Where did May Go?

The Father Daughter Dance was in early May. Olivia got all dressed up in her princess dress and off she and Daddy went for a night of fun, food and dancing.

                                                 

 They were joined by Adam and Addie Moseley

 After taking a little time to warm up she spent plenty of time on the dance floor with Dad

Aunt Kate ran a 1/2 marathon around Lake Minnetonka and we all went to the finish line to greet her when she finished.

 Jameson enjoyed some quality time Grandma sitting by the lake and watching the boats go by

 Memorial Day Weekend was our first trip to the cabin for the season. The weather was beautiful and we spent most of the weekend outside enjoying the sun shine. We also made our first trip of the season to the Chocolate Ox for ice cream.

 Even though the water was chilly the kids still enjoyed the beach. In fact Ben and Daddy even went for a couple of short swims to clean up at the end of the day.

They didn't catch much but sure had fun trying

Dinner with Family

A couple of months ago a few of us cousins had dinner at Kate's house. I decided that this something we needed to do on a more regular basis. Last night we went over to Jessie's new apartment in St.Paul for taco night. We just hung our, ate and laughed a lot! It was a great night.

Jessie Olinger, Stephanie Dreke, Kate, Me and Emily

Opening Day At Big Willow

Yesterday was opening day at Big Willow. Excited does not even begin to describe Ben over the last week waiting for Saturday to come. Ben's sponsor this year is People's Organic and this is his team. Trevor is the head coach this year. Three of the boys on the team are from our neighborhood and one boy played on their team last year and is Ben's good buddy from school.

They announced each team and they got to come in an run the bases.

Will Moseley from down the street is playing with Ben this year and Adam is going to help Trevor coach. I hope he knows what he is getting himself into?!

It should be a great season!

A Beautiful Easter!

Preparing for Easter... The kids love to color the eggs

Easter morning is always filled with excitement. This year the Easter Bunny hid the baskets around the house. He also left all the eggs filled with a note for Mom and Dad to hide the eggs outside after church. The kids also had a basket from Grandpi and Grandma. They were excited to find a basket filled with new shirts and lots of Peeps.

After church they had a few minutes outside before we went across the street for brunch.

Before everyone changed into their summer clothes we managed to get a quick family photo.

After brunch we went outside to find all the eggs the Easter Bunny had left for the kids. It was so nice that day that we pretty much spent the rest of the day outside, on a walk, at the park and grilling burgers for dinner.

Sequoia Bear Meets the Knights

Meet Sequoia Bear. Sequoia is Olivia's classroom bear at Orchard Park. Each weekend Sequoia picks a student to spend the weekend at their house. He makes his choice based on who did good listening and was kind to their friends. Olivia was so excited when I picked her up on Friday and she was told that Sequoia had selected her!

 Aunt Kate read Corduroy to Olivia and Sequoia on Friday night.

 Sequoia loved snuggling at night with Olivia.

 And he loved having cinnamon dolces with Olivia on Saturday morning. I think Olivia was having fun as well. She spent over an hour sitting in our living room looking at Sequoia's journal and playing "school". I was working at the table and it was so fun to sit and listen to her story/play.

 Sequoia also joined us at Costco on Saturday and let me tell you that bear liked the samples as much as the kids.

 And on Sunday he came with us to church and Byerly's. Olivia wanted to make sure he met our friends Don and Kathy at the grocery store. 

Thanks for a great weekend Sequoia Bear! Until next time...

Harlem Globetrotters

Ben has been really into basketball over the last few weeks. He has been playing in the drive way whenever he has the chance. This made the invite to see the Globetrotter that much more exciting! On Saturday Julie took Ben to see the Harlem Globetrotters at the Target Center. He was so excited to go after watching youtube videos of them all week. They went early to the "meet and greet" and Ben had his picture taken with some of the players.

 He came home in his new fancy Globetrotter jersey with his new ball signed by the team and now he is ready to play!

Thanks Julie for the GREAT day!

No Kids Allowed!

We decided our friends needed a night out without the kids. Trevor and I thought about getting our high school friends together to rent a room at a restaurant somewhere but then decided it would be more fun in the comforts of our own home.  So we sent our kids away for a sleepover at Aunt Kate's.  It was so nice to be able to have good conversation without yelling at the kids or getting up from the table 10 times before we were through with salads. We were all able to sit around the table together and enjoy each other's company. Only a few were unable to make it but they were with us in spirit.

 The Menu:

Appetizers- buffalo chicken dip, cheese and crackers, Greek humus dip

Dinner- Chipotle pork tenderloin, grilled salmon, salad, roasted broccoli and spinach/rice casserole 

Dessert- chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate fondue with goodies

Drinks- YES PLEASE (Trevor made sure we had a whole bar to choose from)

Thank you all for making the night a HUGE success!