food

empanadas and criolla

 

fried rice from the chinese booth

tiramisu

and cannoli

chocolate fondu

which she consumed in a blink

 

 

 

what an overwhelming attack to the senses, the smells and colors and sounds
so many choices, my only suggestion (rule)was they had to try things they haven't had before
a pretty easy mission considering all the choices over 30 food booths.  Yahaira tried Ramyeon (Korean noodles) Rosie tried fried rice Anthony thought the empanada from Colombia was quite good and Reyna dominated the chocolate fondue found at the swiss booth.  We sampled for a bit and then moved onto the bazaar area with the intent to return to try more foods later, unfortunately later found a very crowded busy food area, combined with some very tired and whiny kids equaled a no to another round of food sampling.  There is always next year.

popcicle maker

her birthday gift

she couldn't wait to try it out, and waited impatiently for the unit to freeze, 12 hours is a long time to a 8 year old.  Her first choice of popcicle was a kool-ade flavor.  She now has plans to make real fruit juice popcicles and pudding pops....

the first of many...

meals eaten outside.
with these sunny warm days I find we are once again moving our day to day activities outside
including eating lunch
to the smiles and cheers of little people we took part in lunching outside in the sunshine and
warm breeze...

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Yahaira!

reyna helped me make cupcakes for afterschool birthday snack

 

 

enjoying those cupcakes...

 

opening gifts

and her request for dinner.....spaghetti of course
a bike ride and ice cream filled out the day

a few nights

of wild, stormy weather
Monday and Tuesday were filled with thunder, lightening and a few storm warnings
we were spared the more wild of the weather getting rain and a little rain
it was pretty amazing to watch all those clouds roll through.
tuesday night on my way to a meeting I called cassandra just to give her a heads up about the weather moving her way.. She called me back a bit late and while we were talking the tornado sirens went off in Mankato...and where was she?  standing outside watching the clouds.  Someday I'm going to sign this kid up to go storm chasing.

a sneak peek

at mother's day gifts
my daycare kids have been busy working on these
thanks to larry who built them for us and to Pinterest for the idea

more pictures from Mamma Mia

on our way

waiting for the performance to begin

one of 20 photos she took of the playbill
(well I took "this" photo but on the way home she snapped a few more)
loved it!
loved watching my kids
didn't love the drive there, honestly how many one way streets does a man need to go down the wrong way
went to eat at the 5-8 club
Beckie had seen it featured on Food Wars a food network show, she had eaten there a couple of times and said this would be the place to go.  It reminded me of Bergen when we arrived
the food was incredible most of us tried their trademark hamburger the Juicy Lucy
a hamburger filled with melted cheese oh my stars that raised burgers to a whole new level.
A quiet drive home, with a van filled with tired little people.
Thinking this Christmas tradition is going to be a definite do again.  What a great way to spend a day
with all my kids. 

Dance Recital

the girl's dance recital was Saturday April 28th

with gracie before the show

and of course a photo with olivia

yahaira and kaylyn

with Mrs. Meyer their awesome dance coach

 

 

 

so fun to watch them perform, to see how much they have improved since last fall
to see their big smiles when the song ends.
What an awesome way to spend a saturday morning!

Today she is 8

 she is inspiring
she is kind
she is generous
she is beautiful
she is determined
she is spunky
she is a steady reminder of how amazing life is
she leads by example

Reyna and mommy

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Drinking coffee

Well juice but she calls it coffee out of her snowman mug on an 80 degree day

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