June & July

We loved the hotel we got to wake up at on the first day of June. We LOVED getting to swim in the pool. Hannah really made progress in learning to swim and her love of the water. We got up and had a wonderful breakfast of fruit, waffles, toast, juice. It was great! We want to go back to La Quinta again soon! We got to play at the mall and have our hair cut before heading to our friends Monica & Paul's wedding. All of the Divas (mommy's volleyball team) were there. It was fun, though we had to leave early to get home and get to bed.

When we got home, our house smelled terrible! The guys who refinished our floors made them very pretty, but it made our whole house smell bad. We slept upstairs again for a few days. It smelled bad, but not as bad upstairs as it did downstairs.

Another highlight was our last day of school. We've LOVED kindergarten, but now we're ready for summer and then FIRST GRADE! Wow. Mom and Dad can hardly believe that we're going to be first graders.

We got to have a graduation ceremony where Mom & Dad and Grandma & Grandpa came. We wore graduation hats that we made and graduation gowns and got little certificates. After graduation, we went to Dairy Queen to celebrate.

We got good grades all year in school, too. As a reward, Mom & Dad bought us tennis rackets to congratulate us on our hard work.

Mom and Dad kept busy with all they had to get done on the house. We packed a lot of toys, which was disappointing. We'll be so excited to move to a new house and get our toys out of storage!

We were excited to be able to spend the summer at our old daycare again. All our friends are still there - Noah missed not seeing his best friend every day since we went to different schools. And, Hannah says he is her boyfriend. Noah & Hannah both say that Hannah is going to marry Grayson and live next door to Noah when they grow up.

We loved basketball over the winter, so we asked Mom & Dad to sign us up for Hoopstars again. Mr. Basketball is a great coach! This was a smaller group of basketball players, but we really loved getting more attention on our basketball skills.

The week of the fourth of July, our daycare was closed, so we got to go to Grandma & Grandpa's house. It was a fun week! We finally got to hang out with Cheyenne. We've missed her so much since she's been at Grandma & Grandpas. We hung out with Grandma & Grandpa in Madison for a few days, then went to the lake cabin and hung out there. Hannah really enjoyed getting to swim in the lake. Angie taught Noah how to do Sodoku puzzles, so he only wanted to hang out in the house and do puzzle books. We did get him outside to enjoy the lake, though his idea of being outside involved sitting in the shade by the lake doing puzzles.

Despite him telling us that he's an "indoor kid", we did get Noah out on the boat and in the water to have some fun.

While we were at Grandma & Grandpa's for the week, Mommy worked on packing up the house. She moved a lot of boxes to the storage trailer! Daddy was on a mission trip with the church in West Virginia.

We were very excited to welcome Daddy back from his trip to West Virginia! We met him at the church, gave him big hugs and let him know how much we missed him.

We got to enjoy the city pool in July. We love our pool! Noah still likes to hang out in the zero-depth kids area of the pool, but Hannah dared to go into the bigger pool (as long as Mom & Dad were with her.)

We were excited to get to go to Mommy's work picnic. Daddy picked us up and brought us downtown. There was food, golf, a dunk tank (Noah really wanted to do the dunk tank but he saw it too late - he saw it when he was walking out to go home.) We got to watch Mommy win a volleyball tournament against other Lifetouch players. (yay, mommy!) We also got to see a REAL Nascar car, play air hockey and play a little bit of volleyball with Mommy. It was fun!

We also started a new session of tennis. We LOVED our tennis class that we took in April. We love the sport and our coach was awesome! We were hoping that the same coach would be our coach again this time, but we weren't so lucky. There were too many kids in the class, and the coach wasn't very good at working with kids. We still like tennis, but we think a different coach would make it more fun.


Hannah got to go to a Twins game. The neighbors had 2 extra tickets to the Twins game in the TENTH ROW! Hannah went with Mom; Noah was happy to stay home and do puzzles. It was such a fun game! We were really close to Joe Mauer, and Hannah enjoyed being at the game with Griff.

After the game, Daddy picked us up at the field and brought us to a special building where we could watch FIREWORKS. They were REALLY awesome fireworks over the Mississippi river. Daddy brought us popcorn and we ate popcorn while we watched fireworks.

We also got to meet up with Daddy's uncle and cousin and her kids to go bowling one night. We had pizza and bowled with our friends. It was a fun night!

We had our cousins, Lauren & Ben at our house AGAIN this year. That's twice this year! It was a fun weekend since it was also Frolics weekend. We didn't get to see fireworks since we saw them the weekend before, but we loved hanging out with our cousins. We got to go to the firehouse and have waffles on Sunday before we checked out all the fire trucks. We found out Grandpa Mark used to be a fireman, so he showed us around the trucks a little bit.

We'd better run, but we'll try to fill you in about August & September soon! It's crazy how time flies when you are six!

Noah & Hannah

Apple Orchard photos

I know I'm WAY behind on posting blog updates. I hope to catch up soon!
It's been a busy summer - getting our home ready to sell, soccer, tennis, starting first grade.

I had to share our annual trip to the apple orchard photos now, though.

We have updated our photos that we have taken for the past 6 years over MEA weekend in our favorite spot:

Happy Fall!

April & May

It's been a busy few months!
In April, Mom & Dad started working on projects, packing and cleaning to try to sell our house so we can move into a new house. So, our summer has been really busy with projects around home. We've still managed to have some fun at home, despite how busy they've been.
April started out our spring break. We took a trip to the zoo for a day. We saw a lot of things - it was a chilly day, but really fun! We saw the farm babies, played on the playground, saw wolves, fish, monkeys and lots of other animals. We also got to ride the tram. We spent a few days at Sue's, and another day hanging out at home.

We also got a visit from our cousins. Lauren & Ben haven't been to our place in almost 2 years, so it was fun to play with them! Grandma & Grandpa had Lauren & Ben for the weekend and came up to help Mom & Dad on the house. So, we enjoyed getting to play with our cousins.

We also FINALLY learned to play Battleship. Noah has been wanting to play Battleship for a long time, so Daddy taught us to play. It was a fun game, though it was challenging and we still have a lot to learn.

Mommy went on a trip to Florida for work the last weekend of April, and while she was gone we got ANOTHER snowstorm! We had two or three big snowstorms in April when we were hoping to get some sun. We did enjoy our snow, though, despite being tired of all the snow we've had this year.

April also ended with Hannah's dance recital. Noah loved watching her dance, and Hannah loved dancing. It was a fun recital! We were proud of Hannah.

In April, we started tennis class. We had a small tennis class (only 4 of us!) but the teacher was great. And, we love tennis! It's a fun sport.

May was a busy month, with school programs, end of the year field trips, daddy's birthday and mother's day. We took field trips to 2 places: The Minnesota Zoo and the Children's Museum. They were so much fun!

Through the month, Mom & Dad took ALL the carpet out of the house on the main floor. It was so different! Then we packed up a bunch of the stuff in the house so someone could come in and redo the floor. Sadly, that meant Cheyenne couldn't stay here. We were so sad that Daddy had to bring Cheyenne to stay with Grandma & Grandpa while the floors were done. We're really going to miss our doggie! Poor Cheyenne.

Though we missed Cheyenne, we were looking forward to not staying in our rooms for a few days. When the guy came in to work on our floor, we had to clear out our bedroom. The night before we had to be out of our house, our room was cleared out and we stayed in the rompus room. It was really cool! And it was really strange to have NO FURNITURE in the bedrooms, hallway and living room.

Mom & Dad planned a night for us at our friends Trevor & Dylan's house, then they got us a hotel with a pool for one night. After the hotel, we got to sleep upstairs for a few days. We really looked forward to that.

April & May were busy...we'll write more soon about June, July, August & September.

Busy March

We had our FIRST SNOW DAY ever on March 5! It was a fun day. We got up to find out school was cancelled, and we got to hang out with daddy all day. He made plans with some of our friends who also didn't have school, so we went to eat pizza and then went sledding! It was a fun time. We were bummed that we missed a day of art, but Mommy assured us that Mr. Kehrer would work out our art lessons and our teachers would plan our lessons right for Wednesday.

The first Wednesday in March, we started something new. Science  Explorers. We are learning about blasting straw rockets. It's so cool! We both LOVE science explorers. We'll get to make 4 straw rockets, test them and then at the end of our class, we'll make a launcher for our rockets!

Friday, we went to fun night at the community center. We got to play on lots of inflatables. We fought in a fighting ring, bounced in bounce houese, did an obstacle course and played bingo! We lost at bingo but had fun bouncing! 

Our LAST week of basketball was fun, too. We were starting to get into the game, but unfortunately it was the end of basketball for a while. We beat the Maroon team twice on the last day! The coach did a good job of helping us to get involved in the game. At the end of the day, we took some time to take pictures with our team.

After basketball, Daddy brought us to Mommy's volleyball tournament so that we could hang out with her and all our Diva kids' friends. We were so good and had fun playing games, reading and running some energy off.

Daddy drove his sister's car to Missouri after he dropped us off. He got to see Grandpa Bob for a little while. He gave the car to Grandpa Bob and rode a bus home. I missed him all day long and was SO happy that he was home when I woke up on Sunday.

The next weekend was fun but sad.

Mommy's uncle died, so she went to a funeral with Grandma & Grandpa on Saturday. After the funeral, we took Cheyenne to Angie's and met them there. We read to Grandma & Grandpa, then went to supper. We went to a really crowded place! We ate peanuts and put the shells on the floor before we got our food. It was less crowded once we sat down at our table. Our food was really good! And, we got to dance with the waitresses. It was fun.

After supper, we left Cheyenne with Grandpa & Grandma. They promised to take care of her while we went to Duluth the following weekend. We were SOO excited about going to Duluth!

We got our report cards on Monday. Both of us got very good grades. The teachers expect us to be at "satisfactory" on all our requirements, but Noah and I were at "proficient" or "excels" in everything.

Mommy & Daddy talked to our teachers the next day. They said we're doing really well in all we do. Our teachers said the things we need to work on are 1st & 2nd grade concepts, so we're doing well. They met with a few other teachers who also said we did a good job.

Wednesday after Science Explorers, we had a family supper (as usual.) But, at supper, Mommy & Daddy told us they were so proud of us for doing such a great job in school. Because they were so proud, they got us gifts! I got a new Monster High Doll and Noah got a Lego Chima speeder. We were SO excited and proud of ourselves.

Thursday was my dance pictures! I got dressed up in my costume, mommy did my hair and I smiled pretty.

Friday after school we dropped off our bags at home and left for Duluth! I've been looking forward to this for weeks! I was so excited! We got to our hotel after our bedtime, and once we checked in, we were too excited to sleep. It was awesome! Noah & I got to sleep on a pullout couch in the living room (and watch TV before we went to bed). Mommy & Daddy's bedroom had a fridge, kitchen sink and a balcony. On the balcony, we looked right out on Lake Superior. The biggest lake in the world!

Mommy played volleyball on on Saturday, so Daddy took us to breakfast, then took us swimming and had Mac & Cheese for lunch. After lunch we went to the Railroad museum. Noah was tired, so we didn't get to stay long, but it was really cool!

When Mommy got done, we went out to eat with Anika, Piper & Deion and some of Mommy's teammates. It was a cool restaurant. We got to watch the cook make fire, and we sat by a window that looked over the lake.

Sunday morning, we were all really tired. But, we got to swim one more time before we had breakfast & checked out. Mommy & Daddy drove us across the big lift bridge and showed us some of the big ships close up. Wow. We saw some of those ships coming in to the harbor on Saturday and they were big.

We had a short week at school when we got back to school Monday. Friday we were off for a whole week of spring break! We're going to miss our school, but we get to go to daycare where our friend Grayson will be, too!

Friday, we hung out with Mommy & packed our suitcases for Easter weekend at Grandpa & Grandma's. When daddy got home from work, we packed up and left. We got to stop at Pizza Ranch on our way there. We sure LOVE pizza ranch - especially the cactus bread!

Although it has been a busy few weeks, we missed Cheyenne and were excited to see Cheyenne at Grandpa & Grandma's. She was happy to see us, too. Grandma said she knew we were coming because she kept looking out the window all day.

Saturday, we went to Great Grandma's house. Lauren & I did the dishes, and Grandma said she was so proud of us! Besides us and our cousins, there were just a couple of little kids there, so the egg hunt was quiet. We got a lot of candy & toys! Mommy painted our faces, we played some games and stayed quiet until supper. It was fun to hang out with our cousins all day.

Sunday we got up and found our Easter Baskets! I got a new purse and a Barbie from the Easter Bunny and Noah got 2 new Legos. The Easter Bunny also got us skittles, jellybeans and Pop Rocks. Mommy, Grandma & Aunt Dani got us Easter gifts, too. Our favorite was Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles from Grandma & Grandpa. But, we're excited about some science kits we get to play with, too!

Happy Easter!
Hannah (and Noah)