Friday, May 31, 2019

End of the School Year Stuff

The countdown is on!  I'm not sure who is more excited for summer vacation... the kids or mom!!!!  I love having my kids home with me all day!  Here are a few end-of-year happenings around here....

Track and Field Day

Colton and Summer had their track and field days on two different days and I got to help out both days!  At Southview, there is a circuit of 8 events for the students to try and I got to circle through all 8 events with a group of about 16 kids and track their scores at each event.  Larkyn (as always) was very popular among the school-kids, and was doted on most of the time, including being given a piggy back ride on the 50 meter dash, spraying down the kids with her spray bottle when they were hot, and getting to start on of the races :).  When she wasn't helping she donned her ladybug lawn chair throne and munched away on delicious snacks :).  She was a trooper as the meet was 3 hours long!










Field Trips

Summer's class got a fun STEM day (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) at the Middle School Lab and Daddy got to chaperone the fun activities they did including coding, drones, virtual reality, channeling electricity, and more!






Colton's class got to go to Crayola Experience and I got to chaperone!  It was especially fun watching he and his friend Jaylen in the room where you can write on the walls...they had a high jump contest to see who could make the highest "mark" on the cloud wall and I got some great action shots!






Larkyn and I went on a date to the zoo last week!  She especially loved feeding the baby goats.  The bear was especially fun this day and was standing at the edge of the water looking like he was going to jump in....while the crowd of kids were all chanting "jump in, jump in, jump in!"   The bear slowly walked to the other side of the water and backed into the water one leg at a time, which caused the whole group of us to laugh!  He then proceeded to sit right in front of the window so we could get a great picture of him!




Gymnastics and Soccer

Summer and Larkyn finished off their spring gymnastics session last week.  Larkyn will get to move up to the big gym and be with Summer next session!!  Here are a few videos/pictures of things they did in their last session.





Larkyn Seat Drop




Larkyn Cartwheel




Larkyn "Graduating" and getting her ribbon before moving up to the big gym



Summer on floor


Summer on bars


Larkyn is so excited to be in the big gym with Summer this summer!



Colton is playing soccer this spring, and his season runs May-June.  He is on the Graphite team with Coach Nate (and Daddy is helping to coach too!) and is #7. 




Piano

Summer had a mini recital at her piano teacher's house at the end of the year with her and the student whose lesson is right before her.  It was right during her lesson time, which was convenient as May gets so busy!  She and the student before her, Kendra, loved working together on a duet Chim-Chimeny from Mary Poppins.  It was very tricky for the two of them to stay together when the two pianos they were playing on hid one another from sight, but the girls practiced hard and did a great job!  I had fun practicing the duet with Summer at home too! :)  Here is a video of their song as well as a picture of the two girls.




Dance

Larkyn has her last dance class on Tuesday.  She has had a fantastic session and loves her teacher Ms. Daria!  Unfortunately, she will miss her recital due to us being out of town, but below are two videos of her two dances taken during her last class :).







Last Day of School

Last Day of 1st and 3rd grade!

So excited for 4th grade where each student gets an ipad!

Pumped for 2nd grade and hoping to get the same teacher Summer had!

Last day of dance!

Larkyn is soooo excited to head off to kindergarten next year and join her big sibs at Southview Elementary!


Monday, May 27, 2019

Uncle Javonte's Graduation/Memorial Day

Paul's brother, Javonte, graduated from high school on Friday, and we drove up to Fergus Falls for the ceremony, open house, and family time!




Javonte's open house was a waffle bar, and Paul and I got to help make the waffles as people came through the food line.  Summer enjoyed helping people with their drinks!



The Family

 Grandma and Grandpa T with their FOUR grandkiddos :)

GeeGee Sandy with her grandkids and great-grandkids

A HUGE highlight was getting to see Auntie Sarah, Uncle Ty, and cousin Owen back from Boston!  The kids hadn't gotten to meet Owen yet, and all three kids enjoyed getting to meet him!





We had a great weekend celebrating, seeing everyone, playing soccer, and more!  The kids especially enjoyed going for nature walks and collecting treasures to "make dinner" for everyone in the play kitchen Grandma and Grandpa had on their deck.



Congratulations, Javonte!  We love you!

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Paul's Birthday

We celebrated Paul's birthday both as a couple and as a family!  Here are some pictures of how we celebrated him this year!

Date Day


Paul and I spent the afternoon and evening together on the Saturday before his birthday.  We started our date at the Vikings exhibit at the Swedish Institute, which had old artifacts and history from this ancient people group.  We then headed to all-you-can-eat meat at Fogo de Chao for dinner, followed up by a date to the Loons game!  We had a great time together!








Breakfast in bed






Family Celebration


For dinner, we had Paul's favorite pizza, Red's Savoy, and brownies and ice cream!  The kids each made sweet cards and bought/wrapped him up a treat/food he especially loves!