First day of School? or Last First day of school

Tuesday September 2nd marks several milestones with the kids.  

1.  It was Joshua's first day of school.  He rode the bus and everything.  He was ready at 7:15 with back pack on even though the bus didn't come until 8:30.  What a cute kid!

2.  It was Adri's start of 6th grade and her last year in Elementary.  Next year she will move on to middle school.  She was the oldest kid at the bus stop by at least 3 grades.

3.  It was Amanda's last first day of public school.  She is a big senior now.

BITTERSWEET!

First day of All-day Kindergarten

Waiting for the bus

That's My Senior Girl!!

Labor Day Weekend

It was the last hurrah before school started.  I just wanted to a add a few pictures.  We went to Minnesota's largest candy store, ate at Punch Pizza in Wayzata, and walked down along Lake Minnetonka.  We went swimming and had caramel apples.  All in all it was a great weekend. 

Josh at the candy store.  

At Lake Minnetonka

Lovely bathing beauties

All things Ukrainian!

Karyna has settled into our home.  She talks a lot more and is more relaxed around us.  It is fun to have her around.  She decided to stay home from the group activities today and spend some time with us.  That was decided when Amanda said she wanted to go shopping.  So we are going to shop for Homecoming dresses today.
Karyna is in love with Adri.   They get along so great, probably because Adri is a great friend and is so open to new things.  They love to hang out together.  On Sunday they watched a movie and giggled and laughed and Karyna taught Adri Ukrainian words.
Today, Karyna finally tried out the Trampoline.  She has never been on one.  Adri has been patient in getting her to try it.  Once she was on, we couldn't get her off.  She jumped for nearly an hour and then wanted to jump again in the dark with Adri.
We are having a great time and I am so glad we made it through the first week which was really hard because of language barriers, jet lag, and trying to feel comfortable in another person's home.
She is at home now and it is great.

Took her to the largest Candy store in MN.  She thought that was so cool

Down by Lake Minnetonka

Walking in Downtown Wayzata.  Went to Punch Pizza for lunch

Maple Grove Triathlon

Amanda and I ran a sprint Triathlon on Saturday August 23rd. (Happy Birthday Mom!).
It was awesome.  We had trained so hard this summer together.  We lifted weights, ran, biked, and sort of swam.  But we were ready.
The day of the race was perfect.  It was overcast but not rainy and rather cool.  Amanda decided to start with her age group and they were the second group to start.  She placed 2nd in her age group.  Isn't that awesome.
I started with my age group so of course, I was a little bit later.  The great thing was that I didn't die at the end.  I was able to run the 5K without dying and it felt good at the finish.
What a great day!  Good way to finish the summer.

Selfie before the race

Getting her 2nd place trophy

After the Race, showing off our numbers and medal

I have such a sweet daughter!!

School needs to start

It has been a crazy 2 days filled with new adventures and new ideas.  Karyna has really bonded with Amanda.  I think she can relate better to someone her own age.  Amanda picked her up Monday night and they shared pictures and stories etc.  Adri adores her and Josh just wants to make sure that he doesn't lose my attention.  Ukranian chocolate is amazing and I need to hide it so I don't eat it all at once.  The weather hear has already started to change a bit.  Cooler in the evenings which is great for am runs.  I am running a 10K on Sept 18th so I need to train.
We found out today that Adri is ready for braces.  She is so excited.  I've never seen someone get so excited about braces, but she is.  She wants them on yesterday because she says she doesn't like her smile.  I love her smile.
Adri and Josh have their teachers for School.  We are going to meet them Wednesday night at the school.  I think Josh is excited, but Adri doesn't want to start school.
Amanda is in the middle of Link Crew which is a group that helps to welcome the new Sophomores and follow them throughout the school year to make sure they are welcome.  She is also trying out for the play which is Cinderella this year.
Hoping Karyna is doing ok.  She wasn't very talkative tonight.  I think she was so tired from the last two days of adventures.  They have visited the State Capitol, the Uof M, and the State Fair.  There is more to come. I will post a picture of her when I get one.

We have a new family member for 4 weeks

Alright, so I haven't written for 2 years or so, but we have a new story to tell.  We have a foreign exchange student who is staying with us for 3 1/2 weeks.  She is from Ukraine and her name is Karyna.  She is here on a Civic/Government learning experience.  All of the students are staying with host families and will get to do various activities while they are here.
Karyna is 16 and is so sweet and looks terrified.  I hope that after a good nights sleep she will feel more at home.  She brought us some delicious chocolate and a beautiful runner that she stitched herself.  It took her 7 months.  It is amazing.  So the adventure begins.  The kids are excited even though they don't know what to do with her.  We also found out that she is vegetarian tonight so we will have an adventure altering our diet a little for the next few weeks.

Well, we are finally in and pretty much unpacked.  So here are the pictures of our home with furniture and lived in!!!

Note to those who are following pinterest.  Your new home never looks like those pictures unless you don't have kids and you never actually do anything in your home.  So mine is used and loved and it only looks clean because I picked up all of the clutter before I took the pictures.  Five minutes later it was messy again.  But, I decided I would rather have kids than a perfect house so there you go.

 Family Room

 Another view of the family room

 Kitchen and my finger at the top.  :)

 My new baby as Bryon calls it.  Thanks to Grandpa Allen for the money he gave us.  I saved it for this piano!!

 Josh in the kitchen to humanize it.

 Resource area.  We have packed it with sewing and crafts.  Lots of cupboards.  Yeah

 Front entrance.  I like my new blue table

 Den.

 Master bathroom.  Still haven't found the rugs I want but in time......

 Laundry room.  Again, I love the floors.  Maybe someday I will own a 50's diner and put these floors in it

 Adri's room.

 Jack and Jill bath

 Another view of Adri's room.  Needs some pictures

 Josh''s room.  His only request was a green bedspread.  That was easy

 Josh's room

 Master Bedroom

 Another view of master

 Kitchen pantry.  It is so big that I haven't been able to fill it yet.

Kitchen/Family Room

Dinette off the kitchen.  That is a sliding glass door but it is locked because there is a long fall to the ground.  Apparently, decks are not included in the price of the home.

Well that is about it.  I didn't take a picture of Amanda's bed or bath because it looks like a tornado hit it.  For how neat she used to be, she is pretty messy right now.  I just shut the door when I walk by!