Saturday, June 29, 2019

Family Reunion

We spent a weekend in the Dells for a reunion with my extended family. Some I haven't seen since I was little. Some I didn't even recognize or remember their names. Yep, we have a large family and they are spread all the over the US. It's hard to get everyone together, but my cousins organized it all and we had a great turnout.

The place we stayed was straight out of the 80's. I expected to see a picture of Chevy Chase or Dan Akroyd and John Candy on the wall or something! It was like the Great Outdoors meets Vacation! ;) But, it was a fun weekend and the weather turned out great. The girls got lots of swimming and beach time in.

Enjoying dinner at Moosejaw

With cousin Nolan

Snack time at the beach

Getting ready to kayak on the lake

Kayaking with Daddy

Finding seashells on the beach


Avery's turn to kayak


Making sand castles on the beach

Playing in the lake








Happy Birthday to Mama


All this fun is exhausting

S'mores by the bonfire






Helping the entertainment with Old McDonald's Farm




Group photo

The kiddos

Stop off at McDonald's on the way home

Crashed out after a fun weekend


Thursday, June 27, 2019

Daddy's helpers

I came downstairs late one night to grab some water and stepped in a huge puddle! Turns out our dishwasher was leaking. Matt and his helpers took a look to see if they could figure out what the problem was. Unfortunately, it's a bigger problem than these three can tackle. We are waiting on a part and will be without a dishwasher for over a week. Ugh.


It's not your birthday!

The girls got to pick out cupcakes at Mariano's for dessert and Morgan picked the "birthday" cupcake that came with a candle in it. When we got home and ready to eat them, she insisted we light the candle and sing Happy Birthday to her. Ha! Even funnier was that she didn't get it blown out the first try... she cracked up at that!






Summer Camp

We have a lot of camps set up for this summer. I wasn't sure what the girls would like to do best, so I just signed the girls up for a variety of different camps. We shall see what their favorites are at the end of summer!

 First day of summer camp at the YMCA

First day of animal adventure camp at the Double J Horse Ranch
At the animal adventure camp, each day was a different animal theme. One day was all about goats and they made treats for a goat. Then there was chicken day, and the girls said they had to clean out the chicken coop and it was gross. Ha! Here they are feeding a tortoise.


The girls also did an adventure camp through the park district. They got to go to Medieval Times for lunch one day and to the Sea Lion Aquatic Park for a field trip another day. They really liked all the field trips! This was the hottest week yet this summer and they spent the whole day outside. I'm pretty sure Morgan had fun... she was so sweaty, dirty and tired when I picked her up each day!




After a particularly hot day, we walked up to 7-11 and got push pops for a cold treat!




And just like that, Kindergarten is over

We had a few extra days of school due to all the cold weather and snow days we had during the year. So, it seemed like the end of the school year dragged on. But, in general, kindergarten went by fast!

The girls really enjoyed kindergarten and loved their teacher, Miss Boehm. It's been interesting seeing how they learned and grew over the year. They are looking forward to being first graders at the end of summer. :)

Morgan started out the school year with not a lot of interest in paying attention and sitting still, which was really no surprise to me at all. She is very active and likes to be playing more than sitting if given a choice. Unfortunately, you don't always get a choice in kindergarten. Her favorite subjects in school are recess and Free Choice time. And also no surprise, she knows everyone at school from the teachers to the kids to the janitor. She's always saying hi and addressing people by their names. I ask her how she knows that person and she says "I just do". On one of the last days of school, a 6th grade boy said hi to her and gave her a hug. After we walked by him, she says to me "that's Ethan,  I'm going to marry him". Ha! She's the kind of kid that has lots of different friends and will play with whoever wants to do the same thing she wants to do at the time. She and Avery have some of the same friends, but generally do not play together at school. I think they get enough of each other at home!

Avery is very studious and pays attention and does her work and rarely gets in trouble. She likes to be the best and is competitive. When school started, I was worried she'd be shy and reserved. But, during our first parent-teacher conferences, the teacher told us Avery was not like that at school. And throughout the year, Avery's confidence grew and you could tell how much more outgoing she was becoming. She seems to have a group of friends that she plays with regularly. She even had an admirer, a boy in her class whose Mom told me that he wanted to marry Avery. Ha! Who knew the girls would find love in kindergarten! ;) Avery is great at telling me all the details of her school day. She tells us about her schoolwork, her friends, who she sat by at lunch, etc.

The girls are definitely each their own person with very different personalities. It was good to have them in the same class for kindergarten with this being our first year and figuring everything out. But, I do think the girls would do well with some independence and being in separate classes for 1st grade. I actually asked them each what they thought of being split up and they had no problems with it. I think in general, the school likes to split up twins unless they are really dependent on each other and it would be bad to do so. I don't see that as a problem with our girls. :)












After school on the last day, there was a party outside with glitter tattoos, balloon animals, etc. Then, we took the girls out for lunch to Steak-n-Shake to kick-off the summer!