4th of July

Can't believe the 4th of July is past us already!!  Summer is flying by!  Once again, we spent the 4th of July at the Lake and my family came to spend the day with us.  It was a crazy-busy weekend, but super fun!

Thursday night we took a fun pontoon ride on the Lake.  The water was calm and the weather was beautiful!

On Friday,the 4th, we went to Nick's aunt and uncle's home on Lake Florida north of Willmar.  They had a family get-together and we got to see Nick's other aunt and uncle from Arizona. 

The kids in their red, white and blue - this is the best I could get all day!

 Julianne's fancy Star hair-do!

Friday night we headed back to the Lake and watched the fireworks over the Lake.  No need to go to a show - we have our own show right over our lake.  I wonder how much $$$ some of those people spend on fireworks!

Jules with her sparkler

Saturday the rest of my family came to spend the day.  We had a good day - took stroller rides, watched the kids play in the pool and the sprinkler, took a pontoon ride (aka - floating naps for all three kids!), ate like there was a famine coming, and had lots of fun!

Alissa and Henry 

 Mr. Will in his chair

A Jules and Mommy selfie! 

Life is better on the pontoon! 

The kids had fun on the trampoline!

Another 4th in the books!! 

Mudstock

We made our annual trip to Winstock again this year in mid-June.  It's our mini-vacation without the kiddos where we get to act like we are 20 again and be irresponsible!! So much fun!  Well, Friday was fun anyway - the weather was beautiful.  But Saturday was a mess. It rained almost all day.  The campgrounds were really muddy and most of the shows were cancelled because of lightning.  But it was a good time like usual - it's the one time a year we get to see so many of our friends!

My bestie - Megan! 

Ashley and Dan also made it to Winstock this year.  It was fun hanging out with them! 

This is what our campground looked like.  We had about 6 inches of water all around our camper on Sunday morning.  Trying to get out of there was not fun!  We got stuck twice and had to be pulled out. 

Note to self - don't wear flip-flops in the mud - bring rain boots next year!

Summertime fun

In June we spent the perfect summer day outside playing in the water!  

First we started off at home on the slip'n slide.  It was all fun and games until the mosquitoes drove us nuts and Julianne popped the slip'n slide!  

Jules wanted to "pose" for her picture 

Will jumped in the water before I could get his swim trunks on him. He's such a boy!!  

After naptime, we headed to the Gaylord pool and met grandma, grandpa, Alissa and Henry there.  It was so fun!!  That pool and Aquatic Center is amazing - worth the 40 minute drive.  Plus it's only 20 minutes from Grandma and Grandpa's house so we usually have a pit stop there!  I even ran into my college roommate Ann there.  It was fun seeing her family again!

Snack time 

Henry and Will having freezies! 

 They have a fun zero entry pool for the kids and have a small slide.  Just perfect for Jules to do by herself.  They also have two big water slides and she loved going down those too - unless Grandma doesn't hold her up high enough and she goes under the water!

Will had a ball trying to "catch" the water fountains!

Time to go - till next time!

Preschool Graduate

I know every says it, but I really can't believe Julianne has graduated from preschool and will be going to Kindergarten in the Fall - where has the time gone!  She finished up her 2nd year at King's Kids in Hutchinson last week.  They had a nice ceremony for the kids, including a processional and receiving their diploma and memory books.   I may be a little biased, but she did excellent in preschool and is definitely ready for big-kids school!  Now mommy just has to get over her fear of thinking about Julianne riding the big school bus by herself!

The processional - Jules is the shy one in the orange dress 

All the kids in both the MWF morning classes.  Kings Kids has a huge program - there are seven sections of kids!

Julianne up on stage 

Receiving her memory book and diploma from her teachers 

the graduate! 

 Jules with her amazing teachers - Mrs. Brenhaug and Mrs. Schmidt

The proud momma and papa! 

And the proud grandparents!

BRING ON KINDERGARTEN!

Happy Retirement Mom!

After many, many years of enriching the lives of our young (or not so young) my mom has retired from teaching.  She worked in the high school setting for a while, but spent the majority of her career at Ridgewater College in the Administrative Support area.  She started working part time for Ridgewater (or Hutchinson Technical College as it was known back then) in 1981, but became a full-time regular faculty member in 1987.  That's a LONG time to be teaching!!  Congrats mom on a well deserved retirement!!!  Now, what are you doing tomorrow - can you babysit?!?!?!

Mom receiving her gift from the Dean at Ridgewater during their retirement ceremony 

We surprised her at her ceremony - she knew I was coming, but didn't know Alissa and two of her friends were also coming!  So fun! 

Following there ceremony we went to Axel's in Chanhassen for a celebratory dinner - and cake! We surprised her again and a few more guests joined us for dinner.

At Axel's 

Mom with her biggest fans

The whole crew!

Big girls' day

The beginning of May, my mom, my sisters and I had a fun outing at a new trendy spot in Hutch -The Paint Factory. It's a group painting class - that serves cocktails!!!  It was so fun!  Our session was at 10 in the morning so we didn't take full advantage of the cocktail part, but I can only imaging what an afternoon session would be like!  I didn't have high hopes going into the day, but my painting actually turned out pretty decent and I may even hang on my wall!

Before we started -notice the nervousness in everyone's faces!!

Whew - step 1 done - paint the entire canvas black.  That wasn't so bad! 

 Now, for the harder parts... the flowers!  But it was actually easier than it looked.  The instructor was great and gave step-by-step instructions.  You could follow her or be creative and take your own spin on it.  All four of us followed the instructions exactly... 

Hard at work 

Ta-Da!!!  The finished product - yes, I actually painted this!  Not too shabby... 

All of us with our paintings.

Easter

Easter Fun - the Easter bunny arrived right on schedule and filled the kids' baskets plump full!!  

Will seems to be a little excited for something... 

My kids!

After we got home from church and brunch, the Easter bunny made another stop and hid some eggs!!!  So fun now that the kids are getting bigger and able to do some of these fun traditions.

Will checking out the goods in his eggs... 

Julianne with her eggs

 Patiently waiting to open the eggs

 And there they go!!! 

It was gorgeous out on Easter Sunday this year (go figure - check out my earlier post)!  We went to brunch with mom, dad and Grandma Edna and then had a relaxing afternoon at home.  A perfect way to spend Easter.