The Munce Family

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Girl's Weekend to the MEGA MALL.

Maggie and I took our girls on our first annual girls trip and had so much fun. We even skipped a day of school in order to maximize our time. We stayed at the Radisson Blu and enjoyed all the MOA had to offer ;), including the Rainforest Cafe, Crayola Experience, Rides, Nordstrom happy hour, hotel room spa session and more. We did sneak away for a little Galleria shopping, but otherwise we were mall bound. The kids had a blast, and truly shopped until they dropped, Piper may have dropped a few times. Every time I ask Greta to describe the best day of her life, she describes the MOA...uh oh!

We shopped until they dropped, literally!

Everyone loves and Anthro photo op.

Spa session.

While the face masks set.

Saturday, November 6, 2021

Halloween, Birthdays, and Vaccines (and GG, oh my!).

Late October brings so many forms of fun. We have birthday and Halloween to look forward to, oh and how could I forget the Great Gatherings fundraiser which happened to fall on Greta's birthday this year. Unfortunately, Piper came down with a tummy bug the day before her birthday, so I had to pick her up from school early. It wasn't all bad though, it forced us some quiet family time in an otherwise very busy time of the year. She slowly came around her on her actual birthday and was in perfect shape in time for Halloween (thank goodness as last year we spent Halloween in quarantine since I had COVID). We had celebrated the girl's bday with family the weekend before, so we did all of her favorite things and showered her with love on her day.

Halloween was on a Sunday this year, and it was clear and dry, but pretty cold. The kids lasted an hour or so, but then returned to hand out candy with Virginia and I. Its always so fun to see all of the neighbors and have brief chats, its been too long since we have seen many of them. Sully was a dino, Greta was a Candy Queen (home made by her, awesome!), Piper was a rainbow pegasus and Lor was Oscar the Grouch.

Greta's birthday was perfect, she went to school and had an early dismissal before going for dinner and a movie with the rest of my family and Maggie and Anna, the extra guests made it extra special. They went to Golden Bowl for her favorite meal.

I spent Greta's birthday at our annual fundraiser for my PASI board (Parent Advocates for Spanish Immersion). We had a goal of $50k and made over $60k! I was so proud of our group and their hard word. It was a virtual event again this year, but we are excited to bring it back in person next year, which also happens to be my president year so I'm really hopeful for a successful event.

Now...onto the holidays!

Sweet Pip is 6.

The final harvest bouquet is always my fave.

Birthday salsa lessons.

Things are getting wild ;).

PASI fundraiser, full steam ahead!

Sisters, love to match, most of the time.

Urgent Care on her bday.

Lor as the Grouch!

So excited!

Some saw a witch, some saw Amy Winehouse.

Our dino, candy queen, pegasus, and grouch.

Candy cigs for the win!

First dose! Whoop!

Greta girl is 8!

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Proud they are mine.

My parents were honored with an award from the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation for their years of service and philanthropy to our city. They were both so humbled by the recognition and even more humbled by most of my family being present for the ceremony and my dad's speech. He really honored my mom and her dedication to beautifying our community, and ended it with a poem he wrote probably 20 years ago. He talked about how he was able to get my mom to stay here when they first met rather than moving to Colorado, and how their view from their Riverview Heights deck is the best spot in the world, and for me, since it is home, I felt those words in my heart. I love how they compliment each other and as a team they set such good examples for all of us. Way to go, mom and dad!

Cool as a cucumber. :)

Paul's Poem

Heart eyes.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Muncestream.Adventure: Lake Herman State Park

We were lucky enough to sneak in one final camping trip in mid October. We had two amazing weather days and one terrible one. Regardless of it all, fall camping is camping at its finest. The temps are mild, its cozy in the camper, campgrounds are relatively quiet, and the colors are incredible. We had a four day weekend and Lor went with our partner family, so we had some time to get away. We went to Lake Herman State Park and it was incredible, our campsite was right on this quiet pond. We had campfire nachos, hiked, biked, went into town for dinner one night, and had daily happy hours at various lookout points. We packed up the camper for the season and have quickly started planning camping weekends for 2022, it was a great inaugural year with the camper.

Campfire nachos by flashlight.

Blindfold drawing competitions.

The setup.

The first of many hikes.

A nearby lookout/happy hour spot.

Sweet G.

This is where her hike ended.

She's back! Remember to bring the soccer
ball every time!

I love this photo of the kids and I.

Nature crown crafting.

Happy hour soccer match. You can barely make out Dave's
image on the bench, but he's there, enjoying every minute.

Nature crowns for all three.

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Connelly Family Photos by Kathleen E 2021

My friend Katie Barnes takes the best family phots, quick and painless with great direction. It feels like such a chore to pull it all off, but the end, result it absolutely worth it.

Munce Family

The three Munceketeers

I love my moms's smile in this one.

My parents plus the spouses.

The original 7.

Grankids

The Whole Group.

The one.

Monday, September 20, 2021

Muniver Couple's Trip

We have had this trip on our calendar since the year Piper was born. We wanted to go on a big adventure with Maggie and Jeff but I wanted to wait until all of my kids were in school full time. When COVID hit, we were certain things would be resolved in time for our trip. We even purchased plane tickets (sort of last minute) for our original European itinerary. And then we all started losing sleep over the consequences of positive covid test either among us abroad or at home with the kids while we were so far away, so we rearranged. We drew ideas out of a hat and landed on the east coast, we did a US version of our European vacation, we started in Acadia National Park, moved to Portland, Maine, and ended up in NYC, it was an incredible trip.

We loved the variety of locations, our accommodations for Acadia were remote and quite and incredibly scenic, which was a win win until we needed food past 7pm, it was literally a ghost town. We ended up have pasta with a side of pasta, which was actually fitting since we had hikes planned the following day. Bar Harbor was lovely, Acadia was gorgeous, we hiked Cadillac Mountain and then had an afternoon snack at Jordan's Pond House which was such a highlight for me. We had a fish boil on night and spent our last evening returning to the house early for and Aperol Spritz happy hour and watching the sunset, so incredible.

We moved on to Portland, ME where we stayed in an awesome apartment on a bustling street loaded with shops, restaurants, and activities. We went on a lobster boat tour, tasted bourbon, ate at a speakeasy one night and David's the following, found breweries and shopped for two good days. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed the good food and atmosphere the city provided.

Finally, we landed in NYC where we enjoyed the hustle, bustle, smells, sounds and excitement of the big city. We did a Statue of Liberty cocktail tour, saw The Waitress and Hadestown (wow!!!), shopped, walked the streets and strolled through Central Park and happy houred at Tavern on the Green.

We had a great time, it was a great trip in spite of not being our original plan, we have high hopes for Europe with the Olivers in 2023!