Ani turns 6

Our little Ani turned 6 this week and it was a few days of celebrations so I think she felt very special.  First, nana and papa couldn't make it to her birthday dinner so they took Ani out to a restaurant earlier this week.  Then on her actual birthday she got to bring cupcakes to school and have her first dance lesson.  A day later we had Kjell and Jess over with Emily and Aveah and had the real birthday cake for Ani.  But, the main birthday celebration happened today when me, Jessica and another friend took our 4 girls to Grand Forks so Anika could get her ears pierced, do a little shopping and eat at a special place.  The girls had so much fun and Anika was talking for months how she's going to get her ears pierced when she turns 6.  She was really brave and cried just a little bit after it was done.  Now she's excited to show them off and they are really cute on her.

This school year has been a hard adjustment for Ani.  To go from going 3 mornings a week to preschool to a long day every day in kindergarten is a bit too much for her and she's been getting a little overwhelmed.  She was so excited to start kindergarten but after just 2 weeks she was asking when is the last day of school and does she have to go tomorrow.  This last week it was tearful bedtime every night because she doesn't want to go to school the next day and in the morning she cries too which is so hard to see.  I've been talking to her teacher and she assures me that once Anika sits down at her desk in the morning, she stops crying and has a great day but I think by the afternoon she gets so tired and worn out she comes home just exhausted.  So I'm not sure what to do, if she just has to tough it out or what.  I hate how much they focus on the learning so early on.  A friend of mine just told me that when her daughter was in kindergarten they had her take every Friday off to just have a break and that really helped her.  It made me think how Anika would love a day of rest and would be ready for school better but I know the teacher is not going to like that.  So we'll have to see what happens.  She is such a hard worker and wants to do everything right in school and that is also stressing her out a little bit because she gets frustrated when she can't do something right.  But she has such a sweet personality and I just love how God made her so beautiful inside and out.  She is so selfless and cares about everyone around her more than herself.  Always trying to serve people around her and loves to help, just a big servant's heart.  I hope she keeps that as she grows older and that she knows what a special child of God she is.

her ladybug cake

cupcakes for school

Getting ready to get the ears pierced.  Don't look at my mouth, not sure what I'm doing but my gums still hurt from this week's surgery.  I have stitches all the way up to my nose under the lip.

    

North Shore trip

We try to go to the North Shore about once a year if we can.  It is my absolutely favorite place to be in MN.  I love the hiking trails, trees, ocean waves.  Well, it is lake Superior but it might as well be an ocean because it has the same feel to it.  And the rocky beaches remind me of our trips to Croatia with my family when I was little although it's on the other side of the planet.  Just a cool place to be and I just wish it was a bit closer so we could go there more often. I definitely want our kids to remember our special trips to the North Shore and I would never trade it for any trip like Disney World.  So many people think they have to take their kids to a "cool" place when we have this amazing place right here in MN.

We made a long weekend of it and it was perfect.  Kids had a blast exploring new places and when we were done for the day they still had enough energy to swim and enjoy the swimming pool for a couple hours.  They had a fun curvy slide at the pool but sadly Kason and Ani weren't tall enough and they didn't allow kids going down with their parents.  Kason was not happy about it but he got over it and enjoyed the rest of the pool.  I had to try it for myself and had a blast, who knew? :)  There were a few times I was going down just giggling and I couldn't stop laughing.  Partly, I think I was getting too tired at that point because giggling like that comes when I reach a certain point in over tiredness.  But it was a lot of fun and Kade did the hotel's challenge, he went down 40 some times to make one mile and they put his picture on the wall along with other one milers.  It was a much needed family time for us though and it was just nice to have that time just the 5 of us.  We took around 300 pictures too which is a huge amount for us because we loved every place we were at.  Sometimes the pictures don't give the places justice because it looked so much more amazing in person.

Ehren and I were also really excited when we discovered a couple new trails we've never been on because they came up to the most beautiful views we've seen around the North Shore.  This one trail we came across looked like nothing when we started and we thought this would be a cute little loop for the kids because it had educational information for kids to read along the path.  Little did we know it came out to the lake shore and the most amazing views of it with all kinds of rocks, caves and stuff.  This summer has been very dry so none of the waterfalls had much water but even so it was very beautiful.

The only place both Ehren and I didn't care for at all was the Gooseberry Falls because it was absolutely packed with weekenders, mostly from the Cities and you would not believe how many dogs people bring there.  It was way too crowded for our taste and so we were very happy that every other place we went to was free of people and it felt like we're the only ones there sometimes.  We would come across people, but nothing like the crowd at Gooseberry and I just cannot believe that all those people take their little trip to see that but have no idea about the gorgeous trails they are missing that are just a little bit more to the North of the Gooseberry Falls.  Well, I guess less people for us to worry about when we go there. :)

As I said before we took a ton of pictures so I apologize for throwing them all on here but I can't tell which ones to eliminate anymore.

the crowded place

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