Happy 6th Birthday Ryan!!

Our little boy is 6!!!  How crazy it that?  What happens when you turn six?  Well, according to Ryan, you grow taller and get a lot faster - amazing how that can happen overnight.  But, if you need proof, just ask him.  He'll show you just how much faster he really is, and even point out that some of his old clothes no longer fit him (that actually is true, but unfortunately that has happened over the past few months, not overnight).  We had a little celebration at our house for him and all was good until I asked him if he had a good birthday and he said, "yeah, I'm just a little sad because I wish some of my friends could have come over."  Jeez, why doesn't he just stick a knife in my heart.  He said all he wanted was a party just like last year with the same friends - sounds easy enough, but it's not.  The party last year was on a Wednesday afternoon and Ash was here to help me keep tabs on the party kids and the girls.  This year, it would have been just me, my three kids, Colton, and five birthday guests - I think that's never going to happen.  Anyway, now that I know how extremely important it is to Ryan to have his "friend party", I will make every effort I can to make sure that always happens for him in the future.  To end the night on a good note though, as I was tucking Ryan into bed, he was telling me that he is indeed the same Ryan he was yesterday, just a new 6 year old version.  Then, as I was walking out of his room, he says, "I love you Mom, thanks for the gift and the best birthday ever" - my heart was officially melting.  God I love that kid!

South Dakota, here we come!

I had a bit of a homecoming this past weekend when we visited the SDSU campus for the first time in a long time. Although, there were two main differences with me this time compared my to college years spent out there, and there names are Ryan and Lauren! That's right, I packed up the kids (just the older two, Ellie isn't "ready" for heavy traveling yet), and headed back to see how much the campus and the facilities have changed in the past ten years (yes, I said 10 years, that means I'm really getting old).  Let's just say, it's changed A LOT! The best part about the trip is that we had our own personal tour guide in AJ, my old basketball coach. He, along with his wife, Laurie, and newborn son, Dylan, showed us just how much the "college world" has changed in the past decade. We started in Frost Arena (which is where all of our basketball games were played) - that place alone was amazing. There were murals, pictures, and paintings of different athletes all over the place - it certainly wasn't the cement walls, and crappy paint jobs I remembered from my days there. And then there were the new basketball rooms . . . a team lounge, a team room (used before and during games instead of running all the way back to the locker room) and the actual locker room itself - they were all amazing. We're talking drop down movie screens (to watch game film), leather chairs (each player has their own chair they use for their entire four years), a lounge with a flat screen, Mac computers, WiFi and a Wii (Ryan of course wanted to sit down and play a few games) - all of this is just for the Women's Basketball team - it's crazy! After the team room and lounge, we headed back to the locker room (which is in a new addition they added onto the building). This locker room was BIG, and it even had individual shower stalls (with water that actually came out of the shower heads). Back in the day, we all used to have to huddle naked around one big shower in the middle of the room and try to get lucky and have a few ice cold drops of water fall on our soapy bodies (trust me guys - if there are any male readers - this might sound like every man's dream . . . 10 female athletes splashing around naked in the shower together, but it wasn't, it was terrible). After the tour of Frost, we hit up the rest of campus. It was hard to even remember what it looked like before because so much has changed, but once AJ would point out something new and then tell me how it used to be, it all came back to me. It's actually amazing that this is even the same campus I remember, that is how different it is. There are coffee shops, a full restaurant, and "dorms" that look more like apartments in the city - definitely not the college life I remember. After the tour, we headed back to Frost where the kids got a chance to run around and shoot some baskets. I must say, it was pretty cool to have my kids playing out on the court when just 10 years ago, I was out there running around like crazy and not thinking about what life would be like now - amazing how much change can happen in what I used to think of as a relatively short period of time. When it was all said and done, I'm still not really sure the kids get the complete idea that this is where I used to live, go to school, and play basketball (nor do they probably really care at this point), but it was still a great trip and hopefully will be a great memory for them for a long time to come.

Thanks again to AJ and family for showing us the new and improved SDSU campus. And to all of the fellow Jackrabbits out there who haven't been back to campus in a while, it's time to pack your bags and head out - you'll certainly be surprised (and very impressed!).

Here all a couple of pictures I snapped while we were out there.  I was clearly too amazed by the things I was seeing to even get my camera out.  It wasn't until we were back at Frost for the second time that I realized I carried my camera with the entire time, but never actually took a picture - oh well.

Monday, Fun Day

Is it possible that a Monday could be a fun day?  Well, usually not, but in our case, today was.  It was also HOT!  And I'm not just talking a little hot, I'm taking extremely hot and humid (the last reading in my car said 94 degrees).  When it's that hot, there is little to nothing to do outside with two kids and two babies, except maybe hang out at Grandpa and Grandma's pool - yay for having a pool!  So that is just what we did.  I packed up the kids this morning and headed south to spend the day in the pool and help Grandpa Jim celebrate his 40th (I might be stretching a little with that number) birthday today - how perfect.  And in honor of Grandpa's birthday, Grandma Donna managed to get out of work a little early too - apparently she didn't want to miss out on the fun.  Here are a couple of pictures from the day.  As you can tell, my attempt at taking a picture of the four grandkids and the grandparents didn't work out so great . . . Colt is too busy chillin' in his floatie to care about what I'm trying to do, Grandma has her hands full trying to hold both girls, and Ryan is being a typical boy and giving people "bunny ears"  - oh well, at least the Birthday Boy looks good. 

Oh, if ever Monday could be like this! 

In other news, I have lots of catching up to do . . . there was a dance party, a trip to Duluth, and lots of home improvements.  So much to write about, so little time to do it (at least not right now, I'm too tired).

School's out for summer!

Yesterday was Lauren's last day of speech school, and today was Ryan's last day of kindergarten - yay!  Not only does this mean Lauren is now almost a preschooler and Ryan is officially a 1st grader, but it also means no more rushing around like a crazy woman in the morning trying to get kids up, dressed, fed, and out the door by a certain time all while trying to keep Ellie and Colton happy - breathing a huge sigh of relief!  Of course this down time will be short lived because soccer and t-ball start in a little over a week, but I'll enjoy while I have it.  I regrettably forgot to get a picture of Lauren yesterday (just chalk it up as another "bad" mom moment), so I made sure I got the camera out today for Ryan's picture (although, if I am being completely honest, I have to admit that I did forget to take the picture before school so I had to take it after - oops!).  Here is the boy today and in September at the start of the year.  He grew a little taller, lost his tan, and cut his hair, but the one thing that didn't change was his skinny little legs!

Ryan's graduation

It was finally time for Ryan's big day today  . . . kindergarten graduation!  With the boy looking good (we picked out an outfit last night), breakfast done, and teeth brushed, Ryan was off to school.  After that, we (Trav, myself, Lauren, Ellie, Grandma Connie, and Grandpa Jim) headed out to the school for the big event.  The parking lot was packed and so was the gym - good thing we're tall so standing in the back works just fine for us.  The program consisted of some songs, an introduction of each child, and a crazy recessional to the tune of, "It's a Celebration" (pretty cute).  After the program and some class pictures, we headed to the lunch area for juice and cookies.  There we mingled with friends and chatted with Ryan's teacher before we ventured down to his classroom one last time - crazy how fast it all went.  Even more crazy . . . at one point during the ceremony, the teacher said, "Let's here it once again for the future class of 2023" - it seems so far off, but with things going as fast as they have been, that date will be here before we know it, and sadly, I'll be a real old lady!  Here are a couple of short videos and some quick pictures from the day.  Congrats again to our little graduate, we are so proud!!

Ryan and his buddy, Gavin

Memorial Day weekend

We had a busy holiday weekend.  Trav and the kids went to the lake while I stayed home and helped Aaron and Ann move into their new house - I might have gotten the raw deal on that one!  Actually, other than the sore body, the moving, painting, and helping organize the house was kind of fun (although I am in no hurry to help out again any time soon).  And Trav and the kids said they all had a good time so I guess the weekend will go down as a success.  Next weekend we have big plans again . . . stain and paint the deck.  Aren't weekends supposed to be fun and relaxing?

In other news . . .  Ryan has a big day tomorrow as he graduates from kindergarten - yay, we are so excited for him !!!   The big event consists of a little graduation ceremony followed by juice and cookies - not a bad start to a short week.  Pictures and more details coming tomorrow.

And finally, in other not so good news, I was a terrible parent this past week.  Ryan lost his third tooth on Friday and when it came time for the Tooth Fairy to make a visit, I realized I didn't have any one dollar bills in my purse.  After checking with Travis and realizing neither of us had anything smaller than a five dollar bill (Trav almost said to give him a $5, but I stopped him in mid sentence and said absolutely not - there is no way I'm starting that now only to keep it up for the next 10 years), I had to resort to thievery.  I (regrettably) broke into Ryan's piggy bank and took out a one dollar bill, slipped it under the tooth box, grabbed the tooth, and snuck back out of his room undetected.  Like I said, I was a terrible parent.  On the up side, Ryan actually owed me $10 so technically, now he only owes me $9 - I wish that made me less guilty, but it really doesn't - oh well.

 Lesson learned . . . always keep one dollar bills in the house just in case.

Ellie's new talents

Our little lady has mastered a few new talents over the past couple of weeks . . . first up, "bye-bye."  She does more of a parade type wave (think lots of wrist action), but still manages to get the job done.  In addition to waving "bye-bye", she also has learned the art of kissing and blowing kisses - she is so multi-talented!  Her "contact" kisses come complete with a little lean in with the head, followed by a gentle touch of her lips, and then as a final touch, she gives a little lip smack - so, so sweet.  If she isn't in the mode for full contact, she will gladly blow some kisses your way.  This (remember I'm her mom so I'm totally biased here), is also super cute.  She covers her entire mouth with her little hand, plants a kiss, then pulls her hand away, and gives you that huge "toothy" grin of hers - like I said, super cute.  Speaking of teeth, Ellie has managed to go from 4 teeth to 9 teeth in a matter of a couple of weeks.  And these aren't just any teeth we're talking about.  No, these are the "big" guys.  Three molars in one week - you can imagine the fun we had at our house.  In addition to the molars, she is also cutting two more teeth on the top, front of her mouth.  If she keeps going at this rate, she should have a mouth full of chompers in another month or two.  The upside to all of the teeth, she is now eating steak - just kidding.  Although she does eat pretty much everything else in sight . . . fried egg sandwiches, coleslaw, burritos, all things I can't imagine a normal baby eats, but she does!  Moving onto her physical activity . . . she still isn't walking on her own yet, but progress is good.  She stands up by herself and manages to stay standing for a couple of seconds.  She has also mastered (mastered might be a strong word to use here, more like figured out) how to get down the steps on her own.  She scoots her little butt as close as she can get to the stairs, then dangles her toes until she makes contact.  After that, she slides down backwards on her belly and off she goes - whatever gets her where she wants to go is good with me.  And finally (and most importantly in Ellie's world), she continues her friendship she has had since birth with . . . her thumb!  The kid relies on the thumb in any kind of situation . . . to sleep, to keep her occupied when she is done eating, when life doesn't go her way.  Really, whenever she has nothing to do, she always has her thumb - it is literally her best friend.  I'm okay with this for now, but I can already see the issues we are going to have trying to get her to stop sucking on it.  I'm going to go ahead and save that battle for later and just be happy with the way things are now.  Here are a couple of videos of Ellie showing off, and a couple of pictures of Lauren and Colton watching and entertaining themselves - enjoy.