Family

Sharing some photos taken after church on Easter Sunday! We had a wonderful brunch (prepared by my mom who is the best cook ever) before making the trek back to Chicago.

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful visit with our family in Fort Dodge! The easter bunny paid a visit to Aaron & Maggie at Nanny & Papa's house on Easter morning.

Look at all of the goodies!

Aaron got some song & story cd's from some of his favorite movies- Cars & Toy Story

Maggie is going to check out her haul!

Look a new hat.....

This may be the only time that you see this on my head, Mom & Dad!

Aaron loved the fruit snacks and candy that he got in his bucket!

Some monkey undies, like cousin Brett has!

And some new sidewalk chalk

Bunny marshmallows

Yeah - new bubbles!

Animal crackers

and for some summer fun, a fire hydrant sprinkler that has arms that wave around squirting water!

Cheese!

Maggie loved the goldfish crackers





Hope that everyone had a Happy Easter! Halelujah... He is Risen!

Traveling to Iowa

The kids did a great job on our trip to Iowa last week to visit my family. We left in the morning at Maggie's nap time, so she slept for about an hour, they watched a movie, we stopped for lunch, they watched another movie, and then we arrived! (The trip is around 7 hours when you take about an hour break in the middle.)

Privacy

When I was taking Aaron to use the bathroom this morning, this was the conversation that we had.

Aaron: Mom, could I please have some privacy while I go to the bathroom? You do know what privacy is, right Mom? That means that you need to leave me alone!

Me: Yes Aaron, I would be happy to give you some privacy!

Do you think it would work for me to use this on him the next time I want some privacy?!?!

Maple Syrup Festival

The kids and I went to the Maple Syrup Festival at North Park Nature Center a few weeks ago. (It was still pretty cold, so we were all bundled up!) We learned how they tap syrup from trees and make it into maple syrup. While we were there, a photographer for the park district asked if he could take some photos of Maggie for informational/marketing use through the park district. He asked for my e-mail address so he could share the photos. Here's the little polka dot princess!

Friends

I share this photo, courtesy of my friend Amy. Aaron and his buddies, Asher and Connor, love to play at the park. Their favorite thing to do is find sticks and pound on the ground, trees, fences, etc with the sticks. Amy (Asher's mom) captured this photo of them heading off, hand in hand, to hunt for sticks! Too cute!

Coenen cuties!

Opening day at Miller Park

We had a great day of family fun today at the Brewer game. It was opening day at Miller Park, so Tim took the day off and we all headed up for the game. Even though Tim has been a Brewer fan his entire life, he had never been to opening day, until today! We had a lot of fun and the kids both did pretty well. (Aaron even fell asleep on Tim's lap in the 8th inning! Maggie- no way!) The only bummer was that the Brewers lost 2-1. :(

Great story for the day. I went to the bathroom to change Maggie's dirty diaper. I laid her down on the changing table only to very quickly realize that I laid her down in a puddle of beer! Thank goodness I had a change of clothes in the diaper bag!

It doesn't get much cuter than this!

It's my party.....

........and I'll cry if I want to!

Maggie decided that she didn't need to take a nap on the day of her birthday party, so she was a tired little girl by the time we got around to her birthday cake!

Starting to calm down, as she realizes that we are placing a big yellow cake right in front of her. I couldn't find a lighter or a match anywhere, so Maggie didn't get to attempt blowing out her candle!












Maggie enjoyed her cake but didn't get too crazy with it! I'm pretty sure if she wouldn't have been tired, she would have really gotten into this cake!

Maggie really likes to put a finger in her nose when you get out the camera!

The best fix for a tired/grumpy Maggie is to take her clothes off! So we stripped her down to her diaper after cleaning her up and she was a happy girl again!

2 new pairs of shoes from Nanny & Papa!

Maggie opened a couple of gifts, but was more interested in what was inside! This was a really cool Brown Bear Brown Bear board book with sliding doors on the pages from Amy, Dan, Brett, & Claire.

Darling summer outfit from Kristen & Jamie!

Gorgeous little dress (with matching hair bow) from Amy, Chris, & Asher!

Maggie had a lot of help opening gifts from her brother, cousins, and friends!

Maggie got this cute birthday cake toy from Diana, Scott, Katelyn, & Emily.






Marlene Srouji knitted this beautiful little bolero sweater for Maggie!

Maggie loves her rolling backpack bag from Amy, Dan, Brett, & Claire!

Happy 1st Birthday, Maggie! Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate!