Canterbury Park

The girls and mommy spent Memorial Day in a couple different places.  First we met Tammy and the boys at Canterbury Park to enjoy the free kids activities at the horse track.  They were offering a family fun day at the track and we decided to take advantage of that, especially as it included free pony rides.

We arrived before the boys and went straight to the pony rides to take our place in the line.  The boys arrived shortly after us and joined in the line.  We only had to wait a few minutes before it was our turn and boy were the girls happy to be sitting on ponies again.  It is truly one of their most favorite things.  Actually, as the weather was hot and humid with storms in the forecast, we didn't have to fight crowds of children and the girls actually got to ride three different ponies each.  They loved them all and gave them hugs and kisses after each ride.

They also were offering face painting as an activity today and the girls, again, were all about getting that done! Madison chose a lovely unicorn which was customized per her polite request to make it purple with pink hair.

Alyssa said that she had unicorns before and instead she really wanted a pony just like the ones she had just rode, so she selected a cute little brown pony, just like Chestnut (one of the many ponies the girls rode today).

After getting their faces painted, all four of the kiddos took off to the huge playground for some climbing, sliding and swinging fun.   The girls immediately found a tire swing that was cut to look like a horse and was now their Maximus (the horse from the movie Tangled).

Tammy took a few minutes to place a bet on behalf of the kiddos for the first horse race and appropriately chose "Peter the Great" ... in honor of daddy.   We took the kids down to the observation stage and watched the horses as they raced right past us to the finish line ... and the kiddos won ... as Peter showed!  Each one of them won about $1 each.  

We had a little time before Tammy and the boys would be picked up and the boys headed back to the playground and the girls went for another pony ride.   The boys decided to join us for a ride as well before heading home.  While the boys were taking their ride, the girls found a cute little white bunny in the petting area and took turns holding her.

The girls combined their race winnings and bought themselves a bag of kettle corn on our way out to enjoy with the lemonade mommy bought to share.  Then we said our good-byes to the boys and headed over to pick up Granny M for dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's!  The girls said it was one of the best days ever, but they missed their daddy.   :)

Memorial Weekend Fishing with Grandma & Grandpa

Despite the off and on rain, the girls and mommy headed out this morning to meet Grandpa and Grandma for a little fishing at Mill Pond and a picnic lunch.  The only substantial rainfall of the morning happened shortly after we all got settled into an open gazebo at the park with our lunch ready to eat, so that timing worked out very well for us!

The girls got to use the brand new Princess fishing rods today ... these were their preschool graduation gifts from Grandma and Grandpa!   The small pink fishing rods proved to be lucky soon after the first worms hit the water with both girls pulling up sunfish.

Grandpa and Grandma spent time showing the girls how to use their fishing rods with side casting and even a little overhead casting.

Grandma even shared her secret ingredient bait with the girls ... corn!  They thought that was pretty funny that they were fishing with corn!

A lot of time was spent looking down and watching for those bobbers to make a move ...

We took a break for a picnic lunch and luckily we found an open shelter with a picnic table.  We all got settled in and started eating our lunch and then the heaviest rain of the day decided to come down ... good timing for us!

By the time we had finished eating, the rain had stopped again and the girls spent a little time playing at the playground before heading back to the dock for a little more fishing.

We had a wonderful morning and made some great memories ... can't wait to go fishing again soon!

Kindergarten Here We Come ... Preschool Graduation!

This morning was our preschool graduation ceremony and the girls even got to wear caps and gowns.  Grandma and Grandpa were able to attend the program and the girls were sure happy to see them there!  The below picture is their entire graduating class ... Madison is the 2nd yellow gown from the left and Alyssa is right behind her in a blue gown.

The ceremony, while nice, was late starting and the small gym size made it very noisy with families and younger children.   It was hard to hear the teachers talking and difficult to actually see all the fun, but we managed a few pictures.   There was a nice video slide show that we watched after the 3/4 year olds graduated and before our group graduated.

As the Pomp & Circumstance played from the boom box ... the kiddos made their way one by one to the front of the gym to receive their diplomas.  

Madison was the first of our girls to make her graduation walk:

Next was Alyssa, although mommy missed the handing off the dipolma as my finger was slow on the camera button:

We will miss Mrs. Marijean very much but she has given our girls a wonderful two year start in showing them what an impact GREAT teachers can have on their lives.

We can't forget the funny face class photo now can we?????

We are so proud of our little girls today and can't wait to see what the future brings them as they start on their big school adventures!!!

Meet Tiana & Naveen ... or is it ... Rapunzel & Flynn???

Naveen/Flynn to the right (the darker one) and Tiana/Rapunzel to the left (the lighter colored one)  ... The names changed from girl to girl ... but these lovely little frogs were found by Madison and Alyssa in their outdoor toy box on the deck.  

At the fear of Madison squeezing them to death, mommy found a bucket and put some water and rocks in it for them to observe the frogs before returning them to the freedom of the yard.  The girls thought it was pretty cool that mommy was right when I said the frogs would sit on the rocks.

While Alyssa really was fascinated by them and wanted Madison to put of them on her shirt for her, she would not touch them herself.   Madison on the other hand was a completely different story.

If she could have kept them, she would have, but after about 20 minutes of what I am sure was torture to the poor frogs, mommy ordered them to be freed.

Let's hope they are smart enough to find another yard before Madison tracks them down again ... :)

Impulse Dance Recital ... See You Back In The Fall

Tonight was the formal end of the year recital for Impulse Dance and let me tell you  ... our girls didn't fail to entertain the crowd.  Alyssa charmed everyone by actually performing most all of the dance moves but even more so when she took bow after bow and even performed her own impromptu solo after her classmates had left the stage.

Madison also did her part to add some entertainment value to the show ... she spent the entire first song with her cheeks sucked in like a little fish face and desperately searched the audience looking for Grandma in the seats.  She did manage to throw in a few dance moves between her lookout poses.  She even walked to the front of the stage alone and put her hand above her eyes like a sailor looking for shore ... *sigh*

We didn't videotape this show, but we did order a DVD of the show that will arrive sometime in June.  Hopefully we can post it at that time so you can enjoy the show too ... I know daddy here is looking forward to seeing it himself as he was away at work and missed the show.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of our little cuties enjoying the flowers from mommy and daddy for a job well done!

Madison Looses her FIRST tooth!

Yes, it finally happened!  Mommy tried to flick the tooth out of her mouth last night with the dental floss but it didn't come out ... but she managed to pull it right out herself while playing at a neighbor's home when trying to show them that she had a "wiggly tooth".

I head a knock on the patio door and went to find Alyssa, Molly and Madison standing at the door shouting that Madison's tooth fell out.  The hand off of the tooth was made to mommy and the three were off running back to Molly's house to continue playing.

Later the girls returned home and relaxed a bit in daddy's chair watching a movie together.

She is excited and is hoping that the tooth fairy finds her way to the tooth carefully placed under her pillow tonight!

Pinkalicious at Stages Theater!

Finally, after much anticipation, it is the day of our field trip to Stages Theater to see "Pinkalicious" ... a play based on the book about a little girl who loves pink!

After hurrying through breakfast, the girls got dressed into anything and everything pink they could find and these are stunningly pink girls ready to head to school to catch the bus to the theater.

The bus ride, was exactly that ... a bus ride ... on a school bus, not one of mommy's favorite things, but nonetheless, something the both girls seem to enjoy.   Alyssa shared a seat with mommy because Madison decided she would share a seat with her "friend" Devlin.

Madison and Devlin seemed to enjoy riding together on the bus, even holding hands ...

Patiently waiting with some of their classmates for the show to begin.

Even had time for a little sisterly hug.

The set on stage was just like the book with a pretty pink bedroom just waiting for our main character to make her appearance.

Pinkalicious blending in with the flowers in the garden.

We all enjoyed the showed very much and after we made our way out of the theater, we enjoyed a quick bite to eat on the bus as the rain had cleared and we decided to stop by a park on our way home for the kids to enjoy some outdoor fun together. Definitely a day to remember with my little pink ones!

Dance Performance at Laurel's Edge Assisted Living

The girls had a dance performance at Laurel's Edge Assisted Living in Mankato today.  It is always fun to visit   facilities like this and perform for the residents who live their.  They had a pretty good audience this afternoon and the performance served as a good practice run for their upcoming end-of-the-year recital on the 21st.

Alyssa and Madison were stars of the per-performance warm up and pretty much danced the entire time prior to the performance starting.

They even had a few minutes to be extra cute ...

Then it was show time and the girls did a terrific job with their new dance routines and even performed an oldie but a goodie from the informal winter performance when they danced to Lion King again.

Daddy did videotape this performance and hopefully one day soon we will be able to post it for everyone to watch.