Mish Mash

Blogging is such a struggle these days. Working to catch up so we can keep the memory books going. Here's what we've been up to.

Adrienne is really into sketching 

I went with Jillian on a really cool field trip to Mystery Cave and historic Forestville. The kids got to experience what live was like in the 1800's with tons of hands-on experiences, then we got a tour into the caves. Really awesome.

 On Mother's Day, I told Matt to forgo the gifts and that I wanted to take the girls to Minneapolis to see Wicked. I'd never seen it, and the girls had never been to an official musical. It was the best mother's day ever. We had a beautiful day of weather, and enjoyed a great brunch at Hell's Kitchen, a superb musical that's left us all singing the songs for long after, fun dinner at Smack Shack (I heart you Connecticut-style lobster roll), and the girls showered me with some "gems" they hand selected at the Mother's Day store at school.

My silly, lovely girls. Wearing my jewelry. Oh my heart.

 From Adrienne

From Jillian

Blown away by the live music at brunch. It was a great band!

Taking a break pre-musical at Starbucks. Adrienne grabbed the Sunday comics. Her stance is the reason I always insist the girls wear shorts under their dresses!

My peeps.

 

 

We always park in this parking lot. Love the music notes, and we even found some fun graffiti this time

The following weekend we headed to Des Moines. Matt decided he wanted to try out all his new equipment in a sprint triathlon so he could make sure he was ready for his upcoming half ironman. We picked the girls up after school and hit the road. It was SO windy on that drive that we had to stop several times to check the precious tri bike and make sure things were nice and tight.

As usual, we enjoyed a nice time at G and G's--good food and lots of love. Mom and I taught the girls how to play Scrabble.

Dad was a good sport and let the girls do his hair

 We had a very cold and windy morning for the triathlon, which was near Ames. 45 degrees! Thankfully, it was just sprint distance. Matt did great, and we were thankful for the refuge of my parents' car and their company.

Sandwiched by parents. Great brunch at The Cafe in Ames.

I finally picked my rhubarb. Over 20 lbs! The girls helped me make jam by chopping it all up. They actually chopped 16 cups between the two of them!

My little bookworm. Jillian plows through books.

Grabbing a paczki at Daube's while Matt ran the Med City half marathon on Memorial Day weekend.

On May 31st, we had our 15th anniversary. So hard to believe. Matt surprised me with some beautiful flowers. Since he was on call all week, we decided against trying to go out and celebrate and instead did our second annual "fancy" dinner with the girls. 

 Fancy anniversary dinners at home for 4 always require the unity candle as the centerpiece, and a Daube's cake for dessert.

We've had some deliciously warm weather these last few weeks, and we've hit the RAC pool several times already. The girls also love to do water play at home and splash around with super soakers in a baby pool. Of course, we always need to have some sort of Popsicles involved.

 I went to check on the girls one night before bed and found that Adrienne had made sure to put every.single.barbie she had in her room to bed appropriately. 

 My peonies were so gorgeous this year! They are my very favorite. Sad that the season for their blooms are so short.

Adrienne's dreams came true on June 7th when she attended her very first TaeKwonDo class. She has been asking to do "karate" for over a year. I finally signed her up at the RAC for a low-commitment class. She started in a class with 4 other boys who had been doing this for awhile. She didn't know a thing, but just followed along, did her best, and smiled the whole time. I was so proud of her.

Last day of school was June 8th. On the left is the girls on the first day of school, compared to the last day on the right. They have both grown and changed so much. Jillian continues to have a passion for reading and writing. She qualified to begin gifted services in verbal areas (reading and social studies) next year, and we are looking forward to her being more challenged at school. Adrienne grew by leaps and bounds during kindergarten. She went from needing additional help learning to read to reading chapter books by the end of the year. She enjoyed every single day of school, and told me that her favorite thing about kindergarten was "EVERYTHING". Love that happy-go-lucky personality of hers. Great year, girls! Your dad and I are so proud of you both and look forward to a fun summer!