BIG Day

Today Zander celebrates his 4th birthday. We are in Park Rapids this week as we have been for all of his birthdays. There is a Toy Story 3 themed party. Yummy cupcakes just came out of the oven. Beach day all afternoon, Zorbaz tonight for supper/karaoke and a fireworks display by papa tonight. Z already snuck into the bedroom and found two presents from mom and opened them. It's going to be a good day by the excitement on his face!!

much needed update!

As you can see, I am not very good at updating our blog. I always say I am going to be better at it- I will try harder :) Well, the past couple of weeks have been really busy/crazy/overwhelming at times, yet really good. Last week Zander, Punky and I moved back up to our apartment in Mpls- for good (we hope!). I started two new jobs. One is at MN Masonic Homes in Bloomington. I work as an Activities Leader in the Alzheimer's unit. My first few days I have just been shadowing a lady named Carolyn who has been great. The first hour of work was a little overwhelming. I didn't know how I would do, but now I look forward to it! I leave that place feeling awesome. The residents truly love the time that we spend together- and so do I. It is a very rewarding job, even if every time I walk into the room I have to reintroduce myself to some of them :) The residents are at all different stages of Alzheimers. It is a very sad to watch at times because some of the residents are quite young and when you look at them and watch them you think gosh why are they here? But then you ask them a question like 'did you get some juice yet?' and they respond 'yes yesterday I went for a walk outside'. I don't know how many times the residents have been told me that the name Ashley is so beautiful and that I am the prettiest lady they know. Love it. My other job is at MOA at the store Aerosoles. My good friend Chandra is store manager there and she gave me the opportunity to work for her to make some extra money-thanks Chandra! My first day of work I sold almost $500 in product in 4 hours. I thought that was pretty good! The only difficult part is finding someone to watch Zander for me, while my shifts are during non-business hours at times. So, that is still a work in progress. Ally helped me out last week as well as my friend Stacy. Stacy and her fiance Tom took Zander to Nickelodeon Universe- Z had a blast, minus the haunted house ha :) Well, I am off to work. Hope everyone is having a great Monday.

go-carts & mullets

PNG=Paffrath Neighborhood Gang

Here are some pics of Zander and his best friends. Now that Spring is here we spend every chance we can outside. Ethan&Sofie live right next door, Dru&Andi live a few house down one direction, and Russell&Thomas live a few houses down the other direction making our block the central meeting point. It is so much fun watching them all ride their bikes, jump on the trampoline, play baseball, etc.

Zander taking a break on the trampoline

Zander, Ethan, & Sofie

Ethan and Zander "wrestling"

Sofie, Ethan, and Zander devising a plan

Sofie

Sofie and Z making silly faces

Sofie, Andi, Zander, Dru, Ethan

fun filled day!

saturday was zander/mommy day. we started the day by baking brownies. mmmm so good! then zander's friend Teagan came over while us mommies talked. they had been together about 5 min. and we heard giggling. we found them covered up sitting in bed just giggling away. it was to cute. teagan follows zander around like a puppy dog and does whatever he does. after that zander and i went to the mankato mall to find him some new sandals for this summer and for something to do. we went to Barnes & Noble and read a book about sharks and a book about reptiles- zander's favorite things to learn about lately. we went to target, got a bag of popcorn, and walked around the store looking at all the new spring toys. next we hit up scheels to look for some Keen sandals- which i highly recommend, esp for little boys. this is the only shoe that can handle the ware and tare of zander! his last pair last two years and the only reason we need new ones is because he outgrew them. they are in near perfect condition. this year he chose the green/camo ones. lastly, we hit up the play place. we came home, had dinner, played, and went to bed early!

baking & swimming

yesterday morning zander and i started our morning off with making eggs for breakfast. we have been eating a lot of eggs lately because zander's favorite thing to do in the kitchen is crack the eggs! after he finished his eggs he wanted to crack some more eggs so he suggested making some muffins. well, then he saw the cookie mix and opted to go with that. they were oatmeal cookies, but then Z suggested we add some chocolate chips. apparently that wasn't enough and we needed to add some M&M's. we finally got all our ingredients mixed together, and then he told me, "you can finish making them". typical! :) not even 5 min. later he came back into the kitchen asking if the cookies were done. this repeated several more times for the next 10 min. while they were baking one of zander's lines to papa were, "papa i'm baking cookies! i'm thinking you and grandma are really going to want one!" after lunch zander & i, and his friend teagan from school and her mommy went swimming! zander just got new goggles so he was super excited to try them out in the pool (he had just been wearing them around the house).

blah blah blog

well, that pretty much sums up this blog for the past, oh YEAR! i love reading blogs. i read all my sisters blogs, friends & families blogs, even random blogs. but i always feel like no one really reads my blog anyways so there really isn't a point. but who cares?! SO, i am going to try much harder at updating my blog! i was chatting with a friend of mine (his name is Victor) about his blog. he is from sweden, and is currently living there now. he golfed at the u of m, which is where i met him. his blog is about his journey as a professional golfer- and one of my favorite to read. i find it quite interesting because i don't know much about golf, and people who don't golf much often think of it as a "lazy" sport. it definitely is not. he trains everyday and is always trying to better himself. check it out for yourself: http://blogg.aftonbladet.se/victoralmstrom