Grace's first day of School!

September 6, 2007 was Grace's first day of school! She is attending Community Christian School in Willmar and loving it. She has been looking forward to Kindergarten with much anticipation for at least a year now. Mom on the other hand, has had mixed feelings about this milestone. Excited on the one hand, but hard to let go with the other. Ryan and I are both so happy that she is able to attend CCS, but still, it is hard to watch her go off to a world that doesn't include me, even if it's only for a few hours a day. Just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital and tomorrow she will graduate from high school. Don't blink - you might miss it. For now, we will just savor the moments, macaroni art and all! :)
Home again!

Fun at the park

We found a great new park that they just put in on Green Lake in Spicer. The kids had a great time and can't wait to back there again, neither can we!

The Princess in her castle

Micah loved the tire swing

Sittin' pretty in the petunias...

What a beautiful day!

Shoes

Miss Anna loves shoes! She loves to walk around the house in other people's shoes. She especially seems to like mine and Grace's shoes. Here she is trying to walk around in some of my high-heeled sandals - and doing a pretty good job of it too!

Our new bathroom floor!

End of July Caleb and Ian came out to our place and tiled our bathroom floor for us. They did an awesome job and we are so happy with how it turned out! It was great having them here - the kids really enjoyed them and, it's not every day that we've got two good-looking guys hard at work around the house - usually it's just one! ;) Great job guys!Watch your fingers Caleb!
Ryan supervising
I think all that the hard work & attention to detail was starting to get to Ian...

The end result - beautiful! What a huge improvement!

Walk = Ice Cream?!

Mom says: "It's really nice out tonight, let's go for a walk. The exercise will be good too."

Dad says: "Yeah, good idea."

So what happens?! We go for a nice family walk... to McDonald's for ice cream! So much for the good exercise! Oh well, I guess we hardly ever do that, so once in a while it's a fun treat! The kids sure enjoyed it. Walks with Dad are so much more fun than with just mom!
The kids sure enjoyed it!
We even let Anna eat some on her own, she had fun trying to get it into her mouth without sliding off the spoon first ...

maybe a cone is easier! ;)

Grace's First Sleepover!

In mid July Ryan's Uncle David, Aunt Edwina and their two girls visited from Virginia. It was good to see them all again and, Grace and my sister Jessica especially had a good time visiting with cousins Mary Claire and Lauren. In fact, it worked out for the four girls to have a sleepover one night at our house, a first for Grace. They had such a great time together!

Our newest Cousin

The newest Lindgren cousin, baby Bryce, joined us in late June! Now Micah will eventually have another boy to play with instead of just the girls. Here's a photo of the newly grown family: Emily, Bryce, Jason & Ella.

Willmar Fests Parade

We had a great time at the Willmar Fests Parade this year. The weather was perfect and we watched it with friends. Here's Anna, the little American Cutie! Micah has the best spot, on Daddy's shoulders.

Grace (still watching the parade and not looking at the camara)

and her little friends Douglas and Philip.
Anna fell asleep on the walk home. All the activity wore her out!

Our little nest

We had some birds build a little nest and lay their eggs in the planter right by the front door to our house. Grace and Micah were just thrilled to see the tiny eggs! Oh, the magic you see when you look at things with a child!

Pool Buddies

When we can't make it to the beach or the pool, the kids really enjoy swimming in their backyard pool.

At the Cabin

June 12-17 we were able to spend some time at a cabin up north with Ryan's parents, Grandma Rose, and Lysa, Jeremy and baby Alayna. It was a lot of fun and the kids especially had a great time! It's so neat for them to be able to spend time with extended family which includes Great-Grandma Rose. It was a much needed respite from the busyness of our everyday lives.
Micah canoeing with Ryan. He was so cute, pretty much the whole time he was out there he was singing "Row, row, row your boat..." (Micah was singing, not Ryan!)
My hero.

The kids had a lot of fun fishing with Daddy and Grandpa Steve. They caught a good number of fish during the week, enough to have a fish fry one night, although, Grace insisted that they threw any of "the cute ones" back into the water!

The proud fisherman!

Anna had a great time at the beach. She even taste tested the sand, yum! ;)

Better to taste a marshmellow instead of sand. Here she is with her first one.

Ryan and Grandma Rose

Ryan was able to try out wake-boarding with Lysa and Jeremy. He did awesome! He got up on his second try and was able to stay up for a while too! Way to go!

Father and son

Auntie Lysa and the kids

The whole crew (minus photographer Steve).

What a great week!

Our New Clean Team!

Just a quick disclaimer: No child labor laws were broken for the taking of these pictures! ;)

Just Kidding! The kids actually enjoy cleaning up (at this point anyways) and are always eager to help - I love it!

Anna is not about to be left out of all the "big kid" fun!

Bubbles!

The kids having fun with bubbles.

Hey! This is fun!