Where has the year gone?

A friend had messaged me not long ago to tell me that she loved my blog, and how I had it set up. After a little chuckle, I realized that I had not touched this blog in well over a year! When I posted last, L was just picking out what instrument he was going to play his first year of Middle school and here I sit, D just finishing up her 3 weeks band practice with her trombone ready for her first year of Middle school. We sure have packed a lot in this last year.

L did amazing in middle school, he played and excelled at playing the trombone, had many honors classes and made high honor roll, his first year as a Boy Scout, running cross country, being on the Lego Robotics team, learning to play Magic the Gathering, breaking both arms in a freak skiing accident, and now growing taller than me with his voice starting to change.

D finished her last year in elementary, finished her 2nd year as a Junior Girl Scout, sang in Circle the State with Song, ran in Running is Elementary, tried her hand at a number of afterschool sports clubs, spent a week away at Girl Scout Horse camp, and started to learn to play the saxophone. She is really looking forward to the start of middle school next week, especially the library.

We bought a house! That was pretty much the biggest thing over the last year. Seated on just under 2 acres of mostly wooded land, we found a 1963 3 bedroom home. Each kid finally for the first time in their lives has their own room. We also rescued 2 stray female kittens, and brought home and raised 10 chickens, although we are now down to 8 and still awaiting eggs. In Jan we took a family vacation to Orlando, the first time all 4 of us flew together, and spent a long weekend in the Harry Potter section of Universal Studios. We have all gained new friends, and lost some of the old sadly, and have overall been loving life to the fullest. I hope to try to maintain the blog a bit more, but with extra time at a minimum I'm just not sure how often that will occur. And as a funny side note: This was my 10 year anniversary of this blog! Thanks for reading!

How has it been almost a year already?

Where has the time gone? It was almost a year ago the last time I posted, and boy has so much happened in that year.

L had his last 2 camp outs as a Cub Scout, D transitioned to a Junior scout, we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary, Adam was in an accident where it was him on a bicycle versus a car (I would say he won, because he had minimal injuries considering he was hit by a car), I had a road trip to Michigan for a girl's weekend where our car decided the transmission was done, the kids and I took our first flights in an airplane (mine to San Diego with my best friend), the kids and I took a 10 day trip to Maui to visit my mom and her husband, Adam had to have hand surgery to correct damage done from the accident, I took another road trip to Ohio to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday, we had to buy a new car, school started again (4th and 5th grades), many many afterschool programs, I started to work at the school, science fair projects, Girl Scout cookie season, Circle the State with song choir, pinewood derby, and so much more!!!!

Here are a few pictures from the past year. I hope to be better about posts this next year.

L running in the Running is Elementary Race

May the 4th celebration at the library

 

Mother's day winery hopping

My first ever flight, with my best friends to San Diego

D's 9th birthday party

L's 10th birthday party

Scout night with the South Bend Cubs

12th wedding anniversary

D dressed as Hermione at a Potter library event

My girls weekend in Michigan

Kids first ever flight, 10 days in Maui

On top of the volcano

 A shark sighting at the beach

First day of 4th and 5th grade

Seeing Ruth Bader Ginsberg talk at ND

I was able to meet the wonderful author, Jen Lancaster, at a local event.

D had Girl Scout archery camp

It was a very Potter Halloween this year for our family.

We took our annual Christmas trip to Chicago.

We both got to go on the annual 4th and 5th grade ski field trip.

L's science fair project.

L won 3rd place in the entire pack for Pinewood Derby this year. 

D was able to sing in a multi-school choir

Halloween night

Life has been crazy busy in our house during the month of October, so we hadn't gotten around to carving pumpkins yet. With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, it worked out perfectly for us to do it the afternoon of Halloween. So we turned on Nightmare Before Christmas, got out the carving tools, and got to work. The only problem was that all the stores were out of pumpkins, except these 3 "ornamental" pumpkins. Oh well, it gave them character!

We ended up with Pikachu, Jack Skellington, and a funny witch.

We then had a light snack, and got in our costumes. D had switched from Misty from Pokemon, to a much more weather appropriate Pikachu costume. The first 15 min of trick or treating was slightly rainy. The temps had dropped the night before, but were not too bad. We just made sure to wear layers, and grabbed umbrellas. Luckily the rain pretty much stopped until the last 10 minutes of trick or treating. We headed to the same neighborhood that we have gone too for the last few years. It really is the best, most of the houses are home and close together. Most years the neighborhood is packed, but this year it just didn't seem as busy. My kids were determined, and made it almost the entire 2 hours!

And of course as soon as we got home, while I was making the pizza, they both had to dump all the candy out and sort it. Both were excited that this was their biggest haul ever.