A scheduled weekend slowdown.

Tis the season for fun and festivities. With all of the busyness, it was great for our family to schedule a slowdown weekend, fun was had by all. 

We started if off by watching Sully perform in his school's orchestra concert, its awesome how good they all are after just a few months. Next was kid's night including an evening at the Pavilion, pizza, and then to James and the Giant Peach where their cousin, Hudson, performed. We finished the weekend off with a family night, we decorated the tree, listened to music and were simply together, it was an absolute low key highlight for all. I'm always wishing for more of these weekends, but thankful for the ones we get. 

Orchestra with his buddy Kingston. 

James and the Giant Peach with grandma and friends. 

The tree is up! 

The warmest fire. 

A moment to mediate. 

SNL

Taylor Swift sing along, every time.

Girl's Weekend : Boy's Weekend

Minneapolis/Montreal or bust! 

The gals of the group snuck away to Minneapolis while Sully and Dave got to Montreal for a much anticipated boys weekend. 

We enjoyed all the Mall of America had to offer, and let's be real, we also had our fair share of begging for every toy, fidget, squashmallow (and every other thing for sale on the kiosks), melt downs, and drama. But looking back, all we remember is the fun had by all; the cousin time, the sister time, and just making the time to get away together. 

The favorite moment had by all was the spa event held by the girls for Maggie and I. They thought of every detail from the spa menu of food and services to the mellow music to really set the scene. The girls all have so much fun with it and its actually pretty fun for Mag and I, too. 

I love our girl's weekends and definitely look forward to the next, but will probably insist we try a different location next time. 

Sugar Factory 

Pip overcame her fear of rollercoasters! 

G presenting us our spa menus. 

Real deal. 

The worker bee hard, hard at work? 

The kids get a turn. 

Fresh skin for all! 

Sephora fun. 

Meanwhile, Sully and Dave loved Montreal. They have had this trip on the calendar since before Covid and between weather and the pandemic, it hasn't happened... when it fell into their lap, they were so excited. They ate poutine, rode bikes, watched an incredible hockey game and just enjoyed spending some quality time together. 

Bike ride. 

Pizza for the win! 

The boys.

7, Halloween, 9, Girls on the Run

Next up...birthdays, Halloween, and a 5k! 

We celebrated Piper's 7th birthday on October 30 with a family day followed by Halloween, and then Greta's 9th birthday on November 5th. What a week! 

The girls are so grown up. Piper will always be the littlest and loves that about her life, but at 7, she is starting to act so grown up. She takes pride in a clean room, loves to read and is thrilled about taking piano lessons. She seems to have more buddy boy friends than girl friends and loves it. Piper chose Bread and Circus for her family dinner. Greta is my best helper, always excited with tasks, but has mastered sneaking food and candy into her bed, I find 'wrapages' from Hershey kisses in her bed weekly. While I'm constantly reminding her of the food rules, I secretly smile at her tactics, because she is pretty clever when it comes to them, if only she could figure out how to clean up after herself. She has mastered the eye roll and she has so much sass. She chose Golden Bowl for her family dinner. I love everything about them both. 

For Halloween, the kids dressed as a couple of trash pandas and a bunny (all the camping varmints ;)). They went out with neighbors while I handed out candy, we enjoyed picture perfect weather... we had nearly 400 trick or treaters!  

On Greta's actual birthday, she ran a 5k with Dave and Sully as her support runners. She participated in Girls on the Run this year and took away so many things. She learned about setting goals and accomplishing them. One of my bffs and neighbors, Amy, was a coach and really nailed it, we feel really lucky to have been a part of this program. Way to go, Greta (and Dave and Sully, and all of the girls!). 

Pip- 7! 

The Zookeeper and her animals. 

Piper the bunny, Sully and Greta as trash pandas. 

5th ave Faves, missing Landon and Aidan. 

On my Halloween stoop. 

The chaos. 

Bday parties. 

Girls on the Run, Greta surrounded by love. 

Picture perfect High 5 from Matt.

Greta's cheering/birthday squad. 

Greta and Amy... and Anders :). 

So proud of our G. 

Annika, Greta, and Piper. 

Golden Bowl photo op with our kiddos. 

GG22

Parent Advocates for Spanish Immersion is an advocacy board I've been involved with for the last four years, we work to improve the immersion program through support of the teachers, students, and interns. This is my presidency year. PASI fundraises each year to secure money for interns as well as teacher grants. Our annual fundraiser is called Great Gatherings which consists of all of the usual fundraising entities, what you don't see is the behind-the-scenes volunteer parents working around the clock to pull this thing off. Our board consists of a fantastic group of moms who care deeply about their children's education and gosh, it shows. I'm proud to say that we blew each of our goals away and had such a successful event. I'm thankful to our entire group (their families for supporting us), and the entire program for making GG a success and for believing in the good work PASI does!  

Flowers from the best board 
board members on GG eve. 

Mag came to show her support, 
no photo of Dave and I. :/

Dani and I

PASI 2022-2023

1409 turns 100!

2022: the long anticipated year of the celebration for our house, what could possibly make it more exciting? I won't leave you hanging... our backyard neighbor's (and friend's!!) house also turned 100 this year. It took only a few moments to connect the dots and to put together a joint plan. We had so much fun planning; between patio happy hours, apps, qdoba, txting, calling, etc. it was fun to plan together. 

We had a Roaring 20's theme party with signature drinks, bar tenders, food, and fun. The first portion of the evening started here with a casual happy hour type atmosphere for a couple of hours before moving to the Baloun's. They had a mega party vibe going with patio doors open, music blaring, and the bar ready. We partied the night away and had so much fun. 

Some of the highlights for me include the 95% of the guests being in full costume, the festive bar tenders (also favorite neighbors from the other direction), Gin Rickeys and Greyhounds, and just spending time with so many fun people, both our friends and the Baloun's friends and having them all connect at one fun spot. Looking forward to the 200th party! ;)

The invite. 

Party ready.

Mag showed up early to help me pull my part 
together, which is better, red or blond?!

Maggie and Kara and I. 

Sara, Virginia, and I - Fifth Ave squad. 

Balouns and Munces

Dave and I with Jaxon and Aidan, our neighbors and bartenders. 

Lovely ladies, Kate, Liz, and Christa. 

Amy and I, so much fun! 

Trivia crew gals, xoxox.