Progress:)

Hard Work Pays Off

Nate and Jim spent three days planning and building our new deck. We spent last night enjoying the final product! Today Nate and I will start with the retaining wall. Thanks guys!
Enjoy your Memorial Day.

Family Reunion

Betty and Jim are helping us build a deck this weekend...pictures will be posted soon! While the men have been building Betty and I have been cooking for our hard working builders. With all the time in the kitchen we have been pondering menu possibilities for the family reunion in Wisconsin this June. We were thinking that meals will need to be made on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Betty suggested that we eat a small, on your own, breakfast three of the days so people can eat when they wake up. Janelle called dibs on making a big breakfast. Does Saturday work, Janelle? With a big breakfast Saturday we probably won't need a big lunch.
*I'm using the Blog to post this because I'm missing a few email addresses.

Here is what we were thinking....

Thursday dinner: Ryan and Anna?

Friday lunch: Cesar Salad?
Friday dinner: Steph and Nate (brats, burgers. snicker salad)
*Amy could you make a yummy dessert?

Saturday breakfast: Janelle
Saturday dinner: Jeremy and Sheri?

Sunday lunch: Taco salad?



*When thinking about everyones' arrivals and departures we thought it would be best to assign families meals (this saves a little time too).


Bring your favorite games/activities to play! Nate and I will bring the washer game. Can you fit Ladder Golf in your car, Jeremy and Sheri?
We are excited to see everyone and spend a few memorable summer days together!!

If Adventure has it name, it's Indiana Jones

We couldn't wait for Todd and Peyton. We HAD to go see Indy on opening day. Jack went in his full costume and loved every minute of it. He posed for photos for people who just loved seeing him dressed up. He cracked his whip and jumped over boulders in front of the theater and he declared that yesterday was the "Best day of my life!"

Indy did NOT disappoint! We loved it! It was SUCH a big thing from my childhood. I remember my parents taking us to see it and that music just brings the excitement back.

Todd wants to see it and will take Jack and Peyton to see it on Sunday. I'm going to save my ticket price for Kung Fu Panda!

The Graduate

Delaney's preschool graduation day was filled with a performances, a ceremony complete with Pomp and Circumstance, speeches, photos, and a party.

It is hard to believe that five years ago today, I watched Peyton through the exact same performances and ceremony. After Peyton's ceremony, I promptly kissed her goodbye and left her with my mom at the after party. Todd and left for the hospital to go have Delaney. Before we left the school, all of the moms gathered around me and prayed over me for a safe delivery and sent me off in to go have Delaney. Many of the same women were at graduation yesterday. We are so blessed to have experienced Miss Martha and her wonderful school. She has truly changed our lives.

As I tucked Delaney into bed last night, recounting the day and telling her how proud I am of her and all she has learned this year, she sweetly looked at me and asked, "Mommy....tomorrow do I have to go to kindergarten?"

3:30 AM Thursday morning

Ready to take on our state Capitol. They hit it hard all day and returned home at 12:30 a.m. Peyton did very well and had no problem keeping up. Such a sweet milestone, as her fear of not being able to walk all day on this trip was really the catalyst for choosing to pursue her surgery. She rocked it all day long!

Preschool Pool Party

Preschool let out at noon Tuesday afternoon and by 12:15, twelve preschoolers, their siblings and moms paraded through our front door and into the pool. I had roughly 35 minutes to assemble the food, ice the drinks, frost the cupcakes, and tune into Radio Disney before they all hit my door. I spent ALL morning driving around trying to buy a pinata! We have parts of town that can easily be mistaken for Tijuana and I thought I knew of many tiendas that were sure to have pinatas a plenty, but I was wrong.

I finally found a small pinata at Party City and grabbed it. I then, of course, had to hear everyone from the grocery store clerk to moms at the party advise me on all of the great local places to find "all kinds of pinatas". Next time I'll plan ahead.

The birthday girl had a blast and loved hosting all of her friends. This kid is pure joy.

Wedding bells-Another journey..

Here we are at a wedding of a former student this past weekend.. Joe/Jose.. who has known Maya since inuteru.  Wow.. it's been 7 years! He is a coach, PE teacher and minored in Spanish. Another step in my big kids' journey... Love that kid!!! Ryan also had a ball as it was also a mini-reunion of some of the first kids we took to Spain before kids... :) 

Field Trip to Deanna Rose Farmstead!

The Best thing about working part time is going on field trips when everyone else is in school!! One of my BFF teacher friends, Titi-Christie- who was pregnant with her boy Blake at the same time I was with Mika..(They were born 3 weeks apart) also is working part time this year. Hence: when not in school we have lots of fun together with the kiddos.  There is no time for chores... There is too much fun to be had in this great world!! Mika is not sure if she is in Wisconsin or Ontario with the luxury of getting so close to "las vacas" (cows). Do you see her "pee-yew" sign above?  We had a blast and I will miss so much these mommy play dates...What am I talking about??? Bring them on in the summer! If anyone comes to visit we'll take you to this very exiting farm, zoo, fishing lake, playground and botanical garden all rolled into one! 

Graduation and Spanish club Fiesta

Just sharing some more end of the year memories. I still have one week to go.. and I am ready to disembark this emotional roller coaster! Saying goodbye to the seniors is always tough, but next week the underclassmen and colleagues may even be tougher! Graduation was very weepy this year as I was also "graduating". (Note the blue hood... Stephanie and I are twins with our blue hoods for M.A. in Education!! Que vivan los teachers!! ) One of the speakers even mentioned me in her speech, so it was even more meaningful to to me and always such an affirmation that I am doing what God meant for me to do. I added some shots with some of my favorites.. 2 being our babysitters... who came into my class crying... Oh goodness me.. As a high school teacher I so love being part of such an important and monumental time in their lives. Oh.. just one step in one journey of many in their lives...

There's also a pic of some of my girls at our monthly Tonka girls' night out. Trisha (next to me) much needed a night on the town to escape the rigor of caring for her family (her husband is the one who had the heart transplant). You'll see Titi (Christie) on the next blog of Mika and my trip with her and her son to a local zoo/playland/farm... 

Here's Mika practicing with the Pinata before the big kids have a shot. She LOVES teenagers and love to show off.  It is so adorable. 

Although Delaney's actual birthday is still ahead of us, we have been celebrating all week. We started with a family and neighbor birthday party for both Todd and Delaney last Sunday afternoon. A mom from preschool runs a small custom cake business from her home and made this delicious cake for our party.
I managed to pull the birthday girl out of the pool long enough to enjoy her cake.

We lit the candles again for the birthday boy. Our neighbors were so wonderful and brought presents for Todd too. He's pretty excited about his Bass Pro gift card. We had another party on Tuesday for Delaney's preschool friends. We have yet another pool party today to celebrate her preschool graduation at Miss Martha's house. Then ANOTHER party to celebrate the end-of-the-year with the class at the cake lady's house tomorrow. I'll have to hit the last two alone, as Todd and Peyton got up at 3 a.m. and walked to school at 3:45 for their big day in Sacramento. I expect they'll be pretty tired tomorrow!

Lexie's Big Day!

Needless to say, it has been a very, very busy couple of weeks. We celebrated Mother's Day, Jeremy's B-day, and Lexie's first birthday this week. It's getting late and the laptop is low on juice, so I will let the photos tell the story....

The photo of the three of us was taken at the exact time Lexie was born 1 year ago - May 15th, 6:10 p.m.

Sprinting through spring

We haven't forgotten about blogging! We've barely had time to breathe with baseball, school projects, meetings, birthdays, and everything May brings.

Here is a quick update:

• Todd and I rallied together and helped Jack complete his dinosaur written report and diorama for Friday's due date. He spent almost 8 hours last week writing his fairy tale creative writing project (also due Friday).

• Todd created a butcher paper spreadsheet so Jack could plug in the facts we found on www.enchantedlearning.com about each dinosaur (4 dinosaurs x 10 facts = a lot of research for a 7 year old).
• Photos are out of order, but here is the diorama. Jack chose the figures, placed them and found the real bird egg in our yard to serve as a dino egg. I painted, hot glued, and fluffed the lava flow.
  

• I printed about six pages of dino facts from Enchanted Learning and placed the figures on top of each research pile. Ultimately this project proved too intense on top of his creative writing story that was due the same day. It became a family project.With that done, Jack had another playoff game on Saturday. They won. We potentially have five more games. It was 101 degrees here on Saturday. It is tough on these little guys.

• We threw a double birthday party for Delaney and Todd Sunday afternoon. Lots of food and fun. Most guest huddled inside in the air conditioning. The kids were smart and got in the pool. Feels like summer is here!

• This week, we are throwing Delaney's classmate birthday party Tuesday afternoon, Todd and Peyton fly to Sacramento for 16 hours or so on Thursday, Delaney graduates from Miss Martha's Thursday, and Indiana Jones premiers on Friday. And yes, in our household we are on the countdown!

Two Grandpas

Lexie had a good time with her two Grandpas.
It was interesting to think that between Lexie and Great grandpa their lives have the potential to span two centuries!
We had a great time celebrating Lexie's birthday but I will leave that for Sheri to share. We did manage to get a picture of the three of them exactly at the time of her birth which made her officially one year old. Now we are off to celebrate Shannon's birthday at the Buccaneer. Grandpa certainly picked a good week to come. He likes to do things and we would have been hard pressed to entertain him on our own. Dad did take him for a drive to see the dam and the Hwy 10 construction at the river.

Morning Surprise

When I looked out my window early this morning I saw two tiny baby fawns. I think they may have been born during the night. they were pretty wobbly when they walked. They were in the backyard for quite awile. I was only able to get a picture of this one. The mother seemed to take care of one while the other slept always with some distance between them. Then she led them away one by one. This is the smallest I've seen any of the fawns.

Adios a mis abuelos...

The goodbyes have started at my Tonkaland and so I am in the need of the therapy of writing ans sharing and am posting a pic of some of my "big" kids and one of my most precious treasures... My Molinas... Are they not the most adorable couple you have ever seen?????

Marta and Joel Molina have been my honorary Grandma and Grandpa Volunteers for the past 10.. yes 10 years... (Mom.. do you remember her from Maya's baby shower? She remembers you! She actually remembers almost everyone from there and asks how they are doing!! )

After my first year of teaching I thought "Hey.. they have youth friends for the elementary kids.. why can't my kids have some Spanish speaking youth friends so that I can be sure each and every one of my students is "authentically assessed" and actually speaks with a native speaker???

Once again, God's Devine grace led me to the Molina's who live right down the road from Winnetonka. I have had 2 of their grandkids in class! One traveled to Spain with us and developed a special relationship with Ryan. They are the most wonderful, loving, caring, kind, sweet and involved people you could ever meet! I actually think of Marta as my Grandma. They have come in every Friday to just chat with my kids, with sometimes to the kids wonderful delight, accompanied by pan dulce, homemade tamales, cheeseballs and many other edible treats to go along with the treat of their presence.  We have celebrated many things together, including birth, death, cancer, and life.  After a rough confrontation with a student a few years ago, Marta happened t0 just walk in, and I broke down crying in her arms. How will I ever survive without her???

The kids and I have had such a strong influence from the beauty of a 50+ year marriage and how it thrives. When I go to their home for some reason (to drop something off, to chat, for Maya or Mika to visit) Marta always waits by the door until I arrive, then again until I get into my car until I leave.. waving the whole time. This is exactly what my great-grandma (Nana) used to do from her Window to us when I was a child. I feel so safe and small again when I get the privilege to "hang out" with my Molinas. And it really has been a privilege as they are so busy!! They are constantly volunteering at their church, doing meals on wheels and helping out any person in need.. Including me. The kids each year learn to love them as much as I do after the initial fear of having to test out their skills.. They soon learn how Joel is just a big teddy bear and that they are there to help and guide and laugh with. It provides so many students the essential grandparent "love" that many students don't get to have.

Next year, Staley is about 20 min. away from Tonka, so they are a little nervous about the drive and the new school, but they thank goodness want to stay with me..So we'll see.. Change...

I just couldn't bare not having them.  This summer the girls and I will go pick them up and drive them to Staley so they can see it's not so bad.. AND I tell them.. "they get to have windows in my new room!"  I thank God so very much for the optimistic beautiful Window to the real world they have provided to my students and me the past 10 years...

Tuesday photos

Peyton isn't much for video games, but she loves the Simms Castaway game we got her for her birthday. I think I need the Brain Age game to keep my synapses firing.

We have two big projects due in the next two weeks. Jack has a dinosaur research project complete with a four dinosaur diorama. Peyton has her big California project (our city is her focus project). I need to hit Michaels for display boards, plaster, plastic figures, Spanish moss, paint and more. A collective groan can be heard in carpool lane drop offs throughout school as parents compare crafts store receipts for these projects. So far, my friend Shannon wins, with spending $68 at Michaels for her 4th grader's Alcatraz project alone. Jack's teacher actually stated that students will earn a higher grade if we purchase plastic dinosaurs and trees over coloring the printables and mounting them on cardstock. I have a far greater understanding (now) of academic rigor and the importance of depth and complexity in learning the standards, but I fail to see how placing a purchasing a plastic figure and placing it in the scene is more challenging than creating one from paper printables. Oh well.

I know I said I was going to wait until the premier to give Jack his Indy fedora, but I just couldn't wait. He wears his fedora everywhere and he loves it. He has no idea that I have gathered the rest of the Indy costume pieces (sans leather jacket). I still need to hit an Army surplus store and pick up the right gas mask bag. Todd wants to take over Jack's other hat now but I don't think Jack will part with it. A guy has to have options, you know.

We're trying to get the last wearing out of her long sleeves before the heat hits. This little Hello Kitty outfit has been a favorite this winter. We found the shirt, pants, jacket and legging ensemble at Target and it has been our cold day favorite. We hear it is supposed to hit 100 degrees on Thursday.

One more week of school for Baby D! She has declared that she wants to skip kindergarten. I wish!

Tuesday

Good morning! It is a little after 5 a.m. and I am sitting here watching Todd juice a gallon of greens for the day. I have to say that I am very impressed with all of you. It is so great to click on this blog and see new photos and stories and updates.

Congratulations Stephanie! What a wonderful accomplishment! It is also great to hear of Nathan's success at work. Well done.

Anna, regarding using a spreadsheet on this blog: When you create your post, look at the top task bar. You will see icons for basic editing, including a button to upload a link (small globe with a paper clip looking link bar). If you can find a site to host the spreadsheet, that link will bring it up, very similar to a photo being hosted on another URL and brought into this blog by uploading it using the photo button. I have personally never hosted files on a site and linked them to a blog, but I am sure it can be done. You can also create the spreadsheet and do a screen capture, save it as an image, then upload it here as a photo. This will not allow global editing, but it will provide a visual and can be updated as spaces get filled.

I am also going to grant all of you administrative privileges on this blog. This will allow you to add or change the template, add content to the side bars (bring on your favorite links), and make it more interesting and fun. Admin privileges also allow you to edit posts and moderate the comments. I don't think we will need to exercise those abilities on this blog, but for most public blogs, it allows the author to take down undesirable comments if they ever show up.

We are really enjoying seeing all of your photos and hearing the details of what is happening in your lives. And for clarity...this is not my blog, it is ours...

Planning

Maybe it would be better to do any planning just on e-mail. That way if someone doesn't get to the blog for a day or two a message won't get lost.

I am getting excited to have everyone here. We are having a practice run this week with Grandpa coming for a visit. I think I told some of you. He is insisting on coming on the bus so we will be picking him up tomorrow night at 7:00 in Point. I'm wondering if he is trying it out to see if he could then take some longer trips to visit the "girls". He'll be going with us on Thursday to Lexie's birthday party and seems to be looking forward to that. We are coming up with a few other things to do, too. So we'll see how it goes.

Shantel called this afternoon to see if we could celebrate Lexie and her Dad's birthday when everyone is here. I reminded her of all our May birthdays and said maybe it would be fun to celebrate them all which she thought would be a great idea. Actually maybe we could do a family party for Everyone's birthday. Ice Cream cake anyone??? We could always institute that draw a gift game that we've done with all the Birchlers but make up our own rules. Don't tell Dad it was my idea!

No pictures to add but Dad said there were 24 deer around the house last night. They are a hungry lot. I would think that soon the babies will be arriving but none of them look too big yet.

Meritage

I am not sure if "Miritage" is an adverb or a noun, Maya can correct us, but it's our new favorite wine that we had tonight to celebrate...

• Nate has met his personal goals as well as the goals set by Edward Jones over the last four months which has put him in line for opening his own office soon!



• Stephanie graduated with her masters in Educational Leadership last weekend.



• Nate's birthday



• Nate finishing with third place at the Frostbite Figure Eight Barefoot Tournament two weekends ago at UWStout.


• Spring! Our dock is in and our boat is patiently waiting in our garage to be put in the water
  
  

*We know Miritage is a noun, we just wanted to add a little humor in on a Tuesday night:) We are also so proud of all of our smart nieces and nephews. We know our children (someday) will have great nieces and nephews to look up to.

This is fun - thanks Carrie

Summer Fun Schedule?

Muy Buenas-

I am using Carrie's great new blog as a venue to get our summer schedule, meals, etc. grooving. I am assuming that Janelle is a little busy (hee hee...) as she is the one who usually gets us going! In the next 2 weeks I'll be crazy busy physically and emotionally with the end of school, finals, graduation, packing up my room and moving to my new school home of Staley High School... Wow.. So many emotions with this move that I'll blog more on later...

Ryan, the M&M's and I plan on leaving Tuesday the 3rd after Maya gets out of her last 1/2 day of school, then spending the night with Nate and Stephanie.

Wed. early we'll head to Mom and Dad's until Saturday or possibly early early Sunday when we'll have to leave to be back on Sunday early afternoon. Monday the 9th Maya has VBS, Daddy requires a few hours of rest after the 10-13 hours in the car and Mommy has a Staley meeting... :(

When does everyone else plan to arrive so that we can get one of Sheri's great Excel sheets boogying for meals and games? 

Can we do Excel on the blog??

We had a great mother's day of hiking , napping and eating-All my favorites. Hope all my favorite moms did too! 

In conclusion, I am attaching a pic of what I get to see after Mika wakes up from nap time to give you all a chuckle... I was so happy to capture one of her many devious "looks".... Today we we went to our favorite outing of the library and had a special treat of a small petting zoo. I feel I  need to expose my suburb girl to as many animals as I can .  I grew up next to a pig farm and 100's of acres of land.. :) I bet none of you knew that!! 

P.S. a funny overheard yesterday from Maya while she and Ryan were catching a glimpse of an NBA game: 

Maya: Hey Daddy.. Those guys are not playing very well. They are not guarding their guys like they are supposed to!!

Ryan: The NBA are not great models for us to be watching on how to play. Let's see if we can find a college game.

Daddy's proud of basketball notes.

Mommy's proud of adverb WELL.. Playing WELL not GOOD... Good girl... keep using those adverbs well... 

abrazos-

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day Grandma, Auntie Carrie, Auntie Amy, Auntie Anna, & Auntie Janelle!!! I hope that you are having a great Mother's Day!!!

Lots of Love,

Lexie Lynn

XOXOXO