Little Webelo

Quinn graduated to the next level in Cub Scouts today!  We now have a Webelo in the house.  I have always thought that Webelo was an odd name for a rank considering that the previous ranks were Lions, Wolves, and Bears so I looked it up.  Apparently, it stands for We'll (we) - Be (be) - Loyal (lo) - Scouts (s) 

~ Webelos

Here the boys were lined up receiving all of the awards that they worked so hard on all year.

They were just given the medal for earning the SuperNova award, this was a pretty cool one.  They worked a long time on it.

At the end of the award ceremony, the Den leaders applied face paint to signify the advancement of the boys to the next rank. 

We are really happy that he decided to stick with Scouts another year.  Quinn's favorite part of Scouts is being outside and once Winter rolls along and the days become shorter and colder, the weekly den meetings move indoors and can get pretty boring for the boys.  It is right about then that he declares that he doesn't want to be in scouts the next year.  

But...he made it through another year and is looking forward to his new rank and 4th grade!

Date Night

 We went to a wedding...in Iowa...without the kids.  If you know us, this NEVER happens.  Jeff's longtime friend Cliff Smith got married so we had to go, even though it pushed us out of our 'stay at home' comfort zone.

The invite said "Formal" so we actually had to be super fancy.  Jeff went out and bought a really nice suit, who knew he could clean up so well. ;)  I had a great time trying on dresses that had no place in my normal routine,  it was fun!

We made sure to get to the hotel with plenty of time to spare, mainly so I could figure out my hair and Jeff could learn the right way to tie a tie.  It sounds so silly, but when getting this dressed up isn't something you do literally ever, we needed all the time we could get.

I was excited that my hair turned out despite the humidity, it was the rainiest day ever.

The wedding had to be moved indoors because of the weather, thankfully the accommodations were gorgeous!

 

We were so FANCY!!!!!

The Ceremony ~ Cliff & Lia Smith

Old Friends :D

Wedding Selfie

Track & Field - 3rd Grade

This is a whole day event for the kids at McKinley Elementary and I am pretty sure all of the parents are here.  All. Of. Them.  Literally, you have to park blocks and blocks away and there are just as many parents as there are kids standing around.  I will say, this school knows how to make Track & Field day a ton of fun for the kids.  The only thing missing is ribbons, oh how I loved winning a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or even 5th place ribbon as a child.  At least they can still win, it is just as a class rather than on an individual basis. 

I was able to watch for about 2 hours this year and showed up just after Quinn's class won the Tug-o-War.  You could hear the cheers and yells as far as I was away (remember...blocks and blocks).  Here is Quinn posing with the plaque that his class will hold until next year.

This is Mrs. Magee, Quinn's teacher.  He spends half of the day with her focusing on Reading and Writing and the Arts and the other half of the day with Mr. Hirte (who he LOVES) and they work on Math, History & Science.

I thought that I had taken a lot of pictures of this day, but as it turns out they were mostly videos.  This is a still shot of Quinn getting ready to do his part of the relay race., (The video will not play).  As it turns out, Quinn's class won the relay as well and earned a Golden Shoe that will keep the Tug-O-War plaque company in their classroom.  Way to go 3rd graders!!!

Quinn earned a BLUE in ALL events!!  Way to go Quinny!

It's fun to think that next year Luke will be here too and I will have to split my time between both boys!

Mother's Day 2019

We took my Mom to the Landscape Arboretum this year on Mothers day.  We had a nice time.

The plan was to get there early, long before they were open to the public because the parks are still open for walking...but you aren't required to pay for admission.  But...Google maps led us on a 1-hour detour around Lake Minnetonka.  It was insane and by the time we finally made it they were officially open and we had to pay for access.  That was fine but then we also realized that the detour was completely unnecessary, had we just taken a left rather than a right an hour earlier.  We were happy to have finally made it and eager to get out of the car.  

Also as soon as we entered the park, we realized that we did not take the late Spring into account when planning this day.  Nothing was in bloom except for the daffodils and a few varieties of tulips.  But there was enough color for a few photos!

Inside the conservatory, there was an orchid garden and this funny plant lady.

Paige photo-bombed our selfie, and it made the picture THAT much better.

We still had fun though exploring some new trails in the wetlands and came across a whole bunch of turtles sunning themselves on a log.

Paige insisted that we walk a loop that had the word Duck in the name, the wood duck I believe.  Because she loves ducks.  It turned out to be the highlight of the morning when Grandma sunk into the mud and got her shoes super dirty.  We couldn't stop laughing, she was so sad.  We were trying to cross a muddy part of the path and she decided to hop on logs to avoid the mess, it did not work.

The woods were really pretty though even with the mud.

On the way out, we found this cool art-like garden sculpture that was being built.

We ended up staying so long that we missed the farmers market and just went to Panera for lunch and shopped a little at Bachman's Nursery.  I guess we will have to go flower shopping (a Mother's Day tradition) another day.  

Happy Mothers's Day!!