Graduation post

This will be a long one - we had Anna and Patrick's graduation over the weekend! We spent a fun-filled three days in Grinnell, which was jam-packed with graduation activities. The fun started with Patrick's graduation party. The party was outdoors, which after a long day of driving was just perfect.

Anna's graduation party was the next morning. While the kids were near perfect at Patrick's party, they were a *bit* crazier at Anna's event. For some reason, P decided she needed to take this giant lizard (which belongs to Eli) to the party.

The party inside looked wonderful, with lots of yummy food!

Of couse, the lizard was fed well.

Anna decorated her own graduation gap, which was proudly on display

It was a lovely event

The kids had a little too much sugar, and kind of bounced off the walls. Quinn, especially.

The next day was finally the big event. High School graduation!

Here she comes! 

This pretty much sums up my behavior over the weekend. I am SO PROUD of Anna!

Eli looked thrilled

Proud grandparents

Look at P starting adoringly at her cousin. So sweet.

We got their early to get good seats, which left the kids plenty of time to explore the bleachers.

Quinn, of course, was primarily concerned with memorizing the program, and he was a perfect angel for the whole ceremony. The girls slept through most of it, but woke up in time to cheer for Patrick and Anna.

Patrick was first in line, which was very exciting for everyone. Both he and Anna got super-loud cheers from us, and the whole ceremony was quite nice.

Of course, being in Iowa, we celebrated after the event with Dairy Barn.

Congrats, guys. As Anna's cap says, "Adventure is out there!"

Ballet Recital

Penelope had her first ballet recital a few weeks ago. Here she is posing the morning of the big day. She was VERY excited, and thus acting a little funny for the picture taking.

When we got there, she and Zahra ran in triumphantly, but in the end Penelope spent the first dance stuffing her tutu in her mouth :)

We did get a good picture without the tutu eating, though.

After the first song, we told Penelope to take off her tutu and she was able to focus more after that. Here she is doing the "bird" dance. Being Penelope she also accompanied this dance with bird sounds, which I don't think she was supposed to do...

Zahra mostly enjoys watching Penelope's ballet lessons, but she nearly fell asleep during the recital.

After the big event we put the tutu on for more pictures, and one more special surprise - Frozen dolls for the girls! I don't usually buy the kids plastic dolls like this, but when I saw them at Target I couldn't resist. And, they have lived up to expectations - by far the girls' favorites!

Great job, Penelope. We are proud of you!

Springtime activities

As usual, this is a busy time of year.

Quinn had his spring piano recital last weekend. 

He made us get there 30 minutes early so he could memorize the program.

The last picture is Quinn with his teacher, Lily. Sadly, she is moving this summer to another city, but hopefully he will be able to stay with the same studio. You can see the recital video here

Penelope has been practicing quite a bit for her spring ballet recital.

The Capitol Hill Spring carnival was this past weekend. Quinn got to do the cakewalk (his favorite), and the girls stayed up way to late. Look at how tired P looks here!

We had our neighborhood egg hunt several weeks ago, and the girls were super into it this year. The event started with an all-neighborhood movie watch - that part they kind of hid in the corner for (see bottom left).

They loved the egg hunt, though, and got lots of candy. Quinn, of course, LOVES the candy.

We all visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art last weekend for the Springtime "Art in Bloom" show - works of art are recreated with flowers.

The kids really enjoyed it, and we found the painting (by chuck close) that we all thinks looks just like Quinn as an adult!

Happy Spring, everyone!

Zahra quotes

Zahra has to be the sweetest and most sensitive person I have ever met.

A few recent quotes:

"Mom, at night I dream about you because I love you so much"

"Mom, when Quinn was little he fell and split open his chin. Is he ok? Is he sad?" Who knows where she even heard that story, or what made her worried about it?!

Today, Quinn spent all day with WaPa (it is Saturday) and I was with the girls. Halfway through the day I asked Zahra if she was having a good day, and she said "Not really."
When I asked her why she said, "Because Saturdays I expect to spend with Quinn. I don't get to see him very much during the week and he makes me laugh."

Here she is in her new favorite spot, on the ledge in front of the house.

What do you think she's thinking about now?

As an added bonus, here is a video of Z&P singing "Let it go" from Frozen. Z starts it out, and P quickly jumps in. Zahra loves to pretend scenes from Frozen, and she takes it VERY seriously - I often feel like my years of acting in my school aged days have finally come in handy because she expects my full participation ! You can see the video here