{ ten for tuesday }

A lot of random things to get down before too much time passes. This summer seems to be flying by extra fast this year. Eck!

1. Summer this year has brought about lots of ice cream and frozen yogurt. No arguments from anyone here!

2. Our fairly open weekly summer schedule has meant lots of fun play dates with friends. This particular play date was with friends from our "Terrific Twos" ECFE class. Hello backyard giant bouncy water slide!

3. Another triathlon, Graniteman St. Cloud, went into the books a few weekends ago. The morning started off stormy and wet but it ended sunny and beautiful. I was lucky to have my friend MarySue racing and there to keep me company which helped distract me from the normal pre-race jitters.

I'll spare you a full race report but there were no pre-race bike repairs or wetsuits not coming off so that alone made it much less eventful than Trinona. The swim was quick, the bike was average, and the run (for me) was slow. But it all added up to be fast enough to eek out first place in my age group!  MarySue had an awesome first tri of the season as well and scored 2nd place in her age group.

Next up, Lifetime Tri Minneapolis this weekend!

4. Pool time has been necessary with some of the warmer weather we've had the last few weeks. The three of us took on the Edina pool with the help of Elizabeth, Anna and Owen last week. They loved the big slides and fountains! 

Oliver has been talking about it since going but because we didn't buy a membership this year, it is quite expensive to go. Looks like next year we might need to get one!

5. It seems as though everyone we know has a summer birthday. We've had a handful of parties to attend and also many that we haven't made it to since our summer weekends are busy. One particular Saturday morning we had back to back parties from 9-11:00 and 11:00-1:00. Oliver consumed a total of 2 chocolate glazed donuts, a giant slice of cake, and 2 juice boxes. Can you say sugar high?

Oliver and Stella are also gearing up for their own birthday in a few weeks. And when I say gearing up for it, it's been months in the works for them. They have finally settled on what they want - Oliver a Spiderman party and Stella a Barbie party. While I do love party planning, I'm taking a "free" pass this year and not doing much of anything......and loving it! We are planning to have it at the local park and they will each get a cake that is the theme of their choice. And that my friends is about it - park, pool, and cake. Everything a three year old could want!

6. While I was out on a training ride one early morning last weekend, I left Chop with the task of coming up with something for us to do since our day was wide open. I came home to find the three of them gone and was momentarily excited thinking that maybe he took them on a solo outing and I was going to get a quiet morning. Ha!

They returned a few minutes later from a trip to Home Depot and informed me that they would be building a bird feeder. Yup, you read that correctly.....our task for the open day was going to be building a bird feeder with two toddlers. Fun, right?!

It actually turned out to be a much better activity than I had anticipated. Chop and the two of them completed it while I cleaned the house. They were good helpers and got excited each time he needed to use the circular saw to cut the wood.

And here is the end result!

7. Looking for the best lobster in Minneapolis? Head to Smack Shack! We headed there on a double date last weekend with Deborah and Dan.

We did a lot of food sharing and top choices were the lobster roll and the lobster boil (complete with corn, potatoes, sausage, and cole slaw). The guys managed to put down the entire platter and were feeling the lobster/butter coma the next day!

8. Oliver and Stella's summer pampering of choice? Painted toenails!

9. The dinosaur exhibit is back at the Minnesota Zoo and we went there last week to check it out. I vaguely remember last year that Oliver enjoyed it and Stella just stayed in the stroller observing.

Well, this year wasn't much different. Except that Stella didn't even set foot past the gates to the exhibit. Luckily, we went with a friend and her son and he wasn't having it either. So the three of them sat at the gate while I walked Oliver through . He absolutely loved it and ran through the exhibit waving to all of the dinosaurs!

10. This blogging thing is really becoming a low priority on my to-do list. My goal is to make it to their three year birthday which I have almost achieved. My purpose all along in keeping it going is that I will turn the posts into a book for each year. However, making those books requires oodles of time. And by that I mean 20+ hours for each year, especially given the slow outdated computer we have that likes to crash in the middle of it. And given the fact that I have put about 2 of 304 posts into the book format, I've got A LOT of work ahead of me in making them. And the more I blog and not work on the books, the further behind I get on that project. Sigh.

SO, you may see the blog go away or fewer posts. I'm estimating there are maybe two readers (both sets of grandparents) so there shouldn't be many devastated followers out there!