Girls' Weekend

Ava and I had a girls weekend last week and spent some time helping my sisters with some various things.  First, we spent some time with Auntie Heidi visiting some fun stores.  We love this bookstore with the kids' door built right in to the main door.  And there are all kinds of animals in there too.  Ava tried to pet most of them.  She's not inflicted with Jack's nervousness.  Then we helped Aunt Nancy and Aunt Bek with Nancy's new cd.  We also took some pictures by the railroad tracks by my parents house for the cd, and I got some good ones of Ava.  Then Sunday we went to Berean and met up with some good friends.  Great, relaxing time!

And we have a 3rd grader!

We finished school May 29th, and it feels great!  We have been partying ever since with outside time, sleeping in (somewhat), reading for fun, and enjoying the water park.  

Last book

Ava wanted to get in the picture too.  

Jack picked lunch at Hyvee to celebrate the last day of school.  

Ava just wanted a picture of her with her backpack.  She must have wanted to get in on the action.  Kindergarten, here we come!

My couch saga

We have had 4 couches in our house in the last two weeks.  We started with this one given to us years ago by my parents. I have loved it so much and really never wanted to get rid of it. But when I started sinking in it regularly and Matt had done all he could, we figured it was time to look for a different one.  

So then this one was given to us.  It had some cat scratches that we were able to blend in and while I liked the look of it, it was a little more formal than I was thinking.  

Then we had an opportunity to get this one for a great deal.  We only had it for two days, so I didn't even take a picture of it in our house.  I told Matt this is a good choice for the money we have, but someday I want a Pottery Barn one.  Sort of joking since I would never spend $2000 on a couch.  Ha.  Well, God heard me...

And we found this one for the exact amount we spent on the other one.  Actually, $2 less!  Pottery Barn, exact style I always wanted from the showroom, the color I wanted, and SOOO SOFT!  I can't stop staring at it, and I love relaxing on it.  What a personal love gift from the Lord!  He does care about every detail of our lives.  A couch has no eternal value, but it is a physical sign to me of the real blessing - my relationship with Him. 

Happy birthday, Grandpa!

We love this kind and gracious man so much!  He and Betty raised a good son who is good to me.  And they are great grandparents to the kids.  We are so grateful for him and the times we have together.  

Memorial Day and other doings

Here are the kids in their festive Memorial Day outfits.  We had a great day with the family - best food and company, a good visit to the graves, and such a blessing to be together as always.  I didn't take any pictures of that day.  I guess I was having too much fun.

  So in the pictures below, Matt and I found our names in the Coke bottles, but the closest we could find to Jack and Ava were Zach and Shayla.  So they are holding those names.  I guess they could be nicknames!

Here's Jack with a friend of ours' newborn.  His name is Asher Mark.  So fun to hold a newborn, and Jack loves babies.  

Jack submitted his Lego ship to Lego Magazine's Cool Creations Club.  He wants to be published. There's a whole story happening on that ship!

Summer is (almost) here!

We are starting to see the end of things before summer.  I enjoy summers in Minnesota.  They're never long enough, but they are wonderful!  So we have finished our adult Bible studies that we had throughout the year, and now we have finished Kids 4 Truth for another year.  It went great this year, and we really enjoyed all of the kids who were involved.  We celebrated a great year with popcorn and root beer floats.  Delicious.  Oh the kids have black eyes because it was injury night.  They are not real injuries!  

MInnesota Zoo

Zoo season is here!  We love the Minnesota Zoo and have had many great memories here.  There are lots of babies now and always have fun things happening.  Another family in our church also has a membership, so we went together this past weekend.  Even better!