Go, Go, Goers!

It's been a minute since I posted...and we have been busy! What have we been up to? Well...to kick things off, we celebrated a wonderful Father's Day with my parents and Scott. We are so lucky to have them as part of our lives! Ava then earned another stripe on the purple belt...getting close to the next level! And then we celebrated Ava's 16th birthday! WHAT? How did that happen? It was a really busy day, with lots of driving...3+ hours back/forth to Mankato, and then the most important drive...a 20 minute one that Ava took with the driver's license tester. And she passed! Hooray! It's amazing how much more free time I have now that I'm not driving a teenager all around! Door décor! Woohoo! Had to make a trip to Minnesota's largest candy store Cake time! 16 candles! A few days after that, two friends and I headed to Savannah. GA. It was a wonderful trip, with strange experiences occurring. Extra drinks being delivered, a light fixture filling with water (yi

This was the first full week of summer vacation, and the kids were havin' fun! G was at Summer Power for the full week...he made some new friends, played with old ones, went to a fun park, and even headed to the Minnesota Zoo on Friday. He's happy to be at his "home" school for the summer, and we're all pleased that it's the same staff that he's with during the school year, as well. Ava had fun with one of her BFFs on Monday and Tuesday...they went shopping, did artsy stuff, and had a sleepover. Both of their boyfriends are on vacation, so it was fantastic that they had so much time to spend together. Gotta make sure they make time for friends, and not just their boyfriends! We even fired up the table for (crispy) s'mores last weekend! Both kids earned their 3rd stripe on their purple belt for TKD on Monday night, and Ava went to the first sectional for marching band. Ava also went to her FINAL retainer check...we are officially done with ortho work fo

The kids wrapped up 10th and 4th grade this week! I can't believe that Ava is halfway through high school, and G has only one more year left in elementary school. Where did the time go? They've had a great start to summer...very relaxing and laid back over the last few days. Ava went to a party on Wednesday night (the last day of school), so G, Scott, and I went out for dinner...G's choice! Meanwhile, Scott and I plod along, working. No last day of school for us! Only a little bit longer for him to order off of the kids menu... G took the extra time in the morning to come in for snuggles before I had to get up for work And of course, a piggyback ride before watching a movie on Friday night! Bill Nye (the fish) didn't survive last weekend, so there were quite a few tears to manage. We made some improvements to the aquarium, so we're going to try again with new fish soon. I really think that fish are harder to take care of than a dog. Wish us luck with our new fishy f

We kicked off this week with my belated birthday dinner at my parents house. It was really nice to be able to relax for a few hours with a homecooked meal, and a chance to catch up. And cake, let's not forget the cake! The kids wrapped up the 2nd to last week of school...I can't believe 10th and 4th grade are coming to an end! Everyone is pretty excited to have a long break ahead of them. G ended up "winning" 2 of the 6 classroom goldfish, so we hurriedly bought an aquarium on Thursday night and got it all setup for the impending arrival of Little Timmy and Bill Nye. Friday was a really, really busy day for me, so I ended up taking care of their lengthy transition on Friday night starting at 11:30pm. They made it through the night, but Little Timmy ended up dying on Saturday morning. He was looking a little stressed, so I'm not completely surprised. We think Bill Nye is sad...he's just resting (yes, he's alive) near the bottom of the tank. We'll see if