Eagle Lake Golf

Today we went golfing at Eagle Lake in Plymouth. It’s an executive course and pretty nice. We went to Glen Lake a few weeks ago and I think I like that one better but they are both so nice!

We ended up having a guy join us and he was pretty good. I felt bad though because I played horribly. Aaron and Esme had really good games. I think Aaron had his personal best, if not ever than for sure this summer. He did great!

I did ok except for my chipping which is pretty prominent on an executive course so overall I just stank! Esme was good at trying to help me because she is really good at chipping. Overall it was fun and I hope we can get a few more rounds in before the fall/winter comes. 

Minnesota Get Together!

 Today Esme was supposed to work. She’s being trained in as an expo at Hilltop. But the girl who was supposed to train her called in sick so Esme got the day off! We had talked about going to the fair after Esme got off work so this made it really nice. 

We normally go to the fair early in the morning and leave somewhere between noon and 2pm but today we didn’t even get there until about 3:15. It was still really nice. It wasn’t too crowded, I mean it WAS crowded but not like the fair can be. The weather was warm but there was a breeze and it was overcast. It really was the perfect fair day!

I feel like we got most of the foods in that are the staples we usually go for; a corn dog, fries and a malt/shake or some sort of ice cream. There were a few new things we wanted to try but the lines for them were so long! Esme wanted to try the apple fries and I am not exaggerating when I say there were probably 100+ people in line. It was soooo long!

Esme was ok about taking photos, still not giving me the really good smiles, but that’s ok. If she knew I was doing this she probably would be a little better but I think the surprise will be so good I can’t imagine telling her yet!

Homecoming Dress Shopping

Today Esme and I went shopping for a homecoming dress, her final one!

We drove to Rosedale and she was kind of quiet on the way there, just looking at her phone. She didn’t even ask what kind of music I wanted to listen to until I started playing something that she did not think was appropriate for the fall vibe she was feeling. Then she quickly took control of the music situation.

When we got there we looked at Macy’s and Windsor and didn’t see anything worth trying on. We went to Von Maur and she tried on several and found one she liked right away. And then she was done! She really had no interest in shopping any longer. This is the dress. I can’t wait to see it when she is all done up.

Two of the dresses she tried on were glittery and the poor girl ended up with glitter everywhere. Look at the bottom of her foot. That is all glitter!!!

I was able to talk her into going to Kendra Scott to look at necklaces and she said she was going to order the same shoes that she already has in white, but in gold from Amazon. So that was that! Short and sweet!

Here is her necklace. 

                                 

Overall it was a good shopping trip! She was definitely tired and that’s ok, it was still a great day. I took some photos for here and told her that she was just going to have to get used to me taking pictures of everything from now on since it’s her senior year. It worked so far! I’m still so excited for when she sees the blog!

First day of Senior year!

I'mmmm baaaaccckkkk! Ha ha!

For years Esme has asked me to continue to add to Everyday Erntson and I just didn't. I wish I had now for obvious reasons but I had the seemingly valid excuses of  "life is busy", "there's not enough time", yada yada yada...

I have no idea if she'll see it beforehand but one of my graduation gifts to Esme, and my future self, is to do my best to document her senior year here. It might just be a quick note here and there but that's ok too. Perfection is the enemy of good so I will not strive for it. 

Yesterday was Esme's first day of her senior year of high school. It seems impossible that could be the case. I vividly remember her standing in front of the sign at Albertville Primary for her kindergarten orientation that read "Welcome class of 2027" and thinking that 2027 was so far away, impossible to reach. Much like I thought that 1999 was impossible to reach when I, myself, was a senior and we were singing Prince's 1999 at parties thinking about our 10 year reunion and how it was a lifetime away, unreachable. But here we are, decades past 1999 and staring straight into the face of 2027. 

Esme and I took the obligatory first day of school photos with the homemade sign that has not changed since preschool, 14 years ago. She smiled the million smiles and posed the multitude of poses and I took at least 20 photos just to get the one or two that would be good enough. Then she gave me real, heartfelt hugs and kisses and went down the road to her friend Carly's house where she was meeting more friends for breakfast and more photos. 

I asked her to send me the photos from there, promising not to post them. Being secretive about why I want more photos this year might bring unwanted suspicion but hopefully she will be so busy being a high schooler that she won't even notice. 

At the end of the day she came home and said her day was fabulous for the most part. The only bad thing she had to say, which was not really bad at all, is that she didn't really like the new principal. So overall I would say that her day was amazing! She is so grown up it's killing me. And also I could not be more proud of her. 

It's really not cold out!

Today is Aaron's birthday!  He's up north with the guys for an ice fishing weekend.

We've talked to him a couple of times an he's having a great time!  Last week, he upgraded from his "stupid" phone to a smart phone.  And he's embraced Instagram!  To see his pictures look for @akaiser47.

Esme and I met Jodie, Annika, Laurel, Andrea and Callie for brunch at The Bulldog Northeast.  The food was yummy and we had a good time.

It was a pretty warm day, I think I saw the temperature at 37 degrees at one point.  Esme, for some reason, thought that meant she could completely ditch the winter gear.  Here was her outfit for the day.

























I actually had to talk her into wearing the leggings.  She just wanted to wear the dress.  AND she wanted to wear little summer shoes.  This girl is embracing the warmer weather!

I certainly wasn't going to argue with her about whether or not to wear a coat.  I decided to let the environment be her teacher for the day.  And it worked - about 3 minutes after I took these pictures she asked for her coat.  :)

We bought Aaron few presents today too.  So hopefully he had a great day!

MOA Celebration

Esme and I had a super fun day today.  I took her out of school early for two reasons.  Number one, Esme got a wristband to Nickelodeon Universe from Uncle Ernie for Christmas that we had to use up.  Second, Esme was chosen to be in a book club at her school.  This is a pilot program and only the top 6 readers at her school Albertville Primary were selected (there are about 400 kids there).  Esme was one of them!!!  That warrants a celebration I'd say!

I picked her up at lunch time and let her pick where we would eat.  It doesn't take much imagination to guess where she picked.  

After that, MOA here we come!  I had heard that Friday afternoons were really slow and a great time to go to the park.  Wow, was that ever true!  We hardly ever had to wait in line.  We did whatever rides we wanted and went back on them over and over again.

 Dancin' on the Ferris Wheel!

On a sad note, one of Esme's favorite rides at the mall has always been the hot air balloon ride.  We found out today that it will be not be there much longer.  They are going to replace it with a Bubble Guppies themed ride.  I'm sure that will be fun, but we will sure miss the hot air balloons.  Esme got a little weepy about it, so we had to ride it a few extra times.

Another big thing for Esme was that she got brave and did the Log Ride and the Rollercoaster.  Before she was always afraid of them but for whatever reason, she decided that today was the day to overcome the fear and go for it.  She loved them both!  

The only thing we did that wasn't really fun for her was to go to the Verizon store.  Aaron bumped up to my iPhone 5 and I got the iPhone 6+.  It's funny because if you look at the pictures from today, some of them are much fuzzier than others.  The 6+ definitely has a better camera!  It took about an hour total to get everything switched over but Esme was very patient and a real trooper.

We just had such a fun day.  I can't wait to take her again sometime very soon!  Love you Esme!

Welcome Jingles!

Today began as an ordinary Sunday.  Little did we know what changes were in for.  We got up and went to swimming lessons.  Esme has had a terrible cold with a fever all week so swimming was hard and slow for her.  But she did her best!  FYI - I did ask her if she would like to stay home from swimming lessons and she said no, she wanted to go.

There is an Elf on the Shelf that lives at Foss and his name is Freddie.  After her lesson, Esme was very excited to look for him.  She had a hard time finding him today, he was hiding in the vending machine!  Sneaky Freddie!

As we left Foss to run to Target, I heard from Esme that every single girl in her class and some of the boys have Elves living at their house.  She is the only one who doesn't.  How can that be?  I felt so bad for her! ;-)

The funny thing is, Santa must have heard her because when we got out to the car after shopping, there was an Elf on the Shelf laying under the book she had been reading on the way to swimming lessons!  What the heck?

Esme decided to name her Jingles and we are very excited to announce her arrival!

Esme and Jingles