fun with granny

Granny visited us over Memorial Day weekend. Jamie went up to his parent's farm, so we had a fun little girls weekend. Granny arrived on Saturday morning. She treated the girls to Twizzlers and a slushie for breakfast (what a treat!) Then we proceeded to get our nails done. Olivia and Violet had their fingernails and toenails painted while I got a manicure. They thought it was awesome!

Violet showing off her sparkly fingernails and toenails

After our nails were beautiful, we headed to the Linden Hills area of Minneapolis. We went to a new park that my sister Terri suggested, and the girls loved it! There were a lot of climbing areas, which they really enjoyed. We packed a lunch and ate it at the park. It was a little chilly, so we left the park after lunch and headed to some shops in the area. We went to a Creative Kidstuff toy store, where Granny asked the girls to pick out something they wanted. Violet picked out a big drawing pad with body outlines on it, so she could draw a whole bunch of different people. Olivia picked out a set of stamps and ink pads. We then met up with Terri and William and headed to Wild Rumpus, a fun bookstore that houses real animals. The girls were able to pet a chinchilla, and also saw a rat, roosters, a cat, and other animals. They had an awesome time! We could hear where the kids were by listening to William's voice yelling "Olivia! Violet! Look over here!"

Then, we walked to a yummy ice cream shop. William devoured his ice cream quickly, but the girls savored it! After that, we went to the library. The kids had fun playing legos in the children's room, and also playing on the computers. Granny, Olivia, Violet and me then went to McDonald's for supper. That was the girls' main request of what they wanted to do over the weekend! They had fun in the play area. Then we headed home, put our jammies on and watched a movie.

On Sunday, we went to the Mall of America. Terri, Aaron, William and Noelle met us, and the kids had fun going on rides in Nickelodeon Universe. We ate lunch in the food court and then went to a few stores. The girls loved shopping in Justice, a cute clothing store for girls. We also went to the Disney Store, and then headed back to Nickelodeon Universe for more rides. The girls got to meet Spongebob and Dora, which they thought was pretty cool! We headed home in the evening, and again put our jammies on. We played Uno (the girls definitely giggled about playing special cards on Granny), then we watched a movie.

Hugging Spongebob

Posing with Dora

On Monday morning, Granny showed the girls how to sew plastic canvas hay bales. She even left them materials so they could make more on their own. We had a great weekend with Granny and enjoyed our special time with her!

busy busy busy!

The last month has been pretty eventful! On April 13, we attended my cousin Tricia’s wedding in Minneapolis. This was Olivia & Violet’s first wedding, and they were definitely in awe! They followed Tricia around, gazing at her like she was a princess, and I enjoyed visiting with relatives that I hadn't seen for awhile. We also enjoyed the wedding dance; the girls showed some dance moves I haven’t seen before! It was a beautiful day, and we had a lot of fun.

Olivia & Violet were in awe of Tricia, the bride!

We had a furry house guest for five days toward the end of April. Terri and Aaron went on vacation, so their dog Brinkley stayed at our house. The girls loved it! Good thing he got two scoops of food at each meal, so they could each give him one scoop to keep it fair! He is a really good dog, and we enjoyed having him. The girls told me that Terri and Aaron need to be gone longer next time, so Brinkley can stay for more days!! During that time, we were also visited by my sister Nikki and her family.

On April 27, we went to the Gopher football spring game at TCF Bank stadium. It was one of the first nice days of the year, so we really enjoyed being outside. Since Jamie works on campus, he also walked us through his clinic and showed us his office and treatment rooms. The girls thought that was pretty neat!

Olivia & Violet watching the Gophers warm up

Violet taking a break from the game and enjoying the sunshine!

On Friday, May 3, Jamie and I went out to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. A girl that lives next door to us babysat for us, and I guess it went great! It’s hard to believe that 11 years have gone by since our wedding day. I have such great memories of that day!!

On Sunday, May 5, we went to the play “Alice in Wonderland” at the children’s theater  It was the best play we have seen there so far! The special effects were pretty cool. The girls especially liked the Cheshire Cat and the door mouse.

We've also celebrated some family birthdays recently; our niece Claire’s 4th birthday party was on May 4, and our nephew William’s 4th birthday party was on May 11. The girls had a blast playing with their cousins at both parties!! And the themes were so cute: Minnie Mouse for Claire and trains for William. Both fit their personalities perfectly!

Olivia and Violet also started golf class on May 11. They decided to take a break from swimming lessons and try other things. They've been in ice skating class since April 3, and now they are also trying golf. They had a blast at their first class! Basically, they get to hit the ball as hard as they can. J They also played a game where they tried to hit the ball to certain places on the driving range. The girls really enjoyed it and have been practicing in our backyard since. Their teacher commented that they have great hand-eye coordination for their age. We’re not signing them up for the LPGA tour yet, but as long as they are having fun with golf, we are happy to let them give the sport a try!

Violet & Olivia in ice skating class

WHOOPS!

The girls also LOVE to ride bike this spring. Most nights, that is all they want to do! They are both riding well without training wheels now, so we've gone on some family bike rides. They aren't the best about watching where they are going, so I still get a little nervous, but luckily there are some trails near our house that ease my nerves because then we don’t have to worry about cars.

On May 12, we went to the Twins game at Target Field. The weather was a bit cool and the Twins lost 6-0, but we had a fun time anyway. Before the game, the girls were able to meet some mascots outside the stadium and hit some baseballs. After the game, they were able to go down on the field and run the bases. They thought that was so awesome!! They were hoping they could go in the dugout and meet some Twins players, but that unfortunately didn't happen. :)

Posing with Bullseye, the Target mascot

Violet hitting baseballs before the game

Olivia hitting baseballs before the game

Olivia & Violet told two other fans that they liked their hats; the other fans then let them try their hats on!

Olivia & Violet on Target Field, waiting to run the bases

Olivia & Violet rounding second base

We also have the girls’ preschool graduation coming up on May 31. This will be their last day at their current daycare. They are going to the YMCA for the summer, which is an exciting change. The girls are a little sad about leaving their current daycare, but they also look forward to something new. I think they are ready for a change. The Y has a different theme each week, and they go on a lot of field trips that tie in with each week’s theme. Plus, the full day schedule (no naps) will help them get ready for kindergarten. They start at the Y on June 10. We are taking a little family trip to Wisconsin Dells the week in between as a transition. We will be staying at a waterpark/resort complex. The girls love water so I’m sure they will have a blast! We are looking forward to spending some time together, relaxing as a family.

kindergarten, here we come!

We finally have some questions answered about where the girls will attend kindergarten this fall. Our public school district has ten elementary schools which is what has made this process quite long and confusing. We had to apply at our “home” elementary school (which is based on where we live in the district), where we are guaranteed half-day kindergarten. We had to enter into a lottery for full-day kindergarten at this school because there is only one full-day kindergarten class. We were fortunate to be drawn in the lottery for this, so Olivia and Violet did get into the full-day kindergarten option there.

In the meantime, we entered into a separate lottery for two specialty schools in our district, one being Robbinsdale Spanish Immersion (RSI) school and the other a Science & Technology (STEAM) school. Both of these schools are VERY popular and therefore are very hard to get into. It comes down to the luck of the draw. There were over 320 lottery applicants for kindergarten for each school, for only about 50 spots at the RSI and about 25 spots at STEAM. We did not get drawn in the lottery for either school; however, we were automatically put on a waiting list for both schools based on where we were picked in the lottery. We were #8 on the waiting list for RSI and #149 at STEAM. So at that point we knew we had no chance at STEAM!!

Recently, the first round of lottery offerings had to be accepted or declined, and based on how many declined, the next round of offers was sent out to those next numbers on the waiting list. We were lucky enough to get an offer in this second round for RSI, because 11 people declined their spots, and we were #8 on the list. That was the good news!! The tough news was that we were only offered half-day kindergarten at RSI. So we had a tough choice to make, full-day at our regular school of half-day at RSI. There is on-site daycare at RSI, and they do have a “Kindergarten Component” for half-day kindergartners to attend for the other half of the school day. So it does help to know that they will have a learning curriculum the other half of the school day, which will hopefully be like a full-day kindergarten education. Thinking long-term, we decided that RSI will provide great benefits to Olivia and Violet. RSI is also ranked much higher in the state school rankings than our home school. So we have decided to send them to RSI. We are very excited about this opportunity! RSI goes through fifth grade, and it is a program where students learn Spanish as a second language through immersion. So, basically the teachers will speak Spanish to them from Day #1, and all classroom instruction is conducted in Spanish. That means Jamie and I will probably have to learn some Spanish too so they can’t talk to each other without us knowing what they are saying. :)

We attended an information night at RSI on April 29. We were able to tour the school, ride on a school bus, meet the kindergarten teachers, and spend some time in the kindergarten classrooms. I watched as one of the kindergarten teachers read "The Three Little Pigs" ("Los Tres Cerditos") in Spanish to a group of kids. It was interesting to see how the teacher could convey the meaning of the story through actions and facial expressions, even though the words were in Spanish. The kids also learned a song in Spanish about shapes; the girls loved it and did not want to leave! They are very excited to attend Spanish Immersion school this fall.