Sioux Falls Shenanigans

 And when I am with my sister chicks, shenanigans ALWAYS happen!  July 20-22 was in the planning hopper for several months, but come Hell or high water, we were determined to make it happen.  This time we brought our man-guys along with us.  I am sure they are still shaking their heads in disbelief at the retelling of our Saver's adventure, I know it haunts my dreams *shudder*.

I do think our husbands were very impressed with the "Meat on a stick" dining at the Carnival Brazilian Grill.  We definitely got our fill and had to finally tap out.
 
 Heather and Derek...



Jim and Lori....

me and my man-guy....

Saturday morning, we headed to the Falls Park before the temperature reached sizzle.  The guys were much more adventurous and made good progress even without hiking boots.

They were good sports about entertaining themselves, while the sister-chicks got in some serious shopping and bonding time.  I believe they went to a Classic Car show as well as going to the BatMan Rises flick.  For sure, all three of our husbands were the objects of attention from my new best friend, Gilbert!!

As always, there is never enough time together and the weekend just flew by. I am forever grateful to have these wonderful women in my life.  The memories are treasures and I always get a smile on my face remember the shenanigans!

I am always captivated by water falls, and had fun messing with my new camera to find different ways to show the water in motion.  This picture was my favorite.

And look at this picture carefully.  I swear I can see a face looking out of the water falls.  Upper left portion of the falls. It is rather creepy to me.

Summer swimming

 

This summer marks Kippy's second season of swimming on the Fergus Falls Flyers swim team.  She started swimming the first week in June.  Her age group swims 4 days a week M-Th for 45 minutes each day.  With Steve teaching summer school and my work schedule, Kippy has had to ride her bike to the pool.  It is pretty obvious that she loves swimming because she never complains about going nearly every day. 

This photo collage is from the Alexandria swim meet on June 23rd, which was the first time she swam the 100 breast.  She did really well and got 6th in her heat of 8.

The chlorine has really done a number on her suit as it is so very faded, but her joy of the water has not diminished a single bit.  Her favorite stroke is the breast stroke.  She competed in 3 swim meets in June, but won't be able to make any of the swim meets in July because of going to Long Lake Conservation Camp.  That suits Kippy just fine because she doesn't care for the meets AT.ALL!

An update on the Lori-love (RAK)

I am happy to report that more Random Acts of Kindness have been spread as we count down the days leading up to Lori's 40th birthday! We are over half way through our 10 day count down to June 28th and having a wonderful time focusing on doing good deeds for others and spreading Lori-style love.  Here is what has happened in the past 6 days.

Day 1: Delivered 4 loaves of fresh baked banana bread (made by Abby) to neighbors, who were happy and surprised, although one loaf ended up being gifted on the front step of an unsuspecting acquaintance.  Hopefully it was enjoyed as well!

Day 2:  A large donation of clothing and household goods was taken to Goodwill.  Inside 4 clothing items I stashed Random Acts of Kindness cards with $

Don't you just love when you find surprise $ in a pocket?   I hope others feel the same!

Day 3: Kippy was a helper for Day 3 acts of kindness.  We went to Target and got 4 gift cards and planned to hand them out to random shoppers.  The first shopper gladly accepted the "Act of Kindness" and was so very grateful.  Kippy then went off on her own to give two more cards away, but had a little trouble working up her courage to approach a stranger.  In one case, Kippy had a kind woman actually refuse the gift card telling Angelique, "You just keep it."  Not to be deterred, Kippy finally found additional willing recipients while I browsed through many books and cards waiting.  Both Kippy and I have the "stranger anxiety" gene, but we both felt so good after delivering the gifts that we wished we had $MM more we could give!

Day 4: Kindness this day was centered all on supporting a family whose son has a heart condition and requires open heart surgery in the near future.  So, Lori-style love was spread on silent auction items as well craft items and free-will donations.

 Day 5:  I handed out Flower Packets to 4 mom's who were helping with concessions and selling programs at a swim meet in Alexandria. I told them it was a "thank you" for all that they are doing for the swim program.

These women were so excited about the whole concept.  I feel confident that they will be paying it forward in some way in the future.

Day 6:  We started our Random Acts of Kindness by picking up trash on the River Walk in Fergus Falls.  Steve, Kippy and I ended up with 2 bags of trash and we are ever so grateful that Steve had the forethought to wear gloves! (Let's just say there was some seriously disgusting items I am so happy are now properly disposed of). 

Additionally, I was able to give out Lipton Green Tea in citrus flavor to 4 random people.

I am looking forward to the next 4 days because spreading kindness is rather addicting!!  Lori, are you feeling the love??  Hope so!

Celebrating 40 Lori-STYLE with RAK!

 

My sister-chic, Lori, is going to be celebrating the big Four-Oh on June 28th.  Miss Lori shared her ultimate birthday wish with Heather & me several months back.  She wanted to have her birthday honored with Random Acts of Kindness.  I aim to please, so I am following her instructions and starting the celebrating EARLY to spread the love "Lori-STYLE".

Heather hooked me up with these super cute cards from Pinterest, so I engaged some help from my oldest daughter, who whipped up a batch of yummy banana bread.  Now I will get these delivered and begin plotting additional random acts of kindness to spread the love all the way to Lori's birthday.

Lori, I hope you feel the love surrounding you every minute of every day!  I'll keep you posted on other RAK done in your name.  I love you to the moon and back!!

If anyone else wants to join in on the celebration - please do!  The more Lori-STYLE love we can spread, the better this world will be.  I promise!

A very important announcement...

it is Kathy's birthday!  She is one of my closest, dearest friends and I wish her a very wonderful day today in honor of her birthday.  Our families got to spend Memorial weekend together with the Landmark family at Lake Hendricks two weeks ago.  This is a photo/video montage of that time and I made it just so Kathy could smile and remember it!  Happy birthday, Kathy!

Another dance season completed

which included 10 months of weekly practices, 2 staging practices, 2 dress rehearsals & 4 performances  (a.k.a. hours and hours of time). Abby participated in Jazz3 and Angelique danced in Modern 1A/1B this season. Again, the girls continue to do a wonderful job despite having me as their reluctant dance mom.

I am secretly looking forward to a dance-free summer, filled with swim team, soccer games, & marching band events.

I must admit, though, both girls continue to love performing on stage and that makes it all worth it!

After I took pictures of the girls individually in their costumes, Abby said, "Mom, you have to take pictures of us together!"  Oh my goodness, I remember when they hated when I put them together for pictures and now they are actually demanding pictures together?  Be still my heart!  These sisters are definitely two peas in a pod and I love them to the moon and back!!

A memorable Memorial weekend

 It was worth all the planning to be able to get together again with the Bytnar & Landmark families at Lake Hendricks. In typical Memorial weekend fashion, the weather sometimes was fabulous and sometimes not so much.  However, the 6 adults along with our 6 children, made the most of the precious time we had together.

Of course, the primary focus for Sherri, Kathy and me was to catch up on our napkin lists.  Our napkin lists are vitally important because the lists allow us to really listen to each other without forgetting to share our "need to know" information.  I think the napkin lists are how we stay close together even though we live far apart!

  We are doubly blessed in that our husbands work pretty hard to make sure we get the girlfriend time we
need.  Much of the meal prep and kid entertainment can be credited to them!

One of my favorite moments was when Ryan came into the house after fishing most of the day and exclaimed with wonder, "You guys are STILL talking!?!"

Yup, that is how we roll, a gab-fest, 24/7!!

Lake fun was had by the kids and the men.  Two boats were going and 9 lines were constantly being monitored.  I believe the competition was on, but I have to be honest and admit, I didn't pay much attention to the details.  I just looked at the smiling faces and constant chatter and teasing going on and knew everyone was living the moment.

 There was one competition that I did pay attention to and that was the Scavenger Hunt that the kids teamed up on.  Abby & Rachel surprised everyone with their first place finish.  The surprise is that they happen to be the slowest of the 6, yet pulled off the WIN.  Kippy and Drake came in 2nd with Darian and Ryan a close third.  It was fun that the kids all kept their sense of adventure and really got into it.

 And to continue tradition, we had a photo shoot of the RAD pack (Rachel, Ryan, Abby, Angelique, Drake & Darian).  Love those kids to pieces!

And when the girls got tired of fishing, we all got busy crafting.  Several types of fabric flowers were creatively made along with some necklaces.  Pssst... I think the guys were secretly wanting to join in with us!

Thanks so much for the fun at your Lake, Tom, Sherri, Rachel & Ryan!