5 years young

My sweet Grace, you are so precious to me! Today you turn 5 and it's a Friday, just like the day you were born. 

 We celebrated you today with balloons and breakfast in bed! Just what you ordered French toast ( with Texas toast) and sausages. Don't forget the orange juice! Then we did pedicures on the front porch.  You have a love for your Dolly's especially your American girl ( also named Grace with the same birthday :-)) and Bitty Baby ( whom you haven't named). You have become good at changing their clothes, something you used to ask for help with a lot. 

All 5 of us went to the American Girl Bistro for lunch! We got Dad and Max out early! 

 

It was delicious! Then we went to the new Crayola experience also in the Mall of America. It wasn't busy at all on its opening week. We loved checking it all out! We spent 6 hours wondering the Mall including visits to the Disney store and the Lego store! It was such fun family time celebrating you! You got calls from all 3 sets of grandparents today! 

We got home and packed up out car to head to Merrifield to Nana and Grandpas "grabin" for  Memorial weekend. 

Grace at 5! She graduated from Zion PreK, goes to speech and Occupational therapy, loves to climb and within the last month mastered the monkey bars! You have become outgoing at the park, often saying " I hope I meet a new friend at the park today". You are a lover and a helper. You LOVE babies, not quite sure who you get that from! You are a great gymnast and just qualified to go up to the 'hot shot' level at Twin city Twisters!  You have done karate now for 2 months and you want to try dance so badly! ( we signed you up for a dance camp this summer to try it out!) you will be playing soccer again and mom will be coaching you! You play so well with both your siblings with, of course, the standard sibling tiffs. You will go to Kindergarten this fall at Dayton Elementary. I pray this is the best decision for you. You are sooooo excited! 

We are so excited to watch you bloom even more in this coming year! Love you, Gracie

Spring break 2016

We are currently occupying Nana and grandpas house while they are in Mexico (luckies) and our house gets painted, new carpet and a new bedroom! I am very excited and a little nervous to see if we like the paint colors or if it's too much. Guess we will see. 

We had this gorgeous 70 degree day Saturday to kick off spring break and then it's been rainy and overcast the last few days. I am grateful for a day off work today. We had an easy going morning and then went bowling! 

I think they all had fun! Then we got Easter shoes for the girls and tried to go see a movie but they were sold out so we bought tickets for the next time and came back for dinner. We aren't sitting pool side but this has better pretty nice. Wish Robb and I both could have had vacation to just staycation but someone has to pay for our new basement! Here are some pre-Reno shots!

Go or not go

This is the thing perplexing me. Grace doesn't totally have a summer birthday. It's the end of May. But her Prek teachers have had some worries about her speech and her hand strength. So we heeded the advice, had her tested 3 times and she finally met criteria for therapy and started in January. She does very well with therapy. I think she likes it and works hard with the therapists. In her fall Prek conference it seemed like socially she was doing fine and with math she was doing well. She seems to not be interested in letters so we have been hitting those hard. I feel frustrated. I want to send her. She knows she could go. The advice is to wait and give her a year to learn. They say it will help her be a leader and make better choices. So maybe it will. I wouldn't mind another year home with her. I just want to make the best decision for her. 

It makes me think of when we had to pick her  birthday. I debated over and over. I wanted to give her until close to her due date. But Friday, May 27th was 38+6 and was the Friday of memorial weekend which meant an extra day off for Robb and my mom who would be taking care of Max while we were in the hospital. Logically it made sense but I wanted to wait and give her time. Now with her speech etc I think about how the decision then might have impacted her. I don't want to do wrong by her again. The maternal guilt can hit you hard. And trust me, I know we have 3 healthy babies who are all just perfect. We by no means have it rough. I just want the best for her and wish it wasn't a decision I would make that could impact her life long again. 

I also struggle with not knowing the answers to will she be bored if she stays in Prek another year? Is she ready for kindergarten? I have no clue. She's different with us then in the classroom. I know she doesn't know everything but she knows a lot. I know she can be shy but not always. I know we have had swim lessons where she went in once out of the 8 days and then went right into to the classroom her first day of Prek no looking back, no tears. I know she is smart. I know she wants to go. I fear she may need lots of tutoring if she goes this year. But whose to say she won't even if we wait? 

And just to throw it out there she's off the charts tall. If we wait she will be dealing with the height thing even more than if we send her this year. 

If you have advice, I'm all ears! I feel like we have heard the whole gamut. Prayers are welcome!

Season 2 of hockey in the books!

After more then a year hiatus, I've been feeling the urge to keep the blog going. So yes, Max played mite hockey last year as a kindergartener, his team was Mite D Lightening! This year as a 1st grader, he was a Mite C Maple Leaf! Robb decided to coach this year, too! So fun to have both my guys out there!  e is feeling the call of the GOAL to be tended. This year we signed him up as a goalie. The only difference for being a goalie is that he had extra training every other Monday nights. One of the fun parts was that the head guy from goalie training was a dad from Maxs first year team! He owns MEGA goaltending and does these training for goalies in different associations around the twin cities! We are so lucky to know him personally!  

Max played Goalie whenever he could and defense the rest of the time! He was encouraged to skate up and shoot. He did score the occasional goal but that's not what drives him! Some of his team mates love puck-handling but it doesn't seem to interest our boy.  

One story from his Jamboree weekend. He did all his goalie training in his normal skates but the last weekend we got him goalie skates. Apparently, they are very different to skate in. His last game of the year, he was going to play goalie and wanted to try his new skates. Without ever skating in them. Not once. Jamboree weekend is fun because the get to dress in the varsity locker room which is all decked out with a team poster, name plates individualized and a whole bag full of goodies. They get their name announced and skate out to the blue line for the national anthem. Picture it, the last kid to get called out : Max Akerson!!! He tries to skate out but falls, then falls again and again. He finally gets to his team and the anthem plays. He's in tears. I am, too. At the end Robb asks him if he wants to change skates and he says no. He proceeds to play the next hour and a half. He totally shook off the falling and just played his heart out! His perseverance and determination amaze me. I can't say I played it as cool. I was banging on the glass to complaining to Robb that he wasn't ready. But he was. He showed me! 

Great year Leafs! Both my boys had so much fun. And we meet some really nice hockey families! 

Out of diapers!

Over Christmas break our diaper Genie broke. That gave me a big push to get our baby potty trained. She was 2.5 at the time but We lucked out with her. She was ready months before. In the late summer she was completely stripping when she had a wet diaper so I knew she understood. She has done so well and usually only has an accident as she's trying her hardest to get up in a high seat. Sorry about that baby. You got mommy's short Book legs! 

Feels really good to be diaper free! At least during the day. Advice on getting rid of the bedtime ones??

Christmas Eve 2014

Let me paint you a picture...

Tucked in a not so small cabin in the northern woods of Wisconsin with 30 of our most favorite people, on snow covered roads with a fair snow falling my little family of 5 nestled in one room to channel sugar plums dancing in heads. All except sweet baby Georgia. She had a hard time adjusting to the new bedtime environment. Max, Grace and Robb were all snug in their beds soundly by 9:45. For fear of not allowing everyone else sleep by 10:30 this momma had no choice left but to take my little honey wrapped in her blanket and head to the car. We drove out into the dark night. My Subaru's heat blasting, Amy Grants Christmas cd softly lulling and the white Christmas commencing we drove for about 15 minutes. She finally relented and I turned around. It was peaceful. It was a picture perfect Christmas Eve. It was time with my baby. It was reflecting on how blessed I feel to have this life I was given. It's by far not perfect. There is so much stress with holidays. I am thankful for that time. I am thankful for the family tradition. I am thankful to bear witness to the lessons and carols, the breaking of bread and the bonding of family strewn about the country gathered here now. ( and a handful celebrating at home this year).

I am thankful that my kids get the chance to experience what I got to as a child there in the middle of the woods. Blessed by a wonderful family. 

My mini pumpkins

One year I was in the vegetable barn at the state fair and thought I could do this. The next year I entered. I've entered 3 times and have taken home a 5th place, 1st place and this year a red 2nd place ribbon! Always so fun! Waking at the crack if dawn to bring them down the first day if the fair! Love it!! 

Thanks to Jen, the state fair fanatic I found out by noon I had the red ribbon! Thanks, Jen! 

So I'm a farming nerd. But I don't care. It's fun! Maybe I should try something new too!