Finally a nice weekend!!

We had a big week/weekend this past week.  For starters, Ryan's summer Read n' Run program started, and after two sessions, he is loving it!  He is reading, running, and having fun - I guess that is the point of the class!  Ellie also had a major milestone this week . . . she finally stopped sucking her thumb (well almost, she did get busted on Saturday night at Grandma's house, but for the most part, she is done!!!!).  To get her to stop, we had to use some extreme measures (hockey tape and custom made "thum guards"), and most importantly, I had to bribe her.  I bought her a Dive and Swim Dora she wanted and left the doll in the box sitting in her room for a week while she proved that she wouldn't suck her thumb.  It wasn't pretty (the first days were complete hell because I basically took her best friend away and she didn't know any other way of falling asleep other than sucking her thumb), but once we got past those days, it got a lot easier.  Now we are keeping our fingers crossed that her gap in her front teeth slowly closes, and that we will not have to spend thousands dollars on braces to fix what her thumb has ruined, we'll wait and see. 

Lauren's big activity for the week was her friend's birthday party on Friday.  I swear, the kid has already been to more birthday parties in her five and a half years of life than I have in my almost 35 years of life (she is a social butterfly, yet another Travis trait that she has inheirted, scary how similar those two are).  With the week wrapped up, we headed south to help celebrate Travis' cousins wedding.  Our initial plan was to take the whole family to the wedding, but once we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Loken's house to get dressed, plans changes.  The kids took one look at the pool and it was over, they were not going to the wedding.  Oh well, that meant a kid free night out for Trav and I (thanks again Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie, Mike, and Aaron for helping watch the kids).  While the kids stayed and splashed around in the pool, Trav and I had a great time catching up with the family and busting out some impressive dance mobes (more so Trav, not me).  To wrap up the weekend and take full advantage of the fist really nice weekend of the summer, we spent Sunday doing some more swimming.  Ann brought the girls down for the day as well so that meant the entire Loken/Kleist/Quast clan was all there.  And because that happens less than you would think, we decided to get an unofficial family picture taken to show just how big this little family is getting.  Check it out . . .

And here are some other favorites from the day (I'm trying to make up for the almost 4 months that went by when I didn't take a single picture - I am a horrible moter), enjoy!  Oh, and because I almost forgot, Ryan did a front flip for the first time today.  The kid is so scared of so many different things, yet he'll throw himself off a diving board after "thinking it though" for about a minute - nice job Ryan!

We have an 8 year old!

And not only do we have an 8 year old, but we also have a 60 year old Grandpa (we had a blast celebrating Grandpa Jim's birthday, no need to go into details on that one) - how exciting!!  So as you may have guessed, Ryan turned 8 last week.  And since I am such a wonderful mother, I planned NOTHING - who does that?  Apparently me.  Anyway, in a bind to throw something together for Ryan's big day (side note: most birthday parties the kids have been to lately have been something big like Chuck E' Cheese, Bounce houses, you get the idea.  Whatever happened to the fun birthday party we used to have where you invite some kids over, they play, then go home), I came up with a pretty good last minute idea . . . Como Town/Zoo!!  And to make this plan even better, I had just purchased four unlimited ride passes the previous week at half price so that meant I had enough for my three kids plus one (Ryan got to choose the plus one as his "birthday" friend).  Lots of fun, and a good deal, this is turning into the perfect birthday celebration!  All in all, the kids (most importantly, Ryan and his friend) had a blast.  The boys went on at least 15 rides, the girls on the other hand, were a bit more skeptical of the whole ride thing.  Ellie managed to get in about 6 rides, while super cautious Lauren only did 4 or 5 (weird that she is scared of rides, but isn't really scared of anything else).  After a long day of rides, lunch, and seeing some animals, we topped the celebration off with a trip to the Dairy Queen.  A fine ending to a fine day.  With that, part one of the celebration to came an end.  We dropped Ryan's friend off, went home to relax and recover for a bit, then it was time for part two . . . the horse races with the family (Grandma Donna, Ann, and the three kids all joined in on the fun as well).  And because it was Ryan's lucky day, when we got to the races, he saw one of his good friends from school and was able to spend some more quality time running around and acting like a crazy 8 year boy!  Lauren, Ellie, Colton, Charlotte, and Avery had their own fun walking around, digging in sand, and petting the horses which left the four adults just enough time to have one adult beverage for the night (although I think Trav and I may have squeezed in 2).  We stayed long enough to see 4 races then headed home.  We had a big day/weekend ahead of us which meant we still had to get kids in the bath, and pack up everything before leaving for Mankato the next morning at 9am, somehow, we got it done!  So there you have it.  For having nothing planned a day before his birthday, I think he's actual birthday turned out just great.  He had fun, got a new scooter, and some cold hard cash, what more could a kid want?

Onto the weekend . . . the weekend was our annual "Girls Weekend" which meant I would be in St. Peter for the weekend.  However, when we planned this 6 months ago, we all seemed to overlook the fact that it was also Father's Day weekend (that, or we just really wanted to give our spouses the best Father's Day gift ever . . . a full weekend by themselves with their kids!!).  Either way, "girls weekend" had to happen.  And just to make things a little busier for us, I also planned our family dental appointment, carpet cleaning, and a hair appointment - why not get it all done at once?  So when we packed up and left Friday morning for our dental appointments, the carpet cleaners were already here get their things set up (is there anything better then coming home to super clean carpets after a long weekend, I think not).  The appointments went great, no cavities for anyone and because we have the best dentist, he invited us over to his house to spend the afternoon with his family (great if I didn't already have plans of my own like shopping and just thinking about myself all afternoon), not so great if I did (which I just may have).  Anyway, long story short, the kids were having fun playing, the adults were having good conversation, so like most well laid out plans, nothing happened the way I thought it would.  The big kids and Trav ended up spending the night (Lauren's first sleepover at a non-family members house by the way), while Ellie and I went back to St. Peter to get some much needed rest (in a comfy bed instead of on a couch or floor).  After the long night, Trav and the kids headed up to the lake while I got ready to start my weekend - yay!  Think lots of talking, pontoon rides, a couple of games of "Spoons", lots of food and drink, and some good laughs and you'll have the weekend summed up nicely.  After that, I made another stop in St. Peter to spend some time with the world's greatest Dad, and then it was back home to Trav and the kids.  When we all got back together in Shakopee, we were tired, dirty, and ready to just take it easy, and that's exactly what we did. 

Picture recap

Ellie on Easter morning

The egg hunt

Reading her book from the Easter Bunny

Her favorite dress with new Easter shoes

Crazy girl!

Siblings at preschool graduation

Me and my girls

"Star Student" helping out at graduation

The graduate

Accepting her diploma

Being recognized as a "Star Student"

Fedora boy at Track and Field Day

Hat on, egg race, very intense

Last day of 2nd grade - cool dude!

 

The last few pictures are of the kitchen remodel and the girls' bedrooms.  Fun to start projects, never fun going through them, but super fun when they are finished!

You'll notice that even though Ellie has her own room, she prefers to sleep on the trundle in Lauren's room.  Not really sure why I even did a separate room for those two!

Back by popular demand!!

Back by popular demand means different things to different people.  To me it means that more than one person requested that I start blogging again, but to pin point an exact number (it's two), would be very difficult so I'll just say it is somewhere between 1 and 100.  Apparently that is enough for me so it's time to get back at it!

Here is a quick (as quick as can be done to cover the past 7 months of our lives) recap . . . .

Ryan:  Ryan is an official 3rd grader!!!!   And he will be an official 8 year old tomorrow - time flies when you're having fun and Ryan is certainly a reminder of that.  But before he graduated and before he becomes an 8 year old, he did a few other things too.  He continues to be our little book worm.  Take the kid to the library and it's like taking a kid to a candy store.  He has his favorites (most of which are books that I can hardly follow because of all the "good guys" and "bad guys"), but at least he enjoys them and it keeps him busy.  He also really enjoyed school this year.  He had a great teacher and she pushed him to keep on learning new things, and by the time the year was over and he wrote a "reflection" page on the year, the things he looked forward to most were, "learning division and multiplication."  The kid definitely loves his academics, but is still working on his athletics.  A bright note on that subject though . . . his class took the honors of "Tug-of-war Champions" this year at Track and Field day and you would have thought the kid did it all on his own the way he reacted.  "Worst to first" in just one year, not bad for a kid who wore his angry birds fedora along with his sweat shorts and t-shirts (clothes that he does not, by the way, like to wear, he prefers jeans and a "dress" shirt most days).  That's our boy.  We love him, his sisters love him, and we'll certainly look forward to all the highlights that this summer brings (he is taking a "Reading and Running" program and "Lego Robotics" class this summer so I'm sure he'll have lots of stories to tell).

Lauren:  Lauren is an official kindergartener!!!  Preschool was an absolute blast for Lauren and full of surprises for us.  Apparently Lauren is an absolute angel in class.  Yes, you read that right, our Lauren is an angel (at least that is what the teachers keep telling us).  Our little "angel" made lots of new friends and seemed to always have a birthday party or play date to attend.  The kid has a busier social schedule then I do!  She still loves to push our buttons at home and some days I consider giving her to one of her teachers to keep since they like her so much, but by bedtime she usually pulls through, changes her attitude, and does something so sweet you can't help but forgive all of her bad behavior throughout the day.  She was a great helper with Ellie and Colton throughout the year and even though she caused about 50% of the fights that happened between the 3 of them, she put the "babies" (as she called them) in time-out 100% of the time to, as she said, "help you out mom."  Such a sweetheart!  Her main concern for next year . . . who is going to help me out while she is off at school all day?  Like I said, she is a sweet kid with a good heart, she just "forgets" things" everyone once in a while (I guess).

Ellie:  Ellie is an official preschooler (I had to keep the trend up)!!!  This past 7 months for Ellie has been busy too.  She turned 3 in April, started having lots of bloody noses (like her big sis), and refuses to stop sucking her thumb (even though we've tried everything from hockey tape to custom made, guaranteed - I need to get my money back - thumb gloves).  The thumb has been her best friend since birth, no chance she is getting rid of it now.  I've gone as far as telling her that her teeth will fall out if she doesn't stop, and she just smiles and puts the thumb back in like the conversation never happened.  We also had Ellie screened a couple of months ago for speech, and like Lauren, she qualifies for speech class which she will be starting in the fall along with her two day per week preschool.  If you missed that, I wrote that will be gone for two morning each week in the fall which means this momma will have 5 free hours to herself each and every week!!!!  Oh, what will I do with my time?

Us:  by that I mean Trav and I.  We made a decision that we are going to love our house (every single bit of it) so with that in mind, I took on the job of revamping a few of the rooms.  I started with Lauren's room (it had been the nursery for all the kids and was in dire need of a paint job and some major updates), and before I knew it, Ellie's room was done too, and so was the kitchen, the entryway, and the garage (yeah, we got a little excited!).  Lauren's room was the room where I tried out all of my newly acquired skills (basically sewing).  I made her curtains, bedspread, and cushions for her toy bench.  Trav got his first try at hanging wall decals (a huge fairy blowing dandelions into the wind which took us at least an hour and a half to hang), and I tried out some fun Pinterest ideas which if I have to say so myself, turned out pretty nice (think hanging pom poms, and cheap printables - they were fun and easy).  Ellie's room took a little more work to figure out which direction we were going, but one trip to Ikea with Grandma and Auntie, and we were well on our way (basically Ash told me what to buy, and I bought it).  The kitchen was a pretty big change.  We had some custom cabinetry made, put on new door hardware (I should clarify here, I put on new door hardware, hinges and all), got some new countertops, and voila, it's like a whole new kitchen!  Although getting there was not fun at times (at one point I called our cabinet guy at 9am when he was supposed to be there at 8am, and he responded with, "I'm running about 4 hours late").  I'm pretty sure that sentence should never even be spoken, but we got through it and in the end have a kitchen that looks nice, and more importantly, functions like it should. 

That is it for now.  We are off to the Y because it is raining yet again!  I'm hoping this rain doesn't continue all summer long because I'm done with indoor activities.  I need some sun, fun, and water otherwise it's going to be one long summer!

Will be posting some pictures this afternoon to give you a picture recap as well, hope you enjoy!