Mommy & Daughter Weekend get-away!

Eleanor and I spent this past weekend in Grand Rapids, MN with my brother Jordan (the dentist!) and his lovely wife, Natalie. They were such gracious hosts to us all weekend. It's fairly exhausting keeping a toddler entertained for the weekend (especially when it's not in her own home/a home that has no children in it (YET!) ). But, keeping us entertained is what they did and we had a great time. The best part was just seeing Eleanor interact with her auntie and uncle, whom you can tell she loves so! In this picture Eleanor is the welcome-wagon at the front door of J & N's house.
This is one of Natalie's favorite pictures. It is cute, but I HATE that I'm wearing white socks! I forgot to pack black...

Tea Party!
We visited two nice parks over the weekend. The weather was gorgeous and it was nice to let Eleanor explore new parks. Here are her and Jordan climbing a rock wall...she did really well. We have a climber on our hands (but, aren't all toddlers?).

Taking a break to admire the scenery.

There were LOTS of hugs this weekend. Very precious for Mom to see that...

The girls hanging out at the park.

Recently, Eleanor is very fond of pockets and putting her hands (or other objects) in them.

Girl bonding time looking at pictures from this past summer on the computer.

Uncle bonding time playing the guitar (which Eleanor was very captivated by!).

Another park and her first time on a tire swing (a personal favorite of mine in elementary school).

On Sunday we went to a Children's Museum. There were lots of fun things for Eleanor to explore including this life-sized maze to walk through. Hide & Seek was never so fun!

Much to my dismay, she didn't want to dress up like a princess. But, I think she would make an excellent Firewoman anyway...

The Grand Rapids Children's Museum is also attached to the Judy Garland childhood home/museum. Crazy as it sounds, Judy Garland was born in Grand Rapids under the name of Francis Gumm and lived there until she was about 4 years old. We quickly went through the museum and her home (Eleanor was less interested in this part!) and it was really cool. I'm a huge Wizard of Oz fan so that part of it was fun. Here is Jordan posing as a Munchkin (and a girl Munchkin no less)!

Interesting side note: The Ruby slippers were stolen from this museum a couple of years ago and they have never been returned/found. Sad...

" We're off to see the Wizard!"

Our final night at J & N's place (which, by the way, is so cute - they have really done a nice job fixing things up). If you blow up this picture on your screen you have to check out Eleanor's face...she looks like Chris Farley!! :)

Thanks again Jordan & Natalie!

We hope that it's the start of many "Up North" trips for us! In fact, I feel so "woodsy" now that I'm planning on re-decorating my bathroom with a moose/pinecone theme. :)

Sesame Street Live!

As part of Eleanor's birthday gift Michael and I took her to Sesame Street Live last week. We had such a fun time. Watching her get really excited about the characters was so fun! Of course, Elmo is her favorite, but she enjoyed watching the other characters as well. The show was about an hour and a half (with a 15 minute intermission) and Eleanor stayed in her seat the whole time. She also had popcorn for the first time and couldn't get enough of it! It was a very special morning for Michael and I as we watched our little girl participate in some "big girl" activities.

This is a little outfit that Grandma Mari Lee gave her for her birthday. She's also carrying her new backpack!

Birthday Weekend

We had a wonderful birthday weekend for Eleanor! Grandma & Grandpa Anderson and Grandma Mari Lee were able to spend the weekend with us. Also, as I previously mentioned, we had a birthday open house on Saturday for friends & family to have some cake and ice cream! The theme was Winnie the Pooh but the bakery where I got the cake (Daube's) isn't a copyrighted bakery, so they can't actually do a Disney character. But, Eleanor didn't seem to notice!

Taking a closer look at the cake...

Here is how I set up the table. Nothing too fancy...

Her "Pooh inspired" cake!

Many of our friends were able to come to the open house and so Eleanor had lots of friends to play with! This is Theodore who loved the Little People train.

Theodore's little sister, Lucy. She looked adorable in a little corduroy skirt with cable knit tights!

Violet & Gloria in their High School Musical t-shirts! They wore those more for me than for Eleanor...

Baby "Cookie" (as Eleanor likes to call him!). Lukas Nelson (Lukey) is his formal name.

Uncle Matt and our good friend Bob Giere.

Erikka Giere also stopped by.

The kids sat at their own little table to eat their cake.

Eleanor enjoyed her cake a lot more this year than she did last year!

An art desk from Uncle Mark.

Matt & Melissa got her this little Pooh laptop computer!

After church on Sunday we opened some more presents from family. Grandma Anderson got Eleanor her own little charm bracelet.

And Uncle Jordan & Aunt Natalie got her a personalized foot stool. She likes to get up to the sink and brush her teeth or wash her hands (or both!).

Here she is standing on her foot stool and talking on yet another cell phone!

Eleanor wasn't being very cooperative after church for pictures. So, this was the best we could do for the grandparents. We didn't even get one of Mari Lee! Sorry about that...we did get a family shot but it's on my Dad's camera.

Our happy, healthy birthday girl!

Happy Birthday, Eleanor Rose!

We had a little party at our house on Saturday in honor of Eleanor's 2nd Birthday. We can't believe our little "baby" is now 2 years old! We had several friends & family come over for a piece of cake (more on that in another blog post) and it was a very nice afternoon. Here is Eleanor with her "Pooh inspired" birthday cake.
Let's flashback to September 8, 2006 shall we? Here she is straight from the womb looking wrinkled and mad at the world - I can't really blame her! We loved her instantly...

Here are the birthday twins - exactly 25 years apart!

Happy 27th Birthday, Uncle Jordan!!

The birthday twins at Eleanor's 1st birthday party last year. (I wanted to post more 1st birthday pics since I didn't have the blog at the time, but my camera didn't get very good shots that evening.)

Our big girl with her cake!

Blow out that candle, Eleanor! We love you and are so proud of you!

Happy Birthday MC & MC!

Happy 32nd Birthday Culloton boys! To celebrate the guys' birthday, we drove to Inver Grove Heights yesterday to meet Matt, Melissa, Mari Lee & Aunt Sue at Ruby Tuesday's. Here is a shot of the guys in the parking lot. Of course, Eleanor had to get in the picture too!

Eleanor eating her grilled cheese sandwich, which looked mighty tasty! I must say, I love having a toddler (vs. a baby) wherein you can start ordering off the kids' menu and letting them interact in the dinner process. Watching her eat like a big girl is so much fun! But...back to the guys...

I brought cupcakes from Daube's that were very appropriately decorated. They were also very yummy!

Grandma & Eleanor outside the restaurant...

Ditto for Auntie Susie...

A special message from Eleanor Rose...

Happy Birthday, honey. WE LOVE YOU!

The M & M & M Visit

Last week Mark (Michael's brother who lives in Fort Collins, CO) came to MN for a class reunion. Before he even went to St. Cloud, Mari Lee picked him up from the airport and brought him to Rochester. Matt also came with. We had a fun day filled with going to Toys R Us because Mark wanted to get Eleanor her birthday gifts - he's way to generous with her! He got her an art desk/easel, a doll (pictured below) that has clothes you can take on and off, and a giggling Elmo ball. Thanks, Mark!

Trying to put the shoes on the doll - shoes are already an obsession for Eleanor!

Mike & Matt hanging out...

Group photo after dinner at Green Mill.

This one included the proud Grandma!

Thanks for coming down M, M & M! We love you all!

Bigger Lake & Bigger Boat!

Harms' Cabin Vacation: August 11 - 14, 2008 - FINAL DAY! On our final day at the cabin Kris & Roger took us out in their big boat onto a bigger lake about 15 minutes from their place. I think it was called Chippewa Flowage, but, regardless it was a big lake where we could do some speedboating & tubing! Check out Eleanor's hair!
Eleanor with Rog & Kris' dog, Roe. Such a sweet dog...he has the patience of a Saint!

Michael doing some tubing. I did some tubing too, but Kris got all those pictures.

Eleanor and I "tubing!" We carefully put her in the tube with me and Rog gently pulled us behind the boat. She loved it!

Thanks again, Roger & Kris!! We had a wonderful time at your beautiful cabin!

Editor's note: As many of you know, Kris is a wonderful photographer and she took many pictures of us, including a nice family shot on our last day. She's going to get me a CD and I'll put some more pictures on the blog. So, this won't be the last of the cabin trip! :)

Finding Nemo

Harms' Cabin Vacation: August 11 - 14, 2008 On the same day that we went to the Wilderness Walk, we went for an early evening fishing adventure after dinner. Eleanor was so good in the boat and the trip was very lively because Roger had purchased meel (sp?) worms which are 100% successful at catching sunfish. You practically put your line in the water and you've got one. Of course, it was all catch & release. But, it was thrilling for Eleanor because there was so much action!


Putting her line in the water...

Got one!

Michael did manage to catch 2 large mouth bass (on 2 different occasions)!

Making a funny face...

I think she liked it!




Editor's note: sorry for the major delay in getting this posted. I have one more post to do for our cabin vacation. Our internet was down for several days (and sporatic at best when it wasn't down completely). All this was fixed when we had a Charter guy come to our house this morning. Yippee!