Playhouse Preschool Graduation

Buddy graduated last week.  And just so he can't one day say I neglected his preschool graduation on this blog, I'm back.  Poor second child.  

Preschool was so good for Buddy.  He became more confident.  He learned to make his own friends.  And we can 100% say he is ready for kindergarten.  

On the last day of preschool, the class met at a park for a picnic.  It was a happy occasion and I did not feel any sadness that my baby was graduating.  I thought it was because Buddy only did one year of preschool, so we didn't have the same bond as Punky did with her teachers and classmates.  But once the teachers started talking about the great year and showed the photo slide show, I was tearing up.  But really, he is going to love kindergarten and elementary school is going to be so good for him.  

Buddy's teacher Ms Sue and Ms Gayle

He wants to be a zookeeper when he grows up.  His teachers were not surprised.  One classmate wants to be "an adult" and another is deciding between "a princess or a mermaid".  Hahaha

Some of Buddy's best art projects

I wish I was more motivated with this blog because man, these kids are growing up so fast.  But, I'm just not feeling it.  So who know what will happen after Punky finishes 1st grade later this week.  Sorry to adult Punky and Buddy if they actually read this one day (and like it).

Spring Break and Easter

Without a consistent schedule, I am apparently not reliable with this blog.  My apologies, if you actually read it.

This past week was Spring Break for the kiddos.  We stayed home, but made it a point to do some fun things with the kids.  Last Saturday, we went to the Science Museum.

I did a terrible job of taking photos, but we all had a great time.  We stayed together while on the first level.  As we were heading downstairs, Buddy saw that the lowest level had dinosaur fossils.  He would not look at the middle level, so we had to split up.  Derek and Punky looked at all the human body things while Buddy and I explored the dinos.  They met up with us later.

Buddy met a boy while he was playing with plastic dinosaur figures.  This boy was four days older than Buddy and they both shared a crazy love for dinos and animals.  It was pretty funny watching them one-up each other with their dinosaur facts.  There were lots of "dudes", "bros" and "man" thrown in too.  It was kind of funny watching Buddy interact with another boy his age.

I still worked during Spring Break, so the kids went to daycare two days.  We went swimming on my day off.  We also dyed eggs, squeezed in a trip to the library, had a few lunches at restaurants, Punky had a playdate and we got up early one morning so we could get donuts at Hans Bakery.  It was a fun week!

This Easter was spent with my parents.  They came to our house, so that was fun.  And a good choice too, since they apparently got 9 inches of snow!

We went to two Easter Egg hunts on Saturday- one at the local park and one at church.

Buddy found a slug- he was just as excited for this guy as he was the eggs!

We went to church this morning.  We came home and I cooked our traditional Easter meal.  I didn't mess anything up.  Glad to have my mom's help!

Today is Derek's birthday.  We didn't get to celebrate much, but he did get to take a nap.  Hopefully we can celebrate a bit more next weekend!  Happy Birthday Derek!

Ice Fishin'

Daddy took the kids fishing on Dadurday.  I think the high was 58, so it was a good day to get outside and enjoy the weather.  

Hoops

She made her first basket on the last game of the season!

What we've been up to

A phone dump of sorts...  But here's what we've been doing!

Reading at the library...

Watching Netflix during Punky's ice skating lesson...

Playing Minecraft and watching DanTDM and Gaming Beaver...

Building a snowman...

The final result of the birthday party pottery...

Trying to complete 1st grade homework...  (The teacher emailed the next day to apologize for the incredibly hard assignment.  She didn't read the work sheet all the way through.  Even Derek needed a calculator and Google to solve the answers!)

Finally getting library cards...

Mastering skills and achieving so much...  and making mama cry because she was so proud.

Punky is 7!

Our sweet baby girl is 7 years old.  Impossible.  

I don't have the words to express how much Punky means to me and to our family.  But here's a little questionnaire to remember who Punky was at 7 years old.  

Favorite Color- pink

Favorite Book- Geronimo Stilton

Favorite Subject in School- reading

Favorite Food- roasted chicken

Favorite Thing to Do- play outside

Favorite Toy- all of them

Favorite Restaurant- dave and busters

Favorite TV Show- all

Favorite Movie- norm of the north

Favorite Game- life

Favorite Computer Game- minecraft

Activities I am in- ice skating, basketball and choir

Best Friend- sophie, evie, avyn

(I wish she wouldn't have asked me to help her.  Before I came into the room, it read "gerimo stilton" "rosted chikin" and "sophe" but she insisted on spelling correctly.  Also, Norm of the North was the last movie she saw and it was terrible.  And she says she likes all toys but hardly ever plays with them, so who knows.)

We had a family party on Saturday.  Since Punky isn't a fan of cake, we stuck the candles in her Special K bar.  

On Sunday, she invited some friends to go to a pottery painting place for her birthday party.  All her friends (and even her brother) were so well behaved and so kind.  What a great group of kids!  They all had a ton of fun painting and it was so neat to hear their conversations between each other.  It's crazy how as a parent you love each stage your kid is in.  Here are some photos of the big party.  I'm off to bed- it was an exhausting weekend!

Punky painted an ice cream cone box.

Buddy painted a turtle box.  

All the kids hard at work.

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They needed to do three coats- Buddy's turned out to be very brown.

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She also painted a tile that will go on the store wall.

Buddy enjoyed talking about Minecraft and Pokemon with the boys.

At 7 years old, they all look and smile when you line them up for a photo!  Crazy!

Old habits die hard

Ok, I guess I just can't stay away...  But we actually did a few things the last half of Christmas break, so I want to document it.  Since this blog is for future Punky and Buddy and because I have a terrible memory.

We played Life with Punky.  I've got to stop letting her win.

Buddy got threw up at 3am one night.  He felt fine in the morning.  So who knows where that came from?

We went to a Timberwolves game on Saturday night which typically wouldn't be my idea of a fun night, but it was actually pretty fun!  Punky's friend's dad works for the Timberwolves so they hooked us up with awesome seats.  When we got to our seats, Punky asked Derek if they were going to raise the hoops.  Derek had to remind her that the players were just that tall so the hoops looked low!  The girls got to sit together and play, talk and dance.  Buddy got to howl like a wolf as much as he wanted.  The moms got to talk too.  But the Timberwolves played well the first quarter so that was fun to watch.  They kinda stunk the rest of the game and ended up losing.  The kids loved the crowd and the atmosphere of being at the game, so it was exciting.  Punky is starting basketball lessons next week- so it was also a good introduction to playing a real game. They even made it on the jumbrotron!

I need to get better at picking up my big camera and not relying on the iPhone.  But convenience wins.  Maybe I should store my camera downstairs instead of our bedroom...