July Update

It has been a very busy month for Annika. After she said good-bye to Marcus, it was time for summer school to start for her. Now she has an appointment or school every day except for Monday. The weather hasn't cooperated very much, according to Annika, because she has not been able to go swimming very much.

Last week on top of everything else, it was VBS at the church. Annika had a great time but it was bittersweet for her. It is hard when your life has changed so much in such a short time. The highlight of the week for most of the kids was the inflatable jumping frog that was there on the last night. Annika had a great time in there. Most of the time she would just sit on her knees and bounce along while everyone else did the jumping for her.

This past weekend we went up to Winger to visit my parents. This also meant a trip up to Roseau to see my Grandma (Annika's great-grandma). We had lunch with great-grandma and then all our family that was up there gathered to throw Mom (me) a surprise birthday party. Annika was able to met cousins that she had not met before (except when they were really little). Peyton, who is 7 also, gave her a big hug and played UNO with all of us. Colby, who is 4, didn't want anything to do with the hugging of a girl and then when it was time to leave, he said to Annika, "Would you go home already?" Both Mom's got a laugh out of this. Leave it to the 4 year old to say it how he feels.

The next day we took a trip to the lake with Grandma and Grandpa after church. The water was a little cool for Annika so she spent her time walking in the lake and then playing on the beach only to do the same pattern all over again. Dan and Jon decided to tan themselves while texting on their phones after they had a dip in the lake. Leave it to the teenagers!!!!

I will try to keep you posted as the month of August is going to be full of appointments for Annika. Also we will find out who her 1st grade teacher will be by the end of the month!! Annika can't wait for school to start.

Annika says good bye

Yesterday we took Annika's brother Marcus to the twin cities and dropped him off at the motel. He leaves today for basic training in Fort Leonardwood MO. They had a great time together. We spent most of the afternoon at Mall of America. We shopped at Barnes and Noble, ate at the Rainforest Cafe, went to Marcus's favorite stores just to look, let them play the boat game at the park, had fun at Legoland and just spent time together. Even though Marcus knew he had to go, he really just wanted to stay with us as long as he could. Annika thinks that Marcus should come home on Sunday when her other brothers do. It is going to be a long 5 months!!! We are putting together a calendar for her to be able to count down the days until he comes home. We will all miss him!!!

I took Annika into American Doll store yesterday. Big mistake!!! She is now going to be saving up all her money in order to be able to buy herself a doll now. I might be able to talk her into buying the cheaper version at Target and then we can get clothes from American Doll but I won't count on that.

Happy 4th of July

Well, I can't believe it. The 4th of July is over with already. Where is the summer going? Annika was able to spend some time with her cousins yesterday for the 4th of July. Our original plans were changed and all in all it worked out for the best. We weren't planning to watch fireworks with our first plan and we went over to Waconia for fireworks last night with the cousins and the kids had a great time. Today was a little harder to handle because we were a little over tired but all in all was good. We went over to my sister in law's for a BBQ for supper and then off to fireworks by 9 p.m. The fireworks were short but that being said we won't complain because then the bugs didn't get much of a chance to find us. Today Annika said good-bye to two of her brothers for a week. That was a little hard for her and even she told us that she didn't want Jon to leave and he is the one that says she doesn't love him. Well, he now knows that she does really care for him and will miss him. It is just that those two have this love hate relationship. It will be a rough week for Annika because then on Tuesday evening she will need to say good bye to Marcus as he leaves for Missouri to start his military career.