A Month in Photos {June 2014}

June brought the end of school, which gave us a chance to enjoy some fun in the sun (at least when it wasn’t raining). There’s so many fun things to do in the summer – it’s hard to squeeze them all in!

End of the school year trip to Valley Fair with 2nd grade friends
Trips to the pool
Celebrating Father’s Day with a game of Laser tag!
Checking out books from the bookmobile
An early Birthday party with school friends
Camping with friends
An early birthday present – a new bike!

Want to see more pictures? You can find me on Instagram here.

A Month in Photos {May 2014}

Once again I’m playing some catch up. I have missing documenting our story here, as well as all the fun projects that we continue to work on, so hopefully I will get back at it now! Here’s a snapshot of our May -

Swimming
Some great friends came to visit
Camping
Trip to the Circus
Piano Recital
Cub Scouts
Mother’s Day
Trip “Up North” to the lake

Want to see more pictures? You can find me on Instagram here.

Look Who’s 8!! {Photo Bloopers}

Anthony celebrated his 8th birthday earlier this month (how is that even possible?!?) and as always, an updated photo shoot was required! I’m just starting to edit the good ones, but thought it might be fun to share the “blooper” photos (that I will not take the time to edit)!

Anthony thought it was hilarious to make some silly faces, especially eye rolling… 

Here are the photos for your viewing pleasure!











Even with so many bloopers, there are still tons of good photos waiting for Photoshop to work some magic.

Hopefully they will be ready to share soon!

Third Grade! {First Day of School}

Here we are again… the first day of school!  With the year-round school calendar it always feels like our summer is a little short, but the breaks during the school year are totally worth it.



Anthony attends a school that follows a year-round calendar or 45/15 calendar.  I have written about that here and here.

It’s always fun to look back at all of Anthony’s first days of school. Follow the links to see more of the first day of Kindergarten, the first day of First grade, and the first day of Second grade.
Check out how he’s changed over the years!


So proud of this kiddo!

Minnesota is HOME

Over the last few weeks I have been trying to make some progress in the basement again. It’s been awhile since we have done much down there (besides hang out!) and it’s time to start slowly making progress again.

For months I have been collecting some random frames from Ikea, Goodwill, Home Goods, etc. to put together a fun gallery wall above our couch. I decided I had enough frames right before the 4th of July and quickly planned out the wall. Thankfully handy hubby assisted me with hanging. Who knew those Ikea frames were such a pain to hang?!?  Seriously, Ikea should know better!

Once the frames were hung, it was time to start filling them. I put together a few photo collages in Photoshop, created a couple quick “signs”, and framed an old license plate.

Here’s a quick pic of the wall at this moment -


This is one of my favorites -


If you are interested in a copy, please feel free to email me and I will send it to you!

A Month in Photos {April 2014}

Wow, it sure has been hard to find time to document what we have been up to! The month of April kept us on our toes in so many ways – it’s nice to have it behind us! We did find some time for fun too!

Skateboarding with snow still on the ground
Silly faces
Easter egg hunts
The backyard is officially open for business!
Spring Break – 3 weeks off from school!
Playing doctor
Easter
Swimming Lessons
Cub Scout hikes

Last Day of School

School’s out for summer!

As always, I had to take the “last day of school pics”. Anthony was not as interested in photos this morning, but luckily I was able to get him to laugh at my silliness!




Check out these teeth!  Wow…. There will be an ortho consult in his future!


Here’s the comparison between the 1st day and last day of 2nd grade!  He’s grown a couple inches this year! He also really needs a new pair of shoes…


Happy summer!!

A Month in Photos {March 2014}

Somehow I barely took any photos during the entire month of March. In fact, I’m pretty sure that 

all but one of the photos in the collage this month were taken on my phone. I need to make 

more of a point to get my camera out!

Pinewood Derby
Snow, snow and more snow!
Celebrating Gotcha Day!
Volcano!! at Rainforest Café
Friends over on snow days
Adopting a new Webkinz

Pinewood Derby Car: Swiss Army Knife {Cub Scouts}

Last week I shared Anthony’s Pinewood Derby car for this year:


Now it’s time to share handy hubby’s car! Yes, he made a Pinewood Derby car. Some of the scout dads were together one night and decided it would be fun. They would all make them and race against each other. Turns out, it was all talk. Handy hubby was the only dad to build one!

The boys painted their cars together. Hubby is clearly working hard!


After the first coat of paint… You can see he made the standard Swiss Army Knife components - scissors, a knife blade and a screwdriver.


It’s all in the details! Hubby added a little key ring loop, built a teeny tiny wooden tweezers (the gray piece showing in the lower right corner) and a toothpick (goes in on the other side)


My hubby is super creative, right?!?


Here’s the end where both the tweezers and the toothpick go in.




They had a great time working on their derby cars together! I wonder what ideas they will have next year?

A Month in Photos {February 2014}

February brought more snow and more cold. This has been the winter that will not end!

School Carnival
Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts
Hubby’s Half-Marathon
Friends over to play
Lego’s!
Polar Cub Camp
Snow days
Birthday Parties for Friends

Want to see more pictures? You can find me on Instagram here.

Minecraft Sword Pinewood Derby Car {Cub Scouts}

Anthony loves to come up with unique Pinewood Derby cards. He often has really grand ideas (like a fire breathing dragon!) and this year he changed his mind a few times before deciding to build a Minecraft Sword car.

Handy hubby always lets Anthony draw a picture of his car and then does his best to cut out the design. The sword worked out pretty good!


Anthony chose the colors, and he was very specific about which colors to use. Hubby used a spray primer (that’s the gray) to give the craft paint something to stick to, and then we let Anthony just start painting.
He’s in his PJ’s, which is why he’s not wearing a shirt…


The car is upside down in the photo below. Anthony wanted to paint both sides. You can see the lines where the wheel axles (nails) will go.


Just a little bit of paint…


Ready for race day! The boys went to the post office to weigh Anthony’s car so they could determine how much weight to add to the bottom. You can just barely see the weights in the photo below.

Here are the weights on the bottom. They also drilled a hole through the end of the sword handle and slid some round weights in there too.


More to come about race day!

Here are Anthony’s previous Pinewood Derby cars: last year’s Batmobile and from the year before

He’s still running! {half-marathon}

A couple years ago handy hubby started running. Initially it was for exercise and to drop a few pounds, but as it turns out, he actually seems to enjoy running!  His last big race was Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth last June, but he has continued to run and has maintained his ability to run pretty solid distances. Since he is able to head out each week on approx 10 mile runs, it didn’t seem to take much training for him to run another half-marathon. I know, I know, easy for me to say – I typically sleep in while he runs! In any case, I’m super proud of him for his dedication to running and continuing to push himself to stay in such great shape!

It was a SUPER cold day (maybe a high of 8 degrees?) so there was no way I was going to take Anthony, find a place to park, walk to the finish line and stand around waiting with him. Sorry, hubby, we didn't see the race finale, but we did our best to support you! Before the race I had checked out the route and figured out a few good locations to be waiting to cheer him on. The first stop was in a park, about 1.5 miles into the race. We were able to cheer for him and we didn’t even have to get out of the car! Perfect!

He’s the guy in the neon yellow jacket with the black pants with a white stripe – near the center of the picture below.




We were cheering as loud as the two of us could – he obviously heard us!


Hubby knew we were planning to be at two locations, so we surprised him with a 3rd location in-between when he was expecting us. I believe this location was 3-4 miles into the race. Anthony thought the swing would be a good spot to wait, but then he decided the swing was too cold. It was FREEZING cold!!


Here he comes!


There were a few other people watching the race by us and everyone clapped and cheered for every runner. Of course that got Anthony cheering too! 






High fives for dad!


Anthony really wanted to join him, but hubby was running too fast at this point!


There he goes!


This was taken at our last stop – Anthony was able to run along with him for a little bit!








Definitely a blurry pic, but I had to include it to show hubby’s eye-lashes and the ear-cycle hanging by his left ear - BRRR!!!


Almost to the finish line - about 1.5 miles to go!


At this point, the next big race he’s registered for is the Tough Mudder this summer. Until then, he is continuing to run during this freezing cold winter we have been experiencing. Run hubby run!