Memorial Day Fishing in the Park

The girls and I walk the short distance to Lagoon Park from the end of the parade route to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa for our third Memorial Day in a row fishing in the Lagoon and sharing a picnic lunch.  The weather was perfect, hot in the sun and cool in the shade by the water.  By the time we arrived Grandma and Grandpa had a perfect spot by the water with a picnic table under a huge shade tree.

We left our picnic goodies and chairs at our spot under the shade tree and took the girls over to the fishing dock first.  There were others there fishing but they made room for the girls to drops lines too.

 Madison caught the first sunfish of the day, even though it looked more like the size of bait rather than a fish!

Alyssa followed close behind with a nice size crappie ... she was pretty pleased that it was a "big" fish!

The sunfish were biting fast and the girls kept both Grandma and Grandpa busy removing fish from the hooks and baiting the hooks with new worms.  As fast as they were dropping their lines, they were hooking fish.

 We decided to take a little break from fishing and head back to our picnic spot to eat lunch.  The girls ate well and then decided to walk to the playground and play for a bit while we finished eating.  There were lots of people swimming at the little beach at the lagoon and Alyssa asked if she should take her shoes and socks off to "wade" in the water.  I said definitely ... although when she walked back from wading, it turned out she meant swimming as she was wet up to her chest.  We put her in a sun to dry off a bit!

 After lunch and some playtime, the girls went right back to fishing, this time from the shore by our picnic area.  They were able to practice casting their lines here and did well finding fish and other things to catch.

 
The biggest catches of the day turned out to be a very ugly "bullhead" caught by Madison and an extra large stick that Alyssa managed to drag to shore on her line!

Enjoying a couple of snuggles from Grandpa and Grandma after a hard afternoon of fishing ... perfect!

We had a wonderful time and are already making plans for our fourth annual fishing day!  

Memorial Day Parade

In honor of Memorial Day, the girls' participated in the Memorial Day Parade here in Jordan.  They marched with the various girl scout troops from our town right behind the boy scouts.  Our entire troop (all four girls) were present with smiles, ready to wave their American flags and honor the lost heroes who afforded all of us our freedom.

Although our march was only a few blocks long and the community there to watch hardly compared to the crowds that the Heimetfest parade draws, it still brought tears to my eyes to watch our girls proudly walk down the street to honor so many ...

Formal Dance Recital

Last night was the girls' formal dance recital with Impulse Dance.  Sadly, it will be their last performance with this wonderful dance group as the drive weekly to Mankato is taking a toll on me as well as lessening their excitement to actually go to dance as the drive makes us leave after school and go to bed when we get home.  We are going to try a local group in the fall and hopefully that extra two hours that were spent driving will give the girls the play time they miss now after school on dance days.  Mrs. Lori and Miss Whitney have been wonderful and the girls are going to miss seeing them weekly and we thank them for three years of great lessons between the two instructors.

I did not take any performance shots as it was rather dark and there was a professional taking pictures which I hope to find a few to purchase of the girls once they are available for viewing.  We also purchased a DVD of the performance and we will try to share that once we receive it.  For now, here are a few snap shots of before and after the performance.

Waiting for the show to start and just about ready to head backstage with the rest of the dancers.

After the performance, posing with Mrs. Lori and then Miss Whitney.

The happy girls showing off their flowers from mommy and daddy after the show ... they did amazing!

We went to Dino's after the performance to enjoy pizza and pasta with Grandma, Grandpa, Joshua, Ciara, Uncle Kory, Aunt Carrie and Kaylynn ... it was great to spend time with the family and enjoy yummy food!

Enjoying time with Grandma and Grandpa ... I am not sure who adores who more ... we love that so much of the family came to support the girls tonight!

More pictures and hopefully video to come soon ... 

Kindergarten Class Trip to Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

The Kindergarten class had their big field trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum today and I met the girls there to be a chaperon.  I was in charge of Alyssa and Madison plus their friends Yanitza and Caeylin.  We and about an hour to run around and explore some of the different gardens on our own as a little group and then we were to meet for lunch with the rest of the little groups in our section.  The girls had a wonderful time exploring and headed straight for the Japanese Garden and coy fish pond.

We tried really, really hard to only walk on the stepping stones or the  paths and walkways without disturbing the beautiful plants and flowers surrounding us.

The girls loved running through the wooded areas on the paths and exploring to see where the paths lead.  They stopped and admired all the sculptures and water features along the way.

The path above lead the girls to this little pond with a bird sculpture they thought was pretty cool!

Fallen trees along the way made for a perfect balance beam they each had fun seeing how far they could make it before falling off.

Stopping to smell the flowers ... of course ...

Believe it or not, no one fell in the water ... thankfully!

Madison found her classmate, Riley, and decided to show him how to throw Maple tree seeds into the air and make them spine like a helicopter.  Riley gave her a big smile of approval!

After a very windy lunch at the park pavilion, it was our groups turn to participate in the programmed activities.  It started with a fun puppet show about gardens, flowers, ladybugs and butterflies.

The kids were separated into groups by classroom and Mrs. Schussler's kids (us) headed to the potting room to learn about seeds and how they grow.

Everyone got to prepare a small flower pot and they planted one side with dill to attract caterpillars to the garden and the other side with zinnia flowers to attract butterflies.   We are hoping to see a few small plants over the upcoming weeks at home.

Next, we went to listen to a talk about birds and got to see many different types of nests.  This part of our day included a walk to observe birds and their nests.  It was a quiet walk where the guide used sign language and so did our kiddos!

Looking at a food source for birds and learning to make the sign for eat.

The last part of our day was a visit to the greenhouse to let ladybugs go onto plants that need their help to become healthy again.  The girls learned about the damage that aphids can do to plants and how ladybugs eat the aphids and help to keep the plants healthy.

And, of course, we had to attempt a class picture before we headed back to school.  Almost got everyone looking!