Kindergarten Bound

Oh the stress of sending our children to Kindergarten. As parents, many of us struggle with the best option for our children as they embark on their education journey. Do we have them partake in full day, half day, private Christian school, charter school, public school, which school district, do we have them take the bus, walk to school, or carpool, etc? It's all so overwhelming!! Bottom line, we all do what's best for each of our families.

We were pleasantly surprised to find out this week that LTD won the lottery for being accepted into a small charter school in Prior Lake known as Aspen Academy. Since a private Christian education is out of our budget, Aspen was our second choice since it focuses on the CORE cirriculum and features small class sizes and your choice of AM, PM or full day. We chose PM half day which is perfect for us since we still have the mornings to do things together or just sleep in and enjoy some quality morning time together. Dave and I figure they have the next 12 years to go to school full time; we want to keep them with us as much as possible for just one more year. Aspen appears to be a good transition from what they have learned at St. Michael's Preschool this year as well as what they have learned at Camp Clark Academy the last year and a half. Big bonus, the school requires school uniforms - yeah!!! The less we have to deal with any fashion drama, the better.

Sob sob sob..........the 3 amigos are growing up before our eyes. Kindergarten in the fall already; it seems like just yesterday they were toddling around tearing up the house, squelching loudly and dancing to blaring polka music with the biggest smiles on their faces. I recently ran across this photo of the day they graduated from Camp Clark Academy and proudly wore their graduation hats :)

The 3 Amigos - Graduation Day from Camp Clark Academy

Look out Aspen Academy...............here we come!!!!!

It's Official!

The walls are freshly painted and fingerprints removed, the artwork proudly displayed on the refrigerator has been taken down, the family photos have been taken off the walls and shelves, the toys have been moved to the lower level play area, and the house is sparkling clean. Yes, it's official........our house is on the market as of Wednesday this week! Whew!!!!

Now the trick is to keep the house presentable and ready to vacate at a moment's notice with 3 varmints in tow. I am told anything is possible.

We are still working out the "quirks" of getting our house presented properly online. In order to save some cash, we listed it with a flat-fee broker for just under $500 versus paying a realtor 2.5 - 3% of the selling price. Dave has agreed to host our open houses and deal with all the legalities and paperwork - not my cup of tea. Feel free to check out our destination website at:

www.buyself.com/8836

We had our first showing yesterday so we grabbed the kiddos and went sledding and out for dinner afterwards. Taylor's new food of choice is crab (ever since our trip to Florida) so we treated them to dinner at Red Lobster. I have typically boycotted Red Lobster since they buy much of their seafood from Canada, home of the "seal slaughter". But I gave in for Taylor and must admit it was a real treat. Crab legs were flying! Our waitress was so sweet and she even took a live lobster out of the tank and let LTD touch it. They LOVED it!!

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. We pray our home sells at a fair price, that we find a new home in a family-friendly neighborhood, within a reasonable amount of time. It would be a miracle if the timing works out just perfect for selling ours, buying a new one and closing by June 30 to take advantage of the tax credit (thanks taxpayers - don't even get me started). But then again, anything is possible, right? With God, we know it is!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hey everybody. It's Taylor, Lindsey & Dylan here. We hope you had a sweet Valentine's Day!! We really liked giving and getting Valentines this week and we had a super fun party at school too! We even got to watch our favorite dog Zoe for a few days. She always licks us and likes to play outside with us.

Today, mom and dad made us our favorite breakfast before Sunday School - waffles. YUM!! We laughed when mom gave dad a card and laid a kiss on him. He was smiling from ear to ear so we think that made him pretty happy. We got to see mom cry when Dad surprised her with pretty red roses he was hiding in the basement, a BIG box of chocolates (mom's favorite), a card that made her smile and a super duper kiss. There was lots of kissing going on at Camp Clark today! We got to spend the afternoon at our friends, the Littles, since mom and dad are getting ready to sell our house. They took us outside on the lake. We had SO much fun - it was the best!!

Special thanks to our grandmas and papas for sending us such nice Valentines all the way from North Dakota and Texas. You brought HUGE smiles to our faces. We miss you and love you lots.

By the way, check out our school pictures. Hope you like them!

XXXOOO

Taylor - Pre-K (age 5)

Lindsey - Pre-K (age 5)

Dylan - Pre-K (age 5)

A Magical Adventure

Dreams really do come true at DisneyWorld; especially for three wide-eyed 5-year olds!!! We just returned this week after 4 days in Orlando and 3 days in Siesta Key, FL (a small island on the Gulf Coast just west of Sarasota). We had an absolute BLAST and SO lucked out on having decent weather; high 60's to low 70's and sunny while in Orlando; mostly cloudy at Siesta Key but it was perfect for beach play and the pool. We arrived in Orlando by noon on Tuesday and were sitting in the sun and eating crab legs by early afternoon - Taylor ate the most! Our condo was absolutely gorgeous and we went swimming after lunch and just relaxed to gear up for 3 bigs days at the parks: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and SeaWorld.

We only had 3 "setbacks" on our trip (lucky number 3), all which happened in the first two days: Dylan got a bug the night before we left and puked all night, on the way to the airport and on the airplane (he recovered pretty much the minute we landed); Taylor got left behind at the Royal Castle (MY bad!!) for about 10 LONG minutes (we got the police involved and thankfully found her in the castle); AND, Taylor got her neck caught in the back car window when Dad rolled up the electric windows before going into Animal Kingdom (the ambulance was called by security - thank goodness she was fine and no trip to ER was necessary). Whooo! Like mother, like daughter (it's always something).

Other than that, our adventure was truly magical!! Our highlights included:

Lots of swimming at the pools

Breakfast with Cinderella at the Royal Table

Treated like royalty for our 5-yr BDay celebration at the Castle

Met and hugged all the Disney Princesses and Fairies

Cuddled Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Daisy, Thumper, Pinochio...

and many other furry creatures

Rode LOTS of rides - Taylor passed for 42" (just barely)

Enjoyed many spectacular shows

Watched fireworks and sat curb-side at parades

Savored ice cream in the sun

Got to touch dolphins & sea rays and feed the seals

Saw Manatees, orca whales and penguins up-close

Enjoyed abundant fresh air and sunshine

Dipped our feet in the ocean

Dug our toes into the sugary white sand

Danced and sang on the beach

Created a massive sand city

Collected seashells and found a crab

Mom spotted a shark (Dave still in doubt)

Toured the Gulf Coast by Sarasota

Ate lots of fresh seafood

Entertained by live music and dancing

It was a perfect family trip we will remember with many fond memories for years to come. LTD are still talking about it and asking when we can go back. Ha! It's either college or Disney; which do you prefer? Seriously, cost aside, it was worth every penny!

Here are just a few photos. We have MANY more which you can feel free to access through our KodakGallery link in the right-hand column of our blog. May your life be touched by magic and your dreams come true!!