Go, Go, Goers!

This was one of those weeks where we were busy from morning to night...almost every single day. Some was fun stuff, like going out to dinner and shopping for new books, TKD, happy hours, and summer programs. Other was necessary...like an annual dr visit, dentist (TWO days), and a COVID test. Yep, lots of medical stuff that wasn't nearly as fun. But, first, we kicked off the week with a wonderful visit with our friends in south-central Minnesota. We ate great food, went shopping, managed to get out of a Christmas-themed Escape Room, went swimming, ate birthday cake, and just generally spent time with our pals.  Birthday Sloth! Opening gifts before we left to head out of town... G picked out a little "Car-ne Asada" Hot Wheel as his gift for Ava...it's a taco car! It's a birthday cake that says "Lemon"...but it's marble with chocolate fudge filling. Not a lemon in sight! Also, Ava chose the design, so it is her mastermind at work... Loving my little G! ...

We have a teenager in the house! Does that mean we're going to have snarkiness and eye rolls galore? So far, no. Granted, it's only been a very short time, but we're off to a good start. :) Scott and I are so proud of who she is, and how she is carrying herself in this world. We cannot wait to see what she accomplishes in this new year. Happy 13th Birthday, sweet Ava! Early morning snuggles with my new teen! I love that Butterfly is in this pic...her faithful sidekick for at least a decade! I took Friday off to spend the day with the kiddos, and had Ava make a lot of the decisions about what we were going to do to celebrate her birthday. We made a trip to Caribou for a late breakfast, hit up Cub to pick up her cake, and then G and I went to the pool while Ava took it easy at the house. Now that she's 13, she's venturing into social media. Gotta take pics of food! Drying off after the pool We're going to head down for the weekend to our dear friends' house in...

One of my co-workers said that he was hoping that this summer is "more sun, less COVID" and I think he captured everyone's sentiments precisely. So far, we're definitely having more sun (pant, pant, it's been super hot lately), and COVID seems to be diminishing around us, as well. Ava went in for her 2nd shot this week (no side effects so far), so I'm very pleased that she will be fully vaxxed in a few short weeks. Other than the fighting off the sweltering heat and pandemic, how was your week? Ours was pretty good! G wrapped up his 1st grade year successfully. He is so excited to be a 2nd grader! They had a wonderful last few days of school, filled with PJ day, sports day, board game day, beach day, and yearbook signing day. He said he was sad he wouldn't be going back next week, but I'm sure he'll get over it. In fact, he's probably over it now.  Oh wait, I just asked and he said he wasn't over it. Sigh. That kid. Look at this cute card h...

It's clear that things are heading back to normal, based on how busy our schedule was this week. Monday was a great Memorial Day...we planted so many flowers and spent good time together as a family, including a trip to Von Hanson's. Plus, the weather was pleasant, so we were able to be outside for a large portion of the day. The kids each made a tomte from this month's Swedish Kiwi Crate - cute! They worked so well together...I love seeing that. Due to our crazy schedule, we needed to move the kids to the Tuesday Taekwondo class for this week, and we even squeezed in a trip to the park before heading out to TKD. Wednesday night was the RMS band concerts (by grade.) The kids hadn't played together since early 2019, so it was wonderful to see them all come together...and the weather even held out and made for a wonderful backdrop to the evening's outdoor event! Ava is doing a baton duet with another twirler, so she had a 1.5 hour practice OUTSIDE on Thursday early ev...