Track and Field Day 2017

Today is Track and Field Day!

I always love this day.  It's fun to watch the girls have fun with their friends.  It's typically the first nice day of the season that I get to spend the full day outside.  There are so many parents, grandparents, siblings, middle school and high school volunteers.  I love how the whole community seems to come together to support these kids.

They cheer each other on and encourage each other all day.

 

Hailey's class ate lunch first, in their classroom, so I took a break from the sun and joined them on the carpet.   After this we will head back outside for more events.

This year the 3rd grade classes took part in the tug of war event.  That was so fun to watch.  It was class against class.  They were all so into it and seemed to have so much fun.  It got real loud as each class would cheer for each other and once it was down to the last two classrooms, you could hardly hear yourself think because they were all cheering and yelling so loud.

 



One thing I have loved is that both Hannah and Hailey have friends from Kindergarten that they are still friends with.  Most of these girls they haven't had again in their class but that hasn't mattered at all.  They still all hang out at recess and I can always find them together on days like today.

Spring/Summer Box

 I love the way this Spring/Summer box turned out.  Succulents are in right now and they seem to be everywhere.  I really like how I will be able to keep this all summer.  It brings life to our table.

I Knew This Day Would Come- Hope It Doesn't Last

I don't really want to remember this day but I knew it was coming and eventually I was going to have to admit that it is true.

Tonight I called Hannah over to sit on my lap.  You can see in her face how excited she is about it.

She squirmed and fought to get down until I finally had no choice and put her out of her misery.

I hope this isn't the last time.

Candyland 2017

Today was Hailey's Spring Show for gymnastics.

She had fun this session and wants to sign up again.

She did great at her show.

It was so fun to see her have her own 'thing'. 

May Days

I love this sight.  We all arrived to practice at the same time and the girls ran ahead to beat me to the field.  I love these gorgeous days with blue skies on the field.

Crazy Hair Day

 

Today was crazy hair day at school.  Hannah did not disappoint!  I love that she is so confident that she has no problem showing up like this.  She did some research on Pinterest and found a way to use a water bottle to keep her hair to stand straight up. 

 It turned out so good and everyone at school loved it! 

Finishing Up

I have always felt like our living room is missing something.

When we were building the house making decisions, I was very clear about wanting things as clean and open as possible.  Then after time passed I realized how empty and 'unfinished' this space seemed.  I have been thinking of a way to have Brian build something for this area and we finally landed on a design.

First up a new mantel.  Time for something more chunky!

There are also cabinets going on each side. 

As always, it makes me nervous but I know that Brian will do such good work that I will fall in love with what we have come up with.

 

Momma's Day

Mother's Day started great with breakfast in bed.

Hailey had to answer some questions for her All About Mom paper.

I was feeling down about her answer and then when I asked her about it I was actually pretty happy she gave the answer she did- LOL

We spent the afternoon at Grandma's and also celebrated Kim and Kristin's Birthday.

In the afternoon I received a text from Lindsay that made me cry.

It meant so much to me to get this message from her. I love those girls and miss them so much.

Then this came across Facebook.

I really needed this today.  There are so many days that I spend worrying about all of the things I am not doing.  I constantly feel like I am not good enough or that I am not doing enough.

This gave me a mom-pass today. 

Oopie

I am making cupcakes for Kim and Kristin's Birthday celebration which will also be Mother's Day.

These Poop Emoji cupcakes turned out super cute.

Hannah's Guitar

Hannah's homemade instrument project is due today.
She was super proud of how it turned out and couldn't wait to bring it to school.
It turned out super cute!

This Might Be It

Today might have been the girls last dance recital.

Hannah got her 5 year trophy which she was very proud of.

They have both been talking that maybe after this year they would quit dance for a few years.  Hailey really wants to try gymnastics and Hannah has wanted to try Volleyball and keep her options open for other sports or clubs that may come up.

They haven't completely made their minds up yet but as of now they are informing me that I should not be buying their costumes for next year yet.

Not gonna lie, it's going to make me real sad if they choose not to dance.

I won't really miss watching everyone else's kids dance but I will miss the other dance moms, the friends that you make that you look forward to visiting with once per week while sitting on the cold floor in the hallway at the school.  I won't miss early class nights and hurrying up to eat dinner so that

we can leave the house.  I won't miss working around the dance, basketball, softball and now gymnastics practices.  And I won't miss watching the Vikings games from a cellphone while sitting on the school bleachers waiting to watch my own girls dance for 3 minutes.

But I will actually miss those 3 minutes of watching them.  They were both good.

They both were always smiling and knew what they should be doing.

I will miss watching their dances through the tears in my eyes.

Whatever they decide to do, it should be their decision.

I certainly don't want them to keep doing something just because I want them to do it.

 

Dude! Get out of here!

Tonight Hailey and I were hanging out on the front porch when she heard the Ice Cream man drive by.  Of course it was near dinner time so as soon as we heard the music I had to let her know it wasn't going to happen.  She was fine with it and we went back to hanging out.

Not sure if the Ice Cream man saw us sitting out there or if he just thought if he stayed on the street playing the music long enough that someone would finally cave in but Hailey had had enough.

Out of nowhere she turned and yelled at him "Dude!  Get out of here!"

A few minutes later a bunch of kids came running down the street with dollar bills in hand.  Not sure if his plan worked or someone informed him they'd be right out.  Either way, he got his customer.

Raking Day

Denny and Judy got me a carpet rake for my Birthday.

It's amazing how great this can make your tired carpet look.

Not upgrading our carpet is one of the biggest regrets I have from the building process.

Makes me so anxious to think of how expensive it will be to replace this all someday.

#Besties

Look familiar :-)

Tonight Hannah had Megan over for a sleepover.

Dinner with devices and making shirts with mom.

I love this machine.  I may never leave the house again!!!

 

I miss being creative. I miss having craft projects and I miss scrapbooking!

One of these days I need to get back at it.

Whenever I look at pictures of pages I have recently made it gets me in the mood to scrap.

I have so many good pictures just sitting and waiting to be turned into something great.

One of these days....

BFF

Tonight Chloe is sleeping over.

Judy borrowed me her Cricut machine to work on the visors and I had so much fun with it that the girls and I decided to make some t-shirts. 

The possibilities with this machine are endless!!

Exceeds

The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA) are the state tests that help districts measure student progress toward Minnesota’s academic standards.

We got the results from the end of this year and couldn't be more proud of Hannah's Math scores. 

Team Steel

This year for softball we got the girls visors with their jerseys.

I decided to bling ours out with the team name.  They turned out pretty cute :-)

Guitar Center

Hannah has a school assignment to make a homemade instrument.

She had worked on a design and asked Brian if he would help her in the garage.  She wanted to build a guitar.  I think it's pretty special that she thinks that there are no limits in daddy's workshop.  And for good reason too because within the hour, she had a working guitar!

Almost Everyone Is Welcome

I will never get sick of this view.  A driveway full of bikes and a sign that the kids are playing with friends.  Although it can get exhausting sometimes having a house full of kids, I love that we are in a situation to be exhausted.  I couldn't imagine how different life would be if our girls didn't have friends.  I often wonder how different life would be if we were still in our old house in our old neighborhood without access to a block full of kids.  

Not sure what happened here- lol

Thankfully I was still allowed in so I could tuck her in and kiss her goodnight.

Baby Names

Hannah is so excited for another cousin this summer.  I have been finding post it notes around the house with lists of names that she has put together to help Kimmy out.

Funny how this also resembles a class list :-)

Although Clementine and Violet, those gotta be originals.

Jalapeno Popper Wontons

My newest favorite appetizer found on Pinterest

Jalapeno Popper Wontons

12 Wonton wrappers

4 oz cream cheese

1/2  cup sour cream

12 oz bacon- cooked and crumbled

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

3-4 jalapenos seeded and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray muffin pan with cooking spray

Place one wonton wrapper in each muffin cup

Bake 8 min

Mix ingredients, once the wonton cups have baked for 8 min, take out of the oven, fill with the mixture and then return to the oven for an additional 8-10 minutes

Chocolate Bunny

Hannah brought this home from school today.  It's a bunny that is chocolate scented.  She got it from a boy, Micah, at school.  So adorable!  She however was not impressed with the situation. 

Hopefully she didn't give those feelings away when he gave it to her.  I hope when these little boys at school do these sweet things for them that they act as though they appreciate the gesture.  I hope they don't hurt their feelings or say something mean.  They always tell me they are nice about it but I hope that's true.