cha, cha, cha, changes!

Avery has asked to "chop" her hair for the past 6 months or so.  I told her that as soon as dance was done we would be able to do just that.  Our recitals were last weekend, so come Monday we were geared up and ready for the chop.  She told the stylist exactly what she wanted and she cut off 11 inches!!!  I was shocked at how short she wanted it to be, but she was all smiles and so ready to show off her new do.  We had to get a pink hair extension of course because they are "really cool Mom!"  I guess she follows in my footsteps in the change department.  I love change.  I love getting funky hair do's, going from brunette to blond back to brunette again.  Cutting my hair, growing it out, chopping it all off.  I really enjoy trying  new things.  Perhaps that is why she decided to get the chop...or maybe it had more to do with the fact that "all of the girls in my class have short hair Mom, except for a few..."  In any event, she did it and I think that she looks adorable.

The other really exciting change that is coming is that we finally have our first loose tooth(bottom right middle for those of you who cannot tell from the picture)!  If anyone knows Avery, you will understand that this tooth will not be loose for very long.  This child is bound and determined to get 'er done.  She has been wiggling this thing for hours and I will not be surprised if it is pulled out by tomorrow.  The kid simply will not stop once she has started something.  I get generally skeeved out by all things teeth related...cue cringe as I think about Bennett grinding his teeth, Avery wiggling hers or me accidentally gnashing my teeth together while chewing gum...SKEEVED OUT!  I am wondering what type of goods the tooth fairy is giving out these days as I ought to be prepared.  Any suggestions Fairy Mother's/Father's out there???

catching up

 The past month has been a whirlwind of craziness that I cannot even begin to explain.  Lets just say that I have barely held on and after this weekend(Sister in Law's Wedding) I will breathe a huge sigh of relief.  In an attempt to catch up on what we have been doing that has kept us so busy, I started going through some pictures.  Sometime toward the beginning of the month, I met my girlfriend Gretchen and her kids at our favorite outdoor park in Bloomington.  The kids always have so much fun at Chutes and Ladders and it is very nicely set up so that adults can sit on a bench and still have an eye on the kiddo's.  Bennett has a love for climbing and this park has plenty of places to do just that.  I was able to capture him for a split second before he jetted up the ropes to come down the shiny silver slide.

 Wheeeee!!!

I took a picture similar to this one last year.  The kids adore the tire swing and I like making traditions so I vow to take a photo just like this one each May from here on out.

Bria's face totally cracks me up in this picture.  Can you tell that they are having fun?

A girl I used to babysit for from my old neighborhood got married.  The really neat thing about her wedding was that it was held at the same church and the same reception hall as mine was.  It was very neat to relive my wedding, only this time enjoy it as a guest rather than a participant.  It turned out to be a lovely day and the bride was gorgeous.

Erin's mom Patty did such an amazing job on all of the little details that  many people overlook in a wedding.  They even had a kids fun basket full of coloring crayons, coloring books, little toys like bubbles, cars and rings.  The kids were in seventh heaven over the goodies, the wedding girl and the dancing.  At one point when they were going to do the bouquet toss, the song "Single Ladies" by Beyonce came on and Bria stood up on her chair with this look of complete exasperation and exclaimed, Oh my MG! (her version of OMG).  She loves that song and immediately ran to the dance floor because of course she is a single lady!

This brings us to our very last day of Preschool.  We had to say goodbye to all of the wonderful friends that we have made this year.  I am so thankful that I decided to sign up at Bluff Creek for our preschool because it was there that I met so many wonderful women that I am proud to call my friends.  They all have wonderful children who my children adore and I foresee many a play date this summer.

 Tyler, Avery and Breezy

 Breezy and Avery

 The boys!  Tyler, Bennett and Will.

 Madelyn, Avery, Breezy.  These girls were great at posing!

 The girls with the wonderful Miss Lori.  This was her last year teaching as she is moving to the country.  She will definitely be missed.

 Bennett with Miss Anita.  Anita is THE reason that I chose this location for preschool.  She is so warm and welcoming that I immediately felt at ease and knew that my kids would be well looked after and cared for.  It was her final year teaching as she is retiring.  Many parents in our district will definitely feel the loss of such a wonderful preschool provider.  She was fabulous with the kids and I am so glad that we had the opportunity to spend a year with her.

Avery attended after school Soccer this month.  She had asked me previously to be in soccer and it was always an afterthought as we have three kids and Avery is already in dance which takes up a lot of our time.  But, because it was immediately after school I figured we could let her try it out.

 She had so much fun and she kept asking me when she gets to play "real" soccer.  We had to have the one sport talk since we are over scheduled enough in our family and two activities for each child is just not possible.  She liked soccer, but she loves dance....for now!

My cousin Kelly will be getting married to Andrew in July.  We had their wedding shower to attend.  We were supposed to be in Mille Lacs camping for Memorial Weekend, but the weather scared us all off and we decided to postpone the trip until later on this summer.  It was my first time meeting Andrew.  He is an exceptional guy and I am so happy for my darling cousin who deserves the world!

 My mom hosted the party and one of the games was using tulle and various other materials to create the best wedding dress.  We got into three teams and we had to dress our models!  The kids had so much fun, but Bennett was not having that costume for very long.

 Memorial Day was spent at my Grandparents house having a picnic.  It was such a beautiful day out and the family had so much fun visiting and hanging out all day long. 

 Four generations: My Grandma, Mom, Me and my girls.

 Connor and Avery.  She loves to hold him and would do it all day long if we would let her. 

I volunteered to chaperon a field trip with Avery's Kindergarten class to the Arboretum.  I had four girls(including my own)and boy did we have a memorable time :)  One of the girls wanted to off road it a bit and halfway down the path in the boggy area I realized that we were going to have to tread through some mucky ground.  I asked the girls if we should turn around or keep going and I got 4 "Keep Going's!"  Big mistake.  My sandal got stuck in the mud and when I pulled it out, my entire backside got coated in mud.  Avery lost her shoe in the mud, Brynna had mud up her back and the other two had very muddy tennis shoes.  I had to haul them all to the bathroom and wash us all off in the sink.  One of the girls started sobbing because her mother was going to be so upset that she got mud on her shoes...the other girl kept exclaiming loudly, "Worst field trip EVER!"  I just about died when she said it in front of a group of patrons passing by.  I smiled and said, Yep, that is my group! ha!

 Even though they got "mudded" they were all smiles and ready to pose for the camera!

Brynna, Avery, Maddie and Jade

 Worst field trip ever?  I think not!

The days are getting hot and steamy and we are geared up and ready for the summer.  I cannot wait to have many days of fun in the sun with my three little kiddo's!  Happy Summer everyone!

Strep Throat

I am so upset by the fact that Bria and I have strep throat once again that I had to blog about it.  I cannot believe that our family has been so sick all year and we somehow keep getting this nasty bug over and over again.  All of us, except for Chadd have been affected by this illness and I have had quite enough of it! 

Growing up, I got strep throat a lot.  I feel like it was pretty much constant in my younger years.  I remember having the sore throat, headache, tummy ache, sometimes vomiting and feeling downright terrible over and over again.  Lying on my mom's lap and having her scratch my back always made me feel better.  She had these awesome nails that were perfect for this type of TLC.  When we had ear infections, I can still picture this burnt orange Tupperware container that she would fill with steaming water to let us lay on.  We always took baths as they too have magical healing powers.

Now that I am an adult with children of my own, I find that I am the mommy filling up that water bottle(heating a fleece rice bag), scratching my kids backs and giving them snuggles and baths when they are feeling under the weather.  The only bad part?  Having the illness as well.  Where is my back scratcher? Bath giver? Water bottle filler?  Oh yeah, she has a life of her own and lives an hour away so coming over to scratch my back isn't necessarily on her list of top priorities.  In all honesty, if I asked her I bet she would come.  Sometimes being an adult stinks!

I ended up with strep throat for the first time in my adult life last summer.  Since then, I have had it four additional times.  What is with that?  You would think that my body would say, "Oh you again, yeah, well I recognize you and I am going to kick your ass right on out of here."  Wishful thinking, I know.  I wash my hands and use sanitizer like crazy and yet I still get sick.  Blast it all!

I am going to heat up my own hot pack, watch some movies and snuggle with my kids on the couch.  If you have had strep throat as an adult, you know how badly it can make you feel.  Too bad I still have kiddo's to hang with otherwise I would be lying down resting right now.  I feel badly for Bennett who has been building Lego's all day long.  I finally let him make some Jello instant pudding because the guilt of allowing him to watch movies and play Lego's essentially by himself all day long was too much for me to handle.  Ah, such is life.