More cheese curds

We have a confession to make -- Jer and I went to the State Fair again last night, this time with no kids. We had a great time. Here's what we did:

1) I tried pork tenderloin sandwich (ok, not great)
2) Cheese curds (as good as ever, except Jer only shared about 3 with me)
3) Met up with friends -- Wohlhuters, Lewis's, Nohners
4) Jer tried bacon with orange chipotle sauce. He loved it and said it was his top 3 food.
5) Jer bought 1 bull-bite off of Brian
6) We each had a deep-fried twinkie (Jer wanted his own this time)
7) Steak kebab in tortilla, a staple. (and we got Scott Nohner hooked on them, too)
8) Strawberry dippin dots
9) Visited baby animal barn. Almost saw a calf being born but didn't want to wait all night.
10) Visited Alpacas again, the guy there talked our ear off.
11) I got a giant cinnamon-sugar pretzel, only to have 2/3 of it fall out of my hand (it was so big) onto road. I can't believe I considered for a second picking it up again. Disgusting.
12) I finished the night with a bag of kettle corn and lemonade.

Did I forget anything? No, we didn't do a whole lot besides eat (and catch up with friends). Thanks, Patti, for watching the girls!

The Great Minnesota Get-Together

Today we decided to go to the Great Minnesota Get-Together -- the State Fair. We were undecided whether or not to bring the girls along, but decided to go for it. Glad we did, they were great and had a really fun time. Here is a view of the craziness down one of the main streets.

We also got a picture with Senator Norm Coleman as he was leaving the KFAN booth, Jeremy's favorite sports talk radio station.

One of the funnest areas is the baby animal barn. Bri got to pet the baby lamb and Emily saw some baby piglets being born.

Dad took Emily down the giant slide and she loved it. They are coming down on the upper-left side, Jeremy in white.

Both Emily and Bri (and mom and dad) loved Sweet Martha's cookies.

My favorite thing at the fair . . . hmm. It's a tie between the Alpacas and the Deep-Fried Twinkies. (The Alpacas are not to eat). Just look at how cute that face is, and the front paws bent under. Someday I will own a pair of Alpacas (you have to get 2 at a time, otherwise they are too lonely.)

Jeremy's favorite thing at the fair is definitely cheese curds, but since we didn't get a picture with them, here he is at the corn.

Although Emily had a great time at the fair, her favorite part was probably the bus ride to and from. If you don't know, you can park at different locations throughout the city and hop on a bus to the fair for free.

We had a great time, clogged our arteries with lots of fattening foods, saw a few friends there, and even made it home with the girls before a melt-down. We'll count that a success.

Happy Birthday, Don!

Speaking of grandparents. . . today is Jeremy's dad's birthday. Happy Birthday, Don! The girls and I want to wish you a very special day. We love you! Emily and Bri are hoping to see you and talk to you on Skype soon.

Grandma and Grandpa

I have really been slacking on this lately. I just looked at the date of my last post and it's August 11 -- sad! 9 whole days ago. Last week got busy with Jeremy's mom Susanne and step-dad Mark (which was a surprise) arriving from Las Vegas. Just in time to watch the girls last Thursday while I watched our friends' Jon and Laurie's girls -- Jon was busy giving his kidney to his sister, amazing. We saw Jon on Sunday and he looked great, and so far his sister Michelle is doing well, too.




On Saturday grandpa and grandma gave mom a day off and watched the girls (Jeremy was at a golf tournament; big surprise, I know!) It was wonderful, I almost didn't know what to do with myself. Any mom knows that having the house to herself . . . the list of things she'd like to do is too long!

On Sunday afternoon we went to Izzy's ice cream shop in St. Paul and had a great time. Here are some pictures of the girls eating ice cream with grandma and grandpa, and then dancing (Emily's dancing pretty much consists of turning in circles, and now Bri has followed suit with her dancing style.)

Grandpa left on Sunday and grandma is leaving today. Thanks for all your help with the girls this week, Mark and Susanne!

Special Delivery

Jeremy is always saying I need to get a new blog entry on here! Funny, he's the one person I didn't think would care for it too much. So anyway, this one's for you, honey.

This past weekend was my monthly scrapbooking weekend at church, which I look forward to all month long. Jeremy knows how important this is to me (to get out of the house and chat with other girls, as well as get "caught up" on my scrapbooks -- I'm now working on 3 at once.) Anyway, he got home from work Friday night and was trying to hurry me out of the house, when I suddenly remembered I hadn't made or grabbed a treat to share. (Friday night is snacks, Saturday is a potluck.) He was like "just go, it's no big deal" and I was like, "yes, it is a big deal, I need to bring something." I finally gave into him and didn't bring anything, even though I wasn't happy! I arrived at church and was setting up my stuff, and a few minutes later I looked over and saw something that looked like a flower delivery on another table. I asked another lady what that was and she said, It's a delivery for a Stephanie Brandt. I said, Oh, that's me (in case she didn't know my name, which she did). Anyway, Jeremy had a fruit bouquet delivered to church. What a sweetie. Here's what it looked like:

Suddenly the days' events were all so clear. Him hurrying me out of the house, telling me not to worry about bringing a treat. How convenient that I hadn't slaved all day in the kitchen! It was so beautiful we almost didn't want to eat it, but we did. All the ladies thought it was the greatest thing ever and kept saying, Your husband must be so romantic! Yes, he is. He has his moments (don't we all) but has always been so thoughtful with things like that. When I was a teacher he would send flowers occasionally, even for no reason. When I was pregnant and teaching, he had one of these fruit bouquets delivered to school, so I had gotten one once before and loved it. Isn't it great? Thanks honey, you are the sweetest guy in the world.

P.S. If any of you guys need a new idea out there other than flowers, it's called "Incredibly Edible Delites" or something like that.

Do all parents think their kids are the cutest?

After my last posting Bri was jealous that there were no pictures of her, just Emily. So here is a picture from this morning of Bri Bri.

After morning nap the girls got their swimsuits on, complete with matching coverups (aren't they adorable?), and we headed to Elm Creek Park for a MOMS group get-together. I wasn't sure if I wanted to brave watching 2 little ones near the water, but they were great. Emily was either playing in the sand, walking on her hands in the water (it's very shallow), or trying to play with other kids' toys. Bri was either eating snacks most of the time or piling sand onto the towel. Emily could've stayed there all day but 2 hours was enough for Bri and mom (it gets mentally tiring keeping an eye on both of them away from home!) It was a fun outing and a great place to go for $2/person!

Crazy

Do you ever have those days or moments where you just don't even care anymore? Nothing major, just exhaustion from trying to keep up with 2 little ones. About 4:00 today I just sat on the stairs and suddenly didn't even care to pick up after the girls for the hundredth time or tell Emily to stop messing around or sitting on Bri or whatever she was doing. I was tired of dealing with Bri throwing shoes down the stairs, Emily flushing the toilet over and over, Bri's nose continually running, Emily riding on Bri like a horse, Bri throwing food on the floor during every meal, Emily taking her clothes off, Bri not going to sleep when I thought she should, . . . you get the idea. I'm sure all you moms know exactly what I'm talking about. We all couldn't wait for dad to get home tonight. Then after dinner Jer headed to an appointment and I loaded the girls up and went to Step class at the Y. I figured if they were still going to be awake someone else could deal with them for an hour, right? When I returned to pick them up at "Kidstuff", Emily was coloring at a table with about 6 other kids (why can't she do that at home?) and Bri was standing by the door waiting for mom to return (it was her bedtime and she was ready.)

After I put Bri to bed, Emily and I went outside for our evening ritual of playdough and ice cream.

Emily and I have had a lot of fun together this summer. The other night we painted toenails together for the first time.

We also have had fun playing outside in the baby pool and sprinkler. The other day I was getting ready to fill her pool and was just about to put Bella in the house (I wasn't really in the mood for a wet dog who is shedding profusely right now), when Bella stood by the pool and gave me those puppy dog eyes, saying "Don't make me go inside, please?" I thought, oh well, what harm could be done. I have hardly heard Emily laugh so loud in her life than when she was filling the pool with the hose and Bella was drinking the water. They were having a ball together. It was hilarious to watch the 2 of them.

As much as Emily was driving me crazy today, I don't know what I'd do without my little girl with the adorable eyes and "innocent" grin. :)

Goosey Goosey Gander

Emily (a typical 2-year-old, I'm sure) is obsessed with making connections between what we read in her books and what she knows in real life. For example, one of her books has a picture of a trampoline in it, and every time she seems the picture she says, "Gori, Gori!" (translation -- her babysitter "Tori" has a trampoline). Here's another one: she has a nursery rhyme book with the nursery rhyme "See Saw, Margery Daw" and EVERY TIME we read that one she gets out the photo album that grandma made her that has a picture of her on the "see saw / teeter totter" at the neighbor's house. And yesterday we saw some geese when we were leaving Target, so today when we read "Goosey Goosey Gander" she made this "ah ha" face with big eyes, remembering the geese we saw. Speaking of the nursery rhyme "Goosey Goosey Gander", have you ever thought about the words in it?

Goosey Goosey Gander, wither shall I wander,
Upstairs and downstairs and in my lady's chamber.
There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers,
I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs.

Now I'm all for saying my prayers, but I don't think this poem would be politically correct nowadays (not that I care.) Hopefully Emily and Bri won't be throwing anybody down the stairs!