Valynn is 6!!!

Valynn turned 6 yesterday (where does the time go?). She had a great day at school, she took treats, they sang happy birthday, and she got to be a car rider (she rode home with me). We had her party last night, around 20 people with adults and siblings. They had a great time playing with everyone. We had a Strawberry Shortcake cake and pizza for supper. Today is the day she gets her present from us. We'll post the pictures when we get back.

Working

I started working as a substitute teacher this week. I subbed for prek and high school science. I definitely like the high school better. I enjoyed getting back into the classroom and interacting with the students. I have a great sitter watching Mason and Kyra. She's a retired lady from across the lake, her husband built our old house and we lived next door to her daughter at the old house. She brought lunch over for the kids, folded my laundry, and washed the dishes yesterday. She won't let me pay her so if anyone has any ideas of what I can give her let me know.

A New View At Work

I moved back to the capitol tower after finishing up my software project. My new work area is located on the south side of the 16th floor. Several people have asked what the view is like from my desk so I took a few pictures. As you can probably tell, this view is a little bit better than my last worksite where I had a ground level view of a parking lot.

This picture is looking to the southwest towards the Missouri River. Fort Abraham Lincoln historical site with the George Custer house is in the distance across the river:

This picture is looking straight south over the capitol mall. Above the valley in the background is the University of Mary:

This picture is looking straight down from my window. Flowers are used to spell out North Dakota as well as create the shapes around the flagpoles. The distance down to the ground is around 220 ft.

Basement Update

Work on the basement has been moving forward. The bathroom and hallway are now painted and almost ready for flooring. Doors are also in the process of being installed.

Basement Hallway:

Door to Bedroom:

Bathroom Floor Getting Cleaned and Prepared for Tile:

Valynn's art

Here is a link to Valynn's art.

click on art gallery, kindergarten

Her fish is the 6th row down and the 4th one over. Blue body, green fins, yellow face.


Blobs 5th row down and 3rd one over.

So mom has yet to cook this weekend.....

and supper has been in the fridge since Friday. I pulled out a frozen meal to have on Friday since I was going to be gone all day. Well Friday night we were invited at the last minute to a birthday party for a girl in Valynn's class. She's also the granddaughter of the people we bought our house from. They ordered too much KFC and invited us over to supper. On Saturday we had a housewarming party for the couple across the street and a Alex's birthday, so we got meals at both parties. Tonight we're going over to Brad and Chantel's for supper, hopefully fish that the men are out catching as I'm typing this.
Here is the link to some pictures from last nights birthday party.
I took a picture of Kyra this morning wearing a dress that was one of my favorites on Valynn. I thought it would be fun to compare them. Valynn is the top two and Kyra the bottom two.

Field Trip

Valynn had her field trip to the Children's Museum yesterday. She had a great time. I was in charge of Valynn and another kid from her class. The boy was an identical twin, talk about confusing when trying to keep track of him. Valynn's favorite part was the cow milking parlor. She was telling all the kids how it was done. Mason and Kyra had a great time with the sitter, they played games and went outside.