kennedy is ten!

It was a weekend full of birthday celebration at our house. We started on Friday with Kennedy's birthday party at Clay Your Way. On Saturday night, mom and Kennedy went shopping for her birthday present and then to the movie Ramona and Beezus. Then on Sunday, we went down to the lake for another birthday party!
This was Kennedy's 10-year photoshoot... a cupake teaparty with Emme and Mya!Kennedy and friends at Clay Your Way.A sleepover with BFF Kenzie...Mya wanted in on the fun.Daddy was the champion for his flight at the Pine to Palm golf tournament.

summer nights

good friends. good times. summer... is good.

what's happening?

I think it was nature weekend at my house... first Katelyn and I tried to save the life of a baby bird we found in our yard. Mya kept begging to go outside and ran to a certain spot by the evergreens everytime she got out there. We noticed some robins on the fence and they would squawk at her and fly by her and swoop down around her and I remember thinking ... "how funny! I think those birds are trying to play with my puppy!" Well... not really. They were trying to keep her away from their little baby that fell out of it's nest. So off to the garden we went to dig up some worms for this little baby. I just kept thinking how "unlike" me it was to be getting my fingernails dirty digging up slimy creatures. For a BIRD. But we found some, fed the baby bird some supper, carefully moved it out of our yard to keep it safe from Mya who would have certainly been happy to pick it up and throw it around a little. We even named her Olive. Katelyn watched Olive for a few days and she is now gone, so we think she learned to fly! (Either that or the golf course lawn mower got her... but we choose to believe the former.)

At the same time we were conducting our rescue mission, there was a momma duck and a bunch of little ducklings that got stuck in our yard, so we had to lead them out the gate so they could get back to the pond on the golf course!

July 4th

Pics of our holiday weekend are up on my photo blog... click here!

soccer weekend

This summer, both Carter and Kennedy are playing on a traveling soccer team, and we spent last weekend in Blaine for their second tournament this summer. Neither team has been very successful, but Kennedy's team finally scored their first goals of the year (Kennedy got two) and won a game. Carter's team is still working on their first win, but boy is he a hard player. Next weekend they have a tournament in Fargo, while I will be with Cooper at his baseball tournament in Bemidji.

winding down

This is the last week of school in Moorhead, and the kids have been taking part in some fun end of the year activities. All of the 5th graders had "Immigration Day", where they had to pretend that they were immigrating to America from another country. They had been studying their ancestors and lineage, and had to choose which country they were going to come from, come up with appropriate clothing, and plan what they would bring with them on their voyage. Some of the kids traveled in "families", and others just traveled in groups. Cooper was a nineteen year old coming with a friend from Poland, and Carter was a three year old from a large family immigrating from Norway. Here are all the 5th graders waiting to get off the "boat."When they got off, they had to be checked by the nurses for any health problems before they could move on.
Friends Joey and Jacob
Next up was an interview with an immigration official and a questionnaire to make sure you knew enough information about America to be let into the country.
They also had to be interviewed in their "home language", and the kids got such a kick out of this because they couldn't understand a word that was said.

They had to have their passports stamped before they could board the ferries bound for NYC. I had such a fun time watching this whole process and was impressed by the lengths that the teachers went to create a fun learning environment for the kids.
The boys also participated in the 5th grade track meet. Cooper ran the 100meter and the Boys Relay, and Carter ran the 100 meter, and both the Boys and Co-Ed Relays. It was a gorgeous day to be able to be outside.
Kennedy has been participating in an accelarated reading program with one of the most amazing teachers I have ever met. For one of their projects, they had to break into small groups, research a country, and then create a skit and slideshow to perform for their homeroom classes and parents. The slideshow had to include things like a map, types of land, tourist attractions, foods, sports, climate, language, natural resources, and government. Their story had two young girls traveling to England to see all of the sites, and they end up finding out that the Queen of England is actually one of the girls' mother and she gets to be crowned the PRINCESS! (It just happened to be Kennedy... wonder who wrote THAT part of the skit!) The performance had an airport, a restaurant, a taxi-ride, a visit to Buckingham Palace for high-tea complete with real cupcakes, and of course a coronation. Kennedy had three clothing changes during the skit... it was quite a production! Katelyn has officially completed her driver's training program and needs to go in and take her permit test. She as been begging us to take her out and teach her to drive, and dreaming about what kind of car she thinks we should buy her.

Birthday Week

It was a big week at our house last week... Carter and Cooper turned 11, and Katelyn turned 15. We started the celebrating on Wednesday when I picked up Carter and Cooper and some friends from school and they went to the DQ and bowling. Then we had all their families over for a BBQ that night. Friday was Carter and Cooper's actual birthday and they brought cupcakes for their classes at school (wish I had a photo of me carrying 70 cupcakes into the school!) They chose to go to Speak Easy for their birthday dinner. Saturday was Katelyn's big day. Her and her friend Jade got pedicures and ate lunch at the Olive Garden. Then Katelyn wanted the whole family to play the Game of Life that night. What a LONG game.

Sunday we had a little party with the grandparents. I waited until the last minute to pick up a cake for the party... so this is what we ended up with. Ugly... but it still tasted good!

Must throw in a few cell phone pics of the girls... Mya is almost as big as Emme now. And sometimes just ONE of her ears sticks up. The kids got Rock Band for Wii and a karaoke machine, so it should be nice and loud at our house for awhile.

Another busy week coming up... the boys start Babe Ruth baseball practice, (and still have rec soccer practice) and Katelyn starts drivers training today. Yikes!