Computer Time

I got Ani her own laptop computer - she is constantly wanting to be on mine and Monte's so I figured a Barbie computer was the way to go! It actually plays educational games on it, although it will be a couple years before she will understand them.

Bedhead and all! My "kids" with their laptops on the couch.

Ramblings

• In honor of Earth Day (well not really, it just happened to fall within this time frame), the city of Minneapolis planted a new red maple tree by our curb. We requested it last fall after we heard that you could just call the city and ask for one. It might have been one of the highlights of my day when I pulled up at the house and saw it!
• Monte flew to North Dakota earlier this week and we dropped him off at the airport - so now each day Ani wakes up, the first words out of her mouth are "Daddy. Airplane."
• I've finished the Twilight series and am surprisingly kind of sad that the saga has ended. 4 thick books at about 700 pages each (or is that just because I get the LARGE print versions?) really got me immersed in the story.
• Ani is starting to potty train. She's gone #1 a few times at school, but hasn't gone for us at home... yet! That will be a joyous moment.
• Oh and she's already interested in driving.

Easter

I'm behind on posts.... we spent Easter weekend in Muscatine with my family. My niece Tara, who lives in North Carolina, was back in town and we hadn't seen her since 2 Christmases ago. It was a fun-filled weekend consisting of pizza, bowling, Rock Band at my brother's house, seeing Camera Obscura in Iowa City, picking up a wood-burning stove insert for our fireplace (a new Monte project), hunting for Easter eggs, and just hanging out at my parents house.

This used to be my rocking horse - we brought it home with us so now it's Ani's!

Bowling with Meggie

Coloring Easter eggs w/ Meggie & my mom

Lovin' their shades

Lovin' on Gammy at Mark & Kathy's house

Playing Rock Band with Tara

Rock Band

Ani drumming w/ Uncle Mark

Easter morning

Sammy

And the hunt begins!

Who knew the papparazzi would show up at my mom's?

Is 13 too old to be hunting Easter eggs? Not if there's $1 bills in some of the plastic eggs!

My dad, Meggie, my sister Marcy, me, my nephew Miles, my mom, Kathy, Tara, and my brother Mark, with Monte & Ani in front

Enjoying some chocolate

Tara and I - niece and aunt, but only 2 1/2 years apart!

The XX

Wow, what a great show last night! The XX played at the Varsity, a venue that neither Monte nor I had been. Steph came over to babysit and off we went - ticketless and hopeful! Craigslist didn't work out for us and neither did calling in to the Current to win tickets (found out later that their phone system actually went down because so many people were calling to get tickets to this sold out show).

We ate dinner the Loring Pasta Bar which is a couple doors down from the Varsity (and owned by them). Monte was in salesman mode the entire time, talking to all the patrons to see if they had extra tickets, and even had our bartender telling the bouncer to text him when he started to see scalpers outside the doors selling tickets.

After dinner, we both ventured down the block to hunt for tickets - we split up to cover more ground with Monte at one end, and me at the other. There were a lot of people selling only 1 ticket, or trying to sell tickets way over face value, which was $15. Doors opened at 8 and everyone was going in. No extra tickets for us or the rest of the crowd that started gathering that needed to buy tickets as well. Hopes were dwindling.

Finally at about 9pm, a woman (who Monte and I had spoken to earlier to see if she had extra tickets) came out of the venue, walked directly over to me and said, "Do you still need tickets?" Hope came back. I told her yes, we needed two. She said she had two and would sell them to us for $30. I said, "$30 each?" (which I was more than willing to pay at this point) and she said, "No, $30 total." I love this woman.

So for face value, Monte and I were able to see the XX. They started the show with a large white curtain over the stage and when they started playing, their bodies were backlit and their silhouettes were bouncing off the white curtain. It was such a great show - and short, since they only have 1 album out!

Target Field

The new home of the Twins. Monte, Harstie, Brent and Brent's dad had the pleasure of walking through the stadium last weekend, as the Gophers played a baseball game there. Thanks, Harstie, for the photo contributions!