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I love spending time at the lake and I love the view I have especially early in the morning as the sun is rising over the horizon. I captured this beauty with my iphone.
Credits: Then & Now kit by Heather Taylor (Mscraps)
Ellie and Jeff spent a night “camped” in the back yard. I was invited to roast marshmallows with them.
We ate our way through the Taste of Dorset. Ellie loved playing all the games and even won a tadpole!
More snow cone treats!
Ellie walked on water at the county fair.
Ellie learned to bake Grandma Penny’s banana bread, the best banana bread in the whole world!
Ellie and I had an adventure on the train. She saw Minnehaha Falls for the first time and it was roaring! Then we continued to downtown Minneapolis where she was fascinated with revolving doors.
4th of July always includes sparklers around here:
I rode in the Tour of Saints bike ride with my Dad, brother and nephew.
Made lots of snow cones for Ellie and her friends on hot days!
Anna got her drivers permit! Look out!
And I went tubing on the Mississippi River at Dana and Dan’s 40th birthday bash!
By day Anna became a pretty panda complete with argyle socks…
While little sister, Ellie was “in her satin tights, fighting for your rights and the old red, white and blue” as Wonder Woman.
Anna’s middle school class held their party at Funky Minds. She was in charge with Eliza to organize the party.
By night, Ellie changed into a disco dancer.
While the panda put on a few more layers to stay warm. Anna went out with her friend, Ali, so we didn’t see her much.
Ellie, Belle and the pumpkins on the porch:
Ellie had to wait until Dad came home from work, but she kept busy handing out candy to the early trick or treaters.
She was so excited by the time Dad got home. It was hard to keep up with her as she ran from house to house. But after an hour at this pace she decided she was done.
Love the note at one of our neighbor’s houses.
The loot:
Anna came home earlier than expected. I didn’t get a picture of all of her loot but it weighed in at over 6 pounds.
A few weeks ago Anna and her friend, Allyson, had a sleepover. They recruited Ellie to help with their music video. Turned out pretty cute. Good thing she’s not usually like this in real life!
We should be use to it around here, the third flood event in the past year. Each time the Minnesota River crested well above flood stage causing all the local bridges to close for a time. This flood was 3-inches higher than last spring and 0.85 inches lower than the fall 2010 flood.
Carver Creek near our house.
My little shutterbug.
Three-foot temporary raise to the levee in town constructed in anticipation of the flood.
Temporary levee constructed across Main Street.
Jeff & Ellie overlooking the Minnesota River at the Highway 41 bridge in Chaska.
High waters of the Minnesota River.
Me and Ellie checking out the flood.
Ellie enjoying photographing the flood.
Walking down the closed road. Hopefully this is the last flood we’ll see for awhile.
The MVC All Star’s first competition of the year, the UPA Challenge Cup, was held last Saturday at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. I was so grateful that all the MVC All Star teams were performing in the afternoon so that the road crews had time to clear all the snow away from yesterday (at my house we got 9.5 inches). Still expecting less than perfect road conditions I did allow myself extra time to get there.
(Anna with some of her teammates: Marissa and Morgan. They’ve got their “sparkle” on!)
After checking Anna in with her coaches and waiting for the rest of the team to arrive the adults realized that we had almost 2 hours without our kids before they performed. This was a big change from last year. So many of us headed across the street to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. I sat at a table with Lisa, Nadine and Laurie and enjoyed learning more about these other “moms” immensely. Back at the Target Center the teams performed in order from our youngest to our oldest teams.
The youngest team comprised of kindergartners and first graders is called the Sparkle team. They are too darn adorable.
The MVC Sparkle team ready to start their routine from center court.
The “Sparkle” girls during their routine.
The next team, the MVC Gold, is made up of second through fourth grade girls.
The Gold girls show off with strong, sharp arm positions.
Changing formations during the Gold routine.
Finally the group I was personally waiting for, the MVC Purple was on. I probably was more nervous than Anna. The Purple group consists of girls in the fifth through eighth grade.
Waiting to go on.
All I can say is “wow”. The girls performed so well. They were strong, had energy, hit their moves and kept on smiling.
Since the teams all performed in the afternoon it wasn’t long before we knew the judges results.
The MVC All Stars anxiously awaiting their scores.
Crunch, the Timberwolves mascot visited the team.
After some of the younger team members mobbed Crunch, he decided to get even by stealing one the girl’s pom poms. She ended up chasing him around the court in order to get it back.
The Sparkle team wins second place in their division!
The Gold team wins first place in their division!
And judging from Anna’s reaction…
THE PURPLE TEAM WON FIRST PLACE IN THEIR DIVISION–SECOND YEAR IN A ROW!
Way to go All Stars!
Way to go Anna! I’m so proud of you.
Wow, I was so amazed at the sweet and wonderful comments and all the visitors to my site during this past weekend’s Scrap scrap scrap blog hop.Thank you to all who visited and especially to all of you that left comments.
There were 40 comments left during the hop and the winner is: DebbietheBee! Congratulations Debbie. Check your email for information on how to get your free “i heart pictures” kit.
And the grand prize winner of kits from all 10 designers is: Angela! Way to go Angela. You have an email on the way too.
I’d love to see your creations made with my kit so please come back here and link me up.
I love dance and I love type (you should see how many fonts I have on my computer–I’m afraid to count)–so I loved this:
Finally, week 12 the final week of course work is completed. Yippee! The assignment was to reinterpret sketches that we’d previously done. As Cathy Z says, ” Nothing in design is really new. It is simply just reinterpreting things that are built upon solid foundations of design principles and elements.” I choose to reinterpret a sketch from week 5 (previously done as “Groovy Girl” and then one from week 9 (previously done as “She is so beautiful”).
Anna’s friends at her birthday party. They went roller skating/blading, ate pizza and cake, did makeovers, had a dance party, worked on scrapbooks (that’s my girl), watched a movie, slept a little, ate chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and cleaned up. I needed a nap the next day, but it was a fun party.
Christmas eve celebration with all the in-laws. The evening started at a church service where grandpa sang in the choir. A wonderful meal at Grandma and Grandpa’s house (Ellie was hungry and started sneaking food from the table) was followed by singing Christmas carols with Brandon playing the piano. Then the chaos of gift opening. It was a blessed Christmas celebration with some of my dear family.
Conversations 