A Few Favorite Summer Activities

The boys love to swim. We've used our backyard pool a few times a week and try to make it to a lake or pool at the Minneapolis parks every week. I'm so glad the boys enjoy the water.

Eating snack is always fun after a long day of swimming.
We love the new fossil dig at the Minnesota Zoo.
Charlie discovered the joys of making and digging in mud. He can do this for hours. Luckily he loves to swim so he can clean up before he comes inside.

Love this photo

I was just looking through old photos and found this one of Charlie. I just love it so I had to share. This was taken a month before Charlie turned 3.

A Week At the Cabin

We spent 4 days last week at my parent's cabin. Jen and Kate flew in and MY grandma Lilly was there. She met Sam for the first time and they fell in love with each other. It was fun to all be together on my mom's birthday as well.
Kate and Charlie on their way to visit Birthday Nana in the little cabin.
Sam looks great in hot pink! It was cold the first couple of mornings so we needed to borrow some of Kate's warm clothes. If you look closely you can see where Sam knocked out his bottom tooth a couple days before this picture.
Playing in the water was an all day adventure. Everyone loved the pool by the cabin and the lake.

Sam and his Great Grandma Lilly. He enjoyed some cuddle time and wanted to share his stuffed bears with Nana Lilly all week.

Our Favorite Cupcakes

your basic vegan chocolate cupcake
makes 12 cupcakes

ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, dutch-processed or regular
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

directions
preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.
in a separate bowl, sift (really – get a sifter; it makes a difference) together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
add the sugar, oil and vanilla extract, and other extract if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy.
add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny ones are ok).
pour into liners, filling three-quarters of the way.
bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely before...

I usullay top the cupcakes with some powder sugar or sprinkles.

Charlie Dances

Charlie loves watering out new garden. He loves anything to do with water. He is signed up for swimming lessons later this summer, I'm excited to see how he does.
Charlie and Sam enjoyed running through the sprinkler and swimming every day this week. It was a perfect summer week.

Charlie also enjoyed seeing the ultrasound of his newest sibling yesterday. "It was fun seeing it move all around." The ultrasound went great and everything seems to be o.k. at the 19 week point. I think he is looking forward to meeting our new baby in November.

Singing Sam

Peek Boo


Watering the new seeds with his sandle. Sam is talking and copying what we say all of the time. Tonight he looked up at pa and said "Pa - Pa home" then gave him a big smile. He pretends his stuffed animals are "tiwed" and lays them down to sleep. He loves to give them hugs and kisses. He told me the other day after his favorite Bear, Bear fell off of the chair, "Bear, Bear fall down, Bear, Bear cry." He loves to giggle and laughs when Charlie splashes him in the pool. They are having a fun first week of summer.

Sam loves to sing. Winnie The Pooh, Old McDonald, and Fire Truck are his favorites. He has also made up his own song about Skid Steers (Bobcats), his favorite truck. He started singing it in the car last week and by the end of the car trip both boys were singing Sam's Song. Here is the remix version which combines Old McDonald (e-i-o, e-i-o) with Skid Steer.

Summer Fun

Eating snack in laundry basket "boats" is always a blast!
We found a new pool in south Minneapolis that we loved! Sam took a little encouragement by big brother but ended up running and splashing in the pool just like Charlie. It was great to see that he loved the water.