Last Day of School 2019!

 Officially a 3rd, 5th & 7th grader in the house!! And the first year we'll have all three in different schools. Lots of running & different schedules. It will definitely take a bit to get used to & I am sure it means more running for me! haha

 Lots of fun to be had the last day of school. The little girls had a carnival at their school & Margaux had a 4th grade picnic with parents/friends.

 Such a fun group of girls all headed to intermediate school. They've all had such a great year. I know they'll miss elementary school but something tells me they'll be happy next year. Marin was so sad to leave & within a few weeks she was loving intermediate school. Now she doesn't want to leave there either!!!

I wasn't home after school today to take pics. Marin went out for ice cream with friends & the little girls did a scavenger hunt with the neighborhood crew that ended with a sundae bar! I joined as soon as I got home. Officially my last day too! 10 weeks of full time... I am ready for a break!! 

Bring on the summer!!! So much fun planned, I can't wait to get started.

xoxo

Happy 12th Birthday to our favorite Marin!!!

 Love her silly, loves to pose personality. She definitely loved her mini photo session this year way more than previous years. She wanted all kinds of poses so she could post to Instagram. We've definitely got a pre-teen in our house!

 This morning she woke up to a kitchen decorated with all green, a Starbucks coffee drink & a cinnamon roll. Then she was headed off to school for the day to celebrate with her friends. It was warm today so her popsicle treat was probably appreciated.

 The Starbucks themed cake was a surprise after school & she was soooooo excited!

 It turned out perfect for our Starbucks loving 12 year old.

Thankfully most of her gifts arrived on time too... new Birkenstocks, a pair of Vans, lots of clothes, bracelets & Starbucks gift cards of course! Dinner request was roast & mashed potatoes so everyone was happy with that too. Party with friends will happen in a few weeks once the crazy settles down & we are into summer a bit. 

Happy Birthday Marin!!! We love you!!! xoxo

Field Trip Day for Maeve. Because Gary & I were both working, she got to spend the day with Grandma Jean. I was sad not to be able to go with her, I am not used to that. But she was so happy to have the time with Grandma. No pics of the two of them, but plenty of pics of Maeve with her friends!

 Soon to be 3rd graders! So hard to believe.

They had a great day exploring the Wildlife Sanctuary. I was shocked that Maeve even fed the ducks! So unlike her!

Thanks for the fun day Grandma! xoxo

Annual Door County Memorial Day weekend was a blast! 

The nicest weather we've had in years. 

Sunny & beautiful all weekend. 

 Shopping {for the ladies}, golfing {for the guys}, several brewery stops & great food mixed with so many laughs.  

Always a memorable weekend. Happy to be home in time to still have a few days with the girls before they go back to school Monday. Today was the Memorial Day parade. Didn't fall on Marin's birthday this year but we always laugh that it is her b-day parade! The weather for the parade surprised us too. The coldest it's been in a long time. Girls wore their red, white & blue but it was covered up with jackets & blankets.

The whole crew..

We arrived home with enough candy for a month. Kids are happy, I am ready for a nap! 

Happy Memorial Day!! xoxo

Thankfully we were home before midnight from the work party because we were up & at em' early this morning to run the Cellcom 5k with the girls. First year that all 5 of us ran the event. We are all so proud of Maeve for training with us. Margaux insisted on wearing a tutu with her running gear this year. So darn cute!

Gary was coach of the run club for the second year. Traditionally the club is for 3rd & 4th graders at the elementary school. This year he allowed a few 2nd graders to join in & train as long as they had a parent with at each practice. (This meant I had to be there to run with her every Tues/Thurs) I didn't mind at all & she did GREAT!!! Here is a chunk of the run club crew. Missing quite a few that had other commitments & couldn't run this am. A little cold before the start.

Margaux & Myah with the PR bell at the finish. Maeve, Eva & Avi. The three 2nd graders who all ran their first 5k. Way to go girls!!

The cool 50ish degrees was nice once we got running. Perfect temp. All happy to be done.

Marin ran alone & killed it! Finishing 242 out of over 4,000 runners! So proud of her!!
Margaux & Gary ran together with Myah & Jeremy. They also did so well, we may have a whole family of runners!! Maeve & I ran with her two little buddies and their moms. We had a great time together & the girls ran the entire 3 miles! Our 5 all wore our Super Sean shirts in support of our little friend Sean who is battling cancer. (Doing great!!) Fun morning. The girls were all very excited to get home to the warm hot tub. Good rehab for the muscles! xoxo 

First work party with Gary's new company & we had a great time. Nice to have friends that work for the same company, made the night way more fun to have people we knew with us. This years party was at the Railroad Museum. Awesome food, drinks & a band! Last company had no parties, so this is an added bonus!

Fun crew for the evening. Gary is enjoying the new job as well. Nice change & seems to be way less stressful (that is my take, we'll see if it lasts!).

Another party coming up in a few weeks, this one includes kids so our girls will be happy! xo

It's May & we are in full blown end of the year mode. Spring concerts for all! Marin's was first. She & her classmates did a great job and their concert was so great. Posed for a quick pic with a few of her friends, so hard to believe they will all be in middle school next year!!! At some point Gary noticed that he & my dad had matching shirts on so we had to grab a pic. 

And yesterday was Margaux's 4th grade concert. She looked so sweet in her new dress & she was so excited for us to hear her concert. She has been working so hard practicing her recorder at home. We are soooooo going to miss her teachers next year. Luckily we'll still see them all summer with the exception of her music teacher. But with Maeve still at the elementary school we'll still see her during the year. Marg has had an amazing year because of these great teachers.

Margaux had a speaking part during the concert. She did great speaking, singing & playing the recorder. The final song tugged on her heart strings a little bit & the tears were flowing... hard. Also hard for Gary & I to sit in the audience not being able to hug her! Our tears were also flowing. She is such a sweet girl & is so sad to be leaving elementary school. 

These girls are just so darn cute!!!

Marg, mom & dad.. all puffy eyed! Gary went in to work late & I was able to take a break to get over to see her too. So glad I did because it was such a great performance.

We are so proud of both girls! xoxo

Track meet time! Weeks ago I signed the big girls up for 4 weeks of track. Two practice weeks as well as two weeks for actual track meets. Well this crazy spring rainy weather cancelled two of the four weeks. Thankfully today (the last scheduled day) the weather cooperated & we were able to enjoy a track meet. Margaux participated in 4 events. She rocked them all & had two first place finishes. Way to go Marg!!!

Marin did four events as well. Both girls all running events, no interest in the field events. Marin did amazing too! She as some fast friends that she needs to stay out of heats with, then she'd grab some first place finishes too! Her best were 2nd place finishes. So great!

Little Marg with one of her 1st place ribbons & Marin getting a "I'm so proud of you" hug from Sloane who was there cheering them both on!

Marin and a few of her friends put together a relay too. First time she's ever done that & they did great. They look so cute in their matching track t-shirts!

Fun afternoon watching both girls & seeing their love for track. Sure makes Gary happy to see them running & doing so well! Ice cream rewarded for all after the meet! We all deserved it!! xoxo

Happy Mother's Day!
I was so disappointed that the girls & I never took a photo together like we usually do on mom's day. Also a sign of a great day together, no photos because we were so busy enjoying ourselves! In the morning we had breakfast/mimosas at our house with Kings & Veraghens. The morning mimosas bled into the afternoon, it was so nice outside. Then in the late afternoon we headed to my grandparents for our traditional Mother's Day fish fry. The whole day was so nice & I didn't do a lick of laundry... my only request!
Because we didn't take a pic, I decided to hunt through old photos & find pics of myself with each of the girls. I could look through old photos all day long (the girls could too), hard to remember them all being so little & so hard to choose only one photo with each! Look at these sweet babies...
I love that Margaux needs her snuggle time with me on the couch each night before bed...

Maeve wants me to lay with her every night when I tuck her in...

And Marin shares my love for talking & shopping...

I could go on & on about each one of them... I love these chicks so much. They sure keep me busy every day, but I wouldn't change that for the world. So thankful for each of them making me the mom I am today. Such a fun day, Happy Mother's Day to me! xoxo

Maeve's Cinco De First Communion Celebration!

{When you combine 1st Communion & Cinco De Mayo}

First thing on the agenda this morning was breakfast & hair with her friend Karina. Then it was time to get the dress on & head to church for 10:00 mass. She was so nervous & very ready to be done with the mass. So many nervous questions & very sweaty hands. She really had Gary & I laughing. And just like we thought she would, she did great! Her special job during mass was to carry up the bread before communion & she did that perfectly. Also very helpful to have two of her close friends receiving their First Communion with her. 

 The three of them were so darn cute together!

Once we got home she knew it was time for more photos before she took her dress off. She looked perfect. Hard to believe all three girls wore the same dress... we are done & ready to pass it on to Sloane now. Our babies are growing up! Maeve looked adorable in it, just as the other two did.

 Lots of pics with her party go-ers!

 Love these girls...

After pictures it was time for lunch. Tacos & Mexican sides to celebrate Cinco De Mayo.

She wanted a Costco cake, hard to see in the photo but it said congratulations Maeve. A good shot of her adorable hair & of course she ate lunch & dessert on the special plate.

 Another perk of having your First Communion on Cinco De Mayo is you get a piñata! Knowing her love for unicorns, my decision of which one to buy was quite easy. Extra fun for all the kids... filled with candy, squishies, stickers & sticky hands. It took them longer than I expected to get it busted open. Maeve did not want to be blind folded so we let that go too.

Super fun afternoon. I think she felt pretty special & definitely had a house full of guests that were very proud of her. xoxo

Tonight was Margaux's turn for the 4th grade wax museum project. She was instructed to choose an influential American. We did our research & she chose Susan Wojcicki the CEO of YouTube. Lots of reading & research on her life to help her write her paper & once she was done we picked the most important bits of info for her 2 min speech. She worked sooo hard on her backdrop too. It turned out great! She's worked hard on this project for a good month.

This morning it was finally time for the wax museum walk through. She got dressed up to look like Susan... Cute little suit coat, curls in her hair & red lipstick. {We looked at lots of photos to see what she needed to best look like Susan.}

The students in the school {including Maeve} got to walk through & hear all the speeches during the day & in the evening it was time for the parent walk-through. She rocked it & looked so darn cute! She played the part of a business woman pretty well!

Tis' the season for big school projects. Marin also has a project that she has been working on for weeks. Her project is all about living legends. She chose to do her project on Grandpa Bob. A few weeks ago Marin & I went over to their house so she could record & interview him on various times in his life. Her questions were so well thought out & it was fun for us to hear his answers.

After the interview she had to compile all the information & write a paper as well. After her paper was written she had to find a way to display all the info on a poster. Her project also turned out great & we enjoyed going to her school to see all the finished products. So interesting reading about all the living legends!

Quite the busy evening for us. We went from living legend, to wax museum and finally to church for 1st Communion practice.  So proud of all three of them & happy they are tucked in. I am ready for bed! xoxo

Happy Easter! After the girls found their baskets this am we spent some time outside playing with their new toys from the Easter bunny. In addition to enough candy to last a year... the girls got a new volleyball, a fun frisbee & a few other fun things to use outside. Then we headed over to church for 10:00 mass. The kids all looked so cute we had to take a quick pic.

After church we came home to a yard FULL of eggs all ready for an egg hunt. Luckily the weather cooperated & we had a beautiful day. The girls were great helpers with Sloane & Fitz.

Then we made the girls pose for some more pics. You'd think they'd be used to it by now with all the photos I take, but somehow they still find reason to complain! haha. They'll appreciate all these photos someday.

Family selfie...

We were happy taking our own photos until one of the neighbors graciously offered to come over & snap one for us. Family shots don't happen often, but when they do I always love the outcome.

Dinner at my mom & dad's to end the day.  Really loving this weather & all the spring feels. Hoping we've hit the turning point! xoxo