Natalie's End of Kindergarten

Natalie's last month as a Kindergartner was a busy one!  The Kindergarten class prepared all year for the one mass they would get to lead at the end of the year.  They all did an amazing job and surprised all of us how well they could read!  None of them were shy or nervous and they had some pretty big jobs to do during mass, especially for a 6 year old!  They definitely learned a lot from Mrs. McGraw!

They went on many field trips too during May.  I was able to chaperon two of them and Brian one.  I had the privilege of going to the Police Station and then to Farm Day sponsored by the FFA students at the high school.  Both were equally fun and entertaining!  Lauren got to go as well and she loved the animal the most!  Brian got to take Natalie and the Kindergarten and 6th Grade classes to Mill Pond for a little fishing.  It's tradition that the 6th graders take their kindergarten buddies and fish with them.

The last day of school was field day.  It rained which was a bummer so the kids ended up having their field day inside in the gym.  They all had a lot of fun and made the best of it. Natalie's team, which Emily is also on, were the overall winners.  Both girls were excited about that!

Sad to leave Mrs. McGraw!

Wining Team!!

Spring Programs and Recitals

Emily had a trumpet solo at JI Spring Program...she would admit it wasn't her best performance on trumpet but totally made up for it with her piano performance which awed and amazed the audience!

Natalie's First JI Spring program and she and her class did a fantastic job!  Natalie just loves singing and performing.  We knew all the songs a month before the program because she would sing them non-stop every day!

Rachel did a great job as well.  She really knows how to project her voice so we can always pick her out!  She enjoyed singing in the JI Childrens choir as well where they performed a medley of broadway songs.

Emily's last program at John Ireland.  The sixth graders had a great time performing and the girls especially had an amazing performance of Frozen songs.  It was fun to watch them!

Caitlin joined band this year after taking off her 7th grade year.  I think she enjoyed it and we had a good time watching them at their end of the year performance.  At the end the whole middle school and high school performed a very very very long song....but it was good!

Piano recital for these 3 is always fun.  They all did a fabulous job and performed well in front of an audience.  Emily participated in Guild Auditions and received a superior rating from the judge.  Piano is definitely her thing...not the trumpet!

May Birthdays

We celebrate 3 birthdays in May, Mine, Natalie and Caitlin's.  This year was a big year for me and it felt like Mandy-palooza for most of the month.  On my actual birthday Caitlin had a track meet in Belle Plain so we had originally planned to check out Suzette's restaurant between Jordan and Belle Plain.  Well, Lauren had a melt down and the others did NOT want to go to watch Caitlin so I told Brian that we'd meet him.  Unfortunately the track meet was running 1-1/2hrs behind schedule so we ended up waiting for Brian and Caitlin to come home and we had dinner (Papa Murphy's & a Margarita) at 9pm.  The family had a nice yummy cake from the grocery store for me as well. :)
We celebrated at El Agave the next night with Fajita's for two for Brian and I and Jumbo margaritas.  It was a good thing we walked to the restaurant!  They were potent drinks!

We then celebrated Caitlin and Natalie's birthday jointly for a family birthday-Granparents and Godparent, Aunts/Uncles and some cousins.  It was a very warm day but Uncle Mike and Aunt Laura were the real troopers taking all the kids to tremendous park to sweat and play. 

Natalie's birthday was on May 7th and she chose Pizza Ranch for her birthday meal!  After pizza we headed back to our house for cake and presents!

Then Natalie thought she should have a friend birthday party so I gave in and we invited her girl classmates to our house for 2 hrs of fun.  

Some of my saint peter friends and Gina and Laura took me to CoV in Wayzata for a girls night out and to keep my birthday celebration going.  It was so much fun and I am so blessed to have these wise beautiful, fun women in my life.

The following evening Brian had a little surprise set up for me.  I didn't know where we were going but I knew he had invited some people to join us.  We ended up at The Woods at Shoreland Country Club for a private 40th party for me and some of the favorite people in my life.  Not everyone could make it but the ones that did sure made it a fun night.  I did miss those who couldn't be there to celebrate.  Brian had all my favorite snacky food, my favorite drinks, my favorite kind of cake and a few games that he and the girls had sneakily prepared for us to play.  It was such a fun night!  And a great end to Mandy Palooza.

Ok, finally we get to the Golden girl, Caitlin who turned 14 years old on May 14th!  She chose Dino's Pizzaria-yummmmmmmo for her birthday meal. Brian had surprised her at school that morning by decorating her locker.  We wanted to make sure everyone knew it was her birthday in case she didn't tell everyone herself.  After track was over for the year, she had 4 friend sleep over and catch a movie outdoors.  Both events were a lot of fun.

Lots of dinners out= yummy

Lots of cake=yummy

Lots of fun, friends, family=priceless

It was a great month of May