This past weekend was Mateo's second birthday!! I can't believe how quickly he's growing. We were lucky enough to have Amy, Luke and Cash come to MN (Cash-man's first visit) late, late Thursday night and then Nana and Papa came up Friday night. I'm going through nephew withdrawal still - I miss my little marshmallow.
Saturday was Mateo's party and our house was filled with family and friends. Mateo had his own personal present opener thanks to Auntie Anna.
A big thank you to all of our family and friends that helped celebrate Mateo's day! Here are some pictures from the weekend:
Joe and I camped out in the living room Friday night and
were awoken by this precious face very early Saturday morning
Two years ago today this little guy change our lives forever! Joe and I can't get over how he's transitioned from baby to little boy especially within the past few months. He's talking up a storm and he's actually playing with toys - its amazing to watch this transition. He's just a happy an outgoing kid and has absolutely no fear, which tends to give me heart attacks on almost a weekly basis.
We're so blessed to have this little guy in our lives...Mateo, we love you more than you'll ever know!!
We were partying like rockstars at Luke and Amy's wedding. That night ranks up there as one of the best days/nights of my life. For our birthdays (mine and Joe's) and our anniversary, Amy has made up signs and taken pictures of Cash with them.
So for Amy and Luke's anniversary, we did this. By the way, it's really hard to make an almost two year old stand still AND smile at the same time. Happy Anniversary Amy and Luke!!! We love you!
I came across a pin on Pinterest that linked to a blog post about meal planning. I read it and thought - I can do better. No - I'm not going to bore anybody with the details of what I did (unless you guys really want to know - if you do, let me know) but I planned out our meals for the rest of September and into the first week in October.
During this recipe/planning search, I decided the Loaded Potato and Chicken Casserole recipe should be tried again. The first (and only) time I made it we thought it was far too oily. Well I tried it again on Saturday and this time I omitted the oil except for a drizzle in the beginning to help the potatoes roast. Once they were roasted, I moved them to a plate lined with paper towel to drain, washed the pan and then once it was closer to dinner time, threw the potatoes and chicken back in the pan, baked about 10 minutes, drained out some more oil, then threw on the bacon, cheese and green onion and finished baking.
This turned out so much better!! Both Joe and I were amazed. I've updated the recipe to reflect these changes so if you made this already, please, please try it again with these changes!
A friend at work has a daughter three weeks younger than Mateo and mentioned they went to the Children's Museum last weekend. He told me they had a Curious George exhibit and that every third Sunday of the month is free thanks to Target. I was sold. It just so happens that today was the free Sunday so I told Joe we were going!!
Holy smokes - I'm so glad Mark told me about the Children's Museum and if you live in MN, you should definitely take your kids. Every exhibit they have is interactive and kid-friendly. They have one specific exhibit that is for the age of 4 and under which is so nice. We had a blast and Mateo passed out about 5 min after we got in the car (and abruptly woke up once we pulled in the driveway...so much for that nap).
Here are some of the adventures we had today - we'll definitely be going back!
Joe and I just about cried when we saw the water tables...Mateo loves water
and loves to splash...we couldn't say no and he actually did really well
It's GEORGE!
I told him to say "cheese" and this is what we got :)
We were photo-bombed!!
Well Papa, not sure if he'll be a fire-fighter...he looks a bit annoyed
I love the end of August because it means the Minnesota State Fair!!!! I've lived in MN for 9 years now and have gone to the fair EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR (some years twice!).
This was the one thing I wanted to keep doing once we had Mateo and we've been lucky enough to have Nana, Papa, Amy and Luke go with us last year for Mateo's first year. This year Luke, Amy and Cash weren't able to join but Nana and Papa came up again. On a side note I told Cash that he should hitch a ride with Nana and Papa but Cash couldn't convince his mama to let him go. :(
Anyway - it seemed like it got crowded really early this year but Taye was such a trooper. We (me, daddy and Papa) took Mateo on some kiddie rides which was an adventure. Mateo cried on the first ride but then loved the rides after the initial shock.
We also saw some poor people stuck super high up in the air for about an hour. The first day of the fair a something happened with a ride and a safety latch flipped and stranded riders way, way up in the air. They closed the ride and fixed the issue (or so they thought) and re-opened the ride. We were there the second day and again, the safety latch flipped and people were stuck again for about an hour...ugh. They closed the ride the rest of the day and kept it closed the third day. I will stick with the kiddie rides.
Joe took Mateo back to the fair over Labor Day weekend as all the guys usually go together. More food and fun was had with just Daddy, Mateo and the guys and Mateo even got to go down the big slide...
Here is some of the fun we had and the food we ate!!!
First ride!!
Stuck up there for an hour - those poor people
Ride guy fixing the issue!!
HUGE pig!
Sculpture made from the trash in the Mississippi
Sweet Martha's cookies are really good!
So are french fries
And now for the food:
Pizza rolls or something
Gyro on a stick
Honey sunflower seed ice cream
Cheese on a stick!
Pork ankles or something like that
Scotch Egg - Hardboiled egg wrapped in breakfast sausge and deep fried
Joe and all his buddies love to camp - I on the other hand think staying in a Motel 6 is camping...no offense to Motel 6.
For as many years as I can remember, the first weekend in August is the Family Values Camping Trip. All the guys (Travis, Terry, Todd) and their families get together and camp for the weekend. I've gone only once before where I've camped and last year Mateo and I went just for the day.
This year we stayed Friday night and all day Saturday. I took the day off work on Friday to pack and get the food ready for the trip and man - I had no idea how much work goes into that. The weather was beautiful but some big storms rolled in Friday night. I don't think I've ever said so many 'Our Father's' and 'Hail Mary's' in my whole life. I could hear tornado sirens and it was awful. Of course, Mateo and Joe slept right through it.
Saturday we played around the campsites, napped and took a walk to the falls. We headed home about 5 pm, unpacked, started laundry, ordered a pizza and were in bed by 7:45 :)
Our daycare lady took some time off at the end of July which meant either Joe or I had too as well. I was missing Cash-man so I decided that Mateo and I would head to ET to hang out with Nana, Papa, Auntie Amy, Uncle Luke and Baby Cash. Joe decided that he was going to re-do our bathroom...that is a whole different post...
The first day we were there Amy, Nana, Cash, Mateo and I went outlet shopping!!! The boys were so good and they were even mistaken for brothers. At lunch Nana took Taye on some little rides and I took Cash so Amy could eat. I got the biggest smiles from him which completely melted my heart.
A few other highlights:
Lunch with Kari!
The Dark Knight Rises with Amy and Luke
Fish-fry (Luke, Amy and I were scolded by papa during dinner - hehe)
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