Minnie on the GO!

Mackenna and I went outside this afternoon to do a little fall cleaning in the garage and of course to get some good play time in!

This was the attire she chose to wear :)

After nap time, we cleaned and organized her closet and she found her halloween costume from last year and just had to wear it!  Yea, it looks like a shirt now, but at least it came with lil knickers :)

She had a great time driving her car (with her little fire dog in tow)!  Her legs actually touch now, so she's LOVING her new found 'freedom' to drive! Steering is still a work-in-progress!  We drove around the cul-de-sac and she was waving to the neighbors :)

Cute lil xtras!

A few fun photos I just had to share...

Her new friend "Mudonna" at the Saints Game :)

Look at that cute lil face!!!  She was seriously IN LOVE with this thing!

Blowing out Grandma Sheryl's birthday candles :)

Wearing her new 'kitty' outfit proud that Grammie and Grampie got her!

Enjoying a nice BRISK fall morning on the deck - winter coat and all :)

Cookie time!

So last night, I was all excited to make Peanut Butter & Nutella cookies with Mackenna (I mean who doesn't LOVE Nutella). We had a great time making them, but it was a total bust :( the recipe was followed to a 'T', BUT it was just one of those recipes on Pinterest that was too much talk.  Each batch melted like crazy in the oven, even after cooling and one time FREEZING the dough :(

Needless to say, I had to correct this as Mackenna was asking for her cookies, so we tried again, but this time made regular chocolate chip cookies. Mommy made them extra special by adding orange and yellow food coloring to them for a fall like touch :)

So proud of herself to be helping mommy

CHEESE!

"Oh the anticipation!!!!!!!"  She couldn't wait to see them when they were done!

I have a ton of recipes and fun fall/halloween crafts up my sleeve and can't wait to do them all over the next few weeks!

GO VIKES!



Sporting her new cheerleader outfit Grandpa Mack got her!  4-1 this season so far :)

Such a cute lil MVC!



All things dance...

Just another day in Kenna's perfect lil life ;)

NEVER stops dancing!

Waiting nicely for her sticker before she leaves her new dance class :)

They have to put their hand on their head in order to get a sticker

After class we ran into Tatum from daycare and her mom, so Kenna was so excited to watch her in her class :)

I can't believe I forgot to post these earlier!!!!!!  This was Kenna waiting to get her new tap shoes or TAPS as she calls them :)

She was so excited, she had to eat lunch in her taps...

...and take a nap in her taps :)

A few videos..

A singing moment :)

Singing 'Happy Birthday' to her Daddy on his big day and helping him blow out his candles!

Trying out her tap shoes for the first time :)

Beginning of this thing called dance...

It finally arrived...Kenna's first day of dance class!!!  She was so excited and as we saw earlier in the blog, she had the perfect and most adorable attire for her big debut.  Her first class was nothing shy of amazing - she did so well!!!!!!!

She went right to a colored square to sit on like such a big girl!

Leading the class in across the floor

Just checking it out to make sure I was still there...

A little help from Miss Heather :)

Following along with the rest of the class

Tapping to each corner of the room to look at the surprise at each one :)
(sorry for the blur, the curtain on the window is sheer)

I was so excited after that class and Kenna seemed to be as well, so we were both looking forward to the next week and all the rest to come, or so we thought!!!!!

The second week, she wanted NOTHING to do with going into her class.  She cried and grabbed on to me like a little monkey. It's so hard as a mom to not get frustrated and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a tinge of frustration over the 40 minutes we were there, but at the end of the day, I realized that she truly had something wrong with her and there had to be a reason she didn't want to go in.  I brought her to the Wed night class just to see and it was the same as the 2nd class except this time, she screamed for what seemed like an eternity before Miss Emily gave me the look of ya gotta come take her!!!!!  She didn't even want to go in when they let the parents in the room, as it was parent observation week.

After much thought, I realized a couple things.  While the studio and teachers are fantastic, I think the class was just not meant for her age.  She is not even 2.5 yet and the class is for 2.5 - 4 year olds with the majority being in that 3-4 age range.  That's a BIG difference!!!!! Also, while I get why they do it, they let the kids run in and out of class crying for their parents and I honestly think that Kenna has been watching that and processing it in her brain that it must be scary to be in there since all these little girls keep going in and out crying. So I reached out to my friend Lindsey from college who co-owns a studio in EP called Dance Esteem as she had reached out to me before trying to get me to sign Mackenna up for their 2.5-3 year old class.  Much to my surprise, they still had a couple spots in their Saturday AM class, so I decided to try that out with Mackenna this weekend.  I'm happy to report that this is A WAY MORE AGE APPROPRIATE CLASS!!!!!!  Miss Sarah was amazing with the kids and they did so many things to keep them moving, engaged and dancing!!!!  It's a mommy and me class until Dec. and then after that, the mom's leave and they work on their recital routine.  I went in with her this first time (right now, the 4 that are in there, don't seem to need their mommy's. But that's the cool thing, they let you come in if your child isn't ready to be left alone just yet) and just sat and watched, but by the end of class, she got up a few times, played with the tambourines they had for one part, waved her princess wand a few times and wanted to stand on her special colored spot  :)  At the end of class, they line up at the door and put their hand on their head to get a special sticker before they leave and Mackenna loved that!

Since we've left, she's asked me over and over again if she can go back to class!!!!!!  I'm sure I'll have to go in a few more times with her, but I have a feeling she'll be feeling more comfortable sooner than I think :)

Fell in Love...

I took Kenna to Daddy's baseball game yesterday on another BEAUTIFUL Sunday afternoon and fell in love all over again with my 2 favorite people with this photo...

She was so excited to stand by Daddy and I know it took all of him to not let her come out on the field with him when his team was up to bat.  She was so proud of her Daddy and was, as usual, entertaining the parents with her cuteness!

Burnsville Fire Muster

Over the weekend we took Mackenna to the annual Burnsville Fire Muster!  We aren't big parade people, but put that aside for her of course :) and started the morning with a fire truck parade and she was loving every minute of that!  It was very cute to watch her faces and see her waving to all the firemen!

Waiting for the parade to start in the chilly morning air!

She got SO EXCITED when she saw the first truck!

After a couple shy waves, she finally got confident in waving at all the firemen!



Such a big girl :)

Once that was over, we headed to the actual carnival and on our way to the pony rides, we checked out some trucks at a closer glance!

Our little 'pink' Junior Firefighter!

She didn't want to get down :)

Once we were able to pull her away from the trucks, we headed over to the pony rides!!! She got to feed the pony a carrot before she took her ride. I was shocked she was willing to just go with the girl that was walking the pony, but of course was ok with it!

Kenna and her pony!

'Ride em Cowgirl!'

We ended our time riding a few rides before it was time to go home for nap time!  It was a fun way to spend the beautiful "fall-like" morning with my lil family!

She loved the cars and we definitely got out money's worth as she was on it for like 5 min!!! :)

Exhausted from all the fun!