Lorenz Land Dairy Farm

Today, Sat., Aug. 2^nd Grandma Judy came over and Mom, Hudson & I all went to the Lorenz Land Dairy Farm here in Bricelyn, MN.  They are completely organic and USDA certified since 2009.  They hosted their annual breakfast and operations tour from 8 to 11 a.m. and we had a great time.  It was beautiful, perfect day.  We started with pancakes, sausage and of course cheese, milk & ice cream!  Then we explored the grounds.  First up baby calves! 

Here is number 99!  Then we saw where they milked the cows which were neat because the cows are higher than the workers so the workers can stay upright at their level. 

Then to the chicken coop.

Then on a horse drawn wagon ride to see the cows in the pasture.

Not every day you get to check out a dairy farm, especially in your own back yard!  Once we got home we decided it was too nice to spend one minute in doors so first up some sprinkler fun!  Notice I tend to man the sprinkler & use it against my little brother to my advantage!  Poor Hudson!

Ok, now my turn to get wet!!!

Pretty soon the sprinkler turned into a car & trike wash (*ok, and lawn mower, Gator, etc wash)!

Notice Kato is staying clear in the back ground because we think he knows what's coming!  A Kato wash! 

Fluffy puppy again - looking distinguished! 

It was nice to spend all day outside, we even got fresh strawberries from our garden and made sweet corn for dinner.  Now off for Prestegard movie night, Rio 2!  Can't wait for some special popcorn (*popcorn with M&M's or whatever you like!).  Off to the show or rather our basement!

FROZEN in Mankato!

On Fri., Aug. 1st Mom, Hudson & I went to Mankato to meet our good friends Stacy, Katelyn & Olivia Gruden for a play date.  We met at Dino's New York Style Pizzeria in North Mankato for dinner and the best part (*besides the company & food) was the play dough.  Yep, get it, play dough!  They give the kids real dough with a pizza pan to play with, along with a table size sheet of paper & crayons, to play with while we wait for our food.  I loved the dough idea and it even tasted good! 

Here's Hudson with his dough, he wasn't as in to it but had fun playing with Olivia across the table. 

Afterwards we headed to Barnes & Noble at River Hills Mall for "Get Pop-Cultured: Frozen Friday Party!" This free, special event was just a way to be immersed and celebrate Disney's hit movie, Frozen. The Get Pop-Cultured is running through August with other events, dates & times. The event was pretty amazing they had a dance company perform and teach everyone Frozen dance moves to the Frozen music. We got to take our picture with Queen Elsa, had a Frozen snowflake themed scavenger hunt throughout the store, face painting, Lego's to build a snow castle, and even a table where you could "build a snowman" with large marshmallows!

 

We also participated in the Frozen sing-a-long which was amazing (*notice Hudson & I were playing more with the lights then singing!)! 

We colored pictures with Olaf in summer: 

We even got to take our picture with Olaf - here's Olivia, Hudson, me & Katelyn: 

Our favorite activity, building a snowman!  They had large boxes covered in white and then each box had a face, or buttons, or was plain so you could actually build a "snowman"; they even included accessories such as hats, scarfs, etc.  So fun! 

Our last station was building snowflake wands - here's Hudson & I with our wands and Olaf: 

What a fun play date and evening - can't wait to see those Grunden ladies again soon!

Hudson's New Glasses!

Hayden & Hudson's Mom here to give you a quick update.  On Wed., July 16th after Hudson's swim lessons Richard & I took Hudson to the Twin Cities to stay the night before his eye appointment on Thurs., July 17th.  This past spring Hudson got referred to the Minnesota Lions Children's Eye Clinic in Minneapolis, MN with Dr. Ray Areaux as we hope this will be better and more accurate care for him, especially since they are known & one of the best in the country for pediatric eye care.

 

Dr. Areaux and the entire staff, even the facility, were wonderful & definitely catered to our little man.  They had toys & a TV with favorite cartoon clips in every room, a fish tank which Hudson loved, the most friendly and patient staff, and the best part Hudson was completely comfortable and didn't cry once!  This is amazing as we were there for over 4 hours & even did a full exam with eye dilation.  Their progressive approach for meeting briefly with different members of the staff allowed them to slowly tweak and get Hudson’s perspiration without making him sit still all at once.  This approach also allowed an in-depth visit allowing them to check all aspects of his vision and needs.  We believe this has been his most accurate and positive eye experience so far & we actually look forward to our next visit in September!

After the visit we got lunch which I think Hudson thought he was pretty special since he's had Mom & Dad to himself and got to sit at a big boy table.  We also went to The Glasses Menagerie, a specialty shop for children's eye wear in Minneapolis, where Hudson graduated to big boy frames (*no more strap!).  We knew his old frames were too small however took a bit to get into children's to update so just had to wait.  On Wed., July 30th his new frames arrived and after some bribing he finally put them on.  Here's our before & after pics: 

Hudson got to wear them to daycare for the first time on Thurs., July 31st and boy was he proud.  He enjoyed showing off his glasses to all his friends and teachers and it was so nice as they made a big deal out of it for him.  Our little guy is growing up!

 

Now don't worry Hayden got to have some serious fun while we were gone as he got to go to the FestAg parade with Grandma & Grandpa Prestegard, sleep over and all!  He loved the equipment in the parade, getting to ride rides, and of course being the center of attention!  Special thank you to Grandma & Grandpa for taking care of him.  Here's our ham Hayden with big boy glasses wearing Hudson: 

DC in July...

Feels like summer is finally here and we've been busy at Daycare or DC as we call it.  Our themes in the Explorer's Room this month include Red, White & Blue, the Ocean, Farm Animals and Frogs/Toads.  We've been busy making things for each unit & here are some of mine: 

The above & below are a couple of flags I made.  The top I painted and did the glitter all by myself.  The below I cut out and glued the strips and even made the stars!  We put them on sticks to allow them to fly in the wind.

Fun spiral red, white & blue art:

We've been learning about animals of all kinds so here are a couple of animal related projects: 1) the turtle I helped cut out, color & underneath is a finger hole for me to pretend to walk him and 2) the animal strips I cut & glued all by myself.

My bumblebee!  On July 30th our glass even found a dragonfly outside & have been observing it in a jar in our room.  Very cool.

Here's my fingerprint buttterfly and my sailboat!

During the month of July Hudson's Little Sprouts haven been learning about frogs and caterpillars and have even been making some special creatures of their own.  On July 30th their room even caught a kaydid outside which Hudson thougtht was awesome.  Our rooms shared our bug findings back & forth so we could observe both.  Hudson just LOVES bugs!  Like us they've been learning about red, white & blue, flags and America. Some of Hudson's favorite play times at LS this past month have included playing dress-up with lots of different hats (*of course the John Deere one was his favorite!), likes cars & trucks at the sensory table, loves the surprise bag which is always filled with items of the learning unit i.e. red, white & blue items & the item Hudson grabbed was blue!  Here are some of Hudson's recent creations:

On July 22nd, National Hotdog Day, Hudson used his fingers to make hotdogs in a pan that went with a rhyme & story.  The bottom picture was when "no little hotdogs frying in the pan; the grease got hot & the pan went BAM!"  Thus, is crazy creation!

Every night Hudson sleeps with his Tiggy otherwise known as Tigger so when he got to make a bouncing Tigger he was quite excited and very proud of his masterpiece!

On July 29th Hudson made this little bumble bee with the funniest poem & actions.  It goes: "I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee, won't my Mommy be so proud of me.  Ouch, he stung me!  I'm squishing up my baby bumble bee icky I'm wiping off my baby bumble bee on you!"

 

Can't wait to see what the month of August holds for us!

Happy Early 9th Birthday Cousin Hannah!!!

After church on Sunday, July 27th we met at Grandma & Grandpa Prestegard's to celebrate cousin Hannah's 9th birthday a little early.  We had a relaxing afternoon as a family and here are some of the highlights:

 Here's Hannah with her Dairy Queen cake - the big #9 candle!  Last time to be in single digits!

Hannah got a lot of amazing gifts; her she is with Grandma Great, Betty, opening one of our presents a personalized art kit.  Hannah is super creative and a great crafter! 

Cousin time!  Here's all 4 of us:  Hudson (2 1/2), Elise (1), Hannah (9) & me (4 1/2)! 

 After lunch, cake & presents we got to go outside!  Hannah drove all us cousins & Aunt Jenni around in the golf cart and Mom taught us how to give the corn "high-five's"!

Hannah, Hudson & I even took Daddy for a ride - notice we made him get in the back!

Hudson even got a special present at the celebration; Great Grandma Betty made Hudson a personalized Christmas stocking which even won Reserved Grand Champion this past week at the Faribault, MN County Fair!  Here's Hudson with Grandma and their shared purple ribbon!  Way to go Grandma Great! 

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa for an awesome day - cousin Hannah here's wishing you a very happy 9th birthday on August 5th.  We'll be thinking of you!  XOXO, Hudson & Hayden

Hayden Graduated Swim Lessons!

This past week, Mon., July 21st through today, Sat., July 26th I had Preschool swim lessons at the Blue Earth Area Pool.  I had the best, most patient teacher, Jenna H., and a really fun class.  We worked on front crawl, pushing off the wall & doing turns, diving for rings, holding our breath & breathing out our nose, and my favorite part going off the diving board!

 

We first went off the diving board Fri., July 26th (*which Dad was with me that day!) and I didn't hesitate or get scared - just went for it!  Here's my first jump to Jenna: 

We even got a little video for you: 

By Sat., July 26th, Shea Spencer and I were going off the board by ourselves and we even swam(*with our life jackets on) all the way to the other end of the pool.  We could barely believe it ourselves!  We had some proud mamma's! 

In the end I graduated and got not only a sucker (*notice my fav color orange sucker!) and my swimmer's certification card but Jenna also said next year I'm ready for Level 1! 

Now I keep asking when we can go back for some more diving board fun.  Mom & Dad think they've created a monster!  Way to go Hayden!

Caps for Sale...

This summer I got to enroll in the online reading program for preschoolers through the Institute of Reading Development, Inc. and the University of Minnesota. So far it’s been a blast! I have an assigned teacher, Ms. Elizabeth, and we work on letter recognition, beginning phonics & sight words, and of course the love of reading. Basically there are 6 sessions and each session is based on a specific book with 3 individual lessons. The first two sessions have been based on the books Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina and The Mysterious Tadpole by Steven Kellogg. Our first book, Caps for Sale, featured online storytelling with Bookman (*our reading based superhero who lives in a cool tree fort), online phonic games and even acting out the story! We made our own mustaches and monkey masks then took turns acting out the story.  Here I am as the Peddler trying to sell my caps.

 Up close shot!

Here's Hudson & I playing the monkeys off my bunk beds & Mom's the Peddler - so much fun! 

 

The second book, The Mysterious Tadpole, also had online games, things to do with Bookman and we even created my own mysterious gift picture with my own story that Mom wrote down for me.

I love school and really look forward to each lesson, especially using the computer.  I know I'm building skills for JumpStart which will start in September, full-time Preschool here I come!  Can't wait.  Up next we'll cover the following books:

Animalia by Graeme Base

Goldilocks and the Three Bears retold by Jan Brett

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders by Jack Prelutsky

Such a fun summer treat!

2014 Faribault County Fair

After swim lessons on Friday, July 25th Dad & Mom took Hudson and I to the Faribault County Fair in Blue Earth, MN.  We love going as it has some of our favorite things 1) tractors & equipment, 2) animals, 3) food and 4) rides!  Can't get any better than that!

We started off at the petting zoo where Hudson really enjoyed the goats and cows and I liked the horses and stranger animals like the lama & raccoon! Yep, have you ever been to a petting zoo with a raccoon? He's quite the climber in his cage.

At the petting zoo they had pony rides with 2 ponies so we got to ride together!  Here's Hudson with Mommy taking their turn.  Hudson was pretty scared but did great! 

Here's me, yep, I only need one hand!  Mr. Big Shot - no adult either!

Up next some of the equipment - we really enjoyed the larger, newer ones which we could climb on.  We even hung out at my friend Ethan's family display with the Bobcats!

After supper we checked out the crafts in honor of Great Grandma Betty - she made Hudson a Christmas stocking and entered it into the fair & it won Reserved Grand Champion!!!  That's second place which is amazing.  Here we are checking out her section.  Way to go Grandma Great!!!   

And here's the winning prize with her ribbons: 

After checking out more live stock and the ribbon winners we made our way to the FFA Barn where we got to feed some animals.  I loved the goats and they kept eating right out of my hand (*I wasn't scared!): 

Checking out some of the older equipment like this combine with a real wooden platform!  Notice I posed for Mom of course! 

Although the band Hairball was playing in the grand stand for all the adults we decided to get some Dairy Queen and head home instead.  Once last look at Hudson's favorite display, the CASE Sprayer on our way out.  Hudson & I climbed all the way to the top - it was awesome! 

After a late night at the fair of course we slept in, well only a little bit, as I woke up kind of warm so I decided to cut my hair.  Yep, around 6 a.m. I got my scissors and went to town as you can see here!  A little patchy but not bad for my first time.  I don't think Mom & Dad were as impressed - what do you think?

Mom did say she was impressed that 1) I woke up Hudson to watch and didn't touch his hair or Kato's fur as Kato watched too and 2) I did clean up after myself which was most thoughtful.  Don't worry after swim lessons we "fixed" it at Classics Cuts, well the best we could but I have some growing out to do!  Since we were early risers we did have some brotherly cuddle time on the coach with some Saturday morning cartoons - our new favorite, Paw Patrol!

After swim lessons & lunch we hung out at the shop for awhile to check out the equipment, inspect the yard and of course help Daddy do farmer stuff.  We rode in a couple of tractors and even helped move pallets with the forklift and reload the netting in the hay baler.  Good thing we were there to help him! 

The Prestegard Men!