Game day!

Anita and her family came up to catch the kids ball games. Charlie was suppose to have one last night, but because of the rain, it was canceled! Today's games were not...however it was very cold! William even caught a line drive to end his game! He was excited his Aunt, Uncle and cousins got to see his catch!

Later on that night, we had a bon fire and burned our Christmas tree!

End of School year picnic

Today is the last day of school. Grace's Last day as a 3rd grader. Teachers were Mrs. Gurgle and Mrs. Ryan

Charlie's last day as a 1st grader. Teacher was Mrs. Reim

As tradition, there is a picnic and water balloon fight that follows. Unfortunately it rained in the morning, and the forecast didn't look promising, so the picnic was canceled. That didn't stop us! We headed to the park with the Sydow famiy and had our own picnic and water balloon fight!

William and Ross getting the water balloons ready. We got 200 all ready to go. Later in the day, in rained again! That didn't stop the boys from playing a little basketball in the rain!

Ross's sister Anita and her family came up for the weekend and, so we also played some wiffle ball in the rain...in the dark!! Why not!

Entertainment Night!

It was entertainment night for school tonight. Kids put on some great skits!

Happy Memorial Day!

As always, our church had a float in the Memorial Day parade and we were a part of it! I thought it was going to rain, but it held off till right at the end! Always a good way to spread the word of God!

After the parade we had a friend from work and her family over for a grill out! I only ended up getting one picture of Grace and her daughter Chloe!

projects

I've been working on a few projects this weekend that I had been wanting to do for a good 6 months. I finally got around to it this weekend. I am pretty excited how they turned out!

Yup! I did that all myself! The frames and stencils are from my friend Lori, and I did did the rest! Didn't think I was that crafty!

Mini golf!

Must of been a rough night for this man! This is how we found in in the morning on the couch! Grace and William were not being quite, and he didn't move!

We had a few ILC graduations to attend early in the afternoon, then decided afterward to take the kids mini golfing! They had a blast!

Saying goodbye to another sitter!

Yup, another sitter. Our schedules here are so crazy that we actually had 4 sitters to work around our crazy schedules. Alison is a student and the University and was willing to help us out this school year. Between her and Rachel, they watched the kids the most! Kids are going to miss Alison too!~

It was such a nice night out and no games were to be played tonight, so the kids and I had supper on the patio!

Last Day of Preschool!

Can't believe the day has come! Today was William's last day of Pre-School! I am surprised how excited he was since he loves school, then he reminded me that now he gets to go to kindergarten! Not sure if I am ready for that! I got off a few hours in the morning and surprised

him at his last day! It is fun to see him and his classmates interact! Today was also a last for our babysitter Rachel. I will be the first to admit, our house schedule is crazy. Ross and I wouldn't be able to work our crazy hours without the help of sitters. We have had some amazing sitters in the past and I always wonder if we will ever find one as great as the last. Then, we got the name of Rachel from our previous sitter! She has been amazing. She has been with us for the last two years! She has almost become one of the family! William spends a lot of time with her and adores her! He is sad when she isn't coming, and so excited when she is! She decided to spend her summer back home and work there to be closer to her family. She is in the nursing program here and the University in town and graduates in December. The kids are going to miss her! I can't thank her enough for how much she has helped our family and our kids!

And then, more softball!

You can see Grace in her ready stance....(insert sarcasm)

baseball and sickness!

Charlie ended up coming home from school with an upset stomach, and did throw up twice. I am lucky to say I have an amazing babysitter that picked him up and took care of him. Charlie was suppose to have a game that night, but due to him not feeling well, he didn't attend. He wasn't very happy with that. He was feeling better by early afternoon and thought it would be ok to play, however he was walking really slow to get anywhere, so I said no! So, Charlie and I hung out and watched Williams game. Grace had a game in Chippewa, which her coach took her to and Ross picked her up after work!

Slowpitch Softball

And so begins the season of softball for Ross! The kids love coming and playing with all their classmates and friends. Grace made a new friend, or actually she was the babysitter for this cute little girl!

Grill out with neighbors!

We had the neighbors over for a grill out! After supper, the kids and the grown up men played a little 500!

Lazy Day!

We didn't have anything going on tonight, so we took a break and crashed on the couch while we waited for dad to come home! The boys think it is hilarious to give everybody bunny ears when pictures are being taken!

Snuggle time!

I had the day off to attend a field trip with William and his class to the bus station, but since there are only two kids who will actually ride the bus next year, and those two kids already ride the bus, they decided to cancel the field trip! So, it ended up being just William and I all day. I asked him what it is he wanted to do, he said "snuggle", so that is what we did for a while! Love this kid!

Later in the evening, Grace had a softball game! Tonight it was her turn to pitch! She did pretty well!

Supper over a Bon fire!

Ross wanted a fire tonight. I didn't want to make supper. So Ross took care of it his way!

Happy Mothers Day!

Ross worked today, so it was just me and the kids. I woke up to Grace and Charlie making be breakfast, scrambled eggs! Yup, they made them all by themselves! After breakfast, we headed to church. It is truly a blessing to be the mother to these wonderful children of ours! God has blessed me!

Parade and Flowers!

Our church always has a float in the Doll and Pet Parade they have here in town, which was today. The kids and I headed down to help out and walk with the float!

After the parade, we had to get groceries and went to the greenhouse to get some flowers for the pots around the house! The kids help plant all the flowers!

After Ross got home, we headed down to Buffalo Wild Wings for supper. This is Charlie and William's favorite place to eat! They finished off a 20 piece of wings between the two of them. I think charlie counted he had 12 wings, William had 7, and Ross ate one as well!

Patiently waiting!

Tonight both boys had games, but 1/2 hr apart start times. William quickly hurried to his dougout and was waiting for his team to arrive while watching the other team warm up. Then I realized that his game didn't start for another 45 min, and Charlies game started first! So Charlie ended up being late! Oops! I didn't see much of their games since I had to work in the concession stands and Ross was working. But I saw a few of Charlies hits!

And Softball season begins!

Tonight it was Grace's turn to have her fist game of the season! It's a little different having a girl the same age as you pitch to you! Not every pitch it right down the plate, and the ups make the strike zone a little bigger!

Baseball season begins!

Back to reality and back to running the kids around. Tonight is William and Charlies first games of the season! William was so excited, he was ready to for an hour and half early and impatiently asked every 5 min if it was time to go! He really played well! Fun to watch him finally play what he has watched his siblings play for years now!

Back in WI!

We are happy to be back home with the kids. We missed them so much. I am sad however the warm weather did not follow us back! No idea what we are flying over here, I think it is the Colorado River, but not positive! It just looked neat!

Now on this picture, if you look close, you can see Sleepy Eye! It is covered a little by the clouds, but it is at the top. You can see the Sleepy Eye lake!

Goodbye Vegas, hello Phoenix!

We rented a car this morning and drove down to Phoenix! It of course did not come without complications. Our plan was to get out of Vegas around 9, but the rental car we got ended up having a nail in the tire that we found when we were almost out of town. We had to go back to the hotel, only to find out it was the last mid-sized car they had so they sent us to the airport to exchange it. We didn't start up again till about 10:30! Oh well! We decided to stop at Hoover Dam and do one of the tours they had. It is amazing what our people built in the early 1900's! To be honest, this was my favorite part of our trip. We didn't have time to go to the Grand Canyon. It was a 4 hr drive still to Phoenix and we wanted to get there before dark. But the drive down was beautiful as well. The lay of the land is so much different than in the Midwest. The cactus's, hills, rock piles, and not to mention the roads. They are very curvy roads all the way down, and people drive 80mph on these roads. I was a nervous driver to say the least! We got in to Phoenix around 5 and met Ross's college friend who lives down there for supper. It was fun to catch up!

Vegas day 3~

Our last day in Vegas. Today is the day of the big fight, so we all decided to get out of the main area and we headed down to Fremont St. It was a fun last night!

Updates from back home! Grandpa and Grandma took the kids to Carsen park for a picnic(if you look closely, you will see William is still wearing his t-ball jersey). Then after, the planted some flowers and vegetables in their own planters! Such wonderful memories they are making!