Cheese Fest Parade & Rides

Sunday of Cheese Festival here in P.I. it's our family tradition to attend the parade.  It was HOT this year!  The kids always enjoy the parade...of course they love the candy!  It is fun to watch them grow up a little bit each year.  Things that scared them last year don't anymore... :)

Addy with dad waving at the parade!

It's HOT out here!

 Later on in the evening, before supper we went uptown to the main festivities for rides and a late supper of fair food!  Addy wasn't too sure of some of the rides, but she had a blast on most of them...

Addy sitting with her big cousin Brynne, getting ready for the first ride...not to sure about it yet! (cousins Drew and Ella are in front of them)

Not liking it too much...I think it was too fast for her first one of the year!

Now on the train...MUCH slower and a much happier girl!  With Ella, Drew & Brooklynn

I took Blake on the carousel...he actually wasn't too fond of it.  If the horse hadn't been going up and down, I think he would've liked it better!

Fishing!  Trying to win herself and her little bro a prize!

Success!

The hot day was too much for my Blaker Boy...he got sleepy watching his sister go on rides :)

Cheese Festival is F - U - N!

Of course this boy woke up for some Mini Donuts.  The smell woke him I think, he he!

: : : : This next picture sums up the long day of fun in the hot sun : : : :  

Officially.  Too.  Much.  Cheese.  Festival. 
UGH!

Kiddy Parade

Pine Island's town festival was the week after Addy's birthday.  That Saturday I took the kids to the Kiddy Parade while Aaron was working.  The theme was "sports".  Blake was the cutest Joe Mauer ever (WAY cuter than the real thing, ladies :) ha ha! ) and Addy was a MN Wild Cheerleader. 

 Blake's costume looked pretty authentic.  His shoes that he has right now actually could pass for cleats...and he just might be wearing a pair of his sister's leggings...he he!

How Cute is this kid??? :) Go Twins!

Addy's costume came together easily!  The Tarara's are huge MN Wild fans so she's had a few cheerleader outfits passed down from her cousins.  She looked pretty cute too :)



Smiley, Happy MN Wild fan!

The kids place, but that's okay!  The judges were residents of the nursing home in Pine Island.  Too bad my grandpa wasn't still with us and living there...I bet he would have put in a few good words to increase their winning odds, ha.  All participants won a treat bag and tickets to rides up-town, which were put to good use after the parade on Sunday!



Waiting for the results

Golden!

It was Addy's Golden Birthday this year...3 on the 3rd :)  We had her party on her actual birthday since it was a Sunday --- princess themed!  For like a week leading up to her birthday, she would ask every day if it was her birthday yet...but then the day of, she was pretty low key because she was sick.  She had thrown up on the way home the night before, which is nothing new for her (think carsickness) so we hadn't thought much of it.  But she did it once more on her birthday and was just pretty tired/low key and continued on through the following day also.  Even with being sick, we managed to get some good smiles from her after some coaxing --- but she was pretty off and on all day.

This look was one we saw most of the day unfortunately...

I AM THREE!!!
(but she definitely had some smiles too)

To be honest, I probably was more crushed than her - I hated seeing her like that on her birthday knowing how excited she had been!  And, I like to plan the kiddos' parties and get detailed with the entire planning and wanting it to be perfect...For example I had stayed up until 2 in the morning finishing off her cake.  Turned out pretty cute!!

We had my sisters and their families over for lunch as well as Aaron's mom and Paul, and then they brought Mira and Serafina with also (Aaron's step-sister's daughters).  Of course my mom and dad were there as well, since we live at their house right now :)

Have you ever seen kids sitting so nice while another kid opens presents???  It was a first for this family!!

Addy got lots of wonderful gifts - lots of princess themed things.  Beach towel, books, puzzles, crafts, etc.  Also her first Barbie - one that goes in the bath (is actually a mermaid), her own sweeping set (above in the pic), etc. 

Right after presents, she climbed up into her daddy's lab and got pretty sleepy - then somehow him and I switched and within 10 minutes, she was out. 

Sooo - we took a "party break" while the birthday girl slept.  Poor kids kept asking when they could have cake and ice cream.  Luckily they had a big yard to play in and all of the kids got along really well.  About every 10 minutes one of them would ask for cake and ice cream, but we didnt' have any meltdowns!!

Poor Birthday Girl!

When she woke, Addy didn't want any cake or ice cream at all (in fact, she never had a bite of cake even when she felt better)...but she absolutely LOVES the Birthday Song, so we were able to convince her to let everyone sing that to her so that we could finally dig into the cake.

*********

I can't believe my baby girl is already 3 years old.  I have a love/hate thing with birthdays - I really don't want my kiddos to grow up.  But, I do love seeing how they learn and develop into little people.  Addy at 3 is a lot of different things.  I've had a few people say that 3 was harder than 2 for them, and there are definitely days where that is true around here.  At 2, they are testing their limits, but able to be convinced to do what you want them to.  At 3, they know what they should do and purposely challenge it. 

Miss Addy likes to change her mind lots...Miss Contrary.  She also just likes to do the opposite of what you ask.  You tell her to wear sandles, she wants to wear boots (fur boots in the summer...quite the fashion diva).  Ask her to take a bath, she insists on a shower.  Definitely argues to argue somedays. 

But, she's also the most loving little girl ever.  Her little bro is still her most favorite person I would say.  The love she shows for him will never get old for me to observe.  When we are outside, she makes sure he isn't too far behind us. 

She also says the sweetest things.  Out of nowhere she told me the other day, "I love you mom...always always".  Melted my heart! 

This week, she was soooo excited because daddy had bought us more ketchup, with tones of excited, she told me that he was the "Best dad ever" -- because of buying ketchup (which he hadn't even bought, but I let him get the credit)!  Too funny/cute!

Right now Addy still loves Dora - but she's also very much into princesses - especially Cinderella.  She loves to play lots of different things; sing and dance; she absolutely LOVES helping people cook/bake...she's actually a big help all around - water plants/get the mail/clean up a bit...

She's definitely a lot of things - but she's a whole lot of LOVE!  Addy's my big blue-eyed, wavy-haired blondy.  A good mix of Anderson and Tarara (in attitude and looks, LOL).

We sure do love this Princess!

A goofy pic of her...but the best one out of 3 attempts!

Baseball Legend in the Making?!!

Soooo, I was outside with Blake by myself and all of a sudden he was pulling out some baseball moves with the bat.  I thought I had a legend in the making.  About 30 seconds after this video was shot, Aaron walked outside and I learned that he had taught Blake these things a few days earlier :)

Home...

"A house is built with walls and beams...a home is built with love and dreams."

This quote is hitting 'home' lately (ha, no punn intended!).  We sold our house at 3191 Lakeridge Dr in Rochester on May 31st and are temporarily not owning or renting a place to live.  About 90% of our stuff is in storage, as we are living with my mom and dad.  We will be building.

So our home...well, it is where WE are right now as a family, regardless of the house we live under.  (Obviously my parent's place is home to me, but it isn't our home --- the Anderson's home). 

I'd be lying if I said it was easy to leave.  I was SOOO emotional about leaving our house!  I love the location...but for our future goals - we were ready to take the next step.  When I finished all of the cleaning and the house was empty, I walked around and glanced at all of the rooms, and got pretty emotional.  This house was boutght when we were engaged...Aaron turned 30 there right before our wedding, we had our gift opening there, took our first 2 babies from the hospital to THAT home, I just turned 30 there within the last year, ETC!  It had been good to us in the 5 years plus that we were there...that's for sure!

Man I love my babies's room!

So, to say that life has been busy lately - is an understatement. We have been going and going (and going and going and going) for more than 4 weeks straight. We had weeks of moving/packing, cleaning, traveling, then more moving/packing. Throw in there a retirement party (my mom...more blogging to come) and a golden birthday party (Addy's!) -- both of them to plan and organize for - and I seriously thought I was going to lose it for a bit! Not to mention the craziness with work these days....

Stressed??? -- nope, not me! (sarcasm)

ANYWAY - we are done. Settled for now. And ready to take the summer as it comes! Aaron's been working crazy hours (for example he worked today from 5:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m...and it's Saturday, and way more than a normal 40 hour week had already been put in before today). So, we have little planned with Aaron working weekends.   Which is a bummer, and not so bad, all at the same time.  I'm looking forward to not having to rush on the road when work gets done on Friday...and maybe taking in more pool days, walks, runs, parks, just around here. 

So, another month of little blogging is behind us...and here's to hoping June is a little less stressful than May, 2012!  This mama is ready to sit and just breathe for a bit (oh yeah...and blog!)!


My Favorite Thing About May: these 2 peeps! (and Aaron!)

This picture above was taken on Mother's day.  We were packing, and I peeked outside to check on the kiddos and they were sitting next to each other so cute and close...made me smile!  They were sitting way over by our neighbor's swingset on our wooden retaining wall in the corner of our lot...it was a cute little sight to look at out that window on Mother's day!

....Here's to our love and dreams, and new adventures to come our way!

Easter!

 

Easter was a very fun event this year.  Addalyn is at a very fun age to enjoy the holidays!  Everything gets her starry-eyed!

We started the day off going to church - we didn't do the Easter Bunny thing until the end of the day.  Addalyn was very excited to get on her "beautiful dress".  They both looked so cute in their "Sunday Best"!  Cute story about church on Easter.  Addalyn was listening to the sermon, and when our priest mentioned Jesus, Addy goes "Where's Jesus???  I want to see him!!" 

After church, we drove to Minneapolis to celebrate Easter with Aaron's mom's family.  We had lunch and an egg hunt and just hung out.  Aaron's stepsisters Renee & Andrea were there, and our niece Alesha and her boyfriend Blake were visiting from Michigan :)  We were very excited to get to see them.

Aaron's stepsister's (Andrea's) kiddos with Addy & Blake - Oliver, Serafina, and Mira

Alesha!

Blake & Blake - Addy calls him "Big Blake"!!!  :)

I insisted on getting our picture taken because we never have one with just us anymore!

While we were gone in Minneapolis - we had a little visitor.  The Easter Bunny had come.  For the record, the Easter Bunny that visited our house is NOT the same one that visited my house when I grew up.  He must have traveled with Aaron from Michigan, because he gives very nice gifts that align with what Aaron got from the Easter Bunny when he was little :)

The Easter Bunny had eggs ALL over our house and they led the kids to our office/toy room where the found this:

Addalyn was so excited when she saw eggs in the entry-way, I swear she was about to hyper-ventilate!  (Like I said in my recent post on her these days: dramatic!)

Whoo Hooo!!!  Side note: I'm pretty sure that the outfit Blake is wearing right here: cargo khakis with a plaid button down shirt is probably the exact same outfit (or dang close) to what Aaron wore on our first date...and well most dates that we went on when we were dating :)  Aaron actually has this EXACT same printed button-down shirt.  I didn't know it when I bought it for Blake though!

We celebrated Easter with my family the following weekend.  We had lunch together, an egg hunt, flew kites, and just spent the day together.

Getting Ready for the Egg Hunt: Drew, Hunter, Ella, Addy, Brookie, Brynne & Blake

All the girls trying to help Blake pick up some eggs :)

One of my favorite pictures of Addy!  She looks so big!

Handsome Blaker-boy