Preschool pictures

We got the preschool pictures today. As usual, they are fantastic. It's amazing what a professional photographer can do!

Random summer pics

Duluth

Ben and Maddie made their first trip to Duluth last week, although it was very short, foggy and under sad circumstances. We were there to say goodbye to Jamey's grandfather just before he died. I took a few pics of the kids checking out the big Lake.

Our way-too-fun day!

Yesterday was a banner day in the fun department for the Webster family. We had two extremely tired kiddos when we got home at 9:30 p.m. last night and all day today! In the morning we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Stillwater for a pool party with our cousins. There were 8 kids there, all under age 8. Ben & Maddie were the youngest, but boy did they love following their older cousins around and learning from them.

From 2013-07-13_Wolffs

I especially love this cute picture of Emily and Maddie:

From 2013-07-13_Wolffs

From 2013-07-13_Wolffs

From 2013-07-13_Wolffs

From 2013-07-13_Wolffs

Then in the afternoon we drove to the southern part of Dakota County for a wedding reception for Shelby. The whole Beissel clan was there and we had a great time catching up with them. Since my Dad died, we haven't seen them much, unfortunately. That family sure knows how to party! My friend Dani and her family came up from La Crosse and my brother, David, came from Rochester. The kids had tons of fun playing on the trampoline, dancing and playing with glow sticks and anything else they could find. We tried to get a little "family" photo with our friends, but didn't seem to manage to get everybody to look at the camera at the same time!

From 2013-07-13_Beissel

Love this photo of Lois and Dani!

From 2013-07-13_Beissel

And this one of Maddie and her uncle David

From 2013-07-13_Beissel

And, of course, Lindsey always looks way better than everybody else...

From 2013-07-13_Beissel

And there was also a short birthday party for Marge, who will be turning 80 this coming week (although you'd never know it looking at her)

From 2013-07-13_Beissel

Belated Mother's Day

I realized that I'm way behind in publishing things here. Thought I would share this photo from a Mother's Day "breakfast" at the kids' daycare last month:

From MOMsDay2013

Awesome fun weekend!

We had a great time this past weekend with my good friend, Dani, and her family. Her son, Ezra, is the same age as Ben & Maddie (in fact we celebrated his 4th birthday this weekend) and her daughter, Eden, is six. The four kids think the world of each other. It probably is most due to the fact that when we get together it's always extra fun. This time they came to our house. We spent most of Sunday at the Mall of America, riding the rides.

From 2013-03-24

From 2013-03-24

From 2013-03-24

From 2013-03-24

From 2013-03-24

From 2013-03-24

From 2013-03-24

From 2013-03-24

We also exchanged Christmas and birthday gifts...

From 2013-03-24

From 2013-03-24

From 2013-03-24

And on Monday we took them to our favorite YMCA where they have an awesome mini waterpark (sorry, no pics of that!) The kids had an awesome time...

From 2013-03-24

4th birthday!

It just doesn't seem possible that Ben & Maddie are four years old. Where did the years go?? It's so fun to watch them navigate the "big" world and to be able to tell us their thoughts, wants, needs, etc. (Mostly "wants", of course!) The things that come out of their mouths are amazing. To celebrate this year, our friends the Calgrens came over on the 30th and we had dinner and cake (and watched the Vikings beat the Packers, quite unexpectedly). Then on the 31st, we took them to Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America, where they rode lots of rides and had lunch before crashing in the car around 3 p.m.

From 2012-12-31

From 2012-12-31

From 2012-12-31

From 2012-12-31

Christmas 2012

Sorry I'm so late in posting this! It's been a crazy couple of weeks with the holidays and the kids being off from school (their school closes for 2 weeks!). The end is in sight, though. We all go back to school and work on Monday. I took the Christmas decorations down today -- back to reality. Here are some highlights of our holidays.... On the 23rd, we went to Stillwater to my aunt and uncle's. Nearly the whole Wolff family was there (just one cousin missing!). The kids had a fabulous time with their cousins and seeing Santa!

From 2012-12-24

From 2012-12-24

My brother stayed with us for a couple days, so he got to witness the "magic" of Christmas morning. The kids were in awe of all their gifts (way too many, as usual! I went a bit overboard).

From 2012-12-25

From 2012-12-25

From 2012-12-25

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From 2012-12-25

From 2012-12-25

From 2012-12-25

New Year's card finally ordered!

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.