Catching Up Post - April!

April brought some Easter celebrations and other fun happenings!

We celebrated Easter in Worthington this year.  It was fun for Ella to get to hang out with Chase and Lexi (and of course Grandma Deb!). Easter baskets were amazing yet again!

 Checking out all her loot!

We started to see a big change in Ella's top jaw from the work her expander was doing!

Look at all of that space starting in between her front two teeth!

Before we started the expander, those teeth were overlapping slightly!

 In working with the PTP (parent teacher partnership) with Ella's elementary school this year, I volunteered to make a sign for the annual Spring Fling event.  It was an Under the Sea themed extravaganza, so I worked up this cute sign for the refreshments table!

Ella had yet another dance competition and this time, a few grandparents were able to make it!

Ella's high kick team didn't compete at this event, but her hip hop team did.  They did great but we felt they scored too low.  Oh well, it was still a fun day!

 For those of us in MN, April was an interesting month.  The snow was finally melted and we were looking forward to spring....this photo was taken on April 13.  All the snow was GONE! Hurray!

 And then….

And then this photo was taken on April 15. Insane amounts of snow!

 My thoughts exactly Ella!  HA!

The world was so crazy we had a wild turkey canvassing the neighborhood!  No joke!

And then, that snow melted and the sun returned!  We were out on the deck reading on April 22!

And we kept tracking Ella's expander progress - look at how much space was gained! Crazy!

Ella's hip hop team qualified for nationals this year (Whoo hoo!) so we loaded up the truck and headed to Rochester for a weekend of dance madness!

It was so fun that my mom, Randy and Chase could come too and join us!

Her team got 3rd place at nationals!  We were going crazy!  It was so awesome!

A great ending to April 2018!

Catching Up Post - March!

Oh hello again!  How about we continue down memory lane to March 2018 shall we?

Besides hanging out with the peeps above (HA!), we spent a lot of evenings doing Third Grade homework and studying for some less than grade appropriate spelling tests....

Took some random selfies in the work elevator, you know, as you do...

Ate at the new restaurant which opened near us...

 Did some more dancing...

Dressed totally amazing in our aviator shades (pink of course) and matching winter gear...

Wore a big pink bow and looked extra sweet at a Sunday brunch...

 And started to get ready for Easter!

At the tail end of the month, Ms. Ella got fitted for an expander ahead of getting top braces later in the year.  All I can say is the transformation is crazy!  And Ella will tell you that the glue used to put that thing in her mouth was disgusting!  We went to see a movie after the expander was put in and she had to bring a spit cup!  LOL!

Catching Up Post - February!

I did it again. Failed to keep the blog up to date for the few readers who still frequent.  Plus, I do like to check back in here for what we've done as a family on various holidays, etc. so I need to get back into a more timely update schedule!!

Let's see.  We left off after the Super Bowl 52 festivities (WOW!)

February 2018 - My mom celebrated her 60th bday!  We headed down to celebrate with her and had  a fun birthday lunch and spent time with Kaila and the kiddos!

(boo on the lighting!)

(another bummer on the lighting!)

Ella's Valentine's for 3rd grade were...

 Cute little cards we found at Target which included an eraser,
but of course we wanted to add some chocolate!

Cute!

Valentine's Day was a school day!  So, Jay and I set up a fun scavenger hunt for Ella to find a few little Valentine gifts from us.  It was so fun!

 Clue #1

 Finding another clue!

 And another!

 The grand finale!  Ella's favorite animal - a Flamingo!!
It's huge but so cool!

A Valentines breakfast with cinnamon rolls with heart sprinkles!!

February meant Third Grade had the pop bottle person project....Ella chose Florence Nightingale as her famous person.  She did a little research project and then also had to make a bottle person to showcase at school.  It was a crafting frenzy!

February also brought a bus accident on my way home one afternoon, which was a lot frightening!!  All was well and nobody was hurt but it was pretty scary.  I snapped a picture while I was waiting on the side of the road for a replacement bus (and driver!) to arrive!

February at our house also means the start of the competitive dance season!  Ella competed with both her high kick team and her hip hop team at a local competition....

  FIRST PLACE IN HIP HOP!!

After the competition, Ella and I had to drive in some sketchy weather to the dance photographer's house to get Ella's dance pictures taken because she was sick on picture day!  It was a stressful drive but we got some really cute snapshots of our dancer!!

Well, according to my phone pictures that wraps up our February happenings!  :)

oh Hey 2018

I am still here! Just busy doing life. But it is time to get this place updated so I can check back and reminise about our 2018 happenings!

Well, Ella was super busy with dance in winter 2018!

We had a lot of fun during the Vikings post season which ended too soon!!

 We played in the snow!

We had times for treats and celebrations!

Pj time with Ava

Super Bowl happenings!

So...stay tuned for some more updates to get through early 2018!!