Talented Friends

We have talented friends. Over the past few weeks, we have taken advantage of these said friends and their talents by paying them to create the wonderful things that they do. And we're very happy customers!

Friend #1: Cory Thorson, owner of Whoa-tos! Photos printed on wood. I had Cory do one for Monte's birthday a couple years ago and we just had him print another one of Ani with one of my mom's cats at her house. They both originally are rustic-looking photos, so they transferred well onto wood.

Friend #2: Beth Schultz, amateur photographer. Beth took our engagement photos 5 years ago and we were so pleased with them that we hired her to come to the Bahamas and take our wedding photos there too. A couple weeks ago, we had her take some family photos around Lake Nokomis. Again - extremely pleased!

Friend #3: Jason Larson, husband of my college friend Melissa and maker of pretty much any outdoor game you can think of: Cornhole (bean bags), Giant Jenga, Kuub, to name a few. We just picked up our customized Cornhole boards and handmade bean bags - it's always Panthers vs. Cyclones in our house!

If anyone actually reading this is interested in any of their services, we'd be happy to pass on their info. It's quality work for a reasonable price - and it's nice to help out a friend.

Hat & Butter

Ani made an Indian hat w/ feathers at school this week. We love all of her creations she brings home - they are up all over our house and on the fridge. We taught her to continually clap her hand over her mouth and go "Ahhh".

We went out for dinner tonight and Ani ate all of her....... butter. With her bare hands. There was a little cup of it with our bread basket and she ate the entire thing. We were kind of grossed out. She behaved though so we let it go and figured it was a "lesser of two evils" thing.

Size

Size perspective from the papasan chair.

Wood

Is this wood thing getting out of hand?

Mother's Day

We had a nice Mother's Day with Monte's parents over the weekend. An early brunch at the Highland Grill - family-style meal that was very tasty and free mimosas for the mamas. Monte even bought me flowers and chocolate! The only thing that could have been better was the weather - a little on the cool side.

The Fence

The purchase of a refurbished wood-burning fireplace insert leads to.... lots of wood accumulated for the faraway winter months (thank you, Craigslist "free" listings and Mr. Hagen)... which leads to the need for an axe to split the wood... which leads to the need for Monte to build a fence between our garage and the neighbor's which blocks off any alley thieves to protect our growing pile of wood. Yes, we have had an experience with an alley thief in the past!

Park

Ani LOVES the park - loves to swing, slide, run around, get dirty in the sand. Every kid's dream. We definitely utilize our neighborhood park a couple times a week - and probably will up that to several times a week once summer hits.