Did you hear...

That our baby is five years old?



We had Kindergarten Orientation that week as well and she is all ready to go now! Her and Rocco will have class rooms close to each other so she is very excited!

Progress

So like two years ago we were notified of progress happening across the street from where we live. The vacant grocery warehouse property was going to be developed into an upscale shopping center.

Last year in the Spring they started tearing it down. My hope was to have a time line showing the change as it occurred by taking a picture each month from the same spot in our driveway to see how the changes have occurred. This is how it looked at the beginning.



The last picture I took last year looked like this.



Then I got really bad at taking pictures but if memory serves there wasn't a whole lot to see except them flattening out a lot of dirt. Over the winter they started construction on the Target and new Pick N Save grocery store, but again, not a lot to see as basically the foundations were being laid.

Last week, Target had it's annual shareholders meeting at the new store. This is our view now.



Target is suppose to open at the end of July as is Pick N Save. They are widening the street and will begin tearing up in front of our house shortly. We are getting some free landscaping out of it so that should be sweet. I am getting my wagon ready for my short trip to go shopping.

Best Dressed

We have been blessed, with both of our kids, to have friends who have given us tons of hand me down clothes. The most recent box of clothing we received contained this dress.



When I showed it to Amy stating it will be perfect for Christmas, she proclaimed "I have been wanting this dress since I was three years old!!"

And for those of you who are trying to leave comments but are unsuccessful, keep letting me know. I am not sure what the problem is as I have the settings set up to keep it as simple as possible, I think.

The Rocco Show

So it is just me and the kids as John is up North for the opening weekend of fishing. The weather is finally spring like so we spent the afternoon out in it on Sunday. We migrated to our neighbor, Betty's, and Amy began entertaining us. It took a couple of takes as I had to explain she had to wrap up with her "big finish" on my signal. By this time Rocco was part of the act, juggling Betty's recyclables. We are so green we even use them as toys! Ha! So here is the Rocco Show with Amy providing the musical accompanient.

Hot, hot, hot - Preview

Okay I apologize for the crooked neck you will get but I was trying to get only OUR star in the video. I always forget that the whole thing will be sideways. Here is a preview of Amy's recital dance. The girls got their costumes tonight and got to try them on and strut their stuff for the parents. Get your tickets for the recital now! Amy will be starting the dance off by herself on stage, shaking her maracas!

The Pinewood results

Bog The Vth here... SO it was the area pinewood Derby on the 11Th. 90 some odd cars showed up. Rocco reset his tires and graphite. But while his car still looked awesome it lost one tenth of a second somewhere and that was enough to put him in fifth place which he got a nice trophy and some stage time. It was really special this year for him. As I have said before we have been doing this for three years now and have had some success. But this year The only thing I did on Rocco's car was to help him with the layout and cutting of the car, drilling some holes and not letting him handle the lead weights. The rest he worked his tail off for and with his car finishing in the trophy times at both races he seemed very satisfied with his results and proud of what he accomplished. Both races he was at the top of the overall speed charts and he already has next years car planned so we will have to see how that goes.
Amy's car got much faster and put into the division it was supposed to be in. She won first place in the open division. She got a trophy as big as her and a huge hug from her older brother. She was grinning ear to ear and I think we have created a monster. She is pulling out paper and trying to design a car for next year.
As for the adults well Becky got put into the open division as well. Unfortunately her car ran in fought place and they only trophy'd out to third so my lovely wife who beat the heck out of me by one one thousandth in the outpost race did not medal at this area race. But my lovely yellow slice of pure speed did what I thought it could. It won a whole bottle of windshield washing fluid and black magic dash cleaner for winning first place in the leaders division. So for the outpost race we were 4 for 4 on the podium. For the area race we went 3 for 4. Not bad for a small race team with a name like Fat Tony's. There is no funny or cute things to be said. There is just the pictures you see before you. What we won this year and what we have one over the years. Good luck to all and god bless.
P.S. Amy wanted to dress up on the day we took pictures so that is why she looks so good. That is also how hse went to home depot to build some bird house's. She sure can dress well!

Spring Concert

We were treated to the Prairie Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade Spring Concert last night. It was standing room only but very nice. Rocco was dreading it as music class is not his favorite and I'll confess his teacher isn't one of my favorites. The theme was Holiday songs so they sang about Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, President's Day, Martin Luther King Day, and even the Iditirod Trail. Who knew that this is a holiday somewhere? Here is our handsome boy. His tie fell apart so he borrowed one of Dad's.





P.S. Don't worry an update on the results of the Area Pinewood Derby will be coming shortly!