The Graduate

Emma had her preschool graduation the other day. They held an assembly where the kids sang all their favorite songs from the year for the parents. It was pretty cute and Emma is very excited to become a kindergartner. We have started reading the Ramona Quimby chapter books at bedtime (remember those???) and she is very excited to be able to do "seat work" like Ramona at school. It was emotional saying goodbye to Mrs. Harring, Emmas teacher for the past 2 years, but I know we will still be seeing her as Abby will continue there next year.

We celebrated Mike's bday by going to a Twins Game and taking in the awesome new stadium. It was a really cold day, but we had fun nontheless and we won! Having outdoor baseball in MN is the best and everyone is beyond excited about this ballpark, making seeing a game so much more fun.

Papa and Mike set up a new playscape/swingset in our yard. We have been on the fence about buying one of these for a long time now and finially decided to do it. The kids wasted no time breaking it in and have been playing on it ever since. I do have a mini heart attack everytime Abby goes across the monkey bars. Has anyone ever seen a 2 YEAR OLD DOING MONKEY BARS? I swear that girl is definately an athlete-can't wait to see what sports she decides to focus her skill and energy with. She's pretty much potty trained- except for #2's which are still hit or miss. So far it's been WAY less stressful than with Emma. We are heading up to the cabin for a long strech of fun- hopefully the weather will stay warm.

Waterpark

We just got back from Wisconsin Dells- the waterpark capital of the world! An Indoor waterpark vacation sounded like a nightmere to me before I had kids, but seeing how much fun the girls had this week, made it the perfect affordable mid-week vacation spot for 3 nights under 4 hours away. We stayed at an awesome resort for a great price because it was in the middle of the week and still off-season. They had tons of kids activites besides just the 4 enormous indoor waterparks, they had a 4 story indoor playground, walking trails, paint your own pottery, arcade games and kids crafts all the time. The girls had a blast, it wasn't crowded at all and we are all sufficently waterlogged. They had an huge wavepool with glass roof that allows you catch some rays year round and they keep it at 80 degrees in there and pipe tropical steel-drum music so you can imagine yourself in the carribean somewhere. When Mike watched the kids during naps one day, I planted myself on a lounge chair with book and margarita and felt like I had a little mini tropical getaway. Fun was had by all. The girls loved the "ducks" tour- through the water and cliffs in a genuine world war 2 duck boat. Our guide asked if we mided getting wet and when we said "of course not!" he floored the duck into the lake and submerged us with a huge wave. The girls thought it was awesome, but we were freezing for the rest of the tour.

I finished the Lake Minnetonka half marathon the day before we left. It was a beautiful day, great course, great fans. My parents and Mike and the girls cheered my along the way and I made a PR for a half for me- 2 hours 12 minutes. Mike switches to weekend shift now so we all have to get used to a little different schedule around here, but I'm sure the girls will love having him home more during the summer.