Sunday, May 31, 2015

Early Birthdays

Last week a bunch of the kid's friends moved out of student housing and on with their lives in various states and before we all left we had a last hurrah/early birthday party for Riley and Joe. Riley has been looking forward to having her buddies over for her birthday practically all year, and Joe insists that his birthday is the same day as Riley even though it is exactly a month after, so...2 birds, one stone. Riley and Joe have really missed their departed friends since then and I'm really glad they got to make a few more memories with their playmates they've spent so much time with this year.


They painted frames which I put these party pictures in later to remember each other by.
They are very bad at "hide and seek" but they really, really enjoy themselves anyway.
Birthday candles! It was Riley's choice of yellow, rainbow cupcakes.


Balloon tennis/sword fights, ring toss, painting project, hide and seek, duck duck goose and a whole lot of random in between. Oh, and juice boxes and cheetos. Epic, by Riley and Joe standards. It doesn't take much to make their day.


Friday, May 22, 2015

MBA! Dave, Dave, You're so fine...

You're so fine you blow my mind, go David! Go-go-go David!

Dave graduated this week! The culmination of 2 years of late nights and early mornings, traveling and conferencing and schooling and still somehow managing to be a very present father and husband - I don't know, he is something else, that boy. *

Don came in for the blessed event and Riley and Joe were good as gold and we just had a really nice time listening to the addresses and seeing our lean and long ginger stride across the stage. It helped that Riley and Joe each had yarns and needles and pony beads to make necklaces for the graduate. But I really enjoyed the talks. And turns out MBA graduation is blessedly shorter than other graduations, at least this one was. Only took an 90 minutes or so.

We took, ahem, one or two pictures. I was getting sentimental thinking of all the lasts and wishing people farewell. It has been an era, and there are a lot of people we are going to miss, but it will be exciting to see where they go and what they do with their degree. They're a bright bunch.



We did it!
Cookie monsters.
 It was fun. Fa-reezing, by the way - 43 degrees and windy, like MN getting one last laugh in, but a lovely day nonetheless. Then we went to...
haha is that not the crochetiest man you've ever seen? Look out grumpy cat, Dave's gunning for your job. Smiles were much more available after we got in and ate.

And just like that, we were done. It seems like yesterday we were packing up and leaving UT, and life has just tripped along at a fantastic rate. It has been very full, and VERY educational, on both our parts. I have a running list in my head of things I've learned while in MN. A few being:
  • Make time for what matters
  • Ask the play group moms - they have answers
  • How to stretch a buck
  • There's no bad weather, just bad outfits for the weather (ie, buy the parka. And the duckboots)
  • Kraft Mac and cheese: Riley portion =1/4 cup noodles, 1 Tbs butter/milk/cheese (no this is not a misplaced item - that is something really worth knowing in our house!)
  • Do for others and let others do for you
  • Keep take and bake baguettes in the freezer
  • Dishes can wait till morning
  • Pick up the phone, make the call
  • Small changes in daily habits make a big, fat difference ultimately. All the difference, actually.
  • Play is important for adults too
  • If you can't explain it simply to a four year old, you need to study it more
  • Not flossing is like wiping your bum and missing the crack (ok, not really, but I saw that on a billboard here and I rarely forget to floss now. You're welcome).
  • Be kind to yourself - if you wouldn't say it to a friend, don't say it to yourself. 
Well, that's all I can think of at the moment, so I'm going to pat myself on the back and call this a success for me too.

And what is next for the Munions? Thanks for asking, we'll let you know sometime in the next month or so - Dave is interviewing and weighing options and whatever it ends up being, we are ready and excited. We will be visiting UT in July for my friend and college roommate's wedding. Then...to infinity, and beyond!

*For more shmaltz on the topic, go here - I blabbed about it to the public too.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

MBA Prom

I've always had this kind of fantasy that I could go back and do high school with Dave. Yeah, I know - timing, it was meant to be when it happened, blah, blah, blah; I can dream. I like to suppose we would have been buddies at least. I might have actually attended a baseball game, he might have asked me to prom...sigh.

Well. Minnesota: where dreams come true! We went to prom! We had to get a babysitter of course, and there was a lot less pressure and hype surrounding the whole event. I didn't get my nails done or drag my mom around to every formal dress store in the area (there were only 2) just to have her custom make one to my exact specifications (sorry, Mom).  I got a clearance dress with a broken zipper, which Dave actually ended up sewing me into (so kind of like high school prom dress, haha) and Dave wore a black and white shirt that looked enough like my dress to fool tipsy prom people. The titles of prom king and queen were awarded to my boss, Jeff, the coolest blog administrator ever, and he gave a very touching acceptance speech for the king crown, and an even more touching, falsetto speech when he won queen.

But pictures - that is what we need now.
Dave sews.
We even got our sweet neighbor to take "Prom Pictures" on the front walk. We are sooo coool.

Dave wasn't wearing shoes and the side of my dress was still split wide open at this point but...there ya go.

There was a masquerade theme, which made the many introductions Dave did for me kind of pointless, but it was super fun. Also, props to the DJ: these "children of the 90's" were very happy. Gangters. Paradise. hahaha
Afterwards we went to Perkins - the Denny's of Minnesota - with some good friends and reviewed the past two years over milkshakes and pie. We all agreed - it was well worth it. So glad we chose the University of Minnesota!

We got home about 12:30, and when I tried to sneak past Riley and Joe's room I heard Riley gasp and say, "Oh Mom! Did you go to the royal ball?!" Oh, that girl. She was giddy and it was rather flattering. We took a picture in between her stroking my skirt and patting my head. Then Joe stumbled over and insisted on a picture with him in it, but, as you can see, he wasn't really awake. It was very late.
And that was that.  Well, three songs later, and that was that.

I'm so glad I got to live out my prom-with-Dave fantasy - bae is just like, sooo dreamy.*

*That was me trying to talk like the kids these days? haha. Speaking of, today I told Riley I was going to pick up her friend and I'd be right back, and she groans and says, "Oh my gosh. Every. Time." haha What? What's every time? I don't get it. And also, later, Joe told me he was "pretending Mr. Butt Butt is drums," and proceeded to smack me on the bum. He and Riley have had conversations about Mr. Butt Butt, at times when I'm wearing leggings, but it wasn't certain who they were talking about till now. They've named my derriere, and it's a "Mr." Ha. Ha. Ha.

Heidi out.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Family time! (Dave finished class!) Hike! Play! Climb!

The past week has been one big party, now that finals are over. It is so good to have him around more, makes life a lot more interesting let me tell ya. Here was his entry in the family portrait contest last week:
 Here was Riley's:
"It's a giant, happy pig!" I don't think she got the assignment.
 With spring on the rise we have been outdoors as much as possible. Hiking with no mountains is a little trickier but we did a nice one from Minnehaha Falls to the Mississippi.


 Joe pooped out half way and fell asleep in my arms - a much more taxing situation than it was a year ago! He's growing like a weed! He then dozed the rest of the day - from the car, into the ice cream parlor, back in the house...I was worried he was sick but Dave's theory is that he sleeps less most days than he should and every 3 weeks or so has to have a catchup day. Maybe. He was fine the next day. But Riley enjoyed it! She explored the heck out of it.
So that was fun. We are visiting UT in a couple months and hope to get in some more...hiking of inclines in then.

Sometimes the weather is not so nice, and we count ourselves lucky to be indoors when hail storms hit! This one came out of nowhere and some cars had marble-sized wholes in their windshields by the time it cleared! It was a warm day though, and we went to check it out. There was a big lake in the courtyard which Riley, of course, had to wade through.

 One of those cold rainy days we went to the Eagles Nest indoor playground with friends. That place is awesome - it is only 2 levels, so not too big for Joe, but covers a lot of area, has several tunnels and slides and obstacles and ball pits, and we stayed for FIVE HOURS. THREE HOURS too long in my opinion, but at least we got our moneys worth!

 Shew, still with me? Best part of this week? Dates! Two of them!

Friday night was another of those "our neighbor is babysitting and offered to take ours too since they are in for the night anyways" situation. Fortuosity! That's me byyy-word! We took them up on it since we aren't insane, and went out to Rusty's Taco's (again!) and rock climbing at Vertical Endeavors. Oh man, I love it. It's always a fun challenge, amidst a "cool" hippy crowd, plus I have more upper body strength than I ever have in my life thanks to my Body Pump class so I totally killed it! Dave, of course - always amazing at all things athletic. And he is the best to go with because he has a way of making you feel like you are awesome, or on your way to awesome, even if you are...iffy.

Friendly tip though - if you wear a vest over a white shirt, and then cinch your harness around your waste, it might, from a distance, look like you have a bum crack showing above your pants. But you're a grown up and you can handle that right?

The second date was PROM! Which is a post for another day because it's dinner time! And we are having fajitas! Ole`! Really delicious recipe here, with Mexican rice side recipe here. Welcome!