Troy - First Grade

Troy is about to start First Grade at a new school. Deerwood Elementary is closer to the house and he has met so many kids from his summer program and from his soccer that are going to be there. This school is also bigger. At an early parent/teacher meeting, the Principal informed us that there are currently 26 to 27 students in each class. There arere four classes. Some plans were in order to bring in a part-time teacher for the morning reading and math activities, but you could tell parents were not happy. Troy had 18 in his full-day Kindergarten to give you an idea.
Last week we attended the school's open house. This is where all of the students are to bring in their labeled school items, find out where their class is and meet their teacher. Upon arriving, we found out that the part-time teacher had been made full-time and the class sizes moved down to 22/23 students for each. What a relief!

Troy was so excited to find his desk, put in his supplies and find out where everything was. His new teacher, Ms. Lindorfer, walked Troy through the rules and showed him where everything was. We even found out that a neighbor girl down the street will be in his class. Needless to say, he is very excited!  

Bridal Shower - Becky

Turns out, it is a lot of work putting together a bridal shower. In the end, however, it was all worth it. Matt's sister, Becky, is getting married shortly and it only made sense to have a shower at our house to make it easier for family in South Dakota to be able to join in the festivities. Matt's grandmother was even able to make it, so we were more than happy to accommodate.

With many appetizers, dips and cakes to make, it was a busy week. The cakes Becky picked, luckily, were not as difficult. She wanted cakes made like their wedding dresses. Now, there is always something that occurs that you do not expect when cake is concerned. For the most part, however, I thought they turned out great!

We had a great time visiting, eating and watching Becky opening her gifts. We soon said goodbye to the South Dakota crew and it was GAME TIME! I am fortunate to have many partners with my firm that own season tickets to the Vikings. Now, everyone at work knows that I am a Cowboys fan, so when one of the partners wasn't going to be able to make the game, I was fortunate enough to snag the tickets. When I suggested to the Wisconsin group that we go to the game instead of the other activities planned, I am told, Becky almost fell out of her chair. She had never been to a Vikings game before.
We all got ready and into our team apparell. Becky had a few extra items on as you can see in the photos. Our group of girls had a great time and my team won! A great day was had by all.

Paleontologist in the House!

Troy tells Emma, "I am a Paleontologist!"
Troy has been fascinated with dinosaurs for a long time and has even told his previous teachers of his desire to become a Paleontologist. Yes, he is even able to say the word!

For his birthday, I found a great dinosaur project for him; digging his own dinosaur! We were not quite sure how it was going to work out, but at the end of it, he was supposed to have his own dinosaur fossil of a Brachiasaurus. We were a little disheartened, however, when he pulled out a block of a rock, a serrated knife (not sharp) and a brush. We may as well have been digging for a real dinosaur!

We all chiseled away at this thing, but eventually we were finding part of the tail, part of the neck, etc., until he chiseled away at the whole thing! He was so happy to show off the results!

Troy's 6th Birthday!

We had a great time at Troy's birthday party. He invited one of his friends from Kindergarten, a friend of his from preschool, some of the boys from his soccer team and some of the neighbor kids. We had quite the group! He wanted to do a movie party this time and the local movie theatre was more than accommodating. They even allowed a pre-party, behind-the-scenes tour, and showed the kids how the movies come onto the screen.  Troy was the last to leave since it was his special duty to start his own movie, Cars 2! He was very excited.

Troy requested a Lightning McQueen cake, of course. I did not get to spend as much time on the details as I would have liked due to the Summer Theme cake being due shortly before his party. However, the kids loved it, and most of all, Troy loved it. The cake was chocolate with chocolate mousse, Troy's favorite. We made some changes to the car to reflect the details from the second movie.

We also had some great compliments from the staff at the movie theatre. The host of the party, instead of getting a monetary tip from Matt, requested a piece of the cake instead. What a compliment! One more year down...

U2 - End of the Tour

I know you are probably thinking, didn't you already go to a U2 concert? Yes, I did. When they are your favorite band, though, and they are coming to your city, you have to go! Minneapolis was the third remaining concert on their tour, with Pittsburgh and Canada remaining. My girlfriend, Andrea, was more than happy to go with me. However, we had actual seats for this one. We were able to take our time getting to TCF field and make our way to our exclusive, as close to the stage as you can get, seats. Rain was in the forecast, but we thought it might go around us. Time would tell.

Before we knew it, it was 9 p.m. Ground Control to Major Tom... my boys were back. Again, I can not emphasize how great their concerts are. The crowd was pumped, the energy was high and then the rain came...did that stop my boys? HELL NO!

Bono broke out an umbrella and started singing, "I'm singing in the rain..." The concert just took on another level of energy. Those that brought a poncho; it didn't matter. The rain came down hard and we sang and jumped harder.

As I type this, it brings tears to my eyes as I remember it all. U2 are the Beatles of my time. I have been so lucky and fortunate to have attended 7 of their concerts in the last 17 years and can recall each one so vividly. When I say I wish I could have gone to more, Matt thinks I am crazy, but how can you not want to be a part of greatness? I cannot wait until the next one.

SUMMER TIME - SVC Charity Event

The Sexual Violence Center has a yearly event to raise money. They do it in the form of a silent auction at the Solera Cocina de Espana in downtown Minneapolis. Along with a great band, many great items were up for bidding including some U2 tickets! After talking with friends on the board, they convinced me to put up a specialty cake from Constantly Cakes! What a great marketing tool!

Then came the daunting task of actually pulling it off! Some co-workers gave me the idea for a summer theme and initially it was supposed to be a much larger cake, but time was of the essence. I had just finished a time consuming cake for Emma's birthday and Troy's was the next weekend!

Some of the items on the cake worked and some not as well, but it was great practice. The cake went over very well, even though it received no bids. I overheard many great compliments and people intrigued by the cake. I had some newly made business cards there as well, so you never know what kind of business it might generate. The event seemed to be a success and it was for a good cause.   

Any guesses on the location from the picture?

Emma - 4 Years Old!

Time goes by so fast at times. I can remember posting on here when Emma was just 4 months old. My baby is gone and what we have now is a little girl with a mind of her own. She has a great laugh, especially when being tickled. She cannot go many places without her blankie and her blue pillow. This is a habit that will hopefully be going away this week once she turns four. We will see how well that goes.

Emma has been taking gymnastics at Gleasons's Gymnastic School for roughly the last two years. I was not surprised when she said she wanted her birthday party there. We were very happy to hear that Sasha, her usual teacher, would be the one running the party.   Well, the kids had a great time. Sasha ran the show for the first hour taking the kids through various stations. They started at the obstacle course, onto the jumping track into the pit, to the tumbling floor and finally to the large trampolines.

Emma wanted the party to have a Strawberry Shortcake theme. She wanted her usual strawberry cake and strawberry filling (mousse). Since not everyone likes strawberry cake, I changed it up a little bit.
Strawberry Shortcake's face is strawberry cake. The hat is made out of rice krispie treats. The cupcakes on the bottom are vanilla bean with a raspberry buttercream and a strawberry accent.
Emma received some more strawberry shortcake toys among many other girly things which she loves. The kids looked very sweaty and tired, but they all had a blast. Thank you to Gleasons for a great time. On to the next one...