Royalty ready to watch the opening ceremonies

We had royalty come to visit for the Olympic opening ceremonies:

Lake Minoqua, Wisconsin

After reuniting with the kids in New York, we headed to Wisconsin to spend a week with Dan's family. Dan's parents rented a house right in the lake and Dan and his brother rented a boat to waterski, tube, and wakeboard from.

I think everyone had fun on the boat:









One evening we all went to see the local water ski show

Emma and Ian "sitting on the dock of the lake"

They also enjoyed the old school swing set

Emma and Ian got to spend some quality time with their cousin

Keaton
We went miniature golfing for the first time as a family


Kayaking was a lot of fun, too



Emma made a "New Friend"

We went to a lumberjack show


Emma got chosen for one of the games

Future Lumberjack?
We had a relaxing week enjoying a new place with fun times all around.

Eight Planes and Three countries in Twelve days

After dropping off Emma and Ian in NewYork, Dan and I headed to Europe for 12 days. This was the longest that I have been away for the kids, so I missed them a lot, but knew they were having a great time with Grandpa and Grandma. We started our trip in Paris where Dan had been invited to attend the board meeting on a non-profit organization that college friends had started. We then headed to Macedonia to visit these friends and see some of the projects they were working on. We ended our trip with some down time in Santorini, Greece. Below is a slideshow of some of our adventures.

Summer in Rochester

We have had quite the adventure on our Summer Vacation this year. Our first stop was to New York to drop off Emma and Ian with their Grandparents.  Emma and Ian had a great time there swimming in the pool, celebrating the 4th of July, riding bikes, scooters, and tractors!


"Fishing" in the pool

Tractor rides

Watering the lawn

Our "waitress" for dinner

End of School year activites

Emma and Ian's last days of school were in mid June. Both of them had a wonderful year with great teachers and new friends. They have both grown so much over the year. At the beginning of the year, Ian was a kid of few words. Now he will talk your ear off. Emma loved Kindergarten, made some great friends, and tried new things.

Here are a few pictures from both of their end of the year performances:
Emma's performance was of some of their favorite songs throughout the year:








Ian's last day had a performance, also:

Emma's got a brand new smile

After much wiggling and jiggling, Emma lost her first tooth last night!

Ian is 3!

It has been a big week in our house with birthday celebrations galore of our new 3 year old! Ian turned 3 on Monday, but because the weekend before was the end of spring break, we decided to have his party this weekend. Because of that, it has seemed like a week long birthday as Ian waited in anticipation for his party!

Ever since Emma's birthday in February, Ian has been asking for a car cake for his birthday. So, When we got Ian up on Monday with our rendition of "Happy Birthday" over course he immediately asked where his car cake was!  Unfortunately, Mommy was not planning on making the cake on his actual birthday, but for his party! I had to quickly come up with a plan to keep the birthday boy happy, while still not overwhelming the house with one too many car cakes!

Here is what we came up with:


A car cookie complete with candles! He was happy with it, thank goodness!

On Ian's actual birthday, we ran errands at Target and Ian had his 3 year doctor's appointment. At Target, I let Ian pick out a "Buzz" and "Woody" action figure that each say about 10 different things when you move their arm . Woody accompanied us to the doctor's appointment. When the nurse walked us into our exam room Ian raised Woody's arm which resulted in Woody exclaiming "Time to round us up an escape plan!" Could there be any better timing for that phrase! We all got a good laugh. Ian did great at the appointment (no shots this year!) and we headed out to lunch as a special treat.


Emma, Ian, and the very eloquent Woody


With Buzz, too!


Ian's favorite phrase is "To Infinity...and Beyond!!!"


Ian attempting to blow out his candles

Over the week, Ian also got a brand new big boy bed and we soon will be transitioning into that. We went with bunk beds, so now when we have guests, Emma will have a place to sleep (besides her cot and sleeping bags, which she loves)

On Saturday, it was finally party day. Ian was a little upset that we had to go to a soccer game first, but he forgave us when he saw his official car cake....


Ian's favorite part of the Cars movie is when Mater and Lightening go tractor tipping and get chased by Frank the Combine.  He cracks up every time he sees this! So when I saw this cake idea online, I knew I had to do it!

The words "Wow, thats amazing Mom" Actually came out of his mouth and he had to immediately show all his friends that cake when they came in. I am so glad I could make his birthday with come true  (for this year at least!)

At the party, we had many car type activities. One of the favorites was "Box" car racing.

The box cars were a team effort between Dan, Emma, and I

We raced up and down the sidewalk at least 6 times

The fun probably would have continued...

Except it was a 90 degree day

so we headed back inside to cool off!

We had pizza and wings and fruit for lunch. For birthdays, I always stock up on dollar store table clothes. The kids eat picnic style outside while we enjoyed a quiet lunch inside. (Also our back yard is about 15 degrees cooler than the front, so the kids were not roasting out there)

We also had another pinata this year (Ian holding his bag for the candy)

Pulling ribbons
And then it was time for cake...

Ian was really excited to have everyone singing to him

This must be his really excited face!

and we all enjoyed cake!

We ended the party with Ian Serenading everyone with one of his favorite new toys!

Thank you to everyone far and near who helped to make Ian's day (or week) very special! He loved all his cards, gifts, and birthday wishes!