Photography

(to see more 2yr pics and family photos click on the above link)

 

A few weeks ago we celebrated our beautiful lil' girl's 2nd birthday!! She had sooo much fun!

 

Since Addison loves to build and destroy towers and her favorite characters are from Sesame Street we decided to go wih an Elmo and Cookie Monster Construction theme. 

helping daddy set up for the party!

the kids got to decorate their very own hard hat to wear around the construction zone!

the kids bounced and bounced and bounced and just kept bouncing, the parents had to drag the kids out of there:)

after a few tries mommy and daddy made the perfect cookie monster cake for our little construction builder!

WHAAAT?!!!???

Below is by far the funniest moment I have had with our little girl! We were waiting at the doctors office for her 2yr check up and she figured out that she can open the door and run in and out of the room. I asked her to come back into the room with me and she comes around the corner with her hands on her hips and exclaims "WHAAAT?!!??" and then proceeds to walk out of the room like she owns the place!! :)

 

 

 

 

Monkeying Around!

We took Addiosn to go see Curious George at the MN Childrens Museum and found ourselves getting more and more curious and having lots of FUN!! Not sure who had more fun though, mom and dad or Addiosn:) here are some pics of our day!

playing minature golf with George

building towers with daddy

future construction maker??!!!??? she loved her hard hat!

There was a room with lots of tunnels, bridges and slides for her to run about!!

showing daddy how the gears are suppose to work!

They had a huge bubble station...every kids dream!

Racing boats with daddy

lots of water fun!!

here daddy was showing Addie how to operate a crane...

here is the crane and the truck to
place the beams on...                                           I think daddy had more fun with this one:)

We found a room where the kids could become scientists, so Addison put on her lab coat and came up with her own formula on how to make playdough!!

Mommy had to take a bathroom break and this is what I came out too....

Addison playing with face paint!! As she painted her face she would say "pretty"

Our little Warrior Princess

Building Trucks

The first Saturday of the month Home Depot offers a kids make and take workshop. They have a section if the store set up just like daddy's workshop would like to hammer, sand, and paint all sorts of fun stuff. Today they had the kids build a little truck. Addison's favorite part was to pound the hammer on the wood and color her truck that her and daddy built!

A Dancer, A Baker, A Construction Demolition Maker!

We have been having so much fun watching a our little girl learn new skills and discover new things in life. 

She has recently found a love of dancing! If dancing with the stars is on TV she is right there dancing along with the dancers, if music is playing of the radio she is most likely dancing away, and she has this toy tractor that plays 10 secs of music, yes she is pushing that button over and over and telling mommy and daddy to join her on the dance floor and dance with her:) here is a short video of her and her friend dancing away sorry it is a sideways view....

She aslo has a love for cooking or baking with mommy and daddy. She really loves helping daddy mix egg as she calls it Saturday mornings while making breakfast.  She pulls the chair to the side of the counter climbs up and and insists on helping us:)

We love to play with blocks around our house, build them up as high as we can and then Addison will come along and torpedo them all down to the ground!! She recently has started identifying each color that is on the block. The other day we were playing with the big duplo lego blocks and Rich was trying to teach her how to build symetrical(don't ask its an engineer thing) he had a tower going pretty good all the way up to the ceiling and here comes Addison to PLOW right through it all:)

A few other things that Addison loves to do is play in water(whether it is a puddle the size of a quater or a big pool of water, she is in it:) ) bounce around on anything she can make bounce, eating corn on the cob, taking care of her dolls/stuffed animals and making sure they have a clean diaper on, blowing bubbles, coloring, and she also has started using 2-4 word sentences!! Here are a few more pictures to enjoy!!

Boom Chicka POP

I was telling a good friend of mine cravings I was having during this pregnancy. One of them being popcorn. Around 2 o'clock everyday you can guess where I am, making a bowl of popcorn and indulging the savory taste of each popped kernel. She then proceeded to go grab a bag of popcorn she had picked up from the store and told me to try it out!!   OMG!! LOVE LOVE LOVE this popcorn!! and I don't feel guilty for eating almost the entire bag:) it is that good! I have found it at Byerly's and Rainbow Foods. 

 Boomchickapop

Fun at Wisconsin Dells

We packed up the car last week and took our family to the Dells for a little mini vacation! We met up with grandma and grandpa VerStrate and cousin Cole. Although it was short, we had a lot of fun in that time. We found out if you put our daughter in a room with water and slides she is in heaven!! We couldn't get her out of the water park a few times without her kicking and screaming! She loved going down the waterslides(all the ones she could) running through the fountains and splashing around. She found out she could float with her life jacket on, so ever so ofter we found her belly up floating around just giggling away!! Here are a few pictures at the water park....

going down with daddy on the "BIG" slide was so much fun, as soon as they splashed down she would say...Again!!!

she had this fascination with the ketchup and mustard bottles. Opening and closing the lids and organizing them by color and size!

After breakfast one morning we headed over to the deer park to feed the deer and see the other animals around the farm.

off to feed the deer!!!

The best part of this last weekend was Addison telling the entire family that she is going to be a "BIG" Sister this November!!!