Memorial Day Weekend!

Lingering Pic from Last Week's Lazy Sunday!

The week flew by pretty quickly due to Leadership meetings, early wake up times and just a whole bunch of stuff to do.  Between being on the go with work and daycare, we were fortunate to look up and it was Friday of a long holiday weekend!  We took a few fun pics in the midst of the chaos.

Double Rainbow Outside Our House Tuesday Night

 Maci & I started an evening coloring tradition

I even ordered a few new packs of Mr Sketch Markers off Amazon :)

Thanks Nanny Kathy for my coloring book - we have put it to good use!

 Connor made friends with the flower shop guy next door to daycare

Friday - Weekend!!!  We made it :)  The kiddos wore some red white and blue to school in honor of the holiday weekend and all those who have fought for this great country!

He hasn't learned to pose like his sister :)

 Uber Concentration at Art Time

 Watching Helicopters Outside

 Chalking and Snacking Outside

I left work at a good time for me and Maci was so excited to see me at school by about 4p.  We came home and ate pizza before heading to Park Yogurt for some yummy frozen yogurt and candy.  The kiddos then played around the house while Clint let me head to bed - I was exhausted from a week of 7a meetings :)

Saturday - No more dance class so we played outside a good chunk of the morning.  We then did quite a bit of our weekend errands including laundry, grocery delivery and bill paying.  It was nice to get that out of the way.  Connor took a great nap but before we knew it the day was passing us by and we had a fun day of playing around the house.  Clint grilled up some steaks from our Cargill company store.  We had a yummy dinner and then proceeded to have bath/bedtime for kids while Clint and I fully caught up on Scandal for the rest of the season.

Sunday - Busy holiday day!  We got up and decided to spend another day of gorgeous weather at Lake Calhoun for a walk, playground and yummy Tin Fish tacos.

We then came home for some quick naps before heading to the Cassem's house for a friend BBQ.  The kiddos had a blast playing together outside until it started to rain and was conveniently bed time.  Everyone headed home and our kiddos hit the hay while Clint and I started watching a new show - Pretty Little Liars. . .so far so good.

The only kid that stopped long enough for a picture

Monday - Holiday!  Maci really wanted to go to Mall of America.  However, she was being super sassy this morning and poor Connor has been struggling with teething molar issues so that idea got cancelled.  Instead, she is playing in her room, Connor man is napping, Clint is running a few errands and I am resting on the couch.  I think we are going to take advantage of this down day before our busy but super fun week ahead!  I will likely do a little work to get organized this evening seeing as I am only in the office 2 whole days this week 😀

We are getting the house ready and oh so excited for Grandma Janet to get here this Wednesday night!  Mom and I are taking Thursday as a pampering day with massages and lunch likely on a rooftop.  On Friday the whole family is going to join us for some sort of outdoor fun.  This is all a build up to Maci's big dance recital next Sunday - be ready for adorable pictures 💘

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and got some rest like we are doing now!  

Lots of Love,

C, K, M & C

Rainy May Week & Princess Ball Fun

Lingering Sunday - Mother's Day Fun!

 Dad Bod - Baby Boy Version :)

 Sprinkler Fun on a Hot Mother's Day Evening!

This week was really wet and we left our warm low 80s to highs in the 50s.  We enjoyed one last night outside on Monday with some warm temps.  While we ate dinner, Connor enjoyed pulling sticks from the fire pit and hitting mom with them 😏

The rest of the week was met with indoor evenings and some laziness.  I had a happy hour on Thursday night with some tax co-workers and our retired HR leader, Scott.  Their new home was gorgeous and it was great to laugh with some good people!

These 2 💙

 Siblings Before School - Breakfast and Mickey Mouse!

Friday - Daddy & Daughter Princess Ball Time!  Maci asked what day it was all week long because she couldn't wait to go to the ball with daddy.  She could remember what a fun time they had last year with the stage, dancing and candy!  She couldn't wait to get home and get ready for the fun with her dad and Natalie/Ryan.  It was like sending these little ladies to the prom!

"Dont Mess Up My Makeup Dad"

 BFF since 6 weeks old 😀

 The Dads and Daughters

 My Date for the Night was Pretty Handsome Too

 We Played Trucks Instead of Dresses 😜

Saturday - We kicked off our day with an early wake up thanks to Maci who said "the sun told me it was time to get up" at 630a UGH!  #allthecoffee  We got up and around and headed to the LAST week of dance class.  We don't have class next weekend due to Memorial Day holiday.  Tuesday after Memorial Day she has a dress rehearsal and then Recital on Jun 4th.  Maci had so much fun with this throughout the year and she is all signed up for Saturday morning classes next school year and thankfully 4-5 year olds are at 1015a so we get 45 more mins in the morning 😀

Intently Listening to Miss Heather

 So Darn Proud!

After dance we headed to lunch at what Maci refers to as "the piggy place" but also known as Ham's Sandwich Shop HA!  The kids love the chocolate mints you get with your meal.

We came home to some wonderful "quiet time" with Connor napping, Maci playing in her room and Clint/I crashing on the couches.  It was such a lazy rainy Saturday and a nice slow paced afternoon.  Around 430p I got to start getting ready for Date Night!  We headed out with the Cassem's, Zehr's, and Fike's (annual cabin weekend friends) to Benihana for dinner and then Punch Bowl Social for drinks and games.  We had some competitive foose ball (Sp?) that came down to game point 2x and The Mondell crew won both times and won the entire tournament - of course we did!  We are fairly competitive 😁  It was a fun time and we still got home around 11p so not the crazy but oh so fun weekend with the Brubacher's a few weeks back.

The Girls & Guys

Sunday - Efficient and Productive Sunday!  That is today's household motto.  We were so lazy and it was lovely yesterday but now we need to get a move on it.  We got a jump start on laundry, household needs and now Clint/Maci are running the errands while I take care of home needs like bill paying etc.  Connor is down for his afternoon nap and I am checking things off the to do list - man does that feel good :)  It is still rainy outside and so there is no temptation to be doing something fun outdoors.  Got to take advantage of these days when you get them.  I need to do some reading for work a little later due to Leadership Team meetings 3 days of this week.  My calendar is NUTS this coming week but that means it will be the weekend again in the blink of an eye!!

We hope you all have a great week and hopefully warm weather is back by the holiday weekend!
Lots of Love,
C, K, M & C

Newark, NJ (YUCK!) and Mother's Day (YAY!)

The great weather continued through the week but only the kiddos and Clint got to enjoy because I was off to Newark, NJ Tues-Thurs.  I headed out late Tuesday morning (after Maci selected Brutus the buckeye as her show and tell selection b/c it is Aunt Molly's school!).

Per my usual self, I was organized, ready to go and on time (at least always on time for flights).  I was even meeting my friend/colleague Megan for lunch before we flew out.  All was going according to plan until I got to the TSA pre-check line and realized AH NO ID!  My ID was with Clint from our date night Saturday night, I decided not to take a purse and so he carried my ID in case UGH!  Ok don't panic, "Sir, can I get through with other ID?"  "Sure, do you have credit cards etc that match the name" "Alright, No problem!"  Well the only problem was I got a FULL pat down (felt like I should have tipped the lady), all my bags were ransacked and it took 20 mins longer than it should have.  I finally saw Megan and felt like I had tales similar to that of a prisoner.  We had our lunch and then got ready to board.  Once on this HOT HOT plane, we sat and started to notice they stopped boarding, then our phones started to alert us of a delay.  Fortunately the pilot came on pretty quickly to say they are grounded for air traffic control reasons and we will have to deplane for about 1 hour.  Ugh, alright back off.  This is when I started to think, "how bad is the return through Newark going to be without my ID?!"  I fortunately reached Clint who has super powers because he must have flown to the airport, handed my ID to a TSA guy I made friends with who then handed it to me (avoiding going back and forth through security).  I waved bye to Clint and ran back to my gate in time to re-board OOFDAH!  The flight was non-eventful and we had some nice chit chat while waiting for the hotel bus to take us to the armpit of America (can't take credit - Megan coined that term).  I mean seriously, have any of you spent any time in Newark?!  It is Nasty!  From the airport to the downtown area that looks like something from crime TV.  It isn't like I haven't been to rough parts of Cincinnati, Chicago, LA etc but this is CRUSTY and you stay right in the middle of it.  By the time we get to the hotel, it is say 730p EST.  So we drop our bags and are ready to grab dinner.  The front desk woman makes it seem odd that we would even ask about a taxi because the place we are considering is a few blocks away.  OK, off we go.  Umm, that should have never occurred.  We got there safely (2 young female outliers) but on the way home it was shady.  I didn't know if it was better when we were near large crowds or when it was eerily quiet.  We made it home in one piece but that was the beginning of our safety confessions.  In between sirens outside our window, we got some sleep and headed to Prudential for the seminar the next day.  The HQ was beautiful and they should think about turning a few floors into a hotel because it was way cleaner and safer :)  We had a day of work chatting and then an evening at a cooking school which was fun stuff because well I don't cook ;-)  However, it seems many there didn't and we had more fun talking and drinking wine.  Megan had the great idea to have us cut the bread - I was good at cutting bread!  We had another stay in the roach motel and then were heading home.  We got on an earlier flight and had wanted to get our nails done earlier in the day but go figure the airport nail place had horrid reviews and we wanted to keep all our fingers and toes HA.  Instead, we ate some breakfast in the hotel lobby, did a little work and chatted up the facilitator before she drove back to Connecticut.  The drive to the airport was another safety confession.  The man had a blue tooth device in his ear but held his cell phone up to his ear with one hand and drove the bus with the other.  The potholes in NJ could swallow a bus and so this ride was interesting to say the least.  He also never hung up the phone when getting the bags out - a real winner!  We ate at a Champs in the airport with maybe the slowest service for an airport restaurant and with East cost clientele there was a lot of yelling and frustration.  We may have said at least 20x, get me out of this God forsaken state Icky!  At least we had each other as travel companions and had some good laughs about it along the way.

We made it home to a GORGEOUS MN day around 445p.  I swung home, grabbed the family and we headed to dinner together.  It was so great to see them and sleep in my own bed with no sirens outside!

Friday -  Full day back in the office but felt good to be in a rhythm and get some things done!  I headed to the kids daycare around 4p for muffins with mom and Maci reminded me a few times that I was late.  She got over it quickly though when she knew (1) she got to go home and (2) she could give me her gifts :)  We ordered our usual pizza and then took a walk around the hood.  I fell asleep on the couch early (typical) and Maci/Clint played until bed time.

Maci Gifts

 Connor Gift

Saturday - Beautiful day!  It was almost 83 today.  Clint had a 650a tee time with the guys, which he fully deserved after single daddy time.  That meant Maci, Connor and I were on our own for dance.  Maci is getting really good at her routine and can't wait for Grandma to see her!

Killing Time at Dance

 Dancing Girl

We then headed home to meet up with daddy and do a few things around the house before Connor napped and Maci/I hit the nail salon :)  I got a much needed pedi while Maci got her nails and toes painted.  Afterward, we did a little shopping for mom (3 new tops!) and Maci got a scooter at the toy store.  We wrapped up our girls trip with some Dairy Queen.  I love spending time with that girl - she is becoming a little lady over night!  Come night time, we went to the Muni for dinner (anywhere outside was packed) and then headed home in time for groceries to be delivered and a fire pit out back :)  What a great day!

Where did my baby girl go?!

 Goof Balls @ Dinner

 Campfire Conversations

Sunday - Happy Mother's Day!  I woke up around 8a to breakfast in bed 💙.  I then slowly got around but took another late morning nap while Clint/Connor/Maci took a walk.  Connor is now napping but hoping he gets up soon so we can head to Lake Calhoun for playground and a late lunch at Tin Fish.  Maci is on the iPad but it is another GORGEOUS 80 day.  We intend to order bite squad delivery later for dinner and Clint/I will do another fire pit to end the weekend while I prep my week ahead - why aren't the weekends longer?!

We hope you all had an awesome weekend and a spectacular week ahead!
Lots of Love,
C, K, M & C