Saturday, March 4, 2023

Esme's First Grade Concert

Esme had her first school concert on Thursday.  This was actually the first in person concert since before covid started 3 years ago.
They sang songs from around the world and it was so cute.  Each of the three classes had a special part of the program.
She did really well except for one time when she decided to take a sitting break.
She had a short speaking part that can be seen in the video below along with audio of the song they sang.
We celebrated with ice cream treats after.  Great job Esme!

Monday, February 27, 2023

Saturday Morning at MOA

Jimmy suggested a spontaneous trip to MOA on Saturday after being stuck at home for a few days.  We had some ride and arcade points from our last visit, so we headed to Nickelodeon Universe to use them.  Esme decided she wanted to try the roller coaster, so we bought some more points and gave it a go!
She loved it!  Jimmy and parker watched us go and Parker expressed interest in trying it too.  This was so surprising, but he kept confirming he wanted to go, so we all got back in line.
He had a concerned look on his face the whole time, but I was so proud of him for trying something new.  He even said he wants to do it again some time.  I see unlimited ride wrist bands in our future!
We went on the Ferris Wheel next per Esme's request.  Parker did not want to do this one.  
The first video is our trip here in 2013 with Parker.  Jimmy was a little nervous about the Ferris Wheel too.
We used up the rest of our arcade tokens, then stopped at the M & M's store for some treats!

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Cousin Day!

My brother was finally on his way back from Dominican Republic come Friday, but Kelsey's mom was still watching the boys.  I offered to take them for a few hours during the day to give her a break.  It was so fun to have them over!
Parker enjoyed showing them YouTube videos.
It's been a while since I tied a baby to a chair, but it does the trick!
Jameson has started walking some.  It was fun to see him stretch his legs.  Jaxxon won't be too far behind!
With spring training around the bend, I took the opportunity to update Jameson's helmet to look like a Byron Buxton Jersey! Play Ball!

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Snow Stormy Week

We've been talking about this last week for what seems like week's already.  Weather is so hard to predict, but they said it would be a whopper when it was all said and done, possibly record breaking.  Things started with a little dusting Monday.
The kids spent Monday at Grandpa and Nana's house since it was President's Day.  Esme decorated the wall by her bed with a bunch of drawings.  This took me back to my teenage days when I drew pictures for each boy I had a crush on and taped them up just like that.
Here was the store impact projection we got on Tuesday.  We are in that purple Twin Cities zone.
Jimmy took this just as the snow was starting on Tuesday.
The kids got 3 distance learning/snow days because of the storm.  Esme got pretty creative with Bluey, Bingo, and some underwear.
Jimmy stayed home Thursday and Friday with us.  They made some yummy cinnamon toast crunch cookies!
The biggest part of the storm ended up a little further south, but we still got 15-16" over 3 days.  Leave it to Minnesotans to be disappointed in only 16" when they were told it would be 24"+.
Parker did a great job on his homework.  He is slowly learning to read, most likely by memory.
Esme built herself a throne and nest to play in.  We had our church small group Thursday night and did an old school virtual meeting.  This was a nice alternative since our schedule is a big disrupted already for the next month or so.
We celebrating surviving the snow with cinnamon rolls on Friday morning!
Here is a quick video comparing our last storm of this size in April 2018.

Monday, February 20, 2023

Youth Group All-Nighter

Our church hosted a youth group all nighter on Friday.  I wasn't able to stay the whole time, but did hang out for the first 5 hours.  We had a big team game competition that included chair races, wasabi pea/seaweed eating relay, spaghetti/marshmallow tower building, lego spaceship construction, and tug of war.
After that, we took a field trip to Perkins for some pie!
We played a color sorting sniper type game before it was my time to go.
They were just getting set up for an epic Nerf war as I was heading out.  They had a great night and we met a ton of new students.