Ally's Birthday

Ally's 5th Birthday November 7, 2008
Ally go to start out her day by doing her pre-school screener. Brian took her and she did absolutely wonderful. Afterward Dad took to breakfast at her favorite restaurant, Keys.

We celebrated Ally's birthday for two days. Her birthday was on a Friday and so we just had a family birthday dinner in which she got to pick her meal. She decided to have schnitzel. She got to open her gifts from Mom and Dad, a new outfit, Brainquest game, and her ears pierced!! On Saturday she got to go out to lunch with a friend, Lola, and to a movie. She picked LeeAnn Chin's and the movie "High School Musical 3."

When the movie was finished we headed off to the Maplewood Mall to Claire's where she got her ears pierced. She picked out her birthstone and barely even flinched. She did wonderful. After all of that we dropped Lola off at her house and went up to Uncle Rick's house. Ally got to celebrate her birthday with her big cousin Alex. His birthday is the 28th of October, but we had a wedding the weekend of his birthday, so we decided to just do them together. Amber made a great ballerina cake just for Ally!!

Hanging out on the swingset

This is the girls enjoying their new swing set this fall.

Eating Candy!

This Gabby eating candy while Dad and Ally went out for more Trick-or-Treating!!

Happy Halloween!

Thursday night we started the weekend with a little pumpkin carving! Gabby was really into it this year. She was very excited and loved stabbing the pumpkin and grabbing all of the carving tools. Probably not the safest thing for a 2 year old.

Gabby worked with me and Ally worked with Dad on carving the pumpkins. The smaller one was ours and the larger one was Ally and Dad's. We kept the seeds from the small pumpkin to roast. We had a blast.

Friday, when we got home from Karen's house we ate and then got ready for trick-o-treating. Ally was Tinkerbell and Gabby got to be a pumpkin again! Brian took them out and met up with Reilly and Lexi and Scott. The four of them made a big loop and dropped off Gabby. Ally took a quick bathroom break and then her and Dad were off again. All together, Ally and Dad, were gone for almost two hours!! You should see how much candy she got!! Look out dentist.

The Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weekends ago, Oct 12, we went up to Wyoming to the pumpkin patch. Rick, Amber and the boys along with Lindsey and Kirra all went together. We met up at Rick's house for brunch and waited for Brian to finish over at Karen's house. The day was a little overcast but was very warm, near 70.

The first thing we did was head over to the apple guns, which they loaded with corn cobs. Ally, Brian, Rick, and Alex all shot them off while I held Gabby close. She is not real fond of loud noises. We stuck around for the pumpkin launcher, in which the pumpkin leaves the gun at 250 mph and is launched almost a mile. It was quite the site to see. We then listened to the "pumpkin dragon" and after headed to the petting zoo.

Everyone was very excited to see and feed the goats, especially Rick! Gabby is not a big fan of the larger animals and stuck real close to me as far away as possible from the goats and cows. When Gabby and I cam upon the chickens and bunnies she was lovin' it.

Then we went over to the wagon loading area which brings you back tot he field of pumpkins. We all unloaded and picked out our pumpkins. Of course they set the largest pumpkins to the front of the field. By all means we ventured to the back of the field to find a smaller pumpkin. All in all we had a great time.

Johnny Appleseed

The last weekend in September we headed south to Afton Apple. We decided to go on Sunday because Brian and I were at our last Twins game of the season and it was a day game. We wanted to go on Saturday and then go to the game that evening, but they changed the game. It was misting all the way down and continued while we were there.

We certainly made the most of the wet conditions. The girls absolutely had a ball. We looked at the animals in the petting zoo first and swung on the horse swings first. Then we meandered down to the hay ride which brought us out to the apples. Brian thought we should start with the "Sweet 16s" and try to get a few "Honey Golds" on the way back. Unfortunately the "Honey Golds" were not open for picking, although that didn't stop Brian. Ally and him snuck into them and grabbed a couple:)

After we finished with the apples we went over to the raspberries. Gabby absolutely loved picking and of coarse eating the raspberries. When we finally decided to call it quits the girls were soaked from toes to knees. They both, including Mom and Dad, had a great time at the orchard. Gabby was asleep before we even hit the highway and Ally was also pooped.

The State Fair

Yesterday we got up early and took in the Fair with our friend Deric. We decided to try to bring Gabby with, against Brian's wishes (he thought she might be a little winey.) We got there about 9 am and got started. There actually was not a large consumption of food on a stick by the Johnson's family.

Gabby got to ride in the backpack, on my back, for about the first two hours. And when my back was nearing the breaking point Brian took over. She was happy as a clam. We went into the barns and the girls were able to pet most animals. When we were in the Miracle of Birth building we saw a pig being born. It was pretty cool. After that Ally wanted some ice cream so over to the Dairy Building we headed. In there they were carving one of the finalist of the Princess Kay of the Milky Way contestant head in butter. Ally was fascinated by this. I think she would have stayed there until they finished.

Gabby finally fell asleep and we took that opportunity to go over to the kids Midway. Ally of course was bugging a little early on but settled down, per Dad's request. When we got there she was very excited. Her and I went on the Ferris Wheel first, then she went on the Dragon roller coaster with Dad. Next was the flying bee's and ended up riding with a girl that was in her dance class this summer, small world:) Then came the fun house, the race cars, flying ride, and the Big Jumper. She had a blast and Gabby slept through about half of it.

After the rides we just wandered a little. Brian had promised a wood sign for the girls new fort in the swing set. Well the only place we saw was on the other side of the Fair. So Gabby, Deric and I decided to have pizza on a stick while Ally and Brian ran back down there. When they got over there they found out that there was a 2 hour wait and waaaaaaay tooooo expensive. Ally agreed to look online with Dad for one. On the way back across the Fair Brian thought it would faster and more fun to take the Skyride. Well there was a bit of wait, but Gabby, Deric and I just tooled around in a couple of buildings and waited for them.

The girls had a great day and proved Dad wrong about their behavior at the Fair. We did not leave the Fair until a little before 5!!

Twins vs. the Yankees

Today I decided to bring Gabby over to Karen's instead of bringing her along to the Twins game. I was going to bring her and then decided to keep my sanity and let her go to Karen's to play!

Ally and I dropped off Miss Gabby and then headed off to the Dome. When we got down there Ally just wanted to get inside. I had to pick up our bobble heads first and then we headed in. It was $1 dog day so we both got a dog and coke. Ally was pretty excited to see her favorite player, TC. It ended up that we were surrounded by Yankees fans; two young guys from Iowa, one guy who flew in from NY, and Alex's girlfriend. Ally and I held strong even though they were all trying to convince Ally to become a Yankees fan:(- The guy behind us even offered Ally a batting helmet in exchange for life-long loyalty to the Yanks, she declined. We had a great time, Ally continued to flirt with the guy behind us, Gereld, and he did end up giving her the batting helmet! He even took a picture of her. It was a great afternoon and TWINS WIN!!!!!

Saturday, August 9

We went out to my Uncle Joe's house to swim and be on the boat. Ally swam with the boys for awhile and then we took the kids out to let them tube behind the boat. Miles and Alex made all the way around the lake and Ally made it half-way.

After dinner we took everyone out to the middle of the lake to swim. It was a little cool that evening and both Ally and Gabby jumped off the back of the boat. When it was time to get out everyone had no problem hopping out except Miss Gabby. She was very unhappy when we finally pulled her out of the water.

Today's Activities

We went on a bike ride this afternoon. Gabby was behind me and Ally rode behind Brian. It was great to have a lighter load this time. Ally loved being able to ride a bike behind Dad. She did really well. We rode down to the lake and then along it to Clark. Crossed the highway and made our way down Bald Eagle. From there we cut through by North campus to Division and then home. All in total we biked 5.4 miles. Wow what a great job Ally!

Gabby loved having all that room in the trailer. She just hopped right in and was ready to go. Fun day.