Two going on...

Today Anika needed a timeout. So I brought her up to her room and waited outside the open door. After a few seconds the whimpering stopped and the charm was turned on. She kept repeating "Daddy, I cute!". When that didn't work she held out her arms and said "Daddy can I get hug".

We are in soooo much trouble when she becomes a teenager.

The Puzzles are working

The other day Mary and Anika were going to the park in the stroller. Mary had taken the safety bar off so Anika could crawl in. Once she was in the stroller Mary was struggling to put the bar back on. Finally Anika said "It's on backwards mom". Somebody should tell Anika that nobody likes a know-it-all.

Lodi

Last weekend we visited Mary's brother Marty, Donna and Finnegan at there new hobby farm in Lodi WI. The farm has strawberries and rasberries, there is also a vegetable garden that has egg plant, green beans, horse radish, green peppers, and currants.

Finnegan was pretty exited about the tree house and a field of golden rod that Marty cut a maze out of.

But the thing that excited Anika the most was the fact that they had 20 or so chickens
Every chance Anika had she would go back towards the barn and check out the chickens.

The other thing that Anika really loved was the porch swing. Any time we were on the porch she would head right to the swing.

Here she is with Grandma and Finnegan.

And again with Finnegan

Finnegan's birthday was in July but because of the move, they had to postpone his birthday party until this weekend. Here Donna is giving the instructions for the treasure hunt.
Here is the happy birthday boy with his cake.

More photos of Anika

Very serious

She's all about wearing the hat backwards

Helping grandpa with the corn on the cob on the 4th of July
Playing in the garden

Random Anika photos from the last few months

She likes her fancy Christmas coat

She loved walking outside durning the winter
Piano recital

Sleeping on her cousin Theo


Sliding at the park

Birthday

This post is a little late, my birthday was in early July. I went golfing with my parents in the morning, then we all went to Mears park in St. Paul for their Music in Mears summer concert.

What I didn't know was that Mary had contacted our friends and had them meet us down there. That was a nice surprise.


Mary brought a cake, which I cut into about 50 pieces, 30 pieces more than necessary. There were plenty of little kids who were drooling for a piece. The bold ones who asked got some.
Anika made sure Mary cleaned her plate.
Chillin' in the shade

The band Communist Daughter has very young groupies

Alexis and Anika having fun on the steps.

Wyoming Wedding - Indian Style

Not Native American, Indian. Our friend Skye has been teaching for the last for years at an American school in India. She got married last December in New Zealand and had her reception in Buffalo, WY where she grew up.

The Big Horn mountains are a 10 minute drive outside of town.

We were able to get a couple of hikes in while we were there. One hike brought us up to a lake on the mountain. The weather was beautiful, it was in the mid-70's. Even with these temps there was still snow on the shore.


There were quite a few people fishing on this lake by the time we were heading back down.




The reception was held about 25 minutes out of town at an Equestrian Ranch and Polo Grounds.
Skye had Sari's made for all of the girls in the wedding reception

Here is Mary in her Sari
Skye sent the girls a Youtube link to a Bollywood dance and wanted them to learn it for the reception dance. Lets just say two 15 minute practice sessions might not have been enough for this fast paced dance, but they had a blast

We were planning on hiking one more in the Big Horns but it was supposed to rain. So we headed to Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore in SD.




And if you were wondering about Anika, she had as much fun as we did. Grandpa took her swimming for the first time. By the end of the day, she was jumping off the first step into his arms.