Easter fun

From basket finds to hunting eggs...lovely Easter.

Happy Easter!

Hope everybunny has a wonderful Easter!

Little Fish

Kate has really taken to swimming. I have to admit at first I was nervous about having a "swim kid". Growing up both my siblings were competitive swimmers. I spent endless amounts of time driving them to the gym in the cold dark and sitting on  hard bleachers doing my homework while they practiced. Countless weekends and family vacations were forfeited for road trips to some important swim meet or another. I had absolutely no interest in the sport for myself. It was always exciting to see my siblings actually compete - but oh the amount of "downtime"!!!

Imagine my surprise as the tables completely turn when it is one's own child! Kate has really taken to the sport and enjoys it immensely. Further, she has a talent for it! With an Aunt and Uncle who were NCAA swimmers, I guess it is natural for her. She is a great little backstroker and is not too shabby in the freestyle either. IN fact, just this week she made it to State CAA Finals!!!!!!!

It was so exciting for her to swim at the University of Minnesota pool. She was in the 25 back and 100 Free Relay. She had personal best performances for both events. Their relay absolutely kicked butt and were lengths ahead. Most of all, though, it was her sportsmanship that had me bursting with pride. She claps and cheers on her teammates and reaches down to help them out of the water. She is endlessly positive and kind and hard working. I am so proud of our little swimmer.

Well.....

If I am going to go eons between posts, I may as well have the streak-breaking post be a good one. As such, I am posting a little video I made of my recent travels to Paris! No, not the trip from last summer for our anniversary, but a new one!  I have been doing some work for a travel company that a dear friend of mine created. As luck would have it, I had the opportunity to do some research and development in Paris last week. Even LUCKIER, Nick happened to find himself in Paris at the same time for a trade show. We did not get to see each other much, really - though we did have one spectacular date night together after his trade show obligations were over.  He worked in a conference center all day long and be at business meetings/dinners at night and I got to meander, literally meander, around Paris and the outskirts. He had to leave for the US before I did, so essentially it was a solo trip with a glimpse of the hubby now and then.  I am not complaining. And he was wonderfully supportive in my travels and adventures.

More on this soon, but for now, here is a visual recap of some of the fun. There is lot that did not make it in here...but these are highlights.

Made it!

Well, we survived an entire year of Nick traveling extensively to Florida and beyond! While having him gone between 60-75% of the time was rough at times, we really managed well! Not to mention his frequent flyer and hotel points benefitted nicely! :)

While he is still connected to that project, he will not be gone as regularly as before (though he IS heading to France today for work). This is a pic of the two of us in Florida - I recently got to go visit him and see where he had been all year! It was wonderful to meet his FL co-workers. Lovely people who made him feel at home always. So grateful for the people in our professional lives - so proud of Nick and his work!

Super Six

The boy turned SIX!! Where did *that* time go?!

He had a super birthday full of fun and friends. He celebrated with his buddies at "Pump it Up" and had a terrific time.

Happily Ever After...Gowns

It is Spring! Of course that means I am very busy gearing up for our EIGHTH annual prom boutique event! Here are some pics of our beautiful invitations ready to be mailed. We really try to make this a complete lovely experience for our guests. Learn more at www.everaftergowns.org

Finn-tastic!

Oh joy! I am an auntie again! My brother and Jillian welcomed healthy, handsome Finn this month! We are all completely in love with him - as you can see!

Magic

Without knowing a thing about celebrity-mashed-up nicknames (a la "Brangelina" and "Bennifer"), Kate informed us most enthusiastically that if Nick and I combined our names to form a "couple name", we could be called "Magic". Love it.

(While I find this to be incredibly sweet and romantic - and is an accurate description of how I feel about my marriage - I must confess I believe she came up with it due to her obsession with the magical world of Harry Potter and her desire to wake up one morning and be able to cast spells)

Darling.

Thanks and Giving

This Thanksgiving was peaceful and relaxing - a truly wonderful opportunity to reflect and give thanks, and also think about how thankful we are that we are able-bodied enough to give.

I don't want to sound all high and mighty, or preachy. However, I cannot help but take some time to be overwhelmingly grateful for what we have been given, and the fact that we value service and love so much that we work hard to "give back" - and that we instill those things in our kiddos.

I am thankful for my ability and opportunity to serve our community through Ever After Gowns and Kappa Alpha Theta. I am thankful for my professional privilege to help shape minds via my teaching career at the University. While those things have a lot of opportunity for service, the truth is I don't know if there is such a thing as pure, unselfish service....because in truth I receive so much personal joy from all of that. I get to work with incredible, amazing people. I get to be exposed to astounding brains, talents, and hearts in the college students and volunteers that I encounter. Yes, I aspire to make an impact on the world...but honestly the world has made such an impact on me. I am so blessed to have my heart open to that. We are so thankful to be aware that we always have more to learn.

I am thankful for the fact that Nick and I volunteer in our community (be it my organizational involvement, our membership in the Jaycees, or Nick raking leaves for the elderly or doing Habitat work or mentoring high schoolers....) and it has "rubbed off" on our kids. They make a point to consider donating clothes and toys on a monthly basis. They point out someone's car stuck in a snow bank in our neighborhood so we can join in the crowd and help dig them out.  They gleefully help me sort inventory for Ever After Gowns. They bring food donations for the food shelf.  They ask "how can we help"?  My heart bursts.  I am over the moon crazy in love for this family of ours.

Again, I don't share this stuff to brag - though of course I am proud of their loving hearts. Rather, I just don't know how we cannot take some time to share the many blessings that we have been given! We have so much to be thankful for. Certainly, our needs are met with a warm home and food on our table. But we have so much more. Love and happiness, not just a job but professional opportunities, educational success, a good amount of health, and the chance to travel now and then.  Any challenges we have with my Rheumatoid Arthritis, work issues, or general life irritations are so insignificant! We do not take anything for granted - I think I am especially thankful for that awareness.

So - to sum up.....we are thankful!  :-)  Here are some things that the kids are thankful for, in their own words, and in the exact order that they shared.

Kate:

I am thankful for:
family, shelter, that my parents have jobs, Jesus and God, Mom and Dad, food, water, transportation, family time, holidays, Nintendo, my pillow pet, American Girl dolls, balloons.

Liam:
I am thankful for:
all the things that I can do, animals, the world, Mom and Dad, kids, Christmas, people, things that keep us warm, my pillow pet, Hot Wheels, houses, coloring.

Liam helping sort some inventory at our warehouse for Ever After Gowns.

Kate and Liam helping pick up some donations for Ever After Gowns from a local business. 

Maggie and Nick volunteering at the Minnesota State Fair with the Jaycees. Income that would have been earned was instead donated. Super fun working at the Fried Pickle booth! Really a fun day.

We are thankful for technology - it keeps us connected as Nick has been traveling extensively this year. Even in big moments, he is able to "make an appearance".

Goodbye Fall......

The Fall days are coming to an end. Having now turned back the clocks thanks to the end of daylight savings, we will be waking up in the deep darkness and, well, welcoming the evening much sooner.  Daylight hours are shortened, the leaves are getting close to being completely off the trees, and soon enough the snow will fly!  I don't mind. That just means cozy days and hot chocolate and more toasty snuggles. I won't think about the scraping of the ice and the shoveling and the brrrrrrrrrr.  Instead, I will focus on the fun to be had - including BASKETBALL season (especially BUTLER basketball) and will just look forward to the summer sunsets in less than a year!

BIG BUTLER BASKETBALL FANS!

Soon enough the summer sunsets will be back! It's why we endure these winters.

Fun Fall Pics

The kidlets continue to make us smile and laugh and almost burst with love and pride on a daily basis. Truly there are times when I can barely look at them without losing my breath they are so amazing!  Here are some recent photos:

Kate on "Picture Day" at school. Seriously, this pic turned out better than her actual school pictures.

 The kiddos on Halloween. Kate is "Hermione" from Harry Potter (she has a total obsession with all things Harry Potter). Liam is a Knight. He bears a striking resemblance to the knights from Monty Python's "Holy Grail", but did not really take well to Nick and I asking if he would trot while trick-or-treating as we followed behind banging coconuts together. :) (If you know not of what I speak...sorry!)

 My clever, creative, fun little guy. Fall fun with sidewalk chalk has him carried away! :)

Kate is 8!!!

I remember when Kate was a baby so many people would stop me in the grocery store etc. and comment on how adorable she was and then say "It goes so fast! They grow up so quickly!". SO. TRUE!!!!

The Little Miss turned 8 at the end of September. For her family party, she chose to go bowling so off to the lanes we went. It was a really fun night and Kate loved bowling in a Birthday Tiara and a special Birthday button.

Minnesota Moments

People often assume that, because we live in Minnesota, our outdoor time is limited or miserable thanks to weather or mosquitos. While the winter can certainly put a damper on some outdoor activity, for the most part we get to enjoy the outdoors more than most places, I would think. A good chunk of the winter allows for snowy fun, and the summers are not too hot and the fall is absolutely breathtaking! This summer and fall have been wonderful. We have gone from climbing trees and soaking in the lush green of the summer to meandering through corn mazes and crunching through dappled leafy hiking trails in the fall. Here are some pics that show us doing exactly that!

Monkey man.

Katoo in a tree, and happy to be there.

A fall hike - so lovely. We only saw one other person the whole afternoon! Gorgeous.

Mastering the corn maze - - and also hiding in it with Dad and jumping out and successfully scaring Mom! 

Ben's Buddies

This September we had the honor of traveling to New York City as a family - as in, our ENTIRE McKenny side of the family - to support our nephew, Ben, who has Down Syndrome. Ben was selected by the National Down Syndrome Society as one of the individuals with Down Syndrome that they would feature as part of their Buddy Walk presentation in Times Square!!! Isn't that incredible?! Ben's photo was shown on the jumbotron in Times Square as part of the NDSS's effort to raise awareness about Down Syndrome.  How could we miss this opportunity?

So - a giant group of Ben Fans convened in NYC for a long weekend to see his photo in times square (taken by our dear family friend, Julie) and to participate in the Buddy Walk. Of course we enjoyed the city as well (See next post for that).

It was a muggy, warm day, but we all enjoyed spending time in Times Square and then picnicking and strolling in Central Park to support our Ben. The cutest baby that you have EVER seen. Actually, he just turned ONE! I cannot believe how quickly time flies. We all feel so lucky to have Ben in our lives - he is the most sweet, joyful, cuddly guy in town.

Here are some pics with captions:

Almost the whole gang! Ben's Buddies in Central Park  - ready to walk!

Kate with her medal of completion. She was really proud. I am so thankful for these opportunities for our children to learn, grow, and love!

K & L on our way home from the walk - their first subway ride and they are clearly trying hard to pose but reaaaallly wanting to look behind them at the train approaching. I love how they are looking in opposite directions, it makes me smile!

Cousins in a row in Times Square!

Cousins!  After our picnic lunch on this rock, we started the walk!

Ben's Picture on the Jumbotron!!!!! SO neat!

I want to be a part of it....

New York, Newww Yooorrrrrrk!  As mentioned above, we traveled to NYC as a family to support our nephew Ben in the Buddy Walk to raise awareness for the National Down Syndrome Society. Of course, though, we took the opportunity to soak up as much of the city as we could with the kiddos! I cannot express enough how impressed Nick and I were by our children - they trekked all over the city with us, nonstop. They were eager, enthusiastic, joyful and....this is the part that I love the most....polite and well behaved! I have to brag for a minute and say that, truly, everywhere we went people stopped us to tell us how delightful and polite our kids were (until the last 30 minutes before we boarded the plane home when Liam had a meltdown over a pizza slice that I think was really about exhaustion and not wanting to end vacation).

Seriously, though, the kids happily trekked all over the city! From schlepping through torrential rain in midtown on our first day there to enjoying singing waiters at Ellen's Stardust Diner....from the Buddy Walk to strolls through Central Park....to subway rides uptown and down to wandering the many halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art....to seeing the live musical "The Lion King" on Broadway to overlooking the city from the top of Rockefeller Center....to a boat trip to see the Statue of Liberty to a spin on a Ferris Wheel in Times Square's Toys R Us...AND SO MUCH MORE....the kids were amazing. As luck would have it, Nick and I got some extra evening time in the city because our babysitter from the past FIVE years in Minnesota had just  moved to NYC! And she lives only 4 blocks from our hotel!!! :) SO Holly got some great time with the kids that allowed Nick and I to stroll the high line in Chelsea and grab some great ethnic meals out with friends and family. I was so proud of how much our family cooperated to squeeze every last drop of goodness out of that trip. It was an amazing opportunity and we used up every bit of it! Goodness gracious we are blessed. 

Here are some pics with captions/thoughts.

Kate and Liam LOVED Ellen's Stardust Diner. The servers sing constantly and many have gone on to Broadway shows! Such a great deal to get such great entertainment with your meal. Cheesy? Yes. Fun?! Absolutely!

 Kate and Liam at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This may have inspired Liam's Halloween costume!

K & L in front of a costume display from the Broadway show of "The Lion King". They LOVED LOVED LOVED IT! (So did Nick and I!)

K & L "Walking Like Egyptians"....they did this periodically throughout the museum to the true delight of the security guards who got a happy giggle.  Looking back, I think ours were the only kids there! And we went on a weekend!

Another one from our night at Ellen's Stardust Diner.

Brother and Sister in Times Square!!!! (It had been pouring rain alllll day)

Kate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. People looked at her and grinned when we walked into this room because she exclaimed "Oh my goodness! Look at these Monets!!!!" I don't think they expected a child to know. Sad, right?

Kate at the top of Rockefeller Center, overlooking Central Park.

Liam and Nick at the "Top of the Rock"

Kiddos with Dad on the boat heading closer to the Statue of Liberty

Smiles

This summer my sister came to visit for almost a whole month! It was so wonderful to see and spend time with Erin, her hubby Nick, and their FOUR beautiful children. Our dear family friend, and incredible photographer, Julie came to snap some lovely shots of all of us together. We had such a fun day at the lake with her and she produced some treasured images. We cannot recommend her enough - be sure to visit her at http://juliekraaiphotography.com/

All photos courtesy of Julie Kraai Photography: