Family Date Day

While Bethany was in Germany, we skipped regular Date Night and did Family Date Day, instead. 

After church, we picked up our race packets and then headed to lunch. There was lots of indecision about where to eat. The kids rarely eat anything out unless we go to Chipotle or Smashburger. We chose Pei Wei for no real reason. :)

Then we headed over to the Eden Prairie mall to play for a little while and then we saw the movie Epic. The kids always sit pretty well for their age. And they ate candy and popcorn! Afterwards, both Ivy & Jamey said they didn't like the movie because it was scary. During the movie, Livy kept saying "Uh-oh! What happened?"

I think our next kid movie is Despicable Me 2. 

Ivy's Kindergarten Music Program

What a cute day!

Ivy was pretty "stage shy." It was cute to watch. 

Egg Drop

A few weeks ago, Ivy's school had an Egg Drop. All the kids packaged up raw eggs to drop from the roof of the building and see whose didn't break.

Because of the weather, it got rescheduled, so Ivy actually missed it, but here is the box she and Jeremy decorated. The plan was to have Jeremy get up on our roof and drop it from there, but that never happened. The kids tossed it off the deck about a million times one morning. The egg broke--probably when the box broke open. 

The end is coming

I have to cut Ivy some slack. She's been having a rough week or so. I mean, she's super crabby. 

I just cried because in Mrs. Dovre's Kindergarten News for the week, she said next week is the last Friday Folder. Yes, I cried over the last Friday Folder. 

If Ivy's a bit (or even a lot) more emotional as the end of kindergarten approaches, she's just going to get hugs and cuddles from her equally emotional mom. 

Grandma

My Grandma Elness (or Grandma Marian, or as my kids call her Great-Grandma) recently sent my kids a letter. It reminded me of all the cards and letters I got from her as a kid. 

She is experiencing dementia and will be moving into a memory care center soon. We're going up to Alexandria to see her this weekend. I've been thinking about her more the last couple weeks and came up with a list of my favorite memories with her. 

• Birthday boxes decorated with magazine pictures
• my Cabbage Patch doll
• Barbie clothes and countless other doll clothes & blankets
• Doing her hair and make up
• My trip to California in Dec 1994: Crystal Cathedral, driving around in the big brown van looking at Christmas lights, going to the beach, the Scandinavian shop, making sausage, picking oranges off her trees, and singing in the church choir with her
• I think of Grandma every time I have a cup of coffee
• Making lefse
• Grandma has always had hundreds of pictures hanging on the walls and sitting on tables. I love having pictures out too.

She used to sing this song to us when we were really little. I only could remember the first line, so I had to do some searching on the internet. I have no idea what this is about in English. :) 

Ride Ride Ranke
Ride Ride Ranke
Hesten heter blanke
Hvor skal vi ride
til Kongsgard a fri
til ei lita pike
hva skal hun hete
Jomfru Margrethe
Den tykke og den fete
der er ingen hjemme
uten to sma hunder
som ligger under benken
og gnager pa lenken
Den lille sier Voff, Voff
Den store sier Voff, Voff, Voff.

All healed up

I had my last follow up appointment with the surgeon today. I got three quick x-rays, and then a short chat with the doctor.

He said I'm all healed up--the break totally healed and it doesn't bother me much anymore. Well, yoga is hard and sometimes pushing open heavy doors is hard. It feels stiff sometimes, but stretching helps that.

He said all those pesky "symptoms" will go away with time. I have up to a year to get back to normal. But I'm healing up so well, I don't have to do any more physical therapy and I don't have to see the surgeon anymore.

So, now I'm all done!

The massive embarrassment of crying in the school office

I've had a rough couple days knowing that Ivy was going to visit 1st grade today. All the kids got to visit the school they'll be going to next year and have hot lunch. Talk about exciting!! It's all Ivy could talk about for days.

I cried in Target last night telling Jeremy about it.

She's going to be gone next year ALL day (8:30-3). She's practically as tall as I am. She says such funny grown-up things (like "Just so you know, I put the Oxy-Clean in the laundry room.")

At school drop off this afternoon, I was in the office getting Livy and Jamey (who ADORE Miss Angie). We chatted about how busy school was because preschoolers were also visiting kindergarten. I said something as inane as "I can't even think about Ivy in 1st grade" and I just started crying.

I felt like a mess, but she was very nice about it. She did warn me that the kindergartners will sing a "song guaranteed to make me cry" at graduation.

A fun part of this is that we have a game that hugs and kisses make kids grow up. So while I tease the kids that I'm never giving them any more hugs & kisses, they make a big deal out of kissing their own arms or each other so they'll keep growing.