Last Day of Kindergarten

Today was Maya's last day of Kindergarten. How quickly the year has flown by.


From this...

To this!

After school she asked if we could go and get her bangs trimmed as a special treat. I said, "Sure." When we got there she said that she would like it to be short in the back and long in the front. So...off they went!

And this is how she walked out! Even more grown up!

Bedtime iPad Photoshoot

A Mom & her Girls

Danny headed back to Seattle to spend more time with John, Elaine and Matt. So, the girls and I are on our own for a few days. Memorial day was pretty laid back. We went to the park, watched a movie, went to target/grocery store, went for a bike ride/walk, did our nails and prepared for the week. 

Puss Puss missed Danny and wouldn't get off the bath mat.

Maya clearly thinks Danny is broken up about being away from me.

And a Fin drawing

Manicures. Nail polish was a prize for doing well at the grocery store and target.

The mornings were pretty good. We made sure we laid out the clothes the night before and had the bags and shoes ready to go. We did pretty well! Here are a few pics from our time together.


Our first morning at the bus stop. It was pretty chilly but everyone was in good spirits!

Even Claire. She was who I was worried about being solo and trying to get everyone off. She usually wakes up about 7:30 and wants to nurse for a while. Thankfully she woke up about 6 each morning and nursed so she wasn't grumpy while we were getting everyone off to school.

2nd morning we all got up about 20 minutes late but still made it to the bus on time! Hooray!

And the last morning was the last day of school! (separate post)


We did really well and everyone was glad to see Dad on Thursday night!

Bunny Ears

Sometimes it is funny to put bunny ears on a baby. 


Like this...

Lemur baby

Sometimes I think Claire is part lemur. 


Look at those gigantic (and stunning) eyes!

Kindergarten Program

The kindergartners invited parents to come and join them for lunch in the lunchroom to prepare them for the first grade experience. After lunch they sang several songs for us. It was fabulous!

 Excited to see us! :D

Only girl in her class to be in the back row. Ah, she follows after her mom!

Bored during the other classes singing sections.

Sometimes your ear just itches.

Animated actions to the song.

Maya and Senora Mikkelson

Flowers, Fairies and Fancy Feet

Finley has been wanting to take ballet for quite a while. We told her that she could start when she was 4. She is definitely holding us to that point. 

Over the summer the dance studio is having a little weekly session each month that is a fun way to introduce dance to little ones...plus it is taught by one of the teachers that Finley ADORES! At the end of the week they did a little performance for us. Finley got super-duper shy in front of the audience. Carrie, the teacher, was so surprised because Fin had been on top of everything during the class time but just locked up a bit with the pressure of performance.

We have her signed up for another session in August and we were concerned that she wouldn't want to do it since she was so scared of the audience. But Finley was adamant that she wanted to do it. So...off we go!

A lucky shot

Every once in a while you get a lucky shot.

This was one of those moments.

First Day of Dance Camp

The Big Audition

Maya has been talking about wanting to be in a show for  a couple of years now. Finally, now that she is 6, she is old enough to be involved in a summer theatre program. We signed her up for FMCT's (Fargo Moorhead Community Theatre) summer production of Aristocats. Part of the process is an audition, singing for about a minute. The kids who sign up for the program will be in the production, so their audition is mostly for practice and to let the directors see the kids.

We didn't tell Maya about the program until the end of April largely because we knew she would be very excited and want it to begin immediately. We told her that she would have to sing a song and she said she knew immediately what she wanted to sing. Abba's "Lay All Your Love on Me". We spent some time helping her learn a verse, although she knew most of it already, and talked with her about how the audition process works.

We took her over to Concordia to have some time on the stage to help her feel more confident. We have a beautiful video of her working it. She is pretty darn fabulous!

Don't You Want...

"Don't you want to take our picture?"


Oftentimes Finley says that she isn't interested in us taking her pictures. And other times...she strongly suggests that we do. This was one of those days.

Claire is pretty proud of herself in this pic. All rolled over. Back to front already. Sheesh.

Claire and Mom