I remember the feeling...I was terrified. I was going into the fourth grade and the lists came out and I had a boy teacher--Mr. Voelker. I did not think that was going to be a good thing at all. But he ended up being a great teacher. He would take us out to play kick ball and we had S.Q.U.I.R.T. (Super Quiet Uninterrupted Reading Time). Aaaaahhhhhh....good times. So, tonight we went to the Washburn Family Picnic to meet Tori's first grade teacher--and you guessed it--Tori got the boy. Five first grade teachers, four girls and one boy, and she got Mr. Suzuki. I think my stomach dropped just like when I was going to be a fourth grader. I kept looking at her face to see if she was okay. She is very shy at these things,(yes, Tori is shy sometimes) which just kills me, but she seemed to be okay. I think she was handling it better than me. Tori never ceases to amaze me. Anyway, she has one girl in her class from last year and one boy from her soccer team, so that is nice. She put her name card (she decided to go by Victoria this year) on her desk and told Mr. Kazuki (as she calls him) that she would see him on Tuesday. First grade, here she comes....I don't know if I am ready for this.

We visited "not-such-a hot spot" Historic Murphy's Landing. The girls found it mildly entertaining. Jamie did not. =) We once again had a visitor for our adventure. Dan Occhiogrosso came with us. He is a good friend of our family and has been a big encouragement in our journey with Consumed. The girls really, really liked him (okay, not Macie so much, but she warmed up to him). Isabelle took a picture of him in her new cell phone, so she would not miss him (I think she knows it is not a real phone, but we are talking about Ponsi).








School starts in 6 days and counting!!!!

My personal title for the summer was "Summer in the Cities". I intended on exploring some of what our new city/state has to offer. And I was not disappointed. We revisited some of our favorite spots like Stillwater, Chutes and Ladders, the Minnesota Lynx games, and the Como Zoo. We found some new things like Como Town, the Science Museum, and the Edinborough Indoor Park. I still have plans to visit Historic Murphy's Landing and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum before school starts in a week and a half. And there are many more places to explore I am sure, but the greatest thing I have enjoyed about "Summer in the Cities" is the people I have shared it with. Como Zoo and Como Town were fun because Michelle came with us and sat in the heat to watch the Sparky the Sea Lion Show and then conceded to ride the bumper cars twice in a row just after she ate. And Stillwater was great because we went with Jamie's sister and her family who we don't get to see very often because they live in Ohio. The Science Museum was fun because Marissa came along and tried to teach the girls (who are a little impatient) some science. Edinborough Park was fun because Katie came and climbed to the top of Adventure peak through all the ropes and obstacles only to go down a slide that didn't take us all the way down so we had to go through more obstacles to finally go down another slide that would take us even further down until we finally reached the bottom. And the Minnesota Lynx games are great because we see Silly Amber, the "other Amber", Nicole and whoever else of our friends is there that night. I suppose that will be true of anywhere that you go--there will always be things to see, but it is who you see that makes it special. I am so thankful God moved us to Minnesota for many reasons, but especially for the people, because they are what make it home.