Summer has begun!

Well, the big move is behind us & we are settled into our "summer home" in Minneapolis.  We have the first floor apartment of this Victorian house.  It is fully furnished, so we only had to bring what we wanted of our personal belongings to get us through the summer & were then able to put the rest of stuff into storage.

The kids have been enjoying "scooting" up & down the sidewalk in front of the house... complete with Melanie decked out in her many dress-up outfits, too!

We have some great neighbors & are getting to know the area.  The front porch is already becoming a favorite spot for meals, reading the paper & visiting with the others in the house.

The kids also like the snack bar off the kitchen for eating as well as keeping on eye on me while I'm cooking. Their room is also a big hit...

... complete with bunk beds!  Even though they had them at our house, bunk beds are still quite fun!

Brandon's favorite feature of the house is probably the basketball hoop by the garage...

 & Melanie loves being on the porch with her easel while she draws & paints. We love the location of being near the downtown lakes & 1 mile from the Greenway bike path that links up endless miles of bike trails all over the cities. 

We've had a few incidents... bikes stolen when our garage was accidentally left open, Mike recovering his bike after spying it in a backyard across the alley (mine remains missing), getting ourselves locked out of our garage... but we've ironed out the kinks and are now ready for a summer of fun in the city! 

Brandon had his last day of kindergarten last Thursday... hard to believe this school year has come & gone so quickly!

He had a great year in kindergarten & we are so proud of all he learned & how he grew in his first year of school.  He is bummed to be done for the summer... but hopefully our summer of fun in the city will help take his mind off it all!

This week we have dress rehearsal for dance for Melanie & I & then the big show this weekend, so then we'll really be on summer break!

Building has begun...

Prior to closing, we got the final staking of the house done...

 & the electrical pole went in...

& then it was just waiting for closing.  So on closing day, the excavator was literally waiting for our call so digging could begin!

By the end of day 1, the hole was done!  Amazing what a back hoe & a dozer can do in a day...

& next up was getting the footings poured.

We are lucky Ed & Nora are close to help document the building process while we are in the cities... but we were anxious to get down & check it out after the first week!

Ed even managed to get one last crop of hay off the field surrounding the building site!

Princess Tea Time!

Not that we weren't busy enough, but with Melanie's birthday falling at the end of May (closing day, to be exact), we had to some how figure out how/when to do something with her friends.  So just before we moved, I threw together a little afternoon Princess Tea Party for Melanie & a few "princess" friends!  Despite the house being in disarray, we managed to have a pretty fun little tea party...

My friend Vicki made an AMAZING cake for her... & it was delicious too!

The menu included mini pigs in a blanket, PBJ pinwheels, fruit wands, chocolate dipped strawberries... and later on cake & homemade Princess Pink Mint chip ice cream.  The girls also had mango-peach tea & pink lemonade!

The Princess Court!

Gram helped with crafts, a game & even got the girls playing Ring Around the Rosie...

... & then it was cake & ice cream time!

The girls had a little time to frolic outside before it was time to go...

... & the backyard tree swing was a HUGE hit... who would have guessed?  They  stood in line like it was a carnival ride & squealed & giggled the whole time!

Moving Time...

Moving day was set for May 22, so the month of May was filled with all sorts of moving preparation activities.  Already blogged about was the deconstruction of the playground, then come lots of packing, packing, packing... but in the mix we had one last final family bbq gathering in our backyard...

... but earlier in the evening, we did take advantage of having some "extra" lifters around & managed to get a couple loads of heavy furniture moved down to the garage!!

Next to go was the kids' beds...

... but they didn't seem to mind getting to have a little campout in their room! There was lots of "chit-chat" that night...

We'd been busy moving other furniture...

... so there was no kitchen table either!

The big moving day was finally upon us & a big truck to go with it!

The garage was crammed full...

... so we got it shuffled from there to the truck & we were soon ready for our caravan to southeastern MN!

Trucker Mike was ready for the open road... he's thinking he might have missed his calling!

The Hwy 61 drive along the Mississippi River is always a nice one...

... but we were happy to see our turn into the farm.

We got the furniture unloaded into the barn & other stuff into storage... with help from Ed & Nora for all their help in lifting & watching kids!

(stay tuned for lots of building posts as the building process has begun!)

Mother's Day Tea

Mother's Day Weekend, Nora & I went with the kids to Mother's Day Tea.

Grandma puts on a little tea every year at Christmas, which the kids love... so we thought it would be fun to take them to a real tea party.

They loved it... they loved the tea & of course, the "goodies" that are a part of a tea!