First half of August

 Once back home from the Missouri trip, we had golf camps: 

  

Ice cream truck visit and Stone Arch Bridge walk: 

Thomas had his delayed wellness check up (I totally forgot to book it around July 7th, oops - August 10th better late than never)

August 11th the girls and I got out on the paddle board (looking back I think this was the last time we did ::tear::) 

That evening we had a BIG hail storm. Did some damange to our roof, all our neighbors have had roof replacements and we're still waiting on our insurance, which is being a pain!

The next day I took a bike ride, Kyle drove me up to an area I had left off so I could do the top part of the grand rounds loop. I completed the passport program... but never heard from the parks after submitting my completion. 

 

Later that day, Saturday we went downtown to a street artist event. Saw my friend Sandy who does the chalk mandala's. 

 

She mentioned that my drone photo was in one of the local papers: 

Kids did one of the name art stations: 

Kyle and I had a date night that evening. We went out to eat and since we had just purchased family passes to Valley Fair we decided to go check it out. Fun little date night at an amusement park. Rode the Ferris Wheel and the train. 

August 15th Isaac had a get connected day at school. He's starting a NEW school, NEW district for 6th grade. We opened enrolled him at various local schools and this was the winner. We got in to all of them but choose this one because, well for one it's ranked the #1 middle school in Minnesota right now, recieving national recognition this past spring, and two it was the only one that was going to meet him where he needs to be for math. He's jumped two grades ahead for math, so he def is getting challenged. We'll see how he sits mid-year if the challenge is good, or too much. But he's really enjoying school. 

Anyway this get connected day was really fun, Isaac and I got to walk his schedule A day and B day, figure out where his classes were. It was a little intimidating for him, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly. 

 

Looking back I just remember this was a hard day for me, I think it was because my birthday was approaching, knowing I was going to miss that birthday call from my dad and just carrying heavy grief that day. Well my work had this delivered and it was perfect timing! For sympathy (not my birthday) but the timing was perfect :-) 

I did work the next day on my birthday and my birthday buddy gave me this plant :-) 

First half of May

 Well hey I'm only about a month behind on this blog thing. That's not bad. Goal is to get caught up before the kids are out of school which is next week: June 15th. 

May started off with getting our roof repaired YAH! We knew it had a leak when we bought it, however the owners stated it didn't. But in the winter there's not much to be done. Thankfully it was another area where our warranty came into play. We made about 17 claims over the year! Totally worth it! 

We have a clay tile roof but three big flat rubber roof areas. The warranty claim we tried to start last fall didn't go through cuz none of their contractors would service tile roof. Well finally I chatted with a contractor and he said he'd take a look and probably thought it was the rubber roof anyway, and it was. It needed two patches.

Before pics:

And after:

May 2nd I had my GOTR luncheon I was on host committee for. It's the annual fundraiser for Girls on the Run. 

 

May was filled with GOTR, baseball, lacrosse, gymnastics and enjoying the warm sun!

These days are numbered when he crawls into bed with us... I'm not gonna complain :-) 

Thomas has been so excited to play baseball! Heading to his first game on May 6th

Boys attended a high school game that day

The kids helped me get the bed around the tree out front planted with begonias from the school's plant sale. Here's a before pic without the added soil: 

And planting:

And playing with the leaf blower, lol.

After planting:

And here it stands today (about a month later):

Flew the drone May 7th

Our fountain is so pretty! Here are all the tulips May 9th

And yesterday it's filled with these pretty purple flowers (June 5th)

Girls on the run in full swing: 

Then the girls' birthday - which I'll put in a separate post. 

The city planted a tree out front where they chopped the diseased one down last fall. 

Enjoying running and biking the lakes

 

Kyle and I enjoyed a lunch date to Sushi train, then a drive by of the tulip house on May 12th. 

I joined the 5th grade on their Phenology walks to the school forest. We spotted three owls!

Baseball game that ended in the rain.

Then Mother's Day (after the girls birthday party which I'll put in their birthday post)

We went to a twins game on the Sunday of Mother's Day: May 14th. 

Attempted a photo with mom at the spoon and cherry....

May 15th:

for our GOTR practice 5K

Mary using her emotion octopus she got for her birthday :-) 

Some of my crafting: PTA signs and GOTR practice 5K medal buttons.

And lastly a family baseball game while Mary is at lacrosse practice.