Apple Orchard

We had our annual trip to the apple orchard in memory of Grandma Bea's birthday towards the end of September.  We met up with Mary, Joe, Sue, Mark and Caroline this year at Fischer's Apple Orchard.  The girls had a great time playing, picking apples and going for a wagon ride.  They loved to pick apples and bring them to Mark, who was holding the bag.  Sue and Caroline also got in on the fun helping the girls pick apples.  The apples were delicious!

After the apple orchard, we enjoyed the beautiful weather as we picnicked by the St. Croix River.  The girls got Sue and Mary to play "Ring Around the Rosie"!

Why not take a family photo by the river!?  We can never have enough!

Apple crisp

Last Saturday Larkyn asked if we could make dessert for after dinner. (Her mind is always on sweets!)  Thanks to May May, we had a whole bunch of apples and decided to make apple crisp.  Larkyn and Camdyn wanted to participate in making the dessert.  Larkyn was a great help cutting the apples and getting them into the pan. Camdyn spent her time yelling "apples" and eating the slices she was given.  (She was quite demanding!)

 

 Camdyn fell off the stool at one point so she was "icing" her head.

Stirring the dry ingredients.

Notice the tongues sticking out for both of them.

All ready to go into the oven...

Camdyn licked the measuring cup clean!

Kid tested...Larkyn approved!  

Camdyn loved it too!

We loved sharing the apple crisp with our guests, Janny, Charlie, Kiki, and Sis on Sunday.  

It was a delicious treat! 

Below is a video of the girls during the Apple Crisp making process!  

Camdyn was very enthusiastic about the apples!

Mueske Family Photos

What a beautiful night for family pictures!  Thank you to our friend Daina who took 20 minutes out of her night to come with us to the nearby park/lake.  I love that we can take each other's family photos, do our own editing and everything is FREE!  

The girls were pretty set on going to the playground and were not very interested in picture taking.  We got this first one and then they both ran toward the wagon and wanted to go play.  

So I walked over, grabbed the wagon and pulled them to where I wanted them. Shea and I knelt behind them and we got this!  LOVE!

We snagged a couple more smiles with "Daddy and Me" and "Mommy and Me" portraits!

More attempts at a good family shot...it worked! 

Doesn't Camdyn look so grown up? I think it might be the headband.:)

Just a fun shot!

Another fun one!  Some serious, some smiles...

Nothing but LOVE!

These are cropped from some of the family photos that did not turn out so well due to eyes shut or lack of smiles, but Camdyn was cute so they were hard to pass up!  

Go Speedracer!

After a couple days at home Shea took a look at Larkyn's bike and made some adjustments to the training wheels.  A couple rides later Larkyn was off to the races!  This evening, she began her journey on our sidewalk along the side of our house and continued to turn corner after corner and made it around the entire block with minimal stops.  The stops were to wipe off her seat for some reason. Don't ask me why, but her little imagination was going wild as she would stop, get off her bike, wipe off her seat a couple times and then climb back on and ride. A little weird, but happy as can be riding her bike all by herself, and really kind of fast!

At the end of this video she is thrilled to see the pumpkin and ghosts in the neighbors yard!

 

The happy rider!

 

Gabby's....I mean Larkyn's gymnastics

Larkyn has been taking gymnastics since January 2012 and has gained so much coordination and strength throughout the process.  Last January she was in the Parent/Tot class and Shea or I led her through the activities after the teacher explained them.  In March they said she was ready for the 3's class without a parent. It was fun to watch her listen to her teacher and interact minimally with the other kids in her class.  She worked hard to balance, hang from a bar and kick her feet up to knock off a bean bag, do a forward roll, learn the beginning of a cartwheel, and sit back up from a safety roll without putting her hands down to help her. 

We took the summer off and she started back up again at the beginning of September.  It didn't take long for her to pick up where she left off.  She is now interacting with her teachers and classmates, telling stories and making them laugh (I wonder who she gets that from?).  Her skills continue to get better each class.  I love seeing her practice her forward roll as she says "high, low, over I go!" Larkyn is able to do a cartwheel and land on her feet now!  She also enjoys jumping on the trampoline and doing tucks, straddles, and "seat to feet" jumps (bounce on feet, bounce on bottom, bounce back up to feet without the help of hands).

It is amazing to see the coordination and strength she has gained and how it has helped her in other areas, such as riding her bike, throwing and catching a ball, balancing and hoping, etc.

 

Many times when Larkyn begins a station she will start and then stop and look around at what all of the other kids are doing.  This is the case with the parallel bars. She is suppose to be doing a crab walk down the bars, instead she is watching the other group in the room and then me video taping!  She then goes on to try the single bar and pushing herself up proves to be a challenge!

This is one of the stations Larkyn was doing involving balance beams.  Her favorite walk is the Princess point where her hands are up over her head like a ballerina. However, this is a video of her doing "apart, together" on and off the balance beam.

Larkyn was told she needed to do "apart, together, apart, together" as small jumps.  She was trying very hard, but ended up doing a whole bunch of straddle jumps.  Looks like a future cheerleader???

Larkyn Kate starts Preschool!

Today was Larkyn's first day of 3 year old Preschool!  She was so thrilled to start school today.  Larkyn had her outfit picked out for weeks so she knew exactly what she was going to wear today and got herself dressed. She was so excited she raced through breakfast so she could go outside to take her picture.

Camdyn got in on the action too.  She wanted to be just like her big sister!

 

After dropping off Camdyn at daycare, Larkyn, Shea and I went to Caribou for a "coffee date" as Larkyn likes to call it.  On our way we passed our church where she goes to preschool and she was so excited to go that she wanted to go right away and be the first ones there. We convinced her that we should make a quick stop at Caribou and that it was a special treat!  When we got to Caribou she was teaching her own Preschool class how to write Dad and Mom.

Finally it was 9:00 am!  We arrived at Preschool and Larkyn connected right away with her buddy Luke.  They are both in the Sunshine room/class together.

 She got to explore the classroom and found herself spending most of her time in the kitchen. Hmm...not surprising! She fed the baby her bottle, made breakfast, and even dressed up with rings, necklaces and a skirt.  Another little girl came into the kitchen area and Larkyn asked her right away "What is your name?" Already off to a great start in making friends!

One of our tasks was to measure how tall she is and how much she weighs.  

Larkyn is 40 inches tall and weighs 36 pounds!

 

Luke loved feeding the monkeys bananas!

 

Larkyn connected with a gymnastics buddy, Tessa, who is also in the Sunshine room.  

They had a great time playing at the sand table.

Larkyn's Preschool Day...

Each child has the same bag for bringing things to school and taking things home.

 

The bright Sunshine room!

 

What a great first day!  The teachers were so warm and welcoming to the students and parents.  The classroom set up was great and the information was very helpful.  We feel very blessed to have Larkyn in such a caring place to learn more about Jesus, being a good friend to others, following directions and learning MANY new skills!  When we came to pick Larkyn up after the parent meeting her teachers said to us that she is Miss Personality.  We weren't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but they did follow it up with "She was social with the other kids and telling them 'it's okay, your mommy and daddy will be back in a little bit' after some of them cried when the parents left." Who would have thought...our little lady who once cried every time we dropped her off or left her is now the one consoling others and helping them through that process!

Mrs. Giildenzopf, Larkyn and Mrs. Trygstad

Larkyn's Sunshine room teachers

What a trooper!  Another one of Mom's crazy picture ideas from Pinterest!

 

We couldn't leave out the "baby"!  Miss Camdyn has been very into books lately. She loves to "read" and flip through the pages.  It wont be long and she will be off to Preschool as well! 

One day at a time...

 

"What are you looking at?"