School's Out For Summer!

Eli said farewell to his 19 K-1 pals yesterday. They were such a good group of kids, I just can't say enough good things about them or about Mrs. Vaughn, their teacher. Or about K-1 in general, it's been such an awesome, growing year for Eli and I'm so happy that we chose not to do kindergarten and to wait a year. However, I'm sad to say that he didn't get into the charter school we were hoping to send him to, Schoolcraft. Instead, he'll be heading to The Paul Bunyan Kindergarten Center.

The kids had two field trips the last couple of weeks of school. They walked to the local park for one and took the bus to the state park for the other. Luckily, we had great weather for both days.

Eli's best buds: Will, Eli, Ryan and Caleb

I can't believe the kids were playing in the water. It was 80 degrees or so out (which, btw, is super-hot for Northern Minnesota), but that water was icy cold!!

Now it's time for t-ball, camping, going to the beach and having fun in the sun!!!

Happy 65th Birthday Grandpa!!

On June 5, my dad and his twin brother, Ron, celebrated their 65th birthday. My aunt and uncle, Dad and Ron's siblings, hosted a birthday party in the twin's honor.

You are probably wondering why in the world these 65 year old men are wearing these silly hats. BTW, my dad is on the left and Ron is on the right.

The reason is this picture which was taken in Glendive, Montana when the twins were 2. So, they had matching hats and shirts and my aunt Colleen made cherry chip cakes just like grandma used to.
They were good sports and reenacted the event.

The grandkids helped blow out the candles!

The siblings: David, Don, Ron and Kathy. My uncle George couldn't make it and my uncle Jim passed away 10 years ago.

We had such a fun time. I'm so glad my aunt and uncle pulled this together so we could help celebrate. It was great seeing aunts, uncles, cousins and their kids.

Sadie's New Room

After what seems like forever (ok, only May) and a long list of "to dos", I'm happy to say that "Operation: move Sadie" is complete. You can see that there is still some pictures to find and hang and a night stand and book shelf need to be found, but you can get the gist. We painted it a lovely "Hawaiian Sky" and Sadie is happy with it even though she wanted pink. (Not that I had a problem with pink, I just figured she might grow out of pink in a year or two!) Because we only have 3 bedrooms, Sadie's room will double as the guest room so she needed a queen bed which takes up most of her small space.


I found this cute little vanity and chair at an antique store called "the Barn Chicks". Once I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for Sadie and it is!
Dennis and I moved onto the main floor into what was the guest room/sewing room. Eli is still in the same room, though I suspect they'll still be sharing space for awhile.

Emily's Graduation

This weekend our lovely niece, Emily, graduated from Bismarck High School. Emily, is the sweetest, goofiest girl around. She's heading to Black Hills State in Spearfish, SD to study Mass Comm. and photography, which is her passion. However, my prediction is that she becomes a teacher, because, well, she's just so good working with little kids that I can't imagine her doing anything else.

Of course I hardly got any pictures of the graduate, but I managed to take pictures so let's just be happy about that!

I think this is a miraculous picture because Sadie is posing with two people who really dislike having their picture taken: her Cousin Elizabeth and her Aunt Paula.

Gabe and Eli (with Grace in the background)Grandpa with Jake:

This is Jack, not to be confused with Jake, but we do it all the time anyways. Actually, we don't confuse them we know who is who, but we just call out the wrong name...

Sadie's Last Day of School

I realized this week that I hadn't posted any pictures of Sadie at her pre-school. Like Eli, she attended Enchanted Garden, a Waldorf inspired school at Frances' house. She very much so loved going to Frances' and it is a wonderful place for kids to grow and explore our world in a natural and peaceful setting. At Frances', Sadie :
Plays musical insturments, like drums, sticks, bells, violins, harps and cellos.

Made soup each week as well as pizza, bread, hot cross buns, muffins, and porridge.

Had many tea parties,


Did numerous crafty things like sewing and finger knitting,
and candle making.


They (Aaron, Elizabeth, Leanna, Luis, and Sadie) planted flowers,

played outside everyday (even when it was 10 and 15 below!),
Celebrated holidays, the seasons and the passing of time,

She colored and painted and designed silk scarves.
They played with scarves with so many ways, here they used them for blankies, but they dance with them, and hop on them and use them for wings and do all sorts of imaginative things with them. Scarves are more awesome than I thought.
What a wonderful year!!

Art Show and the Ry-Guy

Eli's school had an art show/bookfair/claymation/math and reading night. It was a fun family night. Eli's class made zoo pictures from wooden icecream spoons. There's a giraffe, bird and some other animals that I can't remember!Eli and his BFF, Ryan, aka "Ry-Guy" have to do everything the same. They call each other in the morning to see what each other is wearing to school. They check out the same books from the library. They're pretty cute together. Ryan also has a sister, Abby, who is a year younger than Sadie so playing works out great! They also happen to live very close to us and Ryan will be at the Kindergarten center with Eli next year and both families have requested the same teacher. So, we're hoping they're together next year too. (They're wearing the same outfit because they just finished soccer.)

Bubble Gum

I don't know what's wrong with me. It seems at important family events I always neglect to take pictures and those are always the events that I should be taking pictures of. Take my niece's first communion/confirmation that was last weekend in which I was asked to be her sponsor, for example. I didn't take a single picture and it was, of course, picture worthy. Maybe my BIL will send me some photos from the event so I can show you how cute my niece is. And show you pictures of all the cousins, because really, it just doesn't get any better than cousins!

Instead, I'll show you a not-so-major-but-still-important event in our life: blowing bubbles. Have I mentioned before that I love this age? Well, how could I not love spending an afternoon in front of the bathroom mirror with a wad of bubble gum in my mouth with my favorite 4 year old teaching her how to blow bubbles?

As with everything with Sadie, what she lacks in natural ability she makes up for with determination. And the girl is determined. Here she is in all her bubble blowing glory:

Soccer

This year, spring soccer is being held after school at the schools. Eli and Sadie decided to join and what a difference a year makes. Last year, it was torture getting either of them to participate and I had some not-so-proud-of mommy moments. Sadie didn't want to play the first day, but as soon as she got to know her coach, she has been unstoppable on the field. I have discovered that it is better for the kids if I stay and watch from a distance. I was worried that Eli wouldn't want to play after discovering that Zoe and Ryan, his two best buds, weren't on his team. It didn't matter. He is out there running around and having a great time. His confidence and independence has come a long way in the past year!

The kids are grouped according to age. The 4 year olds do more drills and silly games than actually play soccer but they're learning lots of gross motor skills and following directions types of things. The coach is totally awesome and is age appropriate with them. Sadie happily participates! She's actually turning into more of an athlete than I thought she would be.

Eli Gets A Fauxhawk

Chicks Get A New Home

The chicks moved into the coop this weekend. Here's the official tour.

When we were thinking about where in the world we were going to build the chicken coop we sort of thought that we would build on an existing structure which meant either the boat house or the kids' playhouse. Then, we had to think about how we were going to get electricity to the chicks if it was too cold for the chicks, which it just might be in Northern Minnesota. In the end, we decided to build the coop in the corner of our shop because a) there were already walls in place and b) the shop is actually pretty warm in the winter. We're hoping that it's relatively easy to clean because the garage door opens so we could either spray it out or just sweep into that general direction. You can see the nesting boxes that open from the outside so we don't need to go in to collect eggs and the fake window that will allow some natural light.

The kids were pretty excited to show the chicks their new home.
The chicks didn't really know what to think. It was a lot cooler and bigger than their cardboard box, but it seems like they're already enjoying their space and are starting to venture outside a little bit.Mabel (and Sadie) trying out the nesting box.

Here is the view from outside. There is a run with bird netting over it. Part of the run is under the overhang so part of the run will stay dry during the winter.

Checking out the door and ramp. There are doors that latch on the inside and outside of the chicken door in hopes to keep all sorts of critters out at night.
We will put the chicks in their coop at night and let them run during the day. There are way to many predators in the woods and a curious kitty named Belle.

The chicks are still working on their chick-skills. They scratch and peck, but they don't know what to do with themselves otherwise. I have noticed that when one is inside and the others are outside that they start looking for the missing chick. I guess they're already become a little family.

Our entrance:
Dennis did an awesome job building the coop. He really wanted to make sure that the chicks had all of their needs met. We used backyardchickens.com as our lone resource. They were able to answer every question from "what can a chicken eat?" to "how big of holes should the chicken wire have? to "how high should a roost be?" to "how many square feet does a chicken need?" and about a gazillion other questions we came across as we built our coop. It's a great resource.
Come July we should have fabulous eggs to eat and enjoy. We can't wait.

Hoppy Easter!

I was so excited when I found out that Easter was late this year. I had high hopes for a picnic this Easter and my wish *sort of* came true!
The day started early. Very early. Santa Claus early, because the Easter Bunny came and brought lots of candy, money and presents. Sadie got a lovely pink soccer ball, Eli some Legos and they both got an ELO CD. (Somehow the Easter Bunny must have got wind of our dance parties and decided that we needed to step it up.)
I wish we would have got photos outside but it was only 30 degrees at 8am when these pictures were taken. Anyways, a rare family photo:
After Church, Grandma and Grandpa Z. organized a little family egg hunt. Eli found one on top of the snow that just won't seem to go away.
Reid was a little distracted by balls and swings and slides to be too interested in finding eggs, but he did manage to find a few. I think Anissa slept through the whole thing.
Well, my wish sort of came true. After a cold start, it actually made it up to 62 today. We spent all afternoon outside doing yardwork. I really wouldn't choose to do yardwork on Easter and hope that it doesn't become a family tradition, but I really want to just get on with spring and have a clean yard and be done with this long dragged out winter already! Flower beds were readied, seeds started, garden prepped, pine needles raked (at least in the parts of the yard that doesn't have snow) and garage cleaned. Just in time for a picnic of Easter leftovers around the campfire. Ahhh, now that it what I call a good Easter tradition.

(If you look really closely in the foreground, you can see my spring onions. They are up and ready to be picked!)