Taylor's 11th Birthday

Taylor enjoyed celebrating her 11th birthday over the course of a week. On Friday the 13th we had a small celebration at the house with just the four of us. She opened presents (mostly Dr. Who, Webkinz, money from family, and some much anticipated books) and had cake after we ate dinner out at her favorite Chinese buffet - Panda Garden Buffet in Roseville. Later on that weekend we had the neighborhood kids over for a pinata.

Taylor had an earth day birthday party with some of her friends that following weekend on Saturday the 21st at the Harriet Alexander Nature Center, in Roseville. It worked out really well because the nature center also celebrates their birthday that day with a parade, tree planting ceremony and cake! Grandma was nice enough to come and help us out, too. Taylor says that her favorite part was when the girls, Ian and I all took a walking adventure on the floating platforms that wander through the marshes of central park. Some of the platforms didn't float so well and we ended up sinking in a couple of times! The girls thought it was hilarious! We also saw ducks, geese and many species of bugs. **A HUGE thank you to Debbie Cash and the volunteers at the nature center. You helped make Taylor's day wonderful and educational!** Please check out Taylor's birthday pics below:

Taylor's 11th Birthday

The trick with planning any kind of outdoor party in Minnesota this time of year is that the weather can go from snowing one day to 80 degrees the next. It was a little unnerving when it snowed just about a week before Taylor's party, but I did get a picture of the snow in Como Park. It was the wet, sticky spring time snow that really makes for fun photography. And better yet, it melted away within 48 hours after it had fallen.

Taylor and Ian both celebrated their school carnivals over the past week. They both had the usual cake walks, moon bounces, fishing ponds and the like. Nobody won any cake, but they both saw their friends at each one of their schools, and they each won some candy.

Happy Easter

The kids woke up to Easter baskets filled with goodies and eggs stashed all over the house this morning. A few of the eggs were only found after some guidance to their general direction, but overall I think the kids had a good time this morning. Baskets gave way to brunch and brunch gave way to an Easter egg hunt at our local coffee shop. The pictures really tell it like it was - an absloute blast! We loved having a business so close by that was willing to put up with all the neighborhood kids
((((Thank you Java Train! *see their menu*))))

Java Train Easter Egg Hunt

This past week was spring break for the kids. I still had class (and my first final in medical terminology) and Panod still had to work, so we played tag a lot this week. We did manage to go to the Conservatory where the kids got to go on a flower hunt with the pictures of the flowers in hand. And there was a lot of swimming at the YWCA. Taylor is such a fish at swimming, it really doesn't matter to her whether she's in the deep end or the shallow end - just as long as she's under water. And Ian got brave enough to swim around the shallow end of the pool with me as long as he had his life jacket on.

Spring Flower Show

Conferences went very well for both Taylor and Ian. Taylor has done a significant amount of growth on the social side of things, and Ian is really coming along with his writing and reading skills. I'll try to get some of their work up in the next week or so.

The week before spring break, I was able to join Ian at his school for Peace Day. It is considered to be a field trip day that is done at the school. Each classroom has a presentation related to peace, and the children all get into groups that then go to as many classroom presentations as they can. I think our group got to do some T'ai Chi in one classroom, we learned about rainbows in another classroom, and then we listened to a story in the library and all of the kids drew on a large piece of paper after the story. I think the children that I was with walked away with some understanding of what peace is - probably more than than they had understood before that morning.

Peace Day