{the friday five}: May 2011

27 May 2011

1. Friday E accompanied Tate and his class on a field trip to the zoo. They had a great time and came home with some good stories. He was in charge of a group of 5 boys and they were pretty much on their own all day. Let's just say E might have gotten a tiny glimpse into what it is like to be a teacher. =) He's going to keep his day job, but really did enjoy it. I sent the camera with him, thinking that he would have someone take a picture of him and Tate so that we'd have record of them going together. The problem with that is that you have to actually SAY THAT OUT LOUD to a Dad so that they know that's what you meant and I didn't. My bad, E. MY. BAD.

2. Friday night Tate had his first piano recital. He did such a good job...all the kids did. Maddie Murphy, our neighbor and the piano teacher's daughter, completely astounded us! She was sooooo good that we couldn't stop talking about it all night.

Tate said he was shaking in his seat because he was so nervous. I think Kerry was trying to calm him a bit here...

But when he got up there, he said the nerves went away and besides a couple minor glitches that probably the people that haven't listened to him practice it 1,000 times didn't even notice, he did GREAT. We were very proud. He even remembered to bow.

3. Saturday night was my guitar recital. I tried to keep it a secret so no one had to sit through the agony of a recital two nights in a row, but E ended up telling my mom...so thanks Mom for giving up your Saturday night to sit through another recital. I'm sure you thought those days were over, at least when it comes to watching me!

I can pretty much say ditto about the whole experience that Tate said the night before...shaking backstage, nerves going away once on stage, and went fine except for a couple of minor glitches that probably no one noticed.

I had to laugh when I watched the video tape. Towards the end of the song Tate whispered to Eric "WHY is she so obsessed with this song?!" I started laughing and told him I wasn't obsessed with the song...that I had to practice it a lot so I could play it well at the recital. DOES HE THINK WE DON'T KNOW HIS SONGS BY HEART AFTER 15,000,000,000 TIMES OF HIM PRACTICING IT OVER THE LAST MONTH?? =)

4. Beckett and Avery set up shop in our living room this week using their Anywhere Chairs and bathroom stools to make a lemonade stand and a food stand. I love that no matter what toys you buy your kids, they will always choose to use ordinary objects and their imaginations instead. LOVE.

5. Last night my friend Molly was in town from Kansas City. Her, Tracie, and I ended up talking until 1 am when we finally decided we all had real life to deal with in the morning and we'd better call it a night...except for Molly who had an ice cream date with her grandparents when she got to their house! Gotta love a grandparents who stay up later than you do! So good to see you, Mol. Move back to MN, pretty please?

20 May 2011

1. Friday night Rach, Kasey, Brady, and I headed up to Duluth to celebrate Kara's graduation from UMD. We went to Grandma's to see Johnny Holm...its been about 11 years since I've been to Johnny but it was just as fun as ever. I laughed pretty much the entire time.

Saturday it was commencement day. Let me just say a three hour graduation goes so much faster when they sell concessions and cushy seats!!

2. Sunday Kara moved all her stuff into our house, where she will be staying at least through Christmas. Tate asked her now that she graduated what grade she is in now. She said that she is done with school and wouldn't be in a grade. Tate said, "Does that mean you're an adult now?" Ha! Before she becomes and adult she left on a plane on Monday for a month long trip to Europe {mostly Italy} where she is taking a class with a bunch of other UMD Community Health majors. Follow her adventures....

http://ciao-4-now.blogspot.com/

3. Tuesday was Tate's Track and Field Day at school. Each kid got to pick 3 events to participate in. Tate chose the 500 yard dash, the hippity hop, and the bean bag toss.

He really just cracks us up. He wouldn't take his jacket or his visor off for any event and was just totally happy with whatever happened...he doesn't have an ultra competitive gene, that's for sure! He's happy when he wins but is kind of oblivious when he doesn't. E swears he thinks he was the same way at this age.

He really gave it his all when their whole class got to participate in the tug-of-war against the other 6 first grade classes.

Victory bracelets!

4. Avery was so excited to finally count to 100 at preschool on Wednesday! It's the sought after milestone of the four year old class. Yippee, Avery!

5. When Tate was three he started to try to crawl in our bed in the middle of the night. We went a year with resisting and continued to put him back in his room many times nightly and were close to having him sleep in his room all night alone again. Then I entered my PDP Etsy coma and when I would finally go up to bed at an undisclosed hour Eric would have one or two kids sleeping with him. For the past three years there were 5 of us in our queen bed by 6 am...something I swore would NEVER happen.

A couple weeks ago, we were finally ready to bite the bullet. We put up a gate on our bedroom door and told the kids they were no longer allowed in our bed until 6 am. We did give them the incentive of getting the pillow pets they had been wanting since last fall if they could go 14 days without making too much of a fuss about having to sleep in their own beds. Amazingly, they have adjusted pretty nicely! Beckett has cried only a couple of times. Avery occasionally comes to the gate and says "Mom and Dad, are you still in there?" As long as we respond she goes right back to bed. Tate was already sleeping all night in his own, so he was no problem.

We made our way to the mall to make good on our promise...

Umm...gulp. Those things are not cheap. But all in all a price I will pay for a better night's sleep, I guess!

13 May 2011

1. The garage sale went well, but we always wonder after all that work if it is worth it, or if we would have been better off just dropping it all off at Goodwill. In any case, the stuff is all gone, either bought or now donated, and THAT feels good.

2. Friday night we went with Kelley and Gary to a Minute to Win It party with a bunch of other Shakopee people they know from daycare and preschool. It was pretty much hilarious. We each had to bring a challenge for teams to complete. We drew for partners when we got there...E and I were the only couple that actually drew each other! I didn't know at first whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

We ended up winning the entire game and 80 bucks! As you can probably tell from the names of many of the challenges there was no lack of entertainment. Such a fun night with a lot of fun people!

3. Saturday we headed to Hector to see our moms for Mother's Day. We made our annual trip to Babe's Blossoms to get gift certificates for them and some flowers for us. Then we stopped at Becky's work to say hi and then ate dinner with my mom. They are really the two best moms and mother-in-laws E and I ever could have asked for. We both scored in that department. Not to mention how our kids scored in the grandma department!

4. Sunday the kids and E took me out to brunch at Bonfire (yum!) and then we hit a few showings on houses in the area. We forever have our eyes out for the perfect house close enough to Shakopee but "in the country."

Then the kids let me take a nap as the last part of my mother's day gift (the pic is right after my nap when we realized we hadn't taken one yet...can you tell? LOL). Here are some of the other gifts I got:

School Mother's Day projects from Tate and Aves...LOOOOOVE!

Flowers planted at Patti's from the kids and a pedicure gift certificate from E and the kiddos

One of the best parts of my gift was that E planned a day off of work to stay with the kids so that I could spend the day with two of my college besties in June. Can't wait!

5. It is pretty normal around here for household objects to become microphones. This particular Thursday a hairbrush and a spatula along with a play microphone became the way to perform Justin Bieber's Never Say Never...

6 May 2011

1. Friday night E and I were both fried. We decided to go to Pablo's, our favorite local Mexican restaurant. In our pre-kids years, we used to go there almost every weekend with Kelley and Gary, so we decided since we hadn't been there forever we'd call the Pankake's to see if they wanted to come. It felt like old times!

2. While getting ready to leave for Pablo's I overheard Tate and Braxton having a conversation that was so cute it just cracked me up...

Tate: Brax, are we just friends or are we like best friends?

Braxton: Best friends...you know, like BFFs!

Avery and Brielle had a similar conversation in the car on the way home from dance this week. Avery has been pretty aware lately that she doesn't have a sister and wishes she did. I don't know where she is getting it from, but it is the one thing about our family that bugs me, too. I am so close to my sisters that I wish that Ave had one, too. So anyway, the conversation went something like this...

Avery: {{fake burp}}

Brielle: {{extreme giggles}}

Avery: Mom, I wish I had a sister and I would want her to be just like Brielle!

Brielle: And I want a sister just like Avery!

Me: That's so nice. Avery, why do you want a sister like Brielle?

Avery: Because she laughs at EVERYTHING that I do!

Brielle: {{more giggling}}

3. This last week pretty much had one focus...getting ready for our garage sale. Rach and Brad's basement was getting too full of clothes and toys, and while they are not sure they are done having kids there was plenty to get rid of. Saturday E cleaned out our garage (which was on our spring list anyway) and Rach and I spent every night of the week getting things sorted and priced. It wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating because it was so fun talking the whole time. The kids had lots of fun using the cars that we had to leave parked outside as an obstacle course with their plasma cars and bikes.

4. Sunday morning was my last day teaching Toddler Sunday School at church for the year. The first Sunday of every month I have taught 18 month - 3 year olds during education hour. Beckett was in my group again this year, so its fun. Next year he will be in Sunday School with the big kids. There were several kids that attended through the year, but only Beckett and a little girl named Sophie made it every single month. Beckett and I both LOVE Sophie so it was extra fun. She was NOT interested in me taking a picture of her, so this is the closest we got!