Good Bye Noi!

This day feels like a few weeks ago! This was taken in the fall of 2009 when Noi joined us as our new au pair. 

My, how time flies...

Noi's visa had expired and it was time for her to return to Thailand. {The maximum time an au pair can stay in the US without enrolling in school or getting married is 24 months - so this wasn't a surprise.} But it was still very stressful.

Noi was the best nanny. I could write a book here about how great she was with the boys and how much she taught them. {big sigh!} They are pretty smart cookies for only being 2!

On July 1st we had a little going away party for her. 

While we prepared for the party, the boys took a 1-2 mini bites out of every peach in in the basket. And put them back in the basket, of course.

The celebrations started earlier in the week with a party with the boys' best buddies, Ben and Will. The Johnstons brought over cake and ice cream to wish Noi well in her future adventures.

Will, Mason, Noi, Prior, Ben

This is what happens when you ask four two-year-olds to raise their hand if they like cake and ice cream!

The celebrations continued with an official going away party. The menu, of course, needed to be Thai food. I've learned a lot about cooking Thai over the last year and a half, but I left the cooking to the expert. 

The menu consisted of:

- Pad Thai (of course)

- Pinneaple and basil chicken

- Fried rice

- Papaya salad

Chef Noi

Um - YUM!

Noi and one of her friends

 I contributed to the cooking by hiring my friend, Kristi, to make some delicious coconut key-lime cupcakes. They. Were. Amazing! Thanks, KM!

Noi and P

Noi and M

We were all very sad when we dropped Noi off at the airport in the wee-morning hours of July 2nd (especially momma). Now, whenever we see an airplane in the sky the boys say: "Noi go on airplane. Noi go Thaiwand." It's super cute.

When we were evaluating all of our childcare options way back when I was pregnant and decided on the au pair route, I had no idea how attached we would all become to our nanny. It makes sense - she lived with us, took the best care of our precious rugrats, and was literally part of our family for a long time! We hope that some day we will see her again. Good luck, Noi!

Auntie Cara's Shades

(P)

Pictionary

The boys love their magnetic chalk board. 


If there was a Pictionary card that said "raising twin boys", I think P&M's "drawing" looks exactly like what I would draw.

Cheeeeeeeeeeeese!

Poor kid has no idea what a camera is.



Cheese! from K Schultes on Vimeo.


(it's Mason)

Berry Pickin' 2011

We finally made our way to a local strawberry patch on their official last day of the season. With two hungry little berry-loving monsters behind me that were doing nothing other than eat, it was tough to keep up. The berries were pretty little but it was still fun!

4th of July Weekend

We really love visitors! Because all of our family is out of town, it is extra special when we have family come to see us. We had a very fun and relaxing 4th of July weekend this year. The Steinkamp's were in town and the boys had a blast with their cousins, Miya and Abby. We were all amazed that the four kiddos played so well together for the entire weekend with almost no fighting.  

We had a sprinkler party, a pool party, a trip to the real pool, a trip to the boys' FAVORITE hangout, the Minneapolis Children's Museum in St. Paul, swing-set time, park time, a Twins game, some episodes of "Pawn Stars", date night with Ben (a movie), Noi's going-away party (separate post on this) and some grillin' and chillin. [I think my note above said it was a relaxing weekend - I take that back!]


The boys really took an interest in going potty on the "pot" this weekend. So there was a lot of nakedness. We're still in diapers, but we're gaining some momentum. I can't wait to be done!


Yeah, so that Twins game we went to....we knew better than to take the kiddos. That wouldn't have been much fun. My sister, Cara, drove up here from Rochester and her and Cory were nice enough to watch all four rugrats while we went to the game. I have the best sister ever! Thanks again, Cara! And Gina and Jason let Ben and I sneak away to a movie after the boys were in bed. Lucky us!


Side note: I had the wrong camera settings for most of these pictures - so frustrating! I know that no one cares, but my ISO settings were way too high - the pictures all look too grainy. Ugh!

Sprinkler party!

Ok, I lied about the fighting. I think there may have been some disagreements about who was sitting where. But it was all good and we were soon at the park.

Mason "DUNKED" it! That kid loves balls. 

P in the tire swing.

Cousins are the best...

Little Miss Abby is the absolute best photo model. She's easy going and she's at that age where she'll actually stay put long enough to take her picture. And that smile, seriously!? It's unbelievably adorable. 

Naked finger painting - does it get any better? 

Sweet little innocent Abby!

Innocent? Not so much.
Ahh, we need new siding anyway.
The funniest part of this picture is that P clearly had an itch on his behinder - ha! What's a dude supposed to do!?

Mr. P and his mango...he must have just gone potty.

Miss Miya and her string cheese!

Playin' in the pool. Tight quarters...but hey, we're related.

I guess it wasn't that tight - there was room for a giant dump truck. Busy little bees!

Strawberry Smoothies

Remember my previous posts about strawberry milk?

Well, the boys' love for strawberries has not faded. In fact, I could save some serious moolah if I'd just plant some berry patches in my back yard.

Noi started making the boys strawberry smoothies instead of strawberry milk.

The super secret recipe for these delicious strawberry smoothies...(drum roll please)...

Throw some frozen strawberries and some milk in a blender and blend until the consistency of a smoothie. Pretty easy.  And it's the exact same recipe as strawberry milk (just less milk).

The best part about these "smoothies" is that they taste yummy AND they take a while to eat/drink. Perfect!

Happy 4th of July!

Picnic at the Park