They have arrived!

I love getting packages.  

We ordered our blinds just a little over a week or so ago and were pleasantly surprised to see that some of them had arrived!  I was relieved to see that they were the right color and pretty thrilled that it actually looked like they were stained the exact same color as our trim.  They look so nice!

Whew!

Say Cheeseburger

The parents get to watch the last 5 minutes of dance class.  During this time they show us what they have learned and run through their dance(s).  Usually all of the parents stand around taking videos on their cameras or iPads.  Tonight I looked over and saw that Hailey had joined in with the other parents.

Time to spend the money

As I was unpacking some of our boxes I came across a few gift cards that the girls had gotten for their Birthdays.  I have been carrying them along in my purse and today decided to pick Hailey up a little early from daycare so we could make a special trip to Target.  The two of us don't get enough alone time and I figured she would enjoy walking through the store by herself to pick something out.

She was pretty excited to see me walk through the door and when I told her our plan she was real excited.  When we walked through the front doors of Target she knew exactly where she wanted to be and made her way straight to the toys aisles.

She did turn around briefly to say "Come on mommy!"  and then her walk turned into a jog and the closer she got the faster she went.  She ended up picking out a baby doll.  Just what we needed :-)

That night the girls wanted to play house and as I was making dinner I heard a 'Hello ma'am" behind me.  "Jennie and Tom' were standing back there asking how long it would be before dinner was ready.

I love this place

As we were packing up to head home today I came across this note that Hannah left for the hotel.

Watertown

Denny and Judy met at our house today around 10 am and we were on our way.  We decided to 'drive together' caravan style so we could stop for some lunch on our way.

It was a pretty uneventful trip.  The girls did GREAT.  

There isn't much to look at on the way but it's always fun to drive through the little towns and imagine what life must be like for these people who live this far away from 'the cities'.

We made it with plenty of time to check into our rooms and change.

 Hannah and Courtney decided they wanted to sleep together in Grandma's room.  Hailey was excited to be alone with mom and dad and happy that she would have the bed all to herself.  The girls figured out how to call each other from the rooms so our phone rang on and off for about 20 min straight while everyone got settled.

Never Ready

We are leaving tomorrow morning to head to South Dakota for Brian's cousins wedding.  I brought Brian's clothes to the cleaners earlier this week and made sure to get Hannah a dress... Shoot!  A dress!  I realized tonight that I don't have anything to wear for the wedding tomorrow.  

Well, sure, I have plenty of clothes.  I have dress pants and tops but with Brian looking so nice in his coat, shirt and tie I figure the least I could do is put on a dress (ick).

We went out to dinner and then I dropped the family off so I could find something to wear.

You will be happy to know that after trips to 7 stores I finally found something.

Step on a crack

"Hey mom- stay away from those cracks in the ground.  If you step on them your back will break."

It's cute to see that kids still say things like this.  Even though times have changed so much, there are still little things that happen that tie all of our generations together.  I was also happy to hear that her and her friends avoid the cracks as much as possible.

This House is on Fire

Hannah has been really into drawing and coloring lately.  Her 'supplies' are always close.

Tonight she drew a picture and when she was done she came bouncing over to show me what she had made.  "Look mom.  I made this.  It says what it is on back."

Translation: It was a picture of a house having a fire. By Hannah Parmley

 

Oh man.....WHAT?!

Me:  "Ummm Hannah, this is a picture of a house having a fire?"

Hannah (proudly): "Yes"

Me:  "Why on earth is this house having a fire.  Fires are horrible and for a house to have a fire is a very bad thing.  Why is this house on fire?"

Hannah: " MOM!  The house is not ON fire.  It's having a fire. Like in the backyard.  Like we do at the lake. They are all happy there."

Me:  "Oh.  Well this is beautiful."

Whew

 

Easter #2

Hannah was the first to wake up this morning.
She was pretty excited to see if the Easter bunny would know that we moved and with a whole house full of new spots to hunt she couldn't sleep.
After the girls found their baskets it was time to make pancakes. 

 Next it was Easter with the Millers, Bauers, Gotchs, DeLisles and Hammonds.

Complete with pooches!

We had Easter potluck style which is the only way to do it these days.

Grandma went to church this morning so we let ourselves in early so that we could get the meal going.  Kristin, Bobby, Jennie and Tom have multiple parties to attend today so they requested to eat early.  We made our way outside for our usual family pictures and even got a great one of the guys- too bad Andy and Kari weren't here :-(

Schmidty and Reggie spent the day wrestling :-)

 When we got home the girls were desperate to play outside.
Poor things....they really need a driveway and a yard.

Easter #1

I so appreciate Brian's family being so willing to be flexible around the holidays.  His mom is always suggesting alternate days to celebrate which makes it so nice for both of our families so that the kids can actually enjoy their time with each side.

BFF selfies

The girls and I were home today due to Good Friday.  Tonight is Lindsay's birthday party and we needed to get her a present and run a few other errands so we were up, showered and ready to go pretty early.  It was a nice day out and we decided to call Maddie to see if she wanted to have a playdate.  I didn't tell the girls that we were going to pick her up so they were pretty freaked out when we pulled into her neighborhood.

 The girls were super good while we were shopping and after we picked up Lindsay's present we went to McDonald's for lunch.  There was an older couple next to us that took a liking to the girls.  After learning all about their grandchildren, and even seeing pictures, the gentleman pulled out a pocket full of change and gave each of the girls 30 cents for their piggy banks.

When we got to Target I was instructed to wait a second so that they could get a good selfie.

 

After Target the girls were treated to some FroYo at Cherry Berry.

We came home and played for a few hours until it was time to leave for Lindsay's party.

 

Her party was at the Schwann's Super Rink.

They brought pizza and cake, opened presents and then we got to skate on our own personal rink.

It was a super cool party idea and the girls had a blast!

First time on skates for both of them.

 

 After a while Hailey was done skating and Carter came over to her with a chair.  She enjoyed rides around the rink for the rest of the night.

On our way home Hailey was sitting in the backseat and said "Mom, that guy (pointing to Brian) took skating lessons.  Him can skate GOOD."

More snow

It's snowing again.

I am not happy.

Nobody is happy.

Well, maybe someone....

Grandpa Denny's Girlfriend

It's Easter this weekend so the girls and I were talking about our weekend plans.

Mom:  "This weekend we get to see all of your grandmas"

Hailey:  "We do?!  YAY!"

Mom:  "Yep.  Do you know how many grandma's you have?"

Hailey:  "Yes.  Free"

Mom:  "You are right.  Which ones are they?"
Hailey:  "There's grandma Chris, grandma Bauer and Grandpa Denny's girlfriend."

Dance Friends

Tonight Alicia, Landon and Caylee stopped over to see the house.

Caylee is Hailey and Hannah's friend from dance.  We had pizza and then made our way to class.

Hailey and Caylee are so darn cute together.  Caylee and her family moved to Otsego and next year won't be making the drive all the way to Champlin for the 30 minute dance class anymore.  Alicia also wants to expose Caylee to tap and studio life so they found a place closer to home.  Bummer for me since I love our Tuesday night chats but I know that we will see them again.

Thanks to Facebook and text messaging, it is so easy to stay in touch with people.

We sure will miss them but now we get to look forward to play dates that don't involve sitting on the hallway floor!

Dear Family, by Hannah

Dear Hailey,

She is 4.  She can wink.  I love Hailey.

Dear Amy,

She is 37.  She can give me kisses.  I love mom.

Dear Dad,

He is 38.  He can hug me.  I love dad's hugs.

I love my family.

Let's get ready to rummmmmble!

We all got together today at Grandma Bauer's to celebrate Bob's Birthday.

I think someone needs to start sitting in the middle of this couch. Haha

Bob sits on the left- always.  You come to grandma's and Bob is either on the couch watching TV or at the computer playing solitaire.  Usually it's the couch.  All the time.

Grandma sits on the farther end but she's constantly up and moving around that when she finally sits in her spot it usually puts her to sleep.

Reggie and Schmidty joined us today and for the first time I got to witness them play.....or wrestle.

Jennie was less than thrilled about the situation and I get it.  It's her baby.  It's hard to know with these two if they were having fun or whether they were annoyed by each other.  They would nip and tug at each other and if someone yelped, the other would back away.  Both of them kept going in for more so I would imagine that that means that they were playing.  

Poor Schmidty has no idea how big Reggie is going to get- in just a few short months Reggie will have poops bigger than Schmidty!  

 

This dog :-).  He just wants to be outside.

 

First Smoke of the season

Grandma and Grandpa Parmley are coming over for dinner tonight.  Brian has missed his smoker and it's suppose to be nice today so it is an absolute must that we have ribs.  I can't wait any longer.

Hannah ran to the store with me to pick up some groceries and she asked if she could sit in the cart.  A few minutes later my shopping buddy was out.

She slept through the whole trip and didn't wake until we made it back to the car.

 

After dinner grandma and the girls were playing Go Fish.  In the middle of the game Hailey just walked over behind Hannah and started to give her a massage.  "Here Hannah, does this feel good?"

Luckily she didn't leave grandma or me out :-)

 

Family Fun Night

Hannah stayed home from school today.  She was saying she just didn't feel right and although her temp seemed ok, she felt a little warm to the touch and looked run down.  We decided to let her hang out at home today and miss her first day of school.  She obviously needed a day to just chill because she pretty much layed around all day until after lunch when she decided to scrapbook a little.

 

She was feeling better once daddy and Hailey made it home so we went to Family Fun Night at her school.  It was like a carnival- games set up in the classrooms, bouncers in the gym, food and prizes.

Hannah even met up with the CPBA Husky

Made my day!

 

Jennie posted this picture on Instagram today.

It made me smile for the whole day.  Poor Reggie is NOT ready for the snow to be gone and the rest of us are ready to move because we are sick of it.

Apparently while out on a walk today, where you can see it was nice enough to shed the coat, he spotted this pile and it was on!  He made his way there, climbed to the top and started his protest.

MIssing Daddy

Brian left for Chicago today.  He's working on the Tilt project!

It's amazing to think that we had snow dumped on us just a few short days ago.  All of it is gone and we are back to a dirt yard and driveway....that's one thing that was nice about the snow, it covered up this mess.

 It was nice enough outside today to open the sunroof for a little while on the way to Jackie's and then Hailey suggested we send a picture to daddy.

 

We went out to eat and when we got home the neighbors, Noah (7) and Grace (4), were outside looking to play.  The girls ran over and made themselves at home.  They rode their bikes for a bit and spent some time just running up and down the sidewalk.  It was time for them to eat so they talked their dad into letting them eat on the front steps so they could stay with the girls.

When it was time to go to bed Hailey broke down.  She couldn't sleep because she missed daddy too much and even though we called him to say goodnight, she was daddy-sick.

We were sitting on her bed snuggling when she got up and walked into my bedroom, she came out holding one of Brian's sweatshirts and asked if she could sleep with it tonight. How sweet!