Thursday April 29th

Today was Piper's first big girl show. We were all going to see Nickelodeon Story Time Live at the State Theater Downtown Minneapolis. Kyle and I both took the day off for work and were both so excited to experience this with Piper. She got up around 7:15 AM all bright eyed and bushy tailed, with no idea of what was ahead of her in a couple of hours. She had a big breakfast, ran around the house for a minute, and off we went. The show started at 10:30 AM. It takes 30 minutes give or take to get down there, then you have to manage to find parking (both my husband and I worked downtown for years, which comes in handy when you need to find a place to park)!! Anyhoo... we got there with 5 minutes to spare and decided to get her one of the ridiculously expensive toys that spin and light up before the show, which she LOVED. We found our seats right away and waited for Uncle Chris, Aunt Kayse, and Cousins Zack and Wes to get there. We all took our seats and the show started. First it was Ni Hao Kai Lhan, Backyardigans, The Wonder pets, and finally Dora herself. Piper LOVED all singing and dancing. She did not want to sit in our laps or the seat. She needed to stand in the middle of the aisle and dance. The whole show was about and hour and a half long and Piper lasted an hour and 15 minutes. She is currently getting a molar and it was her nap time so we scooted out about 15 minutes early. We were not allowed to take any photos of or during the show (lame) so I have none to share.

After we got home we laid Piper down and she was out in 2 seconds. Kyle and I wanted to relax but when ever you have any free time something always needs to be done. We had planned on replacing our new deck over the weekend so we needed to tare the exisitng one down today, and I have never been happier. We bought our house around 7 years ago and that deck has been nothing but a pain in the butt. First of all, they used nails instead of screws when they built the thing. Every year we would go around and pound in the nails that would pop out. 2nd the boards were getting so old and warped I thought for sure one day we would fall through. Third there was an odd 2nd opening with stairs off to the left that made no sense. I have been bugging Kyle for years to replace this and finally....... wait for it...... SUCCESS!! I have never been happier to reap in all of this destruction. It only took about 3 hours to take it down. Here are some pics.