2 years old!

Teresa turned two today and we've had lots of fun celebrating.  Last night we had some friends over for some outdoor fun and dinner.  All the kids had a blast playing in the sprinkler and on the swing set.  Teresa joined in the play a little.  Her favorite was pretending to be animals.

Water play with friends.

Getting ready to have some birthday cookie.

"Yummy!"

This morning she got to open one of her gifts...a new game with a really fun big cube to roll.  We played for awhile as a family before having breakfast.  We met some more friends at the park for a play date and then joined Troy at the 'bread store' for lunch.

Teresa reads her kitty card.

Walking on the bridge at the park. 

Lunch with the family...quite the faces from Timothy and Teresa!

Teresa had a nice long nap which gave her some energy for a little more partying!  Grandma Judy joined us for dinner and a little playtime. 

Loving time with Grandma Judy!

Teresa's new kitty pillow.

Family birthday photo.  A kitty cookie this time.  I didn't want her to have leftover cookie for her birthday!

Trying to blow out the candles.

A happy birthday girl!

So what is two year old Teresa like...?  She loves animals especially bunnies, cats, dogs and horses.  She loves to read books...especially animal books!  She has been known to bring her books outside and read while Timothy runs in the sprinkler.  She is starting to say three word sentences.  Troy even taught her a knock knock joke! She likes to pretend play--playing with her play mobile toys and also pretending that she sees goats and other animals around her (this is influenced by Timothy's love of pretending). She is our little "me-too d2" because she is constantly saying "me, me,"  She does not want to be left out of anything.  She likes to do what Timothy does and learns a lot from him--good and bad.

At her doctor appointment she checked out healthy.  She has actually grown and is about 30th percentile.  And she continues to slim down from her chubby baby stage that peaked around 2 months.  She is getting a little more adventuresome in her eating, which means she is eating more than her Cheerios and bananas.  She recently rediscovered how great ketchup is!

She makes us laugh and smile and praise God for such a precious gift.  Happy Birthday Teresa!

Olympics

Last night we began the 2012 Troftgruben Olympics!  Our first events included baseball, soccer, triple jump, long jump, shot put, discus, boomerang throwing, and red ball bouncing.  All of us got into the action and Timothy loved trying out these new things he had never heard of.  Teresa was a good sport too and as the little 'me too' girl tired each event to the best of her ability.

Tonight Timothy wanted to go outside for more Olympics play.  He requested that we do the "workshop" and the "3 jump."  That would be shot put and triple jump.  We did try a little soccer and baseball, but that ended in tears and we had to switch to 'fishing' off of the swing set in the back yard.

Her are some pictures of the future Olympians!

Teresa's shot put...didn't go to far!

Running to prepare for the long jump.

The long jump!!!  What a jump.

Teresa's long jump.  Pretty good for one who is still learning to jump.

Cabin vacation...year 2!

We recently returned from a week at the cabin--a cabin generously lent to us by some church friends.  And once again we had perfect weather and a wonderful week of family time.  The pictures to follow show some of our highlights.

We had a pontoon available for our use and we enjoyed at least one boat ride every day.  Teresa liked watching the 'splash' on the side of the boat.  Timothy liked leaning over the back seat to watch the motor and the waves.  Troy liked cruising around the lake.  And I liked going for a few swims off of the boat.  We had a new tube to try out this year too.  The kids only liked it when the boat was stopped and we floated.  I thought it was pretty fun to go for a ride.  You can't go too fast behind a pontoon which was perfect!

Timothy was still in a bit of his face painting craze (see a few posts back!).  I now have some watercolor pencils and can do a bit of painting.  One afternoon, Timothy requested I draw the cabin on his arm.  I guess that shows how much he loved our vacation there.

We visited the little history museum again in a nearby town.  There are a few old buildings on the property, one of which was an old school.

And you can't visit a town without enjoying a playground too.  Even on a very hot day, a playground can't be beat!  We ended the afternoon in town with pizza and an ice cream treat. Yummy!

Teresa's latest play phase is her play mobile toys.  "Neigh, neigh, play" she says and carries around her little cases.  So when we weren't on the boat or out having fun elsewhere, we were usually playing horses or reading books.

We also went to Bemidji for a day.  We spent the morning at the Science center and the kids had a blast.  There is a lot to explore and a few animals to see.  They both enjoyed seeing Nemo in the fish tank.

We stopped to see a friend of Troy's and he graciously fed us lunch and allowed Teresa to take a nap.  Once we were a bit more energized we made a stop at Animal Land.  Going to see animals on a very hot afternoon was not a great idea.  All the animals were too hot to move.  Oh well.  But Teresa enjoyed seeing her beloved animals, so that was good.

I think the highlight of the week for Timothy was his fishing.  The night before we left for vacation, Troy decided he would throw in his fishing gear and let Timothy try it.  Well Timothy loved it and after a week of fishing the two of them had caught about 32 fish!  By the end of the week Timothy was catching fish without any help.  Most of the fish were sunnies, but to Timothy they were all great fish!  Troy even cooked up the first two they caught.

A highlight for Troy was cooking on the grill with a beautiful lake view in the background.

The last two worms hooked, caught a fish for Troy and Timothy.  It was a great way to end the week.

All good things do end, and we packed everything up and headed home.  After a busy week, we had two tired kids napping on the drive home.

We hope to have another adventure at the cabin next year!

4th of July

Once again we spent the 4th of July in Troy's hometown.  We went up on Monday so we could enjoy some time with Grandma Judy and Auntie Susie.  There was a nice summer rain on Monday night that both Timothy and Teresa enjoyed playing in.  You can sort of see the rain drops in the picture below.

Teresa and I hanging out on the porch after the rain had stopped.

We had some sunny and hot weather on Tuesday, but Grandma Judy still took the kids for a ride in Teresa's new wagon (an early b-day gift from Grandma!)  We spent some time in the morning swimming and playing at a nearby playground.  The kids had fun and it was nice to be out before it got too hot.

In the afternoon we stayed in the cool house watching Lightning McQueen and snuggling for some stories.  A bit later Troy, the kids and I drove up to see Odalen--the former site of a church Troy's great-great grandfather helped to build.  The church burned several years ago and a memorial was built in its place.

There is a cemetery at Odalen where many of Troy's relatives are buried.  Troy took this picture of the kids standing near the grave of their great-great-great-great grandfather Hans who came from Norway with his son--Hans.  It was kind of neat to think of all the generations between them.  We explained to Timothy that the church that used to be here was his Grandpa Bernie's church when he was young.  Timothy kept saying he thought Grandpa Bernie would be sad to see his church burned down.

 It only took about four trys to get this picture of the kids as they waited to go to the parade on the 4th.  (Teresa wore the same dress from last year.  This year it was more of a shirt!  She really has grown.)

Before the parade, Troy fixed Timothy's hair into a spike.  He was pretty happy with his stylish hair!

Both Timothy and Teresa enjoyed the parade.  Timothy was excited to collect candy.  Teresa liked the horses and all the trucks.  We had a wonderful time celebrating with family!

Fun at the fair

A few weeks ago, our church had a family event that had bounce houses, games and face painting. Timothy spent the whole night bouncing, but saw a friend that had his face painted like spiderman.  After the event was over, he wished he too could have had his face painting.  I promised him that we could have it done sometime this summer.

Since that night we have been to three other summer events that promised face painting.  But at each event we have been disappointed to find out that for some reason there was not any face painting.  The fair was going on this week, and once again face painting was advertised.  I figured there was a good chance the fair might actually have it, so the kids and I set out to the fair.

There was face painting, and a 45 minute wait to go with it!  But I knew we had to do it and Timothy and Teresa were angels while waiting in a hot building with nothing to do.  The wait was completely worth it for how happy Timothy was.  He was set on being spiderman.

A very happy spiderman!

After waiting so long for Timothy's painting, we had to do something for Teresa.  Her stop was the petting zoo.  There were all kinds of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs.  Teresa's favorite might have been the "hop-hops" in the 4h building.  When we were ready to go, Teresa was very sad and I had to  let her go say goodbye to the bunnies.

Teresa and Spiderman take in all the animals.



Teresa chats with a sheep.

It was hot at the fair, and we did not do a whole lot, but both kids were very happy with their respective experiences.  Timothy pretended to be spiderman all afternoon.  It was very sad to wash his face before bed.  I was slightly tempted to let him sleep with his facepaint, but it would have made a huge mess of his bed.  So we have pictures and video to remember our spiderman!

Camping!

We went on our first camping outing as a family of four.  Last year Teresa and I stayed home, but now that she is almost two she got to join the fun.  We went to Itasca State Park. We had hoped to stay for two nights, but Troy had a funeral he needed to get home for so 1 night it was.

The weather was perfect...warm days, cool nights and no bugs!  We didn't really prepare Teresa for the fact that she would be going to sleep with all of us.  We tried the 'everyone in bed at the same time' approach.  It didn't work as quickly as we hoped.  I think Teresa was up until 10:30!  She did have a dirty diaper which did not help her settling down to sleep.  But we did all sleep and even if a little sleep deprived, the kids were very good the next day.

 We were able to hit the swimming beach.  Teresa did well wearing her ear band and ear plugs.  She was looking pretty stylish with the pink ear band and pink ear plugs!  She liked walking and splashing in the water.

Timothy loved the water too.  He was running and splashing all over the place.  He was just a little disappointed that mommy forgot his life jacket, so he didn't go in the deep water.

And of course we made a stop at the playground.  Teresa was flashing all kinds of smiles for Troy's picture taking.  She had fun following Timothy around as usual.  Both kids loved swinging and being pulled by the legs--Troy's invention!

No camping trip would be complete without a campfire and roasting marshmallows.  Timothy and Teresa waited patiently for Troy to get the fire started.

Troy helped both the kids roast their marshmallows.  No marshmallows (or kids) got burned in the process!

Teresa was not impressed with her s'more.  The marshmallow and chocolate were too messy and the graham cracker was too sticky.  She enjoyed a frosted animal cracker instead.  Timothy loved his s'more!

Timothy had the chance to give a try at fishing for the first time.  There was a kids fishing event at the fishing pier.  He didn't catch anything, but enjoyed the process with his daddy.

We stopped at the Missippi headwaters and did a little bit of wading.  Teresa went in and out until fatigue from little sleep got the best of her.

And since it was Timothy's baptism day, Troy did a little rememberance of his baptism in the waters of the Mississsippi.

Timothy was eager to play on the rocks--one of his favorite activities at Itasca.  With a little help from dad he did not slip once.  He was catious and careful and it payed off.  He went across several times.

Overall, it was a great camping trip!

Thursday night jazz

We had plans to go on a bike ride, play at a playground and eat dinner out at l'Bistro (half price pizza and jazz night), but unfortunatly a rain storm changed our plans.  Troy decided we should have our own jazz night and bring some pizza home.  So he pulled up some jazz on his ipod and outfitted the whole family with some cool glasses.  It was a fun night even with the change in plans.

"Did daddy make everyone wear glasses?"

One cool girl!

Where's my pizza?!