Spring is Here…finally!

  The grass is starting to look green, we've seen our first robin of the year, and *most of the huge, dirty snow mounds, piled up in the Trader Joe's parking lot, have melted away….
  Easter Sunday marked the first day that we wore short sleeves outside and cracked open more that one window to get some fresh air flowing through this place :)

  Jack in his Easter duds…

  Brooke & Owen: On an egg hunt!

"I found Frozen's arm!!" - Owen

Cousins Miles & Preston will be ready for hunting NEXT year!

  ...let's just hope Spring is here to stay…

J is for Jimmy!

  Last Friday, our adorable niece, Brooke, was tasked by "school" (daycare) to bring an item from home that starts with the letter 'J' - I was so excited that Brooke chose to bring her very own purple Jimmy Doll that I made her for her first birthday!! Look how cute and excited she was - still a bit sleepy, but excited nonetheless!

sporting a lovely shooting star tattoo on her hand :)

June Birthday Time!!

   Our niece Brooke turned 2! We had a birthday bash @ Round Lake Park in Eden Prairie to celebrate!

Brooke in her pretty pink Circo dress from Target with a lovely pink princess hat! She LOVED her Dora the Explorer Cupcakes - and really enjoyed sucking the frosting off of the plastic Dora and Boots rings that sat on top :)

My brother Kyle with nephew Owen - 3 more months to go until you're big day Owen!
As per the usual, Owen had the best little faux-hawk hairdo - too cute!

Oh hey! It was MY birthday too!

Yum!! Strawberry cake with strawberry filling, cream cheese frosting and a strawberry on top -  you can NEVER have too much strawberry. So tasty! Thanks Jenny Sohn!

Birthday flowers from Kevin!

Another year down!

2012 Relay for Life

  Last night was the 2012 Hopkins/Minnetonka Relay For Life event for American Cancer Society - this was my 6th year participating.  Kevin and I raised $1,145.00! Hooray! Thank you to everyone who donated! + there's still time to donate to the cause = here on my fundraising page.
   $500.00 of that total came from the fundraising from the artist and designer participants in Finch's Holiday Time Boutique this past December.
  ...AND!...The weather turned out great!

  Owen and Brooke had a great time!

Nordy from the Minnesota WILD came to hang out. When Brooke saw him she said "Easter Bunny!"

Opening Ceremonies: All of the cancer survivors out on the track. My mom joined the survivors this year - you can see her head in the second row, second in from the far side.

The entire track was lined in luminary bags - here's just a few I decorated in honor of my mom, Bonnie.

I was pretty nervous! I was asked to be the speaker at the Luminary Lighting Ceremony this year to talk about my experience this year with my mom's cancer - update: 3 months after surgery, and she's doing great!
Thanks to Deb & Riley, and Ian, Sara, Noodle & Julian for coming out to show their support!

The bags all lit up!

Still to come: the official team photo of "Angels of Hope"

Spooky Scary! Halloween Recap

OoooooooooooooooOOOoooooooooo! Spooky! Well not SUPER spooky...

  Trick-or-Treaters Count:.... 18. Only 18?! Disappointing. We're used to 80 something in Mpls - we have a lot of leftover candy...
  For the 18 Trick-or-Treaters that DID stop by, here is what they saw:

Owen and Brooke broke out their Halloween finest - the safari theme was NOT coordinated up front - just kind of worked out that way.

and Finch got in on the fun too...

And here was my spooky surprise for Kym! Halloween Nugget Trio!

..they could be lurking ANYWHERE!

Who is scarier? That Ghost Nugget? or the vertical blinds he's hiding behind?

Birthday Time!!

We celebrated our neice, Brooke's, 1st Birthday this past Sunday - complete with Princess balloons, Princess tablecloths/napkins and Princess CAKE!!!

The Birthday Girl!!

Owen taking notes, and a bite of cup, for HIS 1st birthday coming up in Sept. 

+ it was my birthday this weekend as well - ugh, the big 30 - yikes! Much to my delight, the lovely and talented Jenny Sohn created the TASTIEST cupcakes in all the lands - So good!

Surprise! Strawberry Filling!!!

Owen & Brooke's Baptisms

This weekend was both Owen's (Sat.) and Brooke's (Sun.) Baptisms - followed by a joint lunch reception on Sunday. The honor of Godmother to Brooke has been bestowed upon me, Elisa - I'm super excited! The services were really lovely and babies were so cute.