Happy 40th Wedding Anniversary

This past weekend in addition to Father's Day we celebrated my parent's 40th wedding anniversary.  All of the Papke family made it home for the weekend which made it extra special.  My girls smothered their poor cousin Kitty with love the whole time.  They just can't get enough of her.

Saturday evening we had the big celebration.  We made 6 different homemade pizzas that my brother Tony and his wife Colleen brought ingredients for.  It was a lot of pizza, but it was so good that there was hardly any left.  Trader Joe's knows dough!  Then we gave them their gift.  Colleen had found an idea for doing memory envelopes from family and friends.  So we had contacted a number of family and friends in April to conjure up 40 memories and Tony and Colleen organized them in envelopes.  It was great reading all of them, especially when photos were involved from the 70s.  We laughed and cried through them all and my parents were surprised and touched by everyone who wrote in to them and the memories they provided.  It was a great evening and weekend had by all.

Happy 40th Mom & Dad!

The 4th Tooth Bites the Dust

This weekend we headed to IL for the wedding of Mike Dietz and Julie Flannigan.  At the wedding reception Abby came over with a tooth in her hand.  She had pulled it out (or wiggled it with her tongue) all by herself.  There was no crying, screaming, or drama from the first 3 teeth - of course it didn't have Tim pulling it out either, maybe that's a factor too.  So the tooth fairy had to find us in IL at our hotel that Saturday night, which they did of course.  And as Megan says; "Now you have two holes in your mouth."

So the bottom 4 have all been lost, and Abby informed us that there are no loose teeth on the top yet.  Megan is starting to get on board with the idea of losing teeth, but Abby has informed her that she can't lose any until she is 5.

We also had a swimming milestone as well this weekend.  Abby has been working on swimming without her life jacket and at the hotel pool she swam from the shallow to deep end all by herself, multiple times.  We really need to get her into some swim lessons this summer.  Megan on the other hand still sinks like a rock, but is fearless to keep trying no matter what. 

Memorial Day Weekend and 1st Day of Summer School

This Memorial Day we had somewhat of a "stay-cation" in the Columbia area.  At least we didn't go any farther than 1 hour in any one direction.

Our first stop was at the Firefighter Memorial.  We drive by this everyday and have never stopped in so with all the extra flags the girls were intrigued and we stopped there Friday evening on our way home from daycare.

Abby is always quite the poser

On Saturday we went out to the farm so take our friend Colleen out there so she could see it and we brought Tim lunch.  He's been working on 30+ acres to get it ready to plant beans.  He has done a lot of brush hogging and tree removal.  Hopefully this weekend they will plant some beans.  We did make some circle bales of hay though on Saturday - you can see one on the left side.  It's our first official act of "farming".  The girls loved how the bales were "pooped" out of the machine.  Colleen enjoyed her tour and 4-wheeler ride.  I enjoyed the fact that the "shouse" has AC.

First day of Summer School  - Megan is packing up her bag too!

Abby is very proud of her backpack - had to have a photo of that all by itself.

Today was also the first day of "all day school" as Abby likes to call it.  Summer School for Kindergarten started.  We had all our outfits picked out and lunch packed and were ready to go this morning.  We all walked (Megan too) to the gym for the first day's roll call.  Abby was pretty excited but I think was getting a little hesitant the longer she had to wait.  Her name was finally called and she got in line - Megan ran after her to giver her a hug and a kiss, it was too cute for words.  Then Megan and I walked back to daycare and discussed in detail when preschool will start as that is her next concern in life.  So tonight we'll get all the details of "all day" school. 

That wraps up our weekend - we all enjoyed the sun, a little too much probably, but got some good outdoor time, swimming, and boating done.  We probably didn't do hardly anything off of our lists of things that actually needed to be done - but they'll still be on the list tomorrow.

Abby Lost Another Tooth

This morning while brushing her teeth Abby lost her 3rd tooth.  Out of the 3 it was the most dramatic by far.  It was ready to come out since just with brushing it popped out.  However as she spit, there was some blood....(insert drama here) there was instant screaming and crying and Tim raced in to save the day.  She washed out her mouth and even finished brushing her teeth afterwards.  So tonight the Tooth Fairy will be summoned once again.

Bottom tooth to right of center teeth

The tooth is safely in a zip lock bag until tonight

Megan is still amazed with how and why this happens.  Her comment to Abby this morning was "you have a hole in your mouth".  She was happier to hear she has probably 2 years until she has to worry about losing any teeth.

Last Day of Preschool

Today is Abby's last day of preschool.  Kind of a bittersweet moment for Tim and I.  We're very proud of her of course and all that she has learned, but can't believe how quickly it is going.  We're also a little proud of ourselves for surviving parenthood for 5 years :).
Abby was very ready for "Graduation Day" as she liked to call it and had a special dress picked out, along with earrings, make up, hair accessories, you name it.  I had to kick her out of the bathroom this morning so we could get going.  She is going to be one of those girls.....

This past weekend we picked out our "big girl" backpack and lunch box (Megan got hers too, she's ready for preschool in August already) so we would be ready for Kindergarten Summer school which starts on May 29th - only 7 more sleeps!  Abby is pretty excited for this and will be walking with the other kids (even though I might be there the first couple of days) and then walking back to daycare after school.  Don't worry - it's not even a block, she won't be going far.  The days of napping are gone, it's now just "quiet time" while Megan is napping, plus her 3rd tooth is about to fall out.  She is definitely growing up faster than we can imagine it would happen.

Cuteness

We are enjoying our farm and new neighbors that are out there.  Abby, Megan, and #3 will have quite a few kids to play with that are their age.  One of Abby's friends Carter was kind enough to take her on his 4-wheeler.  It was adorable to watch.  Megan was on the electric one going about .25 MPH if that.

Tim and I aren't quite sure if we should be worried yet.......

First Turkey

So Tim has been turkey hunting for probably 2-3 years.  First year didn't even really hear a turkey, second year started to hear them call back but never saw any, third year actually saw some but never shot.  So this year his luck has changed.  This morning he shot his first turkey.  He's like a kid on Christmas day he was so excited.  He had to hurry home so the girls could see it before school. 
Some quick stats - 10 inch beard and 1-1/2 inch spurs, it's a nice looking bird.

Abby was a little less fearless than Megan to get close to the bird, but wouldn't touch it.

After some convincing from Abby, Megan got a little bit closer.  Abby said "Look, it's eyes are closed almost."  Megan wasn't so sure.

The proud hunter and his kill

Now we'll see if Tim knows how to clean a turkey......