Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Leading Up To Summer

Leading up to summer has been busy around here.  Lots of birthdays, end of year parties, 
concerts ect.
We are in the last week of school now and the kids are excited for summer break.  I am too, but then I am often reminded of how much fighting there will be during break.  Ha!
We made our summer list last week. 
 I am not looking to pack our days full of just doing stuff, but it is nice to have a list of inspirations of things to do.  Hannah will also be going on her first overnight camp.  I am not sure that I am ready for it, but she really wanted to go.

Hannah had a bridging ceremony at Girls Scouts for the girls in her troop bridging up from Daisy to Brownie and she got to help with the ceremony.  I have enjoyed being the co-leader for this troop.  We have a great group of girls!
I am looking forward to another great Girls Scout year next year.  I think we are finally finding our groove.

Hannah also got to be music teacher for a day.  We won this Gift of Time at a school auction.  She had a blast and wearing the lanyard was her favorite part.  She felt so official.

Dressing up is still a favorite around here.  I can't believe how much Evan and Nora look alike.
Evan
He is not going to like me one day for these pictures.

Nora

We were playing treasure hunt the other day and I was looking fir the treasure.  Evan was telling me hot and cold and I realized that he was telling me the opposite.I explained to him that you say hot when you get closer and cold when you get farther away.  He said "But mom hot will burn you, why would you want to get close to it".  I love the logic of little kids.  
Evan and I played a round of Sequence yesterday and he was dealing the cards.  After I sat down he showed me his cards and said "you won't believe what cards I got".  He only had the three best cards of the game.......pretty sure that was no coincidence.
Nora was eating ribs for the first time and she loved eating it off the bone.  My dad would have been happy to see that!

Nora has been calling me "Miss Mommy" and now she started calling Scott "Miss Daddy".  It is pretty funny.  We tell her that we are Mommy and Daddy to her, but she hasn't stopped yet.

She also says "I love you too much" instead of "I love you so much"

Evan wanted to make cake pops again, so Scott suggested watermelon cake pops.  Here is our attempt.
Strawberry cake with chocolate chips
Green chocolate coating
Then we used a food pen to draw the lines
And the first taste test....
I like this family picture from Amy's wedding
Our pool is open, so bring it on summer.






Thursday, May 18, 2017

The Big 4-0

Well, I am still here to write about turning the big 4-0.  I had been dreading turning 40 for some time.  It just sounds so old, but I am here to tell you that it didn't hurt and that nothing has changed.  I don't know why I let a number get to me, so I have changed my attitude and I am going to embrace it.  I am just going to believe that I don't look like I am 40 and that I am in the best phase of my life.  I am healthy, happy and have a wonderful family.  I think having a big milestone birthday and not having my dad here to witness it and tell me how proud he is of me is part of the reason that I was struggling with this birthday so much.  He was always my biggest fan and may have not always told me how proud he was, but I still knew it.  I miss him dearly.  

Evan had been so excited about my birthday for weeks and wanted to make a chart.  He has countdowns going on for everything.  He had a countdown to easter, a countdown to Bryan and Emily's wedding, a countdown to my birthday and a countdown to the last day of school!  I love how at his age timeframes don't mean anything to him yet.  He will use days, weeks, months and years timeframes without having any idea what it really means.

Evan asked Scott to wake him up early on my birthday, so he can get me up and show me my birthday table.  We have a tradition of everybody in the family getting a birthday table with presents, candles and flowers or balloons (I always set up the kids tables the night before).

Evan still has a love for wrapping things.  These were packages from my mom and brother and he decided to wrap the entire package again.

We didn't open my gifts until the afternoon, so poor Evan had been looking at this table all day and was very excited to open presents.  I had lots of helpers.
Since I wasn't too thrilled about my birthday I didn't want to have a party, but last minute we decided to get some friends together on Saturday for a little pub crawl.  I didn't even want people to know that I was turning 40.  So silly, I know. 

We started at 4pm, so that we can be home by 10pm.  Haha!  See, I told you 40 is old:)

We started at my favorite patio in town, the wine bar and made our way to several other bars/restaurants.  We had a great time!
My friends put together a fabulous gift!  
This book is so much fun and I love it.  So many memories.  I have known these girls for over 10 years now and I love to see how our lives have changed and our families have grown.  It is so nice to have a steady group of friends that you can count on and are always up for a good time.  
I loved seeing some pictures of my dad in the book.  He always loved hanging out with my friends near and far and was always joking around with everybody despite language barriers.

Hannah has loved going through this book as well, but some of the earlier pictures have raised lots of questions from her :)

Well, here is to being 40 and enjoying life.

Friday, May 12, 2017

Well Hello There

It's been a while since I have updated the good ole blog.  May has been busy and the next few weeks will be even busier.  We are counting down the last days of school (11 days left for Hannah) and are excited for summer.  
So, what have we been up to since the last time I wrote on here?
Scott and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary in Vegas.  Yes, we had a little getaway and spent some needed adult time in Vegas.  I had not been in probably 6 years and was ready to go again.  We had a great trip and now I probably don't need to go to Vegas again for 6 years.
I did not take many pictures, so I guess what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas:)

We enjoyed some great food, walked around a lot, lost and made some money gambling, saw Cirque de Soleil "One" and relaxed by the pool.  My favorite part was the show.  It was fantastic.  


We stayed at the Wynn and had a great view


We took a few pictures in front of things that we thought the kids would like:)

It was time to go home on Sunday, but Allegiant had different plans for us and we had to stay an extra night and then fly into Branson the next morning.  I was not happy at first, but then we made the best out of it and switched hotels to the Mandalay Bay and enjoyed another day at the pool.
The view from the top of the Delano is awesome.






Well I guess we had more pictures than I thought.

We had a rainy weekend a few weeks ago and the kids were getting a little bored, so we decided to play movie theater.  We made tickets and set up a concession stand and then watched a movie together.  The kids had a lot of fun with that.




These two started to wear sunglasses.  Evan is wearing mine in this picture, but we got him a pair of aviators in Vegas and he looks pretty cool when wearing them.


Nora was reading to her baby



Last weekend we went to Scott's cousins Bryan's wedding in Independence, KS.  We had such a good time seeing family and celebrating the Bryan and Emily.

Evan in his new shades heading to the rehearsal dinner.
Looking pretty spiffy



The next morning Scott took Evan down to the pond to fish.  Well, he got a little muddy and lost his shoes in the mud.  We had to strip him naked and hose him down and then he had to ride to the hotel naked to get some new clothes.


He cleaned up pretty well for the wedding.
Hannah was a flower girl and Evan was a ring bearer.   They took their job pretty serious.








The reception was at a beautiful barn and everybody had a great time.

Evan had a blast at the reception with his older cousins


Meanwhile Nora was playing in the cow's water

Hannah was dancing up a storm.  I do not know where that girl gets her dance moves from.  She has rhythm and some very interesting moves.  People were watching her and probably wondering who her mother is :)

Yesterday I got to go to Mother's Day Tea at Evan's preschool and it was so cute!  The kids escorted us to our seats, we got a paper flower corsage, we had a muffin and juice and the kids performed a few songs. We love Evan's school and his teachers!





And of course the "All about mom" sheet.....always a favorite!!!!!