Birthday party weekend!

Teresa is soon to turn 5, and we started the celebration up this weekend.  Grandma Rebecca and Grandpa Ken came for a visit and brought cousin Fiona along.  The cousins and friend Anna had a fun time doing a lemonade stand.  In between selling lemonade, they did some chalk drawings.  Anna made a great birthday cake for Teresa.

On the morning of the party, Timothy, Teresa and Fiona were excited.  They all had their animal themed clothes for the safari party.  It was hard to wait for presents, so Grandma kindly let Teresa open a book a little early.  Teresa read the book to Grandma Rebecca and Fiona!

Finally the party began.  The first activity was a snake tie craft.  The kids picked their ties and we glued on eyes and a tongue.  Sophie, Anna, Fiona and Timothy were the party guests.

We used the ties for the snake throw game.  I love Teresa's smile as I helped her throw the snake.

The girls pose with their snake ties.  Timothy's tie got stuck on the roof briefly, but luckily Grandpa rescued it with a snow rake.  We played some animal themed games outside...lion pawing, cheetah race, elephant water relay, scavenger hunt and parachute games.  It was a lot of fun.  We did a few more games inside before it was present opening time.  Teresa kept asking when it was time for presents...she was excited.  She got several cat themed gifts and some wild animal gifts. Everyone knows what she likes!

We had a quick lunch and then it was time for cake.  This year Teresa requested a white tiger cake.  It turned out pretty good even though I used brown chocolate frosting instead of black for the stripes and it tasted delicious!  Teresa was pretty happy!

The party sort of continued all afternoon.  Sophie went home, but Anna and Fiona stayed all day!  After some big cat play indoors we set up the slip and slide in the backyard.  The never ending party made for a happy girl.

Grandpa Ken offered to cook dinner, which meant a trip to McDonald's, much to the delight of three kiddos.  The were treated to happy meals and it was special treat day for kids.  They each got a perfect mini ice cream cone for a treat.

It was a wonderful day for a wonderful 5 year old girl!!

Visiting Family in ND and MN

We had a great week and a half vacation to see our families.  We stopped a night in MN to see Susie and to break up the long drive to ND.  We had a fun dinner on the deck and then a family game of baseball in the culdesac.  Even Susie got into the game and was quite the big time hitter!

We made our way up to ND to see Grandma Judy.  The kids were very excited to see her and enjoy the cookies on the porch tradition.  The also had fun watching the 4th of July parade and collecting all the candy.  They thought it was pretty neat that Troy was in the parade for his class reunion.

The 4th was really hot.  Too hot for Teresa to stay long at the little park and the jumpys.  She and I played in the little pools at Grandma's house.  Timothy, on the other hand, took full advantage of the free jumpys.  He even got to try the bungee jump two times!

After Timothy spent time jumping, the boys joined us for some water fun.  Troy gave the kids a ride through the sprinkler a few times.

We were supposed to go to a family picnic for Troy's class reunion, but it rained and rained on Sunday morning, even flooding the streets of Park River.  The picnic was cancelled allowing the kids to enjoy lots of time splashing in the flooded streets!

We spent an afternoon in Grand Forks at Kate's house.  It was a chilly day, so the planned pool day did not last long, but Timothy, Silas and Teresa managed to keep busy and happy for several hours.  I had a nice time catching up with Kate and Troy met up with Sarah.

It was a good time in ND.  Troy was a bit busy with the reunion and preaching and a memorial service, but the rest of us had a relaxing time.

We celebrated Teresa's birthday in ND and MN.  She got some good practice blowing out her 5 candles!

From ND we headed back to MN to stay with Grandma Rebecca and Grandpa Ken.  Timothy enjoyed a couple of days of Bible day camp with his cousins.  And on Friday we all went to Como Park and Como Town for some rides.  Jeff, Mattias, and Fiona met us there for the morning.  While we waited to go into the zoo, the kids played on this cool playground.  They were pretending to be American Ninja Warriors!

Timothy riding the tiger coaster.

Teresa enjoying the tea cups ride.

A car full of cousins!

Troy got to go on the bumper cars with Teresa.  It is hard to tell who loves the ride more.  We saw a few big cats at the zoo before a picnic lunch.  

After lunch we headed back to Como Town for some splash park fun.  We had a scary moment of losing Timothy for a few minutes at the park.  He went on a ride, and we did not hear him tell us where he was going.  A few minutes of frantic searching and he returned right back to Troy.  It was a good reminder of how easy it is to lose track of each other in a busy place.  My heart was sure thankful to see our little boy with Troy!

The kids enjoyed some swim time in MN too.

Another great part of our trip was being part of our nephew Calvin's baptism in MN.  Troy and I got to be sponsors for the brand new child of God!  All the cousins got to be in one picture with Grandma and Grandpa.  We also enjoyed a great brunch and family celebration at Dan and Krista's house.  We were sad to go.

Two of the three Gustafson siblings...Jeff was a church preaching.

We are so thankful for our families and the opportunities we have to see them.  We are blessed.

Baptism Day!

At the end of June, we celebrated Timothy's baptism day.  We try to make it a special day and involve some sort of water.  I think we accomplished that!  We finally set up the slip and slide.  Timothy had been asking for it for weeks, but it had been too wet and rainy. Two neighbor friends came over for all kinds of water fun.

Timothy got to choose what he wanted for dinner and a special treat after dinner.  We took time to light his candle and say blessings over him.  We love you Timothy Child of God!!

Camping weekend!

It took some convincing, but Troy and I decided to go camping last weekend.  We both like the idea of camping, but not all the work involved in packing and making it happen.  We reminded ourselves how much our kids love it and that we really do enjoy and made it happen.  We spent the weekend at Pikes Peak State park.

The weather was pretty good.  A few sprinkles on Friday night and some rain for packing up on Sunday morning, but a beautiful Saturday.  We did some hiking in the park, made a visit to Prairie Du Chien, WI and hiked at Effigy Mounds National Park.  And of course we had some fun at the playground, playing by the campfire and hanging out at the campsite.  It was a great decision to make this weekend happen!

Beautiful views of the Mississippi river form Pikes Peak overlook.  Iowa is a very pretty place...especially the bluffs of the river!

Typical camping for us--Timothy playing with the fire, Teresa reading her books to me, and Troy taking the pictures!

Pausing during one of our family hikes.

Lunch at the Local Oven in Prairie Du Chien.  Kara Popp recommended the bakery to us.  Good sandwiches and even better treats!

One of several mounds built by Native Americans thousands of years ago.  The shapes of the mounds vary from circles to ovals to animal shapes.

Roasting the marshmallows for the S'mores.  One of the best parts of camping!

Happy campers!