Allie Comes to Visit

This weekend Auntie Allie came down to visit us from Duluth. We all had a blast just relaxing during the rainy weekend.

Allie brought down a great rug from Marc, Amanda, Jack and Max for Frank's porch play room. It looks great!

We spent a lot of time playing on the porch because it was so rainy.

Allie and Frank played cars and read books.

Allie made us this awesome egg in a dinner roll for brunch on Saturday.

We took Allie to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Great new exhibit of local artists.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

Frank having a snack. He takes his food very seriously.

We took Allie to Matt's Bar for dinner so that she could try her first Juicy Lucy.

Then we took her to the Midwest Mountaineering Expo to see our neighbor and look at some cool outdoor gear.

Allie tried on a couple of fun things at the Expo.

Planting the Garden

Today Frank and I spent the morning talking about gardens and starting our fist seedlings. I guess I could have done this a couple of weeks ago, but it was way more fun having a pair of little hands to helps. That being said we needed a warm day to take everything outside.

I used some old egg cartons and got the ready to plant as Frank was having his morning nap. I decided to start with herbs as that's usually what I spend most of my veggie garden budget on.

I asked Frank to help by poking holes for the seeds.

Notice the dirt on his finger.

He also enjoyed picking up the dirt and throwing it.

What a BOY!

Then we took a break to play.

He liked pushing the truck along our picnic table.

Then we watered the plants. You'll notice that I stuck toothpicks in the cartons. Once we were done watering I covered the cartons with plastic wrap and put them in the sun. I'll set them outside everyday now while we're at work and then bring them in for the night. Hopefully, we'll see some sprouts in about a week.

The New Swing Set

This weekend Tim and some great friends of ours (PJ, Fish and Mason) put together a new swing set for Frank. Originally we thought we would be using a smaller swing set that our friends Molly and Steve had given us before they moved to their farm in SW MN. Tim was all set to buy some new braces and lumber to update and stabilize the set that was sitting in our garage. Then two weeks ago our neighbors across the street decided to finally retire from doing daycare. They walked over and offered us anything we wanted to take from their yard. So, we got the car (from our last post), a slide for our porch, a motorcycle and a new larger swing set. We weren't initially sure that we wanted something this big, but it actually ended up making out backyard look so much better. It hides some of the bare spots and I think I'll be able to do some gardening around it. Enjoy the pics!

Tim taking down the structure in our neighbors lawn.

Random picture of my new front garden and a tulip.

Tim and PJ working together.

Fish and Tim putting the structure back together.

Mason helping Tim on day #2.

Frank swings for the first time!

Always holding a basketball.

I think we're going to attach the basketball hoop to the other side of the set and put some pavers in the ground so Frank can play outside.

A new car and gardening...