A trip to Wisconsin

The very unfortunate loss of a Kate's brother, Jack (20), moved us to make a trip to Wisconsin to attend his services (Kate is Uncle Nick's long-time girl friend). Grandma Judy made the trip with Mommy and Madeline.
It was very sad, but we hope Madeline's smile helped make Kate feel a little better. So many of Kate's family and friends were there for support.

We took this very rare opportunity to capture Uncle Nick with all three of his Godchildren... Madeline and Cayden became fast friends :-) We love you Kate and think of you often...

Happy Birthday Aunt Melanie!!!

A night out with family is always fun and it's even more fun when there is a birthday involved :-) So, to help Aunt Melanie celebrate her 19th birthday we drove down to Saint Peter and met her & Grandma Judy and Dave for dinner. Madeline was so good and kept everyone entertained as usual :-) Happy 19th Birthday Melanie!

Is it Spring Yet?

The Minnesota winter seems to be lasting forever, but we're trying to keep things entertaining here in our apartment :-) Today all of the cushions came off the couch and turned into Madeline's very own fort! She climbed and crawled and jumped and even invited all of her stuffed animal friends to join in the fun :-) Amazing the hours of entertainment your furniture can create!

A Friend Visits from Chicago!

Since we've moved to Minnesota, Mommy and Daddy don't get to see many of their friends from college any more, but today Kelly was in town from Chicago so we went to meet her. We did some shopping at the mall and then went to the Cheesecake factory for lunch. We had a lot of fun!
We love visitors so anyone heading up to the Great White North (Minnesota) should give us a call - we'd definitely love to see you :-)

Madeline meets the Little Einstiens!

Madeline's absolute favorite thing is Disney's Little Einstiens cartoon. We think the reason she likes it so much is because it's pretty much the only show she gets to watch and she typically only gets to watch one 20 minute episode a day...
Anyway, today Toddler Tuesday at the Mall of America had the Little Einstiens so we just had to go! We got a great Little Einstiens poster, colored some Little Einstiens pictures, read a Little Einstiens book, listened to the little Einstiens sing a song and even got our picture taken with them! It was Madeline's favorite Toddler Tuesday ever!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today Mommy and Madeline colored a Valentine's Day card for Daddy and anxiously waited for him to get home to give it to him! When Daddy got home he opened his card and then Madeline opened the other gifts she got in the mail...

A new chair from Grandma and Grandpa Frantz... A new dress from Great-Aunt Lisa and Great-Uncle Bob... and a great new Dump Truck from Daddy. Thanks everyone!

Rec Center Fun

The Saint Louis Park Rec. Center has Open Tot Time every Monday and Wednesday morning. We've been going for a few weeks and Madeline really has a good time. They have all sort of new toys.

Puppets... and Scooters! Madeline's favorites seem to be the cool cars she can ride
(and get pushed in!)...and the just-her-size school bus :-) They have 2 bouncers too! So much fun!!! Another great way to burn off some energy :-)

Another Mommy and Madeline Adventure!

The Mall of America has Toddler Tuesday every week with activities, songs and stories for kids Madeline's age. This week a group of our friends met there to check it out. The activity was meeting a Care Bear, but the line was way too long so we colored a picture and then headed to the indoor amusement park. Madeline rode on the carousel, a bus and a car - she thought it was great fun! After a few rides Madeline had her very first corn dog - she obviously enjoyed it :-) We'll definitely be coming back for more Toddler Tuesday fun soon!

More Gymnastics with Aunt Melanie

It's so nice living so close to where Aunt Melanie goes to college. This way we can go and watch her gymnastics meets and cheer her on! Today she competed at the University of Minnesota. The meet was in the afternoon so Madeline came along :-) Aunt Melanie definately had the smallest and cutest cheerleader there!

Swimming with Dad

Madeline is really enjoying swimming lessons. In fact she likes it so much that we have to hide her swimsuit during the week or she takes it out and runs around the house saying "SWIM! SWIM!" - when we have to tell her "Not Today" she isn't very happy :-(
But today it was time to swim and it was Daddy's turn to take her in the water. Whenever Madeline give's her teacher, Jennie, a high five, Jennie sinks underwater - Madeline thinks it's hilarious :-) She gets to pour water on Daddy's head and play Humpty-Dumpty - she really loves going underwater :-) Her favorite part is playing on the floating "magic carpet". She always makes a pouty face when Jennie puts it away :-( We take her every week and she's learning new things all the time - another great way to get out of the house in the middle of winter!

Superbowl Party!

Today we hosted a superbowl party for all of our family and friends in the community room at our apartment! Grandma Judy came over early and had a few early Valentine's day gifts for Madeline - what a lucky girl!!! Grandma Judy and Aunt Alyssa sure picked out some nice things... a Valentine's day outfit, PJ's with hearts, Plus she got a brand new bag of colorful goldfish! After opening gifts we brought all the food and drinks down to the community to get ready for the party. We don't usually cheer for either team, but today we were cheering for the underdogs - Go Giants! Madeline wasn't very interested in the game so it was a good thing Great-Aunt Kim was there to read some stories :-) It was fun, maybe we should do this every year!