Lauren Kunde

Growing up; my mom was a fourth grade teacher. That meant we had all of Summer vacation dedicated to relaxing, adventuring, sleeping in, and field tripping. At some point, she started the tradition of “field trips”. She had gotten a book of places to visit in MN and we went to MANY. A lot of times we took my grandma, some times my grandma, once in a while a fried or family member, but always the two of us.

My sweet little 3 year old. She loves adventure, make up, gabby dollhouse, Cakey, and staying up late. These are the gifts we’ve been giving this year!

My sweet little six year old. This is kind of a working list for me - I constantly fall into the trap of not really keeping track of what I get everyone for Christmas. I feel like I am always shopping at the last minute because I over gifted one kid and under gifted the others.

I was really skeptical of these and felt like they were just another thing with a million pieces, but honestly our kids love them. They were gifted one as a joint birthday present and then our youngest was gifted one for their next birthday by the other side of the family and now we have two. Our two oldest really like them and I’m sure our youngest will want one as he gets older.

I am rarely lost for words, but in this description I am. I think it’s because I really view my motherhood experience with a new set of eyes each week (the benefits of therapy I guess). I was a young mom the first time around - pregnant at 21 and gave birth at 22 - we had our second just three weeks after our first turned 3 (I 25 if you’re keeping track). Then at 27 I was surprised to learn I was pregnant for the last time. We had been on the fence about another baby and my primary thought about having more children was that we needed to be done before I was 30. Any who, short story long these are my recs as a mom who feels like they’ve been a totally different parent with each new baby.

I would honest to god love to be barefoot exclusively. However; I cannot be. I can respect that but I, in turn, am super specific about my shoes. I like comfort, I like versatile, I love for it to be cute, and above all; I like them to last.

We’re a snack house. I honestly don’t love to cook every day - I love being able to piece things together. I am also a mom to three kiddos and I want them to feel like they have access to food whenever, but also in moderation. We have some dietary restrictions - because of a fructose sensitivity - but we have everything from favorites, fructose free, to what we call short or fun fuel.

I’m actually not a huge Lego gal myself. I don’t really have the patience, my depth perception is kind of shit, and I’ve never met a direction I wanted to follow. BUT my husband does love them and I like to see them, so these are some that I love, some that he’s built, and some that I’d like him to build.

“Welcome to Toys” has been a long standing joke in our home. For each birthday, we take our kids to have an experience as a family. When my oldest turned three, we went to an aquarium. It was an excellent experience and we had an absolute blast. At the end of the aquarium, there is a gift shop. My sweet three year old walked into the gift shop in amazement, opened her arms, and said “Welcome to Toys”. We all thought it was a hoot.

I’ve always loved reading and as an adult I’ve gone through reading “phases”. Sometimes I’ll read every free moment and sometimes I don’t pick up a book for months - that’s definitely the ADHD in me! I will also read just about anything!

I moved to Moorhead for college in 2016 and fell in love. I went to college there, fell in love and was heart broken there, I turned 21 there, I met my now husband and became a mom there. We moved to our now home in 2020 and I am so incredibly nostalgic for the Fargo Moorhead area still. I’d move back in a minute if it were closer to family.