Jennifer's Bridal Shower

After school, yesterday, we held a shower for our good friend Jennifer.

She got engaged on New Year's Day at Rockefeller Center.

The Mother of the Bride and the Bride to Be

She is very blessed in the mother department.

Jennifer was so gracious and appreciative.

She enjoyed every minute of it.

The Bride to Be and the hostesses.

We played the game where teams had to make a wedding dress out of toilet paper. 

It was a hoot!

Full Bloody Mary bar!

Jennifer's drink of choice.

The food was wonderful!

The dresses were all so amazing we had to draw a name.

I was in charge of purchasing and wrapping the gifts.  I found the most gorgeous bblack wrapping paper with Mr. & Mrs. written in silver glitter.

So pretty and a total disaster!!!!!!!!!

My house and Laura's house are now covered in a nice even coat of fine glitter.

Every gift made her that excited!

Keys' cakes are the best!

The gifts from our very generous staff.

The whole crew.

We had an amazing turn out all because the Bride to Be is so amazing herself!!

I had emailed Ben 26 questions that he answered.

Then I asked Jennifer the same questions in front of everybody.

See my hands holdngthe paper in the bottom right corner?

The answers alternated between funny and super sweet.

She loved it.

The last question was:

Name five words that best describe Jennifer.

His reply was:

beautiful, honest, smart, funny, personable, and did I mention beautiful

We used a guest book for guests to write a well wish or advice.

This gift wins the Best Gift Prize!

It's a hanger that says her married last name to hold her dress on

October 22!  So gorgeous!!!!!

I loved

Dollar Store

Once in a while the kids earn a trip to the Dollar Store and they get to choose two things.  Anything they want in the whole store.  They love the power!  It's really fun watching them try to make their decisions.  This is all Christian wanted last week:

He immediately undressed her and named her Allie.

He loves his baby.

Bulb Garden

I was at WalMart the other day (now that's a shocker!) and I saw Bulb Gardens on sale for $8.  I put one in my cart thinking how my kids would like to watch it grow.  As I zoomed around the store for the other 999 things I needed I thought about how I already bought bulbs and they bloomed and took up the whole table and how annoyed I was moving them all around the kitchen because they were always in the way. 

Then I got a really good idea.

I would take the Bulb Garden to school instead.  I went back and found the Bulb Garden with the least growth.  It looked like a large pot with 7 little green sprouts in it.  These suckers grow super fast, so I wanted one that didn't have a head start.

Each day this week I took a picture of one student holding the bulb garden then I'll add all 21 pictures to my end of the year iMovie.  It's amazing how many bulbs have bloomed already in five days.  The kids love when I pick someone for the picture.  Each hoping it is himself or herself.

Today a little girl and I were counting the daffodils.  She was saying how different it looks since Monday.

Then she says, "And I can't believe you just planted light bulbs and got all these flowers!"

Daddy Daughter Dance

Months ago I signed Victoria and Daddy up for the Maplewood Daddy Daughter Dance.  We talked and talked about.  Victoria was counting down the days.  On the morning of April 29th, she was jumping around the house she was so excited. 

However, on Friday afternoons she's typically really tired.  Sometimes accompanying the exhaustion is grumpiness and/or crying.  On that fateful Friday evening the exhaustion took hold of Victoria and wouldn't let her go.  She cried and cried and cried saying she didn't want to go, she was too tired.  I tried everything.  I ended up forcing the dress on her all the while her screaming she didn't want to go, please don't make me go! 

Uncle Guy and Emilee were on their way to meet up with Mark and Victoria and I really wanted her to be past the crying before they got there.  I was not successful. 

These pictures really sum up how that 1.5 hours really went down.

Trying to rip off the corsage instantaneously!

I had to use this one with Uncle Guys eyes closed because Victoria is crying in the rest.

At least somebody is happy!

Aren't they so cute together?

I tried to disctract her by pointing out geese.

Even that didn't work.

Finally, she's happy.

Off they went, all decked out, to McDonald's.

They had a wonderful time dancing and having fun together.

Mark said Victoria said, "Good thing we came here tonight Daddy! 

If we would have skipped this it would have been a bad choice."

In the end, it all worked out.

Dying Easter Eggs

Another holiday tradition I adore.

Dying Easter eggs.

This year was the smoothest it has ever gone.

Almost too smooth.

Not that I'm wishing for spilled dye or anything.

But they're getting so big they barely needed any help.

It was like magic to him.

He learned to be so careful and gentle

placing them in the water to avoid a splash and saying,

"Sorry mommy. Oh well!" when there was a splash.

Of course, fashionista couldn't do it without her little ears.

Hmmmmm. . .how did that happen?

It was stained.  I didn't try to get it off.

I thought it would make for some interesting conversation the following day at Easter.

Turns out it comes off faster than you'd expect.

Maybe I should chill out more often and things would just work themselves out.

They look beautiful - but they're terribly under cooked.

Notice the artistic Easter tree on the left.  Somebody was quite proud of herself!

My favorite picture of the season!!

Enjoy Spring While It's Here

After living in Minnesota nearly 32.5 years, I have lived through the worst MN winter ever.  Augh.  It was looonngg and coooold!  And we're supposed to get snow this week yet!

So when it's actually nice out we must make the most of it.

These were from a couple weeks ago.  It has snowed twice since.  We'll just keep dealin' with it. . .I guess.

We love to explore across the street.

And pose for pic after pic for Mommy.

Now that we have 'big kids' they ride their bikes there.

Or a scooter.

Feeling like the Big Boy on the Block!

Oh, his smile brightens my day!

Showing off.

She actually posed like that.

She's a fast little scooter girl.

It's not about speed for him. . . . yet!

Geese flying over head.

Cutest profile in town.

Still needs some guidance riding in a straight line.

And pedaling.

Quite possibly my All Time Favorite picture of my little buddy.

Man, I love that boy.

That's what we do in our free time when it's nice outside. 

We take full advantage while we can. . .