Len's First Birthday!

We had a gorgeous day for Len's first birthday party! Grandma Chris made a spice cake, and Mom made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Grandpa Darrell made Len a stroller for her dollies. Ernie immediately took the "stroller car" for a spin.

Our neighbor Allie was very attentive to Miss L. She put up with a lot of hair pulling from the birthday girl.

Feeding frenzy.

Lenora liked her cake!

Did I mention it was beautiful? Right after sweets all went outside to enjoy the weather.

Here's Len opening a beautiful artwork by Aunt Laura.

And here's her new dolly for her stroller! She was a bit more interested in the tissue paper at the time, but she and dolly are very fond of each other alread.

Valas with the Wellses!

We met the Wells family at Vala's Pumpkin Patch! Len and Maisie were so happy to see each other again. Maisie is such a snuggler!


As soon as Ernie saw Kitt they could not WAIT to get to the train! Here they are watching it roll in.

Look at these pretty girls in their blue with their EYES!!!

The boys had as much fun on the toy trains as they did on the real one.

So did the girls!

Bunny village was just the right size for our little ladies.

Thankfully they do have tractors you can drive.

Lenora enjoyed her first ice cream as a snack! She's a smart baby, and ate it all.

We tried to recreate a pic with pumpkins we had taken of the boys back in 2008. The boys were too busy to sit still and the girls were anxious to head home. But we managed a decent one!

We love seeing our cousins!

Happy Birthday, Lenora!

We all love you so much, Baby Girl!

Fire Field Trip

A lovely summer time ritual are the weekly playdates with the Walshes, since Daddy Dusty takes his summers off. For one of the playdates, they arranged a tour of a local fire station. Ernie and Johanna got to explore every emergency vehicle there!

Carsten Farm Days

This year at Carsten Farm Days celebrated the Minneapolis Moline, and a reunion with Mom's high-school roommie Amy (Lemcke) Bertrand and Ben, and their son Oliver!
Grandma and Len checking out a treaded construction-grade John Deere.

Ernie driving a John Deere with a canopy.

Len and Aunt Laura riding in the tractorbus.

And Ernie rode in the tractor train for the first time! Twice in a row!

Branson

We went to Branson with the Mohrs for some good old Branson fun.
We all went on a paddle wheel boat ride, which Ernie is still talking about. It was H-O-T but so worth it! Here's rosy-cheeked Len on the boat deck with Laura and Tim.

And of course Ernie was obsessed with the captain and wanted to drive the boat. So he took some initiative, dragged a chair behind the cabin, and pretended he was operating some kind of dials on the back of the door.

Tim worked his magic and got them to allow Ernie to drive the boat!

Other outtings include Silver Dollar City (Ernie does not like Fire in the Hole, but he does like it, but he doesn't like the bumps) and the g-rents stayed home while the kiddies slept so Amber, Jeremy, Tim, and Laura could see The Shephard of the Hills. There was also plenty of fine cooking after the kids were asleep (knocked out from too much fun) and card playing.

Thanks for the trip, Grandpa and Grandma!

And on the way home, Ernie got (more than) a little carsick. We had to take apart his car seat after we returned to get it cleaned, so we took the new one out of its plastic carrier bag. Fun new toy. What, you think we should tell him to stop playing in plastic bags? He just threw up all over himself twice. Might as well let him have a little fun.