Noone Had Homework, Right?

I have to blame myself.   I should really do a better job of checking if the kids have homework when I get home from work.  The trouble is that from the moment I get home it's a flurry of activity.  I walk in and typically dinner is in the works, after dinner there is usually dance or some other activity, if not then it's bath night or the time is spent cleaning up the house or the occasional snuggle night.

I put too much trust in the girls to just do their homework if they have some.

I think about it in the morning and usually it's right when we are walking out of the door.

9 times of 10 I am lucky and both girls inform me that they have completed their homework.

Today was a different story.  I asked "Noone had homework, right?!"  Hannah's eyes got wide.  'I do."

You can't hear but I am tapping my foot waiting for her to finish so we can leave. 

Tonight Molly and I are going to see Andy Grammer and Gavin Degraw at Mystic Lake.

Kay and Mike are meeting us there.  As always the show was awesome!

Sort of Right

Cleaning out Hailey's backpack and I came across this homework sheet.

I had to laugh because this is so Hailey.  She does not believe in doing extra work if she doesn't have to.  Instead of drawing out the problem she did the easy (smarter) thing by telling you how many of each coin you would need to total up to the number of the day.  Pretty clever thinking for a first grader if you ask me!

Play Dates

The girls have officially entered the age of Play Dates and Sleepovers.  Today Hailey's BFF Chloe came over and brought her bike so they could explore the neighborhood.  The new bike is working out very well!  It fits her well and will last her for a long time.  

7

 Happy 7th Birthday Hailey!

She seriously had no idea that this was here in the living room.  I set it up last night.  This morning she came running down and went straight to the counter.  She sat and enjoyed her Birthday donut having no clue that there was a surprise back there for her.

Eventually I had asked her if she would run over and turn off the living room light.  That finally did it!  She was beyond excited to see a 'big girl' bike there waiting for her.

Fashion Forward

There is no way that we were dressing this cute when we were in 1st and 3rd grade.

Converse are the 'thing' these days.  They probably never actually went out of style but recently you can buy them everywhere.  All sorts of colors and patterns.

Happy Combo Party Day!

Even though the girls have decided that from now one they are having separate parties, we still combine their family party (and always will).  Everyone came out today to celebrate.

There's No Place Like Gnome

Lacey and Alex were married today.

They had their wedding and reception at their house in the yard.  

The weather was perfect, the decorations, food, music, outdoor bar, photo booth- can't say enough about what a fantastic job she did!

Pinterest in Real Life

One day I had shown Brian a picture on Pinterest of a centerpiece box.  Within 20 minutes he had three of them made.  One for me, Katie and Kami.  The ladies came over and we each stained ours to our liking and it was finally time to fill it!  

Love for the PC

Hailey:  "Mom, like my bracelet?  It says I love the PC."

Gimme

 

 Baby Britta is quite the celebrity around here. The kids absolutely adore her!

She sleeps like a champ so is usually napping or already in bed by the time we all get together.

This tiny little thing LOVES to eat.  I have never seen a little one get so excited about getting food and she will eat anything!  Today she was crawling around and as I snuck off to get her a snack I turned to see she was right behind me.  I am not even sure she could see in that container to even know what I was going to offer her but whatever it was, she wanted it!

The Golden Girl

Today is Hannah's Golden Birthday!  It started with gold balloons hanging from her doorway and a gold (butterfinger) donut.  After school tonight we will start picking up her friends and we will be off for her hotel Birthday party.

We arrived to the hotel around 5:30.  When the girls walked in they were in awe of this place and so excited for their night!  Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown St Paul is one of my favorite hotels.  My childhood best friend, Vickey Novak, would have her birthday party here every year.  I have had so many fun nights and memories here.  When Hannah and I were talking about ideas for her party I mentioned to Hannah how fun those hotel parties used to be and right away she was interested.  

She wanted to go to the same hotel and do some of the same things.  

 Elevator tag, happy hour, movies, swimming, breakfast in the 'outside/inside' and lots of laughs.

We ordered pizza and made our way to the hotel happy hour for a few snacks and sodas.  While we were finishing up we saw a pizza guy get into the other banks of elevators and the race was on.  The girls were so freaked out that he would try to deliver the pizza and we wouldn't be there.  Luckily his elevator stopped a few times and we were unlocking the door as he approached.
We ate dinner and opened presents and then the girls needed to go swimming.

Hannah and Sam met in Kindergarten.  They have been friends ever since.  They go to Adventures Plus together but haven't been in the same class again since Kindergarten.

Hannah and Mira became good friends last year while in Mrs Dau's class together.  They are also in Adventures Plus together and do not have the same teacher this year.

Sara moved this summer and now goes to school in Maple Grove.  When Hannah was planning her party there was no question that she wanted Sara there.  Even though they hadn't talked since she left at the end of the school year.  I love how kids want to keep those friendships and connections.  And I love even more how Sara was picked up and all of the girls treated her like they had just seen her at school that day.  

Kaitlyn and Hannah have started to become pretty close.  Kaitlyn has two other sisters (one Hailey's age, Becca) and all 5 girls are friends.  Kaitlyn is also at Adventures Plus.  

After swimming we went back to the room where the girls had cake, made cards with some scrapbooking stuff I brought and played a little elevator tag.  I let them go out into the hallways alone to explore.  That's the beauty of glass elevators and a view to the hallways :-)  

I watched them the whole time but they didn't know that. 

One thing that I always thought was so cool at the hotel was that there were two 'rooms' in the hotel.  The living room area with the pull out couch and the bedroom- separated by a door.

The girls also thought this was pretty cool that they had their own 'place'.

They sat around giggling and watching TV until they finally crashed.

We had breakfast at the hotel and then proceeded to do some more swimming before it was finally time to checkout.  On the way out the guy at the front desk, who happened to be the same guy that checked us in, asked the girls how their night was.  He then took them over to the hotel store and let them pick out anything they wanted.  What a GREAT way to top off their fun time!

(thankfully each of the girls picked a straight up Hershey chocolate bar and not an ice cream bar)

Party Prep

Hannah turns 9 this week.  It is her golden Birthday and we have been hearing about it for MONTHS.

No joke.

Since before school was out she has been asking how many months away it is.  Did I send the invites for the hotel party yet?  Did anyone's mom let me know that their daughter can come?  Wait, did we even decide for sure who to invite?  When are we leaving?  Where is the hotel?  How long will it take to get there?  What are we going to eat?  Is there a pool?

Well, thankfully for all of us, it is almost time.

1st and 3rd

Back to school time!

Today Hannah starts 3rd grade and Hailey will start 1st grade

Hannah's teach will be Mr Intihar and Hailey will have Mrs. Dahl.

They are both very excited to get started and see what this year has to offer!

They will go to before and after school care at Adventures Plus again and thankfully they have so many friends there, they are both excited to go.

Both girls are still most interested in becoming a teacher someday.  I think that says a lot about the exposure they have had at school.

Hoping for another great year with lots of learning.

Meet The Door

It's done and it is beautiful!

The glass is still yet to come so we aren't 100% complete yet but I absolutely love it.

Today is one of the last days before school starts.
 The kids took full advantage and played outside all day.

Yay for weekends!

Not fair.  Snapchat has an app that can do makeup better than I can!

I wish I could do my makeup like this. Not for everyday but at least for fun events. 

Ugh- I am so not a girl.

This weekend we brought Courtney with us to the cabin.  We really should be doing this more often.

The girls were super excited to have her join us!

This Is It

Tonight we all went to grandma's to say goodbye to Kari and family.

This picture of Grandma above is classic.  It also reminds me of Grandma Alice.  I remember when we were little that Grandma Alice would fall asleep anywhere.  Don't get me wrong, I fall asleep on the couch.  Most of us do.  I could probably fall asleep right now if I really wanted to- LOL.

At least we remembered to take one last picture.