School’s Out for Summer!

Just over a week ago, Anthony headed off to his last day of 1st grade.  It was an extra special day for him too, because he was celebrating his birthday with his friends at school!  Having a summer birthday used to be a bummer, but his teachers have been great and let him celebrate with his classmates before school is done for the summer.

First day of 1st Grade!


Last day of 1st Grade!


If you look at the door handle, you can really see how much he grew during the last year – crazy!  You can also tell the weather was not great.  Spring in Minnesota was not kind.

Even though school just finished, because Anthony attends a year-round school, he starts school again on July 24th.  As crazy as that sounds, we LOVE the schedule when he gets 3 long (3 weeks!) breaks during the school year.

We’ll be school shopping before we know it, but until then, we are going to enjoy every minute of summer!

Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day to my hubby!  He is definitely the best father I could have hoped for Anthony to have.  Seriously, he’s impressive!


Yesterday Anthony and I went on a road trip to Wisconsin to see my parents.  We went over to celebrate Father’s Day and my brother came home too, so everyone was there except for my hubby. 

I knew we would need a way for Anthony to burn some energy while we were there, so I brought along his bike.  I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin (population 420 when I was a kid, and I think it’s less than that now), so I knew it would be fun for him to ride his bike around town.  I used to LOVE biking all over town with anyone and everyone.  The town is so small that you can bike all around without feeling like you've gone very far.  It was perfect for Anthony!


I used to love it when my Dad would go for bike rides with us.  I remember going on bike rides “to town” (we used to live 1 mile from “downtown”) and out on the country roads.  My Dad took off on his bike twice with Anthony.  Dad said that Anthony was talking the entire time - reading all of the signs, and telling him all about everything he was seeing.  I think my Dad enjoyed experiencing their small town through Anthony's eyes.  My Mom and I walked behind them on their second bike ride and we visited a couple parks too. 


At the first park Anthony played for just a few minutes and then he was ready to go.  He said, “This park was bigger the last time I was here…”

Yes, yes it was.  My how you have grown.


The second park has a really cool castle to climb on.  We only ended up stayed at the park for about 10 minutes, and then we continued on.  I think Anthony was enjoying the bike ride more than the parks.

This boy can spin and spin on a merry-go-round.  This Momma was dizzy just from pushing him!  He loved it though!


On the bike ride back to my parents house, we stopped by to visit with some long-time family friends.  One of my childhood friends was home for the weekend – it was great to see her!  Her Dad has some toys, and Anthony enjoyed going for golf cart and 4-wheeler rides.  He even got Grandpa to take him for a ride in the golf cart!  You can tell by that grin that he is totally loving this!!


Ready for a 4-wheeler ride with my childhood friend!  We had the best times together as kids!


We enjoyed a great day visiting my parents and exploring their small town.  Anthony said the best part of the day was the bike rides – both of them. 

My only bummer is that I didn’t get a picture with my Dad. Definitely going to have to get one next time we see my parents.

Happy Father’s Day to my hubby, my dad, and all of the other dads out there!

Biking 100 Miles! {Fun for kids}

This past week I met a friend for dinner and we were talking about things we planned to do with our kids this summer.  She set a goal with her boys to ride 100 miles on their bikes this summer, which is a great goal!  She had found some great ideas of tracking the miles (on Pinterest, of course!), and planned to created a chart with her boys.

I thought it sounded fun, so I mentioned the idea to Anthony, and he was NOT interested.  Over the past couple days we have been going on lots of bike rides and tracking our miles for fun, and he has now decided it’s a good idea!  I have to admit, I was pretty excited that he was so interested!

This afternoon I quickly created a table in MS Word and then set Anthony down at my computer to fill in the 100’s chart (just like he did in 1st grade).  He had to add his own special note at the bottom, too.  He cracks me up!


Interested in a free copy (without my son’s notes on the bottom)?  Just shoot me an email at MomsGonnaSnapBlog@gmail.com and I will gladly email it to you! 

Tickling the Ivories {1st Piano Recital}

Last weekend we celebrated another first in our family – Anthony’s 1st Piano Recital!  He was incredibly nervous, but he did his best and we are extremely proud!

Doesn’t he look handsome all dressed up?  His hair is SPIKED.  If you know Anthony, you know that he LOVES having his hair spiked.


Here he is right before he went up to play.  He was crazy nervous!!



Doesn’t he look great sitting at that grand piano?  Seriously.bursting.with.pride.


Last but not least, here’s the big performance!

He made a few mistakes (he can play this perfectly), but given that there were approx 300 people there, and this was his first performance, he did FANTASTIC!

A Month in Photos {May}

May… A month that should be full of beautiful weather has been cold and rainy,
which is NO FUN at all.

Cub Scout Graduation
A day at the park (the sun was shining!)
School Musical
Camping trip in Iowa
SNOW DAY (in MAY!)
Pony rides at the circus
Bowling (thanks to ANOTHER rainy MN day)

**Want to see more photos? I’m @MomsGonnaSnap on Instagram