spring is coming!

Wow, have I really not posted anything since January 8th? Since spring is almost here it's probably time for an update! The past few months have flown by, even though we've pretty much spent them hibernating. The biggest thrill for Olivia and Violet was Valentine's Day. Other than Christmas, it is probably their favorite holiday of the year. They love making valentines for their friends and having a party at school. We made their Valentine cards this year, they both decided to go with a Star Wars theme. We punched a hole in the cards and inserted a glow bracelet to look like the light saber. The girls were pretty happy with how they turned out, although we kept accidentally snapping and activating glow bracelets when we were putting them together! Oh well, good thing we had extras. This is what their cards looked like without the glow bracelets.

Olivia's Valentine Card

Violet's Valentine Card

A few weeks before Valentine's Day, we were looking at some old pictures of mine. The girls found one of me and my sisters with the valentines boxes we had made that year, I was probably about 10 years old. They asked why we made boxes, I explained that we used to do that for school and that's what classmates would put your valentines in when they were handed out. Well, Olivia and Violet thought it was a cool idea and decided they wanted to make their own valentines boxes. They came up with several ideas before Olivia decided to make a soccer field and Violet decided to make a toilet (yes...as in the flushing kind). So one Saturday we got our supplies together and they worked on their boxes. Olivia cracked me up when she made a scoreboard for her soccer field, the score was Minnesota-92 against Spain-38. I don't think there will ever be a soccer score that high! They had a valentines party at school on Friday, February 12, and both of their teachers said they could bring their boxes in. They were beyond excited!

Olivia with her "Soccer Field" Valentine box

Violet with her "Toilet" Valentine box

I took the day of February 12th off work so I could help with their school parties, which has been our tradition. Luckily, it worked out perfect that Violet's party was in the morning and Olivia's party was in the afternoon, with lunch in between. So I spent most of the day at school with them, which was fun. In each party, the kids rotated between four or five different activities - a game, a craft, a snack, a special activity, etc. I really enjoyed meeting some of Olivia and Violet's friends and getting a chance to see them in their daily school routine. It was a fun day!

Olivia and Violet also enjoyed playing soccer in the month of February. Violet was signed up to play lacrosse which took place at the same time as soccer, but the class was cancelled because there weren't enough kids signed up, so she moved into soccer class with Olivia. This was their first time taking a soccer class, and they both enjoyed it. Olivia actually asked to try soccer because she played it at school and (in her words) she is really good! :) And modest too...

The girls also participated in Junior Great Books at school. It's basically a book club that meets once a week to discuss what type of life lessons they can learn from the story they are supposed to read each week. Even though they have to get up extra early one day a week to make it to the meeting before school, they really love it and look forward to going each week.

On February 20th, we went to the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball game as a family. It was Olivia and Violet's first time at a Wolves game. They had a lot of fun, but the definite highlight for them was meeting the mascot Crunch! He walked up into the stands near where we were sitting so the girls really wanted a picture with him. They told me later that he was pretty soft and furry!

At the Timberwolves game with Crunch

The weather has been pretty lovely here for March! Another sign that spring is on the way was having our spring conferences at school last night. We are very proud of both of our girls, they are doing well in school. Their biggest challenge is to improve on the more social side of things - Olivia's teacher challenged her to try to be more patient with others (not too surprising) and Violet's teacher challenged her to talk less in class (also not too surprising). Otherwise, they are both doing well academically and appear to be on their way to moving up to third grade!

happy new year

Happy New Year! Hope you've had a great start to 2016. We had a really fun holiday season. We celebrated our own family Christmas on December 23rd. Jamie and the girls were home during the day, so they made the food for our family meal that we had once I got home from work. They made sushi, lamb roast, mashed potatoes, asparagus and cranberries. The girls also set the table with our fancy tablecloth and dishes. The meal was delicious!! After all the dishes were cleaned up, we exchanged gifts. Olivia and Violet made several gifts for Jamie and me, which was pretty sweet. My favorite was from Olivia, a bunch of rocks covered in glitter. She was really proud and said she made the rocks pretty for me. :)

Christmas Eve | December 24, 2015
On Christmas Eve morning, the girls woke up to find that Santa had come early. He left a note saying that he knew that we weren't going to be home on Christmas Eve night so he decided to come early. The girls were thrilled that they received what they asked for - Olivia wanted Geronimo Stilton chapter books, and Violet wanted Diary of a Wimpy Kid chapter books.

After lunch, we left for Alexandria. We met the entire Thronson family at 2:00 for church. We went to a family service which was great for all of the kids. After church, we all went to the Thronson farm for our family celebration. The kids organized a talent show again. Olivia sang a song in Spanish and Violet made a balloon hummingbird. At the end of the talent show, all of the cousins sang together while holding battery-operated candles (their idea). It was really cute. Then we opened gifts, played Pictionary, and then just hung out together. All of the kids received matching Christmas pajamas as gifts, so they all put them on. We all stayed overnight at the farm which has been one of our traditions.

Violet and Olivia | Thronson Christmas

Grandpa & Grandma with their grandkids

Cousins in their Christmas pajamas

Christmas Day | December 25, 2015
In the morning, the guys cleared off the pond at the end of my parent's driveway so all of the kids could go ice skating. The weather was pretty mild so it was a great morning to skate. The kids all had a blast together! We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and relaxing.

Ice skating at the Thronson farm

Suchy Christmas | December 26, 2015
We celebrated with the Suchy family on December 26th. We ate a delicious meal, then put our special name ornaments on the tree. Nicholas and Chelsey opened their gifts before they had to go to work, then the rest of us exchanged gifts. Violet had to keep Grandpa in line because he kept trying to open his gifts when it wasn't his turn! After that, we played games (Olivia beat Grandma in Battleship) and just enjoyed being together. It was a fun day!

Suchy cousins

Violet and Grandpa

I had the whole next week off work, so the girls and I spent some time at both grandparent's houses. We also visited my sisters at their workplaces, saw the new "Star Wars: Force Awakens" movie (which was awesome), celebrated New Years Eve with Grandpa & Grandma Suchy, visited Jamie's grandparents, stayed overnight in a hotel in Parkers Prairie, and celebrated Chelsey's 16th birthday at a bowling party. It was a fun and relaxing week! The girls were pretty happy to go back to school this week though to see their friends, and it was nice for us to get back to a regular routine. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with our families and look forward to making more memories in 2016!

Merry Christmas!

We went downtown to see Macy's "A Day in the Life of an Elf" display on Sunday, December 20th. Going to Macy's has been our family tradition for many years. At the end, we had our visit with Santa. Violet asked Santa for "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books and Olivia asked for "Geronimo Stilton" books. They also told Santa they were going to spend the day watching football!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! All the best to you in 2016!