February 2018

Lilli's school called for "Jersey Day" on Thursday in honor of Super Bowl weekend. It's a total bummer that the Vikings aren't one of the teams involved, but Lilli still supported the purple and gold and wore her MN Vikings shirt anyways.

Lilli's MultiAge class started their Akin Bakin Bakery project and she accepted the position of supervisor. Her teacher called and left her a sweet message on my phone offering her the position.

The Groundhog saw it's shadow, so we're in for another 6 weeks of winter.

We convinced Lilli (in a heart beat, actually) to forgo this year's Sock Hop for the Super Bowl Experience at the Convention Center downtown, Mpls. We knew that this could be a once in a lifetime experience and wanted to be a part of it..and we are SO glad we went. It was an absolute blast. The kids had so much fun doing all the activities and us adults just soaked it all in. We didn't leave Minneapolis until 9:30 and went to Buffalo Wild Wings for a late dinner.

The girls were both up bright and early for dance. Lilli had her regular Musical Theater class and Alexa had studio time with Izzy & Tay to practice for the For The Love of Dance Fundraiser at the HS that afternoon. Kaylee was home with influenza, so they needed to run thru it a few times without her. We were back and forth from the studio (practice & regular classes) to the HS for a run thru of their performance and then the actual show at 2pm. It was such a neat fundraiser. Lots of local and some out of town dance studios/groups performed. Alexa's group performed their jazz routine and they rocked it. Kaylee was so missed, tho!

Lilli had a sleepover at her friend Sydney's that night, and we stayed and visited with Amy and Chad for awhile when we dropped her off. It was great to see them again, it's been awhile.

I picked Lilli up Sunday morning to get ready for another round of extra dance classes (seems to be a regular thing on weekends now :/). Her Glitter Stars jazz group practiced for an hour and 15 mins, then their jazz production (w/ Alexa) practiced for another hour and 15 mins and then Alexa and Kenz had studio time for an hour. When we got home, it was time to prepare for our Super Bowl Party.

We had the McCabe's, Budde's, Sharps & Jeff over. Everyone brought food to share - it was such a great time. We all were impartial to who we wanted to win but pulled slightly more for the Patriots. The Eagles won in the end. We loved the half time show with Justin Timberlake & the Prince tribute. I ADORED Pink singing the National Anthem, even tho she was terribly sick with the flu. Overall, a super fun night. So proud of our state for pulling off an amazing Super Bowl experience.

Poor Kaylee is still sick with the flu so Dana had sent an email saying our Super Stars could leave class early since what they needed to work on they needed Kaylee for. I called Dana to confirm after work and she answered the phone "Synergy Dance Center - Home of Influenza". She had 9 companie dancers call within the hour letting her know they weren't coming to class due to illness. So, she said to keep the Super Stars (Alexa) home and healthy and if we didn't want to send our little ones, she totally understood. After talking to the other moms, we decided to give our girls a night off and away from potential germs. I took the girls to Target and Lilli picked out a dress for her upcoming class play.

The girls enjoyed ice-cream for breakfast on National Eat Ice-Cream For Breakfast Day. Cookie Dough for Alexa & Chocolate Fudge Brownie for Lilli.

Alexa and I planned for a Tuesday night Chipotle date after dance. Adam was unexpectedly home early, so he was able to tag along, too. I love Alexa and love that she loves Chipotle as much as I do.

We surprised Taylor with a car full of balloons and cookies for breakfast on the way to school for her 14th birthday. It made having a birthday on a Wednesday a little more exciting.

Lilli had Global Play Day at school. They didn't have any classes, but instead brought toys and games from home and played all day. They had such a fun time that her teacher wants to implement this once a month. I love the idea - kids don't "play" as much now days with all the technology, so it was nice for them to unplug and enjoy a day of creative play and to use their imaginations.

The Budde's came over for dinner after Faith Formation.

We celebrated Tay's birthday again with Mexican food, ribs, and cupcakes. Such a fun way to break up the week.

Lillian had her class play, Joust, at the High School. The same one Alexa did in 4th grade. It was at the HS this time and was SO GOOD. The entire class did amazing and Lilli nailed her speaking parts. Lilli was a damsel - Ms. Tweedle.

We pulled Alexa out of school a bit early for her duet at Innovate, downtown Minneapolis. Her and Mackenzie got to practice in front of the judges and got some very good feedback. They did so awesome. The judges complimented their unison and friendship.

The next day was "group" day. Both girls were dropped off at the Cowles Center at 8:30. They did group activities, team building, a service project, master classes and then performed all their dances for the judges. The parents went and had breakfast at The Hen House and then a group of us putzed around Minneapolis (toured Adam's office and some of his parks, and had lunch at MidTown Market Square) until it was time to go watch at 4:15.

The judges picked one group dance from each studio that was there to 'showcase' and Lilli's lyrical dance was chosen from Synergy. It was so beautiful and fun to watch. Everyone came over to our house for pizza afterwards.

We DVR'd as much of the Olympics as we could and watched as much as we could throughout the day on Sunday between getting groceries, making Lilli's Valentine box, Valentine treats, Alexa's History Day project, laundry and the rest of our Sunday chores.

The girls also had a "Tea Party" for their leadership class where they learned proper table etiquette, etc. They all dressed up in their Sunday best.

We continue to watch the Olympics. The 17 year old snowboarders (Red Gerard & Chloe Kim) are killin' it! Golds for both of them. Alexa & Kenz had a duet practice with Kris to get some more feedback after Innovate.

We spent some time with Alexa going over her big History Day project, finalizing some things for her to get her board ready. So proud of her and all the awesome research she has done on Hiroshima.

Shaun White won gold in snowboarding. Every day from Feb 1st, I've been surprising Adam with little love notes and treats for Valentine's Day. I've been hiding them in his car, in his coat pockets, inside his gloves, etc. They're all pretty cheesy, but it's been fun to surprise him each day. On Valentine's Day I surprised him with a card and a longer love note in my own words. I also have been making little Valentine treats for the girls (choc covered strawberries and marshmallows with sprinkles, red jello, and a butterfly of M&M's). Lilli had a Valentine party at school. Her teacher brought in pizza for lunch and they watched the movie, Wonder. She also passed out Valentine's to her classmates. She loved her Valentine box this year, a Panda Bear. Adam brought me a big bouquet of flowers and an orchid. They're so beautiful and make our home look so pretty. I decorated our dining table and we had a special Valentine dinner together, pork chops, carrots & potatoes. We went to Ash Wednesday mass at church.

Benny, Amanda & Aric stayed the night on their way up north ice-fishing. We went to Chipotle for dinner, a tradition whenever Aric comes to visit.

The girls had a flexible learning day, so a day off from actually going to their school, but not a day off from school work. Basically, a home school day.

Lilli had been counting down the days until the new Disney movie, Zombies, came out. We made the night a little more special and ordered her favorite Chinese food from Weng's and then all sat down to watch the movie together. Such a cute movie.

Tiny, Courtney and Finn came to visit us for the weekend. They arrived late Friday night, we played with Finn, of course, and watched the Olympics. The girls had dance Saturday morning, we went to Culver's for lunch and then picked up some new games at Target for game night. We ordered pizza from Ole Piper and continued to play more games after the kids went to bed. It was so fun to have them for the weekend and to show them our new house.

We worked on and finished Alexa's poster board for her History Day project. Adam grilled dinner and we watched more Olympics.

The girls and Adam have the day off from school/work for President's day.

They played games together and Alexa practiced her presentation for History Day. We delivered her giant poster board to the school so we wouldn't have to hassle with it in the morning.

We surprised Isabelle with decorations in the car and chocolate donuts for breakfast on the way to school for her 14th birthday.

Adam and I took Alexa to Joann's Fabric to pick up some supplies to make our Jamaican flag, a part of our Olympic event over the weekend.

We had faith formation at church and then Adam and I worked on our flag. Despite our scissors being terrible on cutting fabric/fleece, it turned out pretty darn good.

Adam had an early morning meeting on Thursday and Isabelle was sick over at the Sharp's where Lilli would normally go if Adam needs to go in early, so I got to stay home an extra hour with her and bring her to school. Love that kid so much!

Alexa was supposed to give her History Day presentation to her teacher on Tuesday but a sub teacher didn't show up so they had to push it back to Thursday. She is so excited and so confident in her project.

She's especially excited to share that her great-grandpa was actually there when the Enola Gay took off with the atomic bomb.

On the 22nd, my grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. I called and talked to my grandma for a little while and she told me that her wedding day was 44 degrees and sunny. Pretty nice for February.

Adam started his new bean bag league on Thursday nights.

I had dinner at Bourbon Butcher with a Christy, Susan, Jen, Meredith and Crea, who's son was just diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. It was SO fun to get together with this group of ladies, who I've grown to love so much. And it was nice to see Crea out of the house, laughing, and having a good time.

I picked up the girls' dance costumes from the studio. Time to get the Dream Duffel's out!

I had the girls try on and label all their costumes and get their dance bags and everything ready for the morning. Saturday was companie kick off and we were up early doing hair and make up. Lucy also came over to get her hair and make up done. The girls had some "team time" at the studio before their showcase at the middle school. It was SO fun to see all their dances. I hadn't seen many of them yet, so it was fun to see everything with costumes on, etc. They did such a beautiful job.

Alexa and Mackenzie also had the opportunity to perform their duet again and they nailed it. So dang proud of them. We had a Synergy family potluck afterwards. After the kick off we took the girls home, had them shower and rest a bit and then we went over to the Budde's for our couples night event.

They put on the most amazing "winter Olympic" games for us. Each couple represented a country and had to bring an appetizer from their country and hand make their countries flag. We walked the kiddos over to the Beissel's in the Opening Ceremony's parade of countries and then back to the Budde's for curling, ski jumping, the biathlon and couple's luge. We had to pass on the figure skating because it was getting too cold. Overall, a super fun night. Adam and I (team Jamaica) came home with a SILVER! We tied for 1st with Jeff and Jolene but had more violations, so it bumped us down. We had a blast!

We spent Sunday relaxing, playing games with the kids and prepping for the week ahead. Alexa had a revised dance schedule Monday night which allowed her home an hour and a half early.

Our friend Mike blew out his knee earlier this month and went in for surgery, Tuesday. No doubt Adam will need to 'take care' of him while he's laid up. We are also helping out Jolene in any way we can, driving her carpool, etc.

Auntie Ti-Ti turned 28 on the 27th! We all called to wish her a happy birthday.

We also visited Mike and brought him a little care package of goodies while he's down for the week. His surguery went well, but has a long recovery ahead. Adam offered to take Jolene's place as teacher this week for 4th grade faith formation so that she could be home with Mike. Alexa's class was canceled due to her teacher needing emergency gallbladder surgery, so I had Taylor and Katelyn over to our house to hang out with her while we took Lilli and Jack to class. Adam got the full idea of why I come home on Wednesday nights and need a drink. An hour with those rowdy kids about sets me over the edge. Not sure if anyone actually listened to the lesson, but I did my best without Jolene. We ended the night/month snuggled in our bed watching Greenhouse Academy with the girls.