Of course I cannot resist sharing the very first holiday I have EVER spent girls only! I think we did a rather good job making memories and friends to remember. We were invited to a family and friends bbq by the mother of the bride from the wedding in June (her daughters are Renee – Chris’s wife and Karen – Cory’s new bride). Renee was a total sweetheart and though she had to miss it for a family reunion (Chris’ side) she helped coordinate our ride – Cory picked us up after work and drove the van so I didn’t have to show my ineptitude at moving Echo’s carseat to a new vehicle! YAY!

But first… Ken had slept the night here with his evening appointments and left in the morning… AFTER helping fill the pool with air and taking out the garbage of course! While he was doing that and collecting any last minute necessities of course we had to bring out the American flag garland and our thematically perfect red, white and blue paperchain for some very adorable July 4th pictures. Sadly you cannot see in the picture but I am also wearing a USA themed tank top I picked up at Walmart (oops…).

After the pictures it was time for the first of our special treats – ding-dongs.

We did a quick with Daddy photo before hugs and good byes and then the fun REALLY began!

All girls all day… so we… made sticker pictures with July 4th ants picnic stickers…

Watched the original My Little Pony videos (and then moved onto MOST of Mastermind the movie)…

We ALL coloured pictures… I got them through a subscription to the site Little Learning Lovies (here) as a freebie for subscribing.

Then after lunch in the sunroom of buns and apple slices we did a wee bit of our mail schoolwork… Trinity is determined to learn to tell time to receive the reward Gammie has promised her and Echo likes nothing better than doing her worksheets.

Around 3:30 Cory collected us and the van and it was time to head to the party.

We got there at the perfect time. The family we met at the groom’s dinner who have 3 girls right around our’s ages were in the pool with their mom so the girls got changed too and hopped in to play.

There was a playset to play on…

A hill to dare devil drive down (which they ALL did successfully)…

And a delicious picnic dinner that included fruit and various salads and AMAZING chicken drumsticks all topped off with chocolate cake. Trinity cleaned her plate perfectly I was so proud!

After dinner was s’mores… Echo let me have a few bites of hers. More visiting… and then…

Cory

SPARKLERS AND FIREWORKS!

Cory and Echo hanging out together

Karen

A new little girl – Chloe

This is Trinity with a sparkler and the camera set on Fireworks!

We did not make it home until almost 11 o’clock. We had an amazing day, met tons of new people and played and ran and honestly had our best 4th of July yet (ok it IS our second but it was grand!).

May 24-29

I have to say we have learned from our winter… get those kids OUTSIDE!!!

And on Sunday we joined Matt, Fran and their twins at a local park to have a full on BBQ…

Park…

Lake…

S’mores…

(and dinner)…

We had it all!

And on the Monday we were back to Geocaching… we have had some amazing journal entries regarding our experience with some VERY creative hiding ideas.

We had a lovely print out for a scavenger hunt (HERE) to have the kids looking everywhere for their nature objects.

And a break with snacks and park fun while the twins and Ken hunted that last cache.

Tuesday was much more our work work work on the schoolwork day! We had a rather interesting experience learning about Legends and Pecos Bill. We are working on understanding the difference between true factual stories and what a legend really is. The kids just keep quoting back at me – EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS and then giggling.

We got back into our classic Treasure Island. I am not sure which book we will read next. BUT we are working on a plan to get us storytime every day.

We are working through our dinosaurs that were in our Texas book… of course links to all of this will be in the Texas resource page (eventually).

And then right back out to burn off the energy… so much discussion of spring, teaching of siblings on the outside toys… so much fun!

On Wednesday I changed it up. Before the mosquitoes can take hold we drug the whole classroom outside to enjoy our grassy backyard. Once we found an ant free spot that is!

Great fun and we didn’t get too badly eaten up.

We fulfilled another additional Scout thing by driving down to a local small airport and checking out the planes. The kids all took turns spotting planes and talking about the different kinds. Family favourite is the seaplane. Though everyone was quite put out they land in LAKES not SEAS.

From there it was on to a park for a Geocache and play about in the sun.

Goofs!

Add in some Texas themed story writing and I think we succeeded with an interesting mid week.

Thursday was another special outside day. Echo had a preschool assessment to go to at our church so she and Ken dropped us off half way with some schoolwork.

A snack…

and a park! It was just really too bad that her session was delayed, we were there over 2 hours in the end and rather warm and cranky. BUT we met some wonderful little kids with their dads and enjoyed a perfect spring day.

Miss Echo did wonderfully with her assessment though they did reinforce that we should get her hearing tested to rule out anything extra in regards to her lisp (not total word forming… lazy girl!) which of course we already had scheduled for later in June.

Spring has sprung and so have we… out into the sunshine!

With super high water levels EVERYWHERE

Can you spot the neighbourhood white squirrel?

May 25-26

This is our first Memorial Day weekend here in Minnesota and it was certainly not the best of weather for it. Rain, overcast and cool… not exactly proper picnic weather. That did NOT change my Saturday plans… an afternoon/evening with the lovely Lily and her mommy Bree. But first, it was time to initiate Daddy on the morning walk… all 7 of us out to enjoy the local path.

Walking the girls

Our babies

Once Bree made it all the way to our place with baby in tow to collect me she had been lost a bit and the kids here had lunch. So before we changed and fed the baby there were introductions to be made!

Babyyyyy

Friends already

We said good bye to the family and headed out to do a little baby store shopping… Then off to a rather fancy dinner at a Cafe that does a completely different set up in the evenings from their informal lunch. It was delicious, a great price and HUGE!

That is a full soft shelled crab for Bree

…and once you removed the spinach, an absolutely delicious pork sandwich for me.

Miss Lily sat well through the whole thing for us in her carseat!

Awwww

With full tummies we headed back to Bree’s to sort us out and then walk for a while. They have the most amazing little free library at the end of the block… we had to go look at it, next visit I am definitely going to bring one of our double books to donate!

Little library

Poor Lily always seems to have a bath when I visit! This time in the tub.

Not pleased…

But forgiven in no time

A leisurely evening later and it was time to head back to reality. At least Ken had the kids asleep before he came and picked me up!!!

Me and my Lily bean

hmmmmm

Look at that strong neck!!!

Oh, and did I mention we stopped at Dairy Queen?? Walking distance AND a Nerds Blizzard!!!

Blizzards!

Riding in style

Ken even found some time while I was gone to put together Emanuel’s Big Wheel!

Insane jealousy back there!

Sunday was a family outing day – we were supposed to go out to a lake (there are so many nearby) and have a picnic but… it simply was not to be. So instead we took our chocolate rice krispie squares and headed over to their place for visiting and BBQ.

Minecraft

Anthony teaching Zander how to tie a knot he learned in Scouts

Lots of fun for the kids and lots of relaxation for us! Perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday! And the food was good too!

Men at work

Supper!

Quite the wonderful long weekend so far!!

Lovely relaxing time

Snoopy!