winter recital

what a graceful dancer she has become. we just love watching her so much!! my favorite part this session was watching her little hands, she's been working on perfecting the ballerina hand....i totally remember doing that too when i was little:)

o' christmas tree...

 the idea of walking around outside in the crisp fresh air, with the scent of pine passing by my nose, singing christmas carols, talking about our day, working together to find the "perfect' christmas tree, sounds so ideal....then, i wake up and realize that my kids are fighting, my husband is anxious to get back to work, no one is having fun, and we've become the family that you feel bad for at these kind of places. yep. that happened;) alteast we have a the lovely tree!

cribbage

while the girls were playing at the grandparents, ryder found his place amongst all the older boys (dad, grandpa, and the uncles), he loved it. they tossed the footfall, talked "guy" talk, and played many rounds of cribbage….which, ryder caught on very quickly, and became the "cribbage champion of thanksgiving 2013"!!  i've asked him to teach me, and he said "ah, mom, i hate explaining things, it's just too tiring"…..ha, tell me about it ryder:)!!

we love our family!

we had such a lovely time visiting with the mangerson clan, for thanksgiving. quinn loved being around all the girls, and there's nothing better than a house full of little girls giggles:) we are just so thankful to have such an awesome family. love you all.

the PARTY!

we had so much fun with our friends, and just feel so blessed that we have these people in our lives, and that we can simply head to our local park, which has awesome fire pits, and trails running everyone for the kids to frolic in! what a life. what a beautiful life!!
(the picture on the top is truly one of my favs!!)

good morning six year old

we woke up early, as usual (thanks to ryder, of coarse), and let quinn enjoy her day! she got her own sketch book, pencils, and pencil case from jesse (which both kids LOVE!!), and i put together a box of dress up stuff (like old school style, from a thrift shop), gloves, clip on earrings,  and a super fancy hat. ryder made quinn her own pokemon book and gave her some trading cards (which he then took back...he's still working on the whole "it's your birthday today and i will let have a wonderful day because i love you, and i will not sabotage this day due to this silly thing called jealousy"). ha....siblings! regardless, quinn still found everything wonderful in her day, and was so sweet and loving to us all. i love taking a moment or two, to be reminded about the day she was born, what a miracle it was! i love this girl so much.....she gives my life so much joy! i can't believe she's six!!

four day weekend/birthday celebration

every october, right around quinn's birthday, the schools take a long weekend break (th/f), and we get to have a fun filled weekend together, which is usually filled with birthday fun for our little quinn! this year, for her birthday bash, we decided to invite some friends to a local park for a bonfire, scones, and warm apple cider. so, for the invite we put together some leaf bouquets and wrapped them up with a scroll (the kids called this "the hidden message") and tied with a bow. quinn hand delivered each one to her special friends. it was so fun!

soccer has begun

the fall session of soccer has begun, and ryder sure is happy about that! jesse has tweaked his work schedule so now he is able to attend the practices and also the games, soccer has become a super fun way for them to connect:)

quinn still packs along her toys and just sits and plays for the entire hour. i just love her world:) and i just noticed her outfit here: super fancy headband and soccer shorts, yep her world is fantastic!

friends forever!

we're still trying to get into our school year grove, but one thing that is for certain is that after school, we all love to see each other! these kids love to come home and just play. they actually ask to stay home most of the afternoons, because they just miss being home! i find that to be the best request ever:) i love these kiddos so much and i just adore their love for one another! siblings make the best friends.

first day of school....just a little late on this

as im sitting here in my quiet house crossing off the last few tasks that i would like to get done before i go collect my children, i am now just realizing that an entire month has already gone by. where did all that time go? wow! and here i am remembering the first day of school.....oh, what a day:)
both kids started new schools this year. ryder heading to 3rd grade and quinn heading to kindergarten. they were both super excited and super anxious all morning....and so were we (the parents).
ryder made pancakes for us, this is his specialty, and then we had a dance party (like last year), dancin to our favorite tunes on the summer mix!
jesse drove ryder to his school, and quinn and i walked to hers. the first day was not the easiest, we actually had a few "seriously" moments with the schools, but we managed to get through the day!
our new routine is still a work in progress, but every day gets better.
it's so hard to let go of summer, and transition into the school year, where we all feel the burden and stress of being disconnected. so we are finding our new grove, finding ways to stay connected, finding ways to be with each other, having quieter afternoons, family time, lots of hugs and snuggles, and lots and lots of stories of "what happened today at school".

the last little bit of the summer sun

just trying to soak up the last little bit of the summer sun at olbrich gardens. we love cruising through this botanical paradise and discovering all the wonderful colors nature has created for us:) and it's super awesome when we discover a ramp on the walkway......1 2 3, JUMP;) 

ps. this may be the first time some of you have ever seen ryder's neck (due to his gorgeous mane hiding it before!). he decided to chop it off this year, and he hasn't been disappointed by his decision at all, when he's ready for a change....he's ready!

pope farm

 
some of our friends told us about this gorgeous sunflower farm, just a few miles from our house, so it didn't take long before we packed up and went to check it out. well, i guess it took us a little too long, because when we got there all the sunflowers had went to seed already. so, these tall giants were not very perky, they were on the droopy side....but, the farm was still absolutely gorgeous, and the kids had so much fun collecting the seeds, so we found beauty in these flowers after all.

farmers market

oh, how i love our farmers market, especially in late august-october, there is just so much beautiful produce! the kids come with me, ryder handles the money transactions, and quinn gets to pick the produce....both very important lessons when purchasing food! my absolute favorite thing to see at a booth, is an entire family (kids and all), proudly selling their goods, it's just so wonderful!

cooling off at the lake

lets go fly a kite

we took a trip to devils lake for, a day at the beach. it was a bit chilly for swimming that day, so we did a hike, had a picnic, and flew our kites! it was a perfect day to fly kites!

quinn's fort

lemonade stand, meet your match!

the third annual mangerson food/beverage stand, which always coincides with the westmorland garage sale, was a huge hit this year! instead of doing the standard lemonade and cookies, we decided to step it up a notch. we make cold coffee concentrate (which could be turned into an iced coffee, or a hot coffee), iced tea, lemon/mint water, scones (cherry almond, and chocolate chip almond), and the kids also sold a huge jar of candy (which was just sitting in our cupboard from multiple parties they attended throughout the summer.
everyone loved the coffee and scones (people came back for seconds/thirds). the kids made a whooping $60 in a few hours, which is so much more than i ever made when i was a child! my favorite part was listening to the kids ask the adults what they would like, and then them giggling when they got paid! (i can't remember what i said when i took this picture, but quinn's face is great!)

nature

we went for a family stroll to picnic point, a beautiful trail on lake mendota. reasons we went there were to swim, to look for black raspberries, and for jesse to do a little landscape painting, what we didn't plan on, and what ended up being super awesome, were all these toads! the kids had so much fun chasing them, holding them, collecting them, and then releasing them! i love all the surprises of nature!

kids first swim meet

i am so proud of these kids! i just love watching them, do everything, pretty much! here they are at their first ever swim meet. quinn is the second from the left. ryder is the second from the right. (ps. sorry for my loud voice, but, i had to cheer).

tie dye

it just wouldn't be summer if we didn't tie dye some shirts:) when we were visiting family in birchwood, we got to hang with our cousin cohen for a few days too, and for his birthday, we brought a tie dye kit with us and some shirts, for a fun afternoon activity. the kids had so much fun, and they all made such cool shirts. cohen said it was his first time....and he was so focused on making his creation just right:) i just noticed that he is wearing a shirt that i think ryder made him last year....ha ha....i told you, we tie dye every summer:) 

berry pickers!

we cruised over to the "berry farmer" for our annual evening of blueberry picking. the difference from last year to this year, is the weather was actually tolerable...i think it was like 95 last year, and the kids and i still picked for an hour. this year it was 82, we managed to pick for two hours and came home with about 8lbs of delicious blueberries!! ryder is my picking buddy...man, i love him!!

side note: when i was growing up my friends and i would call the tourists "berry pickers"....i'm still not sure why we called them that, and why berry picking is bad thing(?)....but, i giggle to myself when i go pick berries....sayin, yep, i'm totally a berry picker:)

family reunion

we went to birchwood for a short visit with our cousins from california a few weeks ago. we head up there every summer, for what always is a quick weekend that is jam packed with activity and chaos, but it's so worth it, because we all LOVE spending time with these people!! we wish we could see them more often, and build these relationships to be even stronger, but for now, we will take this one weekend a year and enjoy every second of it! we love you crawford family:)

kickin it at the terrace

we met uncle troy at the union terrace for an evening birthday celebration (troy turned 23!). this place is so wonderful....colorful bistro tables, the lake, free music, food, popcorn, locally made ice cream, and of coarse....pitchers of delicious micro-brew beer....how can you not love this place!!