Soccer girl

In the video I posted the other day of the Erntson family soccer match, Esme ran around and did get to kick the ball once in awhile although I did not actually get video of that.

Here is proof that she does like to kick the ball and is pretty good at it.  When she's focused.  As you can see, she's easily distracted.  We'll have to work on that! :)

Here's another video of the same afternoon. Esme really likes to chase Cricket and grab her tail.  Or she pets her nicely and then grabs a hand full of fur and flesh until Cricket squeaks.  Surprisingly, Cricket does ok with this most of the time.  Yes, this is the same Cricket who was scared to death of anyone younger than 35 when I got her.  We've been working with Esme to "be nice" and to "pet nicely".  She decided to take it to the extreme and give Cricket some real love. :)

Dolan Family Reunion

Yesterday we went to the Dolan Family Reunion.  Barb's maiden name is Dolan.  Esme had a lot of fun running around.  We all had a great time!

Annika did a great job of corralling Esme when she got too far away!  She's such a great helper!

There was a playground that had a toddler size play set.  I think Annika and Laurel enjoyed it more than Esme did. :)  She was enthralled by what the big kids were doing.

Esme watching the big kids

Even Steve found something fun to do!

There were games for the kids. Esme didn't play by the rules.  She just wanted to play in the water! :)

As usual, she had to taste everything.  Her sippy cup ended up in the water!  I don't think that was how the game was supposed to be played Esme!!!

Eventually, there was a family game of soccer.

Esme tried her best to play too!

It will be fun to see what kind of soccer player she's going to be.  So far if there's a ball near her, she's kicking it.  I think she takes after her dad!

Esme ended up crashing on the way home and then slept for over 12 hours.  What a great day!

Welcome to Everyday Erntson!

Welcome to our new home! :)  Not much has really changed, we'll mostly be talking about Esme.  But now we can talk about other stuff too.

Let's catch up on the last week or so.

For my birthday Aaron took me to Lake Superior to kayak.  It was the 14th Annual Kayak Festival in Two Harbors, MN.

We went for a three and a half hour kayak with a group of of eight other kayaks.  Really fun.  We went from Burlington Beach to Agate Beach and back.

Look how tiny the kayak is under the loading dock!

Then we went to Duluth and hung out at Canal Park for the night.  It was pouring rain, so we had to take a cab back to our hotel which was downtown.  The next morning we got to sleep in, always the best!

Then we drove back home and had dinner at Dan and Barb's to celebrate my and Eric's birthday.  It was SUPER hot and humid out.  Little Esme's curls just sprung.

And Cricket found refuge under the potting bench in the shade.

The good news is that on Monday, Cricket went in to get her hair cut.

She went from this -

To this -

She's even smiling, she's so happy!  A dog needs a good haircut in Minnesota in August!

Thanks for visiting our new home.  Come back soon or follow us!

Change up?

I'm thinking about changing the name of our blog.  I would like to put things about the rest of our family on here also, but then it seems like there might be a more appropriate name for the blog. 

One of my favorite blogs is about my friend Brian's family, his wife writes it and they have three kids.  It's called www.thesnyder5.com.  I'm trying to think of what might be a clever blog name with Erntson.  I guess I could just do www.erntsonfamily.blogspot.com, but that's not very exciting.  I'd have to check to see if it's even available.  www.erntsonzoo.blogspot.com?  www.erntsonhappenings.blogspot.com?  www.erntsonstoday.blogspot.com?

Does anyone have any fun ideas?  Comment and let me know what you think!

Esme's Flowers

Annika, Laurel and Esme planted flowers with Grandma Barb this summer.  The girls each put seeds in a pot and now we all get to watch them grow.

These are Esme's.  Clearly, she has more of a green thumb than her mother does.  She must take after the Erntson side when it comes to growing things. :)

Facial anyone?

The education in culinary utensils continues...

Not to worry, isn't yogurt good for your skin?  And it must be good for clothing too right?  At least it sort of blends in with the polka dots!

Favorite toy right now

Esme loves this toy.  She will bring it up to anyone at anytime to play with her.

I'm not even sure of the name of it.  Shape ball?  Puzzle ball?  She got it from my parents.  Grandma was looking for the old Tupperware one that was red and blue.  BTW, Tupperware calls theirs the "Shape-O" toy.  Clearly they couldn't think of a good name for it either.

No matter the name, it's the most entertaining toy at the moment.  I actually like the new one better because there are different colors, so she can learn colors and shapes.  It has numbers on it also, but the numbers don't always match.  For example, you would think that the hexagon would have a 6 on it, the square a 4, etc.  But because they have shapes like a heart, the whole thing is off.  The pentagon has a 2 on it, and the 5 is on the heart.

But you can see how much Esme gets into it.  She really concentrates.  It's funny, because she hasn't quite figured out how to find the right spot for the right piece yet.  If you show her what spot to put the square, for example, she can put it in but it takes her a bit to orient the shape at the right angle.  She also puts the pieces in the opposite way that I would think to put them.  She puts them in with the hollow side pointing towards her, where I would put it with the hollow side towards the toy.

When she gets too frustrated she hands us the piece and tries to get us to do it for her.  Sometimes, she just decides that she's done.

 

Here's a video.