A beautiful weekend

 Sunsets over the Knik on our drive down.  Taken around 10:40 at night.

Elizabeth at Aleyska

Family picture in front of Turnagain Arm.

The view of Mt. McKinley was amazing on both our drive to and from.

A brown bear that was at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation center.  She was impressive.  And I hope this is the closest I ever get to a brown bears tongue.

 Reflections on a beaver pond at the Eagle River Nature Center

 A windy picture with Lisa and Terry

The girls really liked the bison.  They went up to one and spooked it and that caused the whole herd to start running and crashing into each other.  Noelle and Elizabeth were delighted and exclaimed "We started a STAMPEDE!!"

Sleeping black bears

Family Pic at Alyeska.  We were planning on hiking winner creek but the snow and mud stopped us at the trailhead.

Rachel and Finn in the famous hollow tree.

Group photo at the nature center.

Class of 2025

Last week Noelle and Elizabeth graduated from Kindergarten.  It was bittersweet having my oldest and youngest children reach this milestone at the same time.
The Kindergarten classes sang and danced for the parents and then each child went up and said what they wanted to be when they grow up.

Noelle said she wanted to be a princess when she grows up. Elizabeth said she wanted to be a fashion designer.

I wrote down the other responses of the other classmates of 2025:  ninja, exterminator, doctor, nurse, laborer, jet fighter, teacher, mom, Subway worker, cop, sheriff, rock star, artist, scientist, mom/spy, boxer, soldier and veterinarian.

Teacher Steph and Elizabeth and Noelle

Elizabeth on the playground after graduation

Noelle kept making strange faces.  Hmmmm I'll get her back by using the crazy pictures at her high school graduation party. :)

Were so proud of our little smarties regardless of the funny faces.

Wizard of Oz Graduation

My cousin Krystal just graduated from college and is going to be a teacher. The world definately needs awesome teachers like her.  It took a lot of work and dedication to do it so our family wanted to throw a big party to celebrate.  I picked a Wizard of Oz theme since this was one of Krystal's favorite movies when she was little. (The fact that it also is the girls camp theme and I can re-use some of the decorations is was a plus too). I think there are a lot of parallels of Dorthy's journey and Krystal's.  The road wasn't easy, and sometimes she had to rely on help from others but in the end with a combination of courage, heart and brains she did it. It turned out fantastic thanks to help from family who pitched in to bring it all together.

 Here are some of the details that helped make it special.

The food area with a emerald city back drop, blue gingham tablecloth and a plethora of red poppies.

The food was quite yummy, Amanda made some cookies that basically kept me returning to hover the food table time after time.  Tammy had some perfectly proportioned veggie cups with ranch that were delish.  Krystal made some Reces broomsticks,  Jessie made a rainbow fruit kabobs, and what is a party without shrimp dip?

We decorated the mantle with a picture of Krystal when she was little in her "Dorothy dress" and  Keaton photoshopped in the red shoes which made it my favorite party decoration.  I used some silhouettes of toto, tin man, scarecrow and the lion and put them in frames along with a quote from the movie.  The hurricane full of apples, a vase of paper poppies and some ruby slippers added the additional pop of red to go with the shoes.

The yellow brick road showed Krystal's pictures from Kindergarten through grade school.  It was fun to look at how she has grown up.  For drinks I did good which punch and wicked witch punch. The Wicked witch punch was by far more popular....hmmmn...interpret that how you may.

The entrance to the house  had a sign for the emerald city and a pair of witches legs with ruby slippers at the doorway. 

Congrats Krystal!

500

Wow, it is hard to believe this is my 500th blog post. I started this blog in 2006 right before the girls were born.  It is fun to look back and see how many adventures we have had throughout years.   My tiny babies are now sweet little girls.  Here are some of my favorite photos and memories along the way.