Dates, Dates and more Dates

As the school year began approaching, my first thought was "NO! Summer can't end!" but apparently me simply thinking those things didn't stop the school year from coming! Last year I started a tradition of taking each kid on a 'Back to School shopping' date....complete with a meal out at their place of choice. And this lovely lady--my date for the day--chose D'Amico and Sons and her mama couldn't have been happier! Her and I both love the food there and the boys rarely want to go there as they usually leave hungry--so it's become 'our' place and Sadie always calls it our 'fancy place'. 

(On a quick side note, Sadie had a friend named Delaney in her Kindergarten class that lives down the street from us  and she has two older sisters. Delaney is a very girly-girl as is her mom and one of her sisters. So Sadie started saying that Delaney had a fancy family and Sadie wanted a fancy family. I said, "Sadie, we are a fancy family." To which she responded, "No we aren't. We have too many boys to be a fancy family." Oh man....we are working on this...I reminded her that boys can be fancy too, like when her brothers and Dad obliged for her birthday and wore ties, but they usually don't like to dress up as much because they like to play and get dirty. Apparently that answer didn't satisfy her and she is still mentioning Delaney's fancy family and fancy places and fancy clothes!)

Another date, although this one included the entire family + Nani and Pops......We went to see the Disney movie PLANES on opening day, complete with the 3D experience and all! As an avid lover of the CARS movies, Wyatt had been counting down the days until this one came out. And even last summer when we saw a movie that had a preview for it, he started talking about 'next summer when we could see it' and he of course never forgot! The excitement was palpable!

Since my parents were in town for the weekend, the girls went dress shopping to help my mom find a dress for my sister's wedding and rehearsal dinner. And being the fancy girl that she is, Sadie loved trying on as many dresses as she could!

That night our family and my parents met up with the Kuch family at one of our favorite restaurants on the west side---Maynards on Lake Minnetonka. Sadie was in heaven holding baby Conner!

And as is tradition when we go to Maynards with all the kids, we walked over to Licks in downtown Excelsior for some -scream. I am so thankful for my parents and the fun grandparents they are, not only to my kids, but also to many of our friends' kids. My Dad and all the kiddos at Licks!

Hang in there.....I'm almost caught up and the first day of school will be coming soon!!!