Slumber Party ... Girls Fun Night!

Since the school year is winding down soon, we decided to let the girls have a couple of friends over for a sleepover tonight.  Alyssa invited Lilly and Madison invited Tawnie.  After picking up all the girls at school and playing for a few hours, we headed down to Clancy's here in town for some pizza.

They all had a fun evening and stayed up way to late ... but that is what a sleepover is for right???  No sleep!!

Bike Ride to Lagoon Park

Now that we live on this side of Jordan, we were able to ride our bikes to the local park without the worry of trying to ride across Highway 169.  It was a great first family bike ride to the park!!!!

Ma-nah Ma-nah ... Set Free Today!!

Today our little wholly bear caterpillar, Mahna-Mahna came out of his chrysalis today ... so before setting off on our little adventure to the Mall of America, we stopped by Lagoon Park to set him free.  Have a great life Mahna Mahna!!!

Surprise Overnight at Radisson Blu Mall of America

The girls have been such troopers through all of my schooling as well as dealing with daddy being back to work finally.  We have been busy catching up on errands the past few days and they have spent a lot of time in the backseats of vehicles riding around for us to accomplish this.  Daddy thought it would be a great idea to surprise them with an overnight stay at the hotel for a little swimming and then a morning at the amusement park before we head back home.  We picked the girls up from school and headed straight to the hotel without them knowing what we were doing, just told them we had more errands to run and they were just fine with that answer.

We also surprised them with new travel luggage which they loved!  We even managed to pick the right bag for the right girl!

After checking in at the hotel, they girls didn't waste any time at all in making themselves comfortable and right at home.

Of course, when planning a weekend around the girls, we must have dinner at Crave to kick things off!!  The girls got all dressed up in their favorite dresses and we were off to eat.

 

We took a vote for dessert and the girls both decided that Cupcake! was their choice, which really wasn't much of a surprise ...

After dessert, we decided to use the game cards the hotel gave us and headed up to the fourth floor of the mall to check out all the fun.

 

We managed to win/earn enough tickets to get the girls a couple of prizes from the prize counter before we ran out of free tokens from the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel, it was finally time for the girls to hit the pool.  They had the pool to themselves for the first hour they swam and boy did they enjoy it!

After two hours of swimming, it was time to head back to our room for a quick shower and to get ready for bed ... we still have to hit Nickelodeon Universe tomorrow!

First Dinner at the Lake ...

It was a beautiful day finally here in Minnesota and we celebrated with a stop by a local park and then dinner on the patio at Maynard's.  Although the ducks were not at the lake today, we still had a great time!!

Girl Scouts Visit Half Pint Horses!

The girls' Girl Scout Troop had an outing today to visit Half Pint Horses!  I worked with the owner, Allison, on setting up a 90 minute session for the girls to learn about the mini horses, exercise them and groom them.  Alyssa and Madison were immediately in their element with Cookie and Coal and were asked by Allison to help demonstrate how to lead them.  Joey was also there to greet the girls and the newest addition to the mini team, Rocket!

Allison talked with the girls in the corral about the minis and explained how they were going to run them through some obstacles to help train and exercise them.  The girls were excited to be able to lead each of the horses through the course.

Alyssa even helped some of her friends who were a little afraid of the horses ... she helped them walk through the course and control the horse they were guiding.

After getting some exercise, the girls learned all about grooming the horses, right down to picking clean the hooves!  Again, both Madison and Alyssa demonstrated how to use the various grooming tools to their friends since they had prior experience working with the horses.

Before we left ... Joey said hurry back ... and we will ... Madison and Alyssa have a week with the minis in July for horse camp again this summer!!