School is out!

The last day of school was yesterday - May 31st. No snow days this year, no late starts, no interruptions besides the normal days off (professional learning and clerical days). So the year ended before June, which is rare and awesome.

They are both wonderful girls - growing up so fast. Sophia has become a really great flute player, and she has a great small group of friends that care for each other so well. She's got her drivers' permit as well. Lexi has become a great softball player - playing for the CRPrairie LadyHawks again this year - on the 10U team. She's had some really great hits and you can see them on my facebook posts if we're friends. She's made great friends in school and is ready for 4th grade.

It's been a great and very fast year. Next up is a summer with some more softball, a couple camping vacations and then I guess we'll be back to school - I have a feeling it'll fly by.

Seriously the worst.

There should be an award for worst blogger. I would win. Seriously, the last post was October 2015. It is now January 2017. Wow. So..to continue..here's a short and sweet post (for the year, ha!).

• My girls are still the best. They are 14 and 9 now, and growing so big but still little, you know? The 14yo isn't yet interested in her drivers' permit, which is fine with me, but makes her dad a little crazy. The 9yo still loves minecraft and softball, the 14yo just performed (flute) in the NEIBA Honor Band in December which was really wonderful. We're looking forward to more camping again this year with them, before we probably lose the teenager to a job or omg-camping-with-parents-ugh attitude.
• The dogs are still insane. Both fluffy and cute, but complete idiots.
• Families are doing pretty well I think, holiday season was full and crazy but also fun and relaxing. The kids all had 11 days off in a row and we tried to fill them as best we could around work and other things.
• Softball kicks in for the 9yo next week, so we'll be busy with practices for the winter and games will start in the spring, hopefully we'll be able to camp those as well to make it easier to make it to games on time and be ready to play. She's a slow starter, so we need to be nearby and start early :)
• The 14yo has a band concert coming up as well as a Solo/Ensemble performance piece she's working on. She really does seem to love the flute and the better she gets at it the more annoyed she is by those that don't work harder at it or understand the basics at this level. Which is frustrating for her and both frustrating and entertaining for me.
• Our 20th anniversary was in May 2016, so we'll be coming up on year 21 before too long. It sounds like forever but doesn't feel really all that long.  Which I think is good, right?
• We also paid off the house this summer, which is super awesome. Not to have to worry about the mortgage payment is a huge relief. We can focus on other smaller debt (camper) and start to consider some home improvements (hardwood floors? new paint, baseboards? remodeled bathrooms...yes please.)

That's it for now I think. Maybe I'll post more as the kids are getting older and less reliant on me, but let's not pretend - we all know that most of the time i'll decide to watch TV vs write a blog post.