August & September 2013

August and September went by so quickly that we neglected to post an update until now (Oct.).

August was a warm month for us so beating the heat was a top priority.  Matt & Maddy built a water slide of sorts which entertained us all. There is a video at the bottom of this post showcasing Maddy's water slide talents.

A big event for us came on Aug. 10th when our nephew, Thomas wed his bride Emily in a beautiful ceremony where Maddy was the flower girl.  She loved dressing the part and was honored to be included in their special day.

Maddy is 43 1/16" tall and weighs 48 lbs.  We will need new clothes and shoes for school.  The shopping and laundry are never ending!

We were surprised to find out that we have become pumpkin farmers.  A pumpkin patch grew from seeds within some discarded pumpkins from last fall.  It has been so much fun watching them grow.  There are 2 different types that grew.  One vine has a more rounded leaf and that vine grew extremely large pumpkins.  The other more pointed leaved vine grew smaller pumpkins.  To date, we pulled 4 big pumpkins off the vine that we had to move in the bucket of the tractor because it was much easier than trying to lift them.  We will have a couple photos in our Oct. blog update highlighting our pumpkins.

Cookie smiles courtesy of Jimmy John's

 

Darcy working miracles with Maddy's hair.

Hair completed for the wedding

Maddy excited to be a flower girl!

Wedding party

Family picture at the church

"Water slide"

1st big pumpkin to come out of our pumpkin patch

Maddy started preschool on Sept. 9, 2013.  She is attending preschool at the Lake Park/Audubon Elementary school which is our local district.  She is thrilled to be going back to school!  Schools days are Mondays, Wednesdays, & every other Friday from noon - 3:00 pm.  She has Denelle again for her teacher.  The teacher's assistant in her class is none other than her Auntie Edie.  How great to have your Aunt in your class!  Just recently, her class finished an apple unit so we extended her knowledge on apples by visiting a local apple orchard.  We were able to taste many different types of apples and picked Sweet Sixteen & Honeycrisp apples.  Maddy has an apple for snack every evening so having fresh picked apples is a nightly treat which we are savoring.

1st day of preschool Sept. 9th

New school sign

Preschool classroom

Debbie's 43rd birthday

 We closed the campground on Sunday, Sept. 22nd.  We have been busy with fall projects since we shut the gate.  The weather has been good so we continue to try our best to accomplish "to-do's".

Closing day of 2013 campground season

2 more big pumpkins from our pumpkin patch

Video of Maddy using the "water slide":

Thanks for tuning in!  We hope you're having a great October!

55 months old - July 2013

We were very busy over the 4th of July weekend.  Over 430 people came through the campground.  We watched fireworks being set off around the lake.  Over at Grandma Escherich's house, we lit some sparklers and snakes.  We even threw some snaps/pop its.  After staying up late to enjoy the fireworks, Maddy woke up the next morning with welts that grew into giant hive like reactions from mosquito bites.  To our amazement, the doctor told us Maddy is sensitive/allergic to mosquito bites.  Due to living in Minnesota, land of the mosquito, we found this diagnosis challenging to say the least.  We have a special salve that we put on her bites now that limits the reaction, but are also careful to apply bug repellent liberally when she's outside.  

We did have a couple "firsts" this month.  Maddy tried cheese curds for the first time and, of course, loved them.  She also attended her first baseball game.  The Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks are a local minor league baseball team.  The stadium is small enough where any seat in it is a great seat.  Inside the stadium houses a playground and bouncy castle for the younger crowd.  Maddy loved the food, game and meeting the mascot, Hawkeye.  Matt almost caught a ball for her, but it bounced away on us.

At the end of July, the boat was finally working again so we went on a boat ride.  It's been a busy month at the campground and getting ready for Maddy to participate in a family wedding as flower girl in August.  More to post on that next month, but for now the summer is quickly going by.  

Maddy is in a size 6x or 7 now depending on the brand.  All the fresh air this summer has been helping her growth!  Assuredly, we'll post additional pictures for August so y'all come back now, ya hear!?

  

4th of July cutie

All American Girl

Maddy loves to sing!

Maddy meets Hawkeye

Maddy attends her 1st baseball game on 7-24-2012
Too bad the Redhawks lost.

Science experiment with colors

3 cups, 2 cups filled with water and food coloring, place dry paper towels arched into same cup, make new color!

Wanting a ride in Uncle John's corvette

53-54 months May & June 2013

Maddy had her last day of Learning Ladder on May 13, 2013.  She loved her first year in a school environment.  She is already asking when school starts again.  We'll see how long that lasts!  At the end of school, Maddy brought home 2 cucumber plants.  We planted and watered them faithfully.  Our good care has paid off because we've harvested 2 cucumbers so far.  It looks like there's a lot more on the way too.
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We opened the campground a week late in May due to cold weather which means we'll be closing a week late in Sept.  In the past, Maddy has attended 2 different daycares.  One of Maddy's long-time daycare providers closed her doors in May so she is now going to the same daycare consistently 3 days per week during the summer.
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Maddy will be a flower girl in her cousin's wedding in Aug.  The bridal shower for that wedding was held in the late part of June.  She dressed up for the garden party bridal shower to show her support for the bride and groom as seen in the pictures below.
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All of us have been busy working at the campground, but we've tried to steal some time for fun too.  Maddy likes to swim, play on the beach with sand toys, ride her pedal bike, hang out with friends & she's learned to pump herself on the swing so she always asks for a starting push.  Maddy had her first Slip N Slide experience in June.  Let's just say she didn't get hurt and can't get enough of that watery fun!

We will try to update the blog again soon, but summer keeps us very busy so our good intentions sometimes don't yield a blog entry.  Happy belated 4th of July!  The heat is definitely on here so hopefully you're enjoying fun in the sun like we are.  Only 7 more weeks until school begins here.
  

Local newspaper article about Maddy's class going to an alpaca farm. She is the front/first child in the photo.

Ready to go to Thomas & Emily's bridal shower.

Dressed up for the bridal shower.

Funny face courtesy of Uncle Dewey & Auntie Carmen.

Weekends spent in the camper/campground store.

Lake girl

Little fish

Fashion pose

First slip n slide

This is awesome!

Maddy is 52 months old - April 2013

As promised, Easter pictures are in this blog post.  It was extremely snowy this Easter.  At the annual Huseby Easter get-together, there is always a candy hunt.  This year the candy was hidden in snow banks & drifts.  It was a cold & quick hunt, but Maddy still enjoyed it thoroughly.  We decorated 3 dozen eggs this year and the Easter Bunny hid them all.  He also left Maddy an Easter basket & a hula hoop.

A few other highlights in April included a trip to the circus.  It was loud, exciting and a fantastic experience for Maddy.  There were ponies dyed in rainbow colors that reminded her of the ponies on the cartoon show, "My Little Pony".  Maddy's flower girl dress arrived and looks beautiful.  She can't wait for August 10th!  We helped Matt's mom, Helen, celebrate her 85th birthday this month on April 16th.  We made supper for her and capped it off with a rainbow birthday cake.  Also, bowling ended for Matt this month until next season.

Maddy's Learning Ladder class performed a Spring Program on April 24th in her classroom.  They performed 5 songs and treated guests to a snack that they put together with the help of their teachers.  We are so pleased that she has acquired such a love for learning and is thrilled to go to school still.  She is so proud to show us her artwork that she brings home from school too.

Maddy grew another 1/4 inch taller this month.  She weighs 46 lbs and is now 42 1/2 inches tall.  We have many size 6/6x summer outfits so hopefully she won't grow out of them before the warm weather gets here.  We had to delay the opening of the campground due to the lovely "spring" weather.  The campground will open on May 10th, but we doubt if we can turn on the water at that time.  The lake is still iced over and we still have patches of snow where the deep drifts were located.  Otherwise, the low lying areas are huge puddles.  We know the frost isn't out of the ground yet because we haven't seen any worms or ants yet.  We'll watch for the signs of spring and hope they arrive soon!  Here's hoping for May flowers!

Huseby Easter candy hunt

Easter dress

Easter morning - Easter basket & hula hoop

Easter Eggs

Beginning of Easter egg hunt

Found an egg in the tunnel

Maddy & Heidi

Happy 85th Birthday Mom/Grandma Huseby!

Hiding in stuffed animals

School spring program - Maddy singing

Frog sleep mask was put on after Maddy was told it was time to get up.

Maddy is 51 months old

Maddy gained in height this month.  She is now 42 1/4 inches tall and weighs 45 lbs.  March brought more snow and winter storms.  There have been so many storms this winter that school will be in session for an extra week here.  After one of said storms, the snow was wet enough to build a snowman.  Maddy wanted it to be a girl so we built a snow girl.   On March 12th we celebrated Matt's 45th birthday.  Maddy and Debbie baked and decorated his cake this year.

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day this year in grand fashion!  Maddy learned how tricky leprechauns can be.  The one that visited our house used our bathroom, messed up our kitchen & dining room and also sent her on quite an adventure.  He left a note with a clue which resulted in a scavenger hunt.  She followed each clue which was printed on the the colors of the rainbow in order.  At the end of the rainbow clues, she found the pot of gold. It held two $1 gold coins for her piggy bank.  The day ended with a supper consisting of corned beef, cabbage, boiled potatoes, & homemade Irish Soda bread.  Maddy and I baked the Irish Soda bread ourselves using a family recipe.  She can't wait until next St Patrick's Day when she intends to set a trap to catch the leprechaun.

The last week of March Maddy didn't have school because it was spring break.  During spring break, we went swimming at a local hotel pool.  Maddy can swim on her back quite well now.  We also went to a science night hosted by her school.  She made a volcano erupt, microwaved a cake in a coffee mug, mixed up a batch of Gak/glurch and many more cool science activities.  Maddy and Debbie went to dentist appointments during this week which were necessary, but not nearly as fun as the birthday party she attended on Sat. of that week.

Maddy was asked to be a flower girl in a wedding that will take place in August this year.  She is very excited and honored to be included in the wedding party.  We ordered her dress and will receive it in April.  Orders from the bride dictate that we can't post pictures of the flower girl dress until after the wedding.  We can't wait to share them with you later this summer!

We know that Easter was in March this year, but we decided to post Easter pictures and memories in the next blog post.  We will be hoping for melting snow so we can open the campground on May 3rd.  We still have a lot of ground cover here and the cold temperatures aren't leaving so Mother Nature did not get the memo that it's supposed to be spring now.  Hopefully, the slow snow melt will reduce the flooding that is predicted for certain towns located close to the Red River.  We are approximately an hour away from the river so we aren't at risk, but many of our campground patrons are in the threatened area.

Happy Spring and warm weather wishes!

Maddy in Mommy's pink slippers.

Matt and his birthday cake.

Maddy in her fancy pjs.

Maddy and her "snowgirl".

On St Patrick's Day morning we found what the leprechaun had done.

The clues from the leprechaun's scavenger game.

Maddy is 50 months old (Sounds old doesn't it?)

 February went really fast this year.  It has been a month of snow, winter storms and flu/colds at our house.  We have been spraying everything in the house with Lysol.  It is our feeble attempt at killing the virus/germs.  At least there haven't been any true health concerns, just virus induced misery.  During one blizzard this month we received close to 2 feet of snow from one storm.  It took Matt and I a solid 8 hours to clear what Mother Nature dumped on us.  Maddy was assigned snack duty for school on Valentine's Day.  With the help of both grandmas, we brought individual fruit pizzas with heart-shaped crusts to school.  Poor Maddy was getting sick that day, but she made it through the school party.  According to Maddy's teachers, the other students liked the pizzas.  Maddy received tons of Valentines and really enjoyed making some for her friends as well.  Both Grandmas joined us for a steak and shrimp Valentine's Day supper complete with saute'd mushrooms and Bearnaise sauce to compliment the steaks.  It was yummy!  Guess what we had for dessert?  Fruit pizzas!  

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Maddy weighs 45 lbs and is 42 inches tall!  She is off the percentile charts for her age.  She is in a size 6 currently.  We are cruising ebay for good deals on summer clothing and have had some success there winning a few auctions.  We have taken weekly trips to the library.  Each trip provides 10 new books for the week.  At Christmas time, she received 2 magazine subscriptions, a Highlights magazine called High 5 for her age group and Ranger Rick Jr.  We can't supply her with enough new reading material which is simply wonderful!  It's a real treat to witness her love of literature.  We are working on sight words and color words.  We play rhyme time where she makes up a word that rhymes with one that is supplied.  We also take turns naming opposites.  At the end of the day, we ask Maddy what her happy and sad moments were that day so she gets in the habit of talking to us about daily events.

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We are hoping that Spring comes early like everyone else.  It would be so nice to be able to get a few extra items checked off our list before the campground opens on May 3rd.  Easter comes a bit early this year on March 31st so we'll wish you a happy Easter with pictures to follow on our next post.  For now, we will try to remember to "Spring ahead" on March 10th.  Bring on the sunshine!

Freshly bathed and ready for bed.

New Mikey pillow.  He's Maddy's favorite Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Fruit Pizza packed and ready to go.

Maddy's snack for Learning Ladder (school) on Valentine's Day.

Will you be my Valentine?

Must make silly face when camera is on me!

New Tag Reader book.  Yeah!