Swim Leah, Swim!

This weekend we were off to another swim meet! This time in Normal...it was a big meet and Leah's first long course meet. We were there FOREVER. Thankfully the little sisters were troopers. And I took them to the van for a while to watch a movie between swims.

Leah had a great meet! She knocked a few seconds off of her 50 freestyle which was exciting. She also swam the 50 back and she would have knocked 4.5 seconds off of her best time, but she rolled over at the very end and got disqualified. There were tears...lots of them, but you swim and you learn. She was excited to hit up her favorite Bloomington restaurant, Flat Top Grill, afterwards...and even walked away with two ribbons. So proud of how hard this kid has worked on swim this year!

Fairy Tale Ball

Well, it happened! This year Hattie got to go to the Fairy Tale Ball all by herself with her daddy. I told Bug that she could still go this year, but she quickly and firmly said NO! She knew that last year while she and Hattie were are the Fairy Tale Ball, Leah got to go out for Mexican and Ice Cream with mom. So that's what we did again.

Once Hattie was all dolled up and ready to go, we snapped a few pictures and they hit the road. Mitch said he really didn't have to do much at all. She kept herself occupied talking to the princesses and playing with her friends. She adored Belle and spent so much of the night talking to her and dancing the night away.

Leah, Kiersten and I had an equally fun night! We started at El Corral where we ate our weight in chips and salsa. They get it from their mama! And after we went to Dairy Queen. Leah wanted a blizzard and Kiersten wanted a Artic Rush. We even got a little something for the little princess. The night made me realize that we need to do daughter date nights more often.

April in Mondovi

April 11th is Mitch's Grandmothers birthday, and with April 16th being Easter it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get the family together to celebrate. We loaded up on Good Friday and headed North for Eau Claire. We got to town around 6pm, grabbed a quick dinner and let the girls swim for a while.

On Saturday morning we headed to the farm. Dennis and Diane live there now...they've built a beautiful home and so it was the ideal location to celebrate Grandma Fran. Everyone was there, even some distant cousins I hadn't met before. She was so surprised to see everyone. Hattie wouldn't leave her side for the first few hours.

Later that day Grandma Tootie had an Easter Egg hunt for the littles. We can't have Easter with out that! We stayed at the farm for most of the day. The girls enjoyed being outside and we couldn't have asked for a better day. That night we headed back to the hotel, ordered pizza and there was more swimming.

Sunday morning we all went to Easter service with Grandma Fran and then we started the drive back home. The girls always enjoy there time with her. I hope that get the chance to make many more memories.

Preschool Party

How can it be??? Her very last little preschool party is in the books! I'm so glad I was able to be there. Mrs. Brown had each parent bring 12 filled plastic eggs so the kids could have an egg hunt. They sure loved that!  Then we went inside for the rest of the festivities. They enjoyed a little snack and then we worked on a craft. The bunny masks turned out so cute!

There was an intense game of freeze tag...there little faces were so red by the end! And then they did some other games. They did spoon races and then a hopping game. Her little friends are all just so nice. They are so sweet to one another. She had a great time. Wishing all her little friends a Hoppy Easter!

Run, Leah!

It's been a few months since Leah started running with Mitch on Saturday mornings. Well, somehow, Mrs. Swartz her 3rd grade teacher heard about this and sent home a challenge. The National Honor Socitey at MTZ High School was doing a 5K fundraiser, and Mrs. Swartz challenged her students to come run with her. We were on the fence with whether or not she should do it. But in the end, Mitch took Leah and it went great!

One other boy from Leah's class, Jasper, attended too. Leah said a bunch of people started out fast, but she knew to pace herself. Overall she came in 24th, and Jasper came in 25th. She ran the race in 31 minutes. I'm so proud of her...Mrs. Swartz was proud too. Now on to our next race!

Little Turtles

McGaughey Elementary does a fun project with their 1st graders every year for Earth Day! I remember Leah doing this project two years ago. She made a helicopter out of a milk jug. It had popsicle sticks and straws for propellers. Kiersten came home and was all gung ho to make a robot. But not much later, she said EVERYONE was bringing in robots. So we started looking for new ideas. Enter the Turtles! I think I actually saw it on Instagram. She loved it, so that's what we did. We crafted a cute little Momma Turtle with  baby Turtle on its back. She did great cutting out parts and piecing it together, but she had me handle the hot glue gun. She was not a fan! She didn't win, but that's okay. It was fun all the same.

Easter Eggs

Because at Easter you dye eggs, right?!?! Okay, I have to admit. This is not something I've done very often with my kids. Leah is almost 9, and we've maybe done it 4 times?!?! I used to not like doing it, because I never wanted to eat all those hard boiled eggs. Silly, right? But now I have three kids who like to help me eat them, so I figured we may as well.

They were genuinely surprised by the fact and the egg wouldn't color over crayon markings. I'm totally failing at this mom thing. I kid, I kid! But it was fun. And it occupied maybe an hour of our time.  At the end we got adventurous and started mixing the dye to make new colors. Purple was a win, for sure!!!