June Pics

I knew it had been a while since I lasted posted (or even had a chance to read blogs - sorry!), but I didn't realize it had been this long.  We're busy, of course, but the main reason for my absence is that I've been using my downtime to craft.  I've been making plastic canvas renderings of Rylee's new addiction/favorite show/toy: "My Little Pony."  She's already planning her MLP birthday party for when we get back, but I digress.  Here's what we've been up to lately...

...resort play, Rylee's 1st woodtick, dance class, swimming at the community pool (Rylee can do a triple somersault and a backward somersault underwater - she is so proud!), visiting with friends  (like Staci, Penney & Patti, and Sara), library story hour started up again, bowling, more pontoon rides, park play, hanging with Grandpa Chip, and more!  The last couple of days have been especially jam packed. 

Wednesday - We had a play date with Chelsie & her three boys.  Rylee had so much fun shooting water guns, trying the slip and slide, and playing hide and seek.  She basically has crushes on all three.  That night, I had a girls night out with Sara.  We hit Crosslake for dinner so I could make my annual Barbie doll dress purchase at the "yellow ice cream store."  (I've been shopping there my entire life, but have no idea the name of it!)

Thursday - I played supermom and took both kids to the community pool (I usually leave Jace at home napping - sorry buddy).  I had to do something to make up for the fact that I was going out on the town again that night with my Mom, Chelsie, and Linda for a lovely dinner, and fun conversation, at Lonesome Pine.

Friday night - Rylee and I snuck out to see "Monsters University" with Heather, Megan and Max.  (I didn't think it was quite as cute as the first one, but Rylee loved it.)

Today was my cousin Drue's graduation party at the park and then my Uncle Jack and Aunt Judy spent the evening with us.  They are the first official guests in the newly fixed up Cabin 8 (aka Rylee & Jace's Clubhouse #8).

Whew, lots of action-packed fun and it's only beginning!  The cousins arrive on Monday night and Jon on Tuesday night.  It's hard to believe it's the 4th of July already.  I guess we are on the downhill slide of our vacation already. 

I'll leave you with a few pics from the month...

Big Grandpa Bob's Birthday

 

Jace in his cute Gator shirt that turned out to have his birthday stamped on a fake postage seal on the front - must have been made for him!

 

Some family shots before Ireland's baptism...

 

 

 

More June

So our "not so stellar" week started with my Mom's fall last Saturday. After an ambulance ride and ER trip, they determined she pulled her hamstring. Painful!

Saturday thru Wednesday is kind of a blur for all of us. Mom literally slept 24/7 those first few days, was drugged up on pain meds, barely ate or drank, was getting severely dehydrated and making little sense. She doesn't remember most of it!

I was convinced we were going to have to take her back to the ER if that continued so we cut back her meds and force fed her liquids on Wednesday. She started coming back to life on Thursday, managed to actually get out of bed and sit up a bit starting Friday, and even hobbled around a bit outside yesterday. She's still in a lot of pain, but at least she's up and around some. Hopefully she'll still be able to enjoy some of our summer (now that it decided to make an appearance).

The rest of the week was a bit off too. Rylee fell at dance and had to leave early (she's fine), Jace is teething something fierce and back to being up in the night. In fact, he was up ALL night on Thursday. We both went to bed about 6:30 am Friday morning. Fun times! Especially since our excavating crew was here at 7:00 am with all their loud equipment. Ugh! (But boy does the place look beautiful. We just need the grass to grow now.)

The only highlights were two park trips and two pontoon rides - our first of the season!












Oh and the kids like their swing with a view so much, that we had to put up a second one. Now they don't have to take turns!



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Mid-June...

...already?! Where does the time go? Well, I'm glad you asked.

It's spent...

- fixing up Cabin 8 (renamed "Rylee & Jace's Clubhouse #8")




- attending a baptism for Greg's daughter, Ireland Lily (my parents are her new Godparents)

- setting up bunk beds (hand-me-downs from Cousin Lilly)




- visiting with long time resorters, spending time with Grandpa Chip, and celebrating Big Grandpa Bob's 92nd birthday




- setting up an indoor "orange-ade" stand, advertising via Facebook and making $13 (mostly in tips!)




- going to see "Epic" with Heather, Megan & Max (our first 3D movie experience)




- and that was just the first week!

The second week wasn't as stellar, but more on that next time.

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Memorial Weekend Pics

Howard, Kathy, Ian & Lilly (the Cabin 10 crew) were up for the long weekend. There's not too many notable stories - just fun times playing, hanging out and eating good food (like deep fried pickles).

I think I'll call this one: Everybody Loves Lilly...




Ian looks pretty relaxed here with Jace, but you'd have thought we handed him a ticking time bomb at first! :)




Of all the people we've shown my parents house to (Rylee has the tour down), Ian's reaction is my favorite. He was just in awe and kept saying, "Wow."

I think I mentioned the swing with a view before...




Howard, Lilly and I took Rylee to her first ever mini-golf park. She was actually pretty good. She had several par 3 holes! I think she tied with Lilly anyway (with only a little bit of cheating on our part).




The guys also got the dock in that weekend. And we got the pontoon the end of last week. We're one step closer to getting our first boat ride of the season. We just need some decent weather! :)

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May Recap

I don't want to get too far behind on blogging so here's a quick highlight reel of the rest of May's activities...

 - Rylee's last day of her preschool class at CRES (she was so bummed)

 - super fun "Wizard of Oz" movie night with Heather, Vern, Megan & Max

 - Uncle Duck's BLT night with my cousins, Lisa and Suzie, and their families (the 5 kids had a blast playing together)

 - my Mom hosted her book club and her Class of '67 tea party

 - a visit with Big Grandpa Bob

 - a day away from the kids so I could go garage saling with Mom and Jeanne

 - Mooers Family fun over Memorial Weekend (more on that later as pics are on my phone)

- a playdate with Molly (& her Grandma Cissy)

Molly taught Rylee the finer points of outdoor MN play like rolling down the hill at Cabin 10 and playing on the giant construction dirt pile...

 

 

 

They played on the pile for over an hour.  They were both filthy when they came back inside, but boy did they have fun - so much so that Rylee cried when the excavator finally came and knocked the pile down this week!  :)

 

 

 

The two have decided to be sisters since Molly is an only child (as of yet) and Rylee only has a brother! 

 

 

Celebrity

Rylee got one more recognition from her dance recital - her picture was in this week's Courier! :)




She had some really cute pictures in the program book for the show too. I don't think I remembered to mention that before. My favorite was an upside down pic of her doing the "bridge" like this...




... except they got a picture of her face. :)

I also forgot to mention that my friend, Greg, babysat Jace so we could all go to the recital.

I guess I'm forgetful lately! :)

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Rylee's Dance Recital

Rylee's 1st dance recital was last Thursday.  It was so much fun seeing her perform on stage at the Mayberry Auditorium where I danced all those years ago!  She did a spectacular job and loved being in the spotlight. 

 

 

Her adoring fans included Gaga and Papa, Sara, and my uncle Duck and aunt Judi.  The parents of the little ones have to help back stage so I wasn't able to watch the whole show, but I did get to sneak around to the back of the auditorium to watch Rylee's numbers, of which she had five: one tap, two ballet, a gymnastics demonstration and a closing number.  The closing number was a pink glove routine since the recital was also a breast cancer fundraiser.  (Rylee's dance instructor & my aunt, Pat, is a breast cancer survivor.)  For this number, Rylee learned the Macarena.  She picked it up in like 5 minutes.  I was impressed.  :) 

Unfortunately all the running back and forth made video and photography near impossible.  I only have photos of the gymnastics because it was the first number after intermission so I was able to sneak up near the stage without disturbing anyone. 

 

They did various "tricks" on the "balance beam,"

 

 

fancy somersaults,

 

 

and assisted back walkovers as part of their routine.



 

 

Rylee did a great job in all her numbers.  She knew the routines best of anyone so she had the front and center spot.  There was one number that was totally hilarious though... 

Picture the girls holding hands and dancing in a circle around an older girl.  Except they weren't holding each other's hands, they were actually each holding a teddy bear so they were holding their teddy bear's hands.  It was Rylee's job to kind of keep everyone moving in the right direction so she was pulling and pushing the girls next to her as best she could.  All of a sudden, the littlest girl next to Rylee decided to leave the dance.  She just walked off stage.  Rylee was left holding this girl's teddy bear, the circle was broken, and the big finish where Rylee was supposed to peel off and take the whole line of girls off stage wasn't possible.  All the girls sort of walked off stage looking confused.  Right before Rylee got to the curtain, she made an exaggerated gesture of slapping her hand on her forehead and sliding it down her face ala Donald Duck.  It was hilarious!  :)

 

After the closing number, they announced the winners of this coloring contest they had back in May.  Rylee's coloring sheet had the most votes for her age category so she won this T-shirt.  (Not sure if you can see the annoyed faces on some of the "non-winning" girls - priceless!)  I'm not sure Rylee has ever won a contest before.  She was beyond excited!  It was all she could talk about.  She put on her winning shirt right away and even had to sleep in it that night.  :)

 

A star is born!