Finally...let the fun begin

After 1 month and 3 weeks, Cale's play-set is finally up!

Let the summer fun begin...

Pre-School Graduation!

Cale graduated from pre-school on Friday 30 May.  The program consisted of the kids singing 3 songs, each receiving a diploma and then ice-cream with the families. 

Awesome weekend!

We celebrated my mom's birthday with a trip to NE IA and SW WI.  We had a lot of fun and made a lot of stops.  It was a nice little get-away and I'm already looking forward to our next trip in July.

2014 Muscoda Morel Mushroom Festival
Helicopter ride
Next stop of the trip...
Cave of the Mounds National Natural Landmark
Pikes Peak
Dubuque

Swimming with uncle Ryan at the hotel pool.

A new baby peng joined the family...looks like old baby peng and new baby peng are BFFs.

Dubuque

Our final stop of the weekend was in Dubuque...we rode the Fenelon Place elevator (cable car).  It's the world's shortest, steepest scenic railway...it's 296 feet in length and is 189 feet from 4th Street to Fenelon Place.  At the bottom of the hill we did a little shopping and stopped by an ice-cream parlor.  Read more on the cable car history here.

Pikes Peak

On Sunday we spent a few hours at Pike's Peak...what a view!  Cale loved hiking on all of the trails within the park. 

Cave of the Mounds National Natural Landmark

After lunch at the "Grumpy Troll" we headed to Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds.  We took a 1-hour walking tour of the cave and saw a varied collection of colorful stalactites, stalagmites, columns and other formations. It is always 50 degrees in the cave whether it's summer or winter.  Cale enjoyed exploring all of the hidden places.

Next stop of the trip...

...was at a market along the back-roads of WI and then Mount Horeb.  Mt Horeb is the troll capital of the US...I bought a troll to bring Cale and I good luck (rubbing his nose each day will bring us luck).  Our troll is a guardian of gold, silver, copper and zinc.  I also bought a gnome...Cale named him Rumpelstiltskin...he is watching over us and protecting us.

Helicopter ride

While we were in Muscoda we took a private helicopter tour of the area....Cale loved it and wasn't scared at all.  He favorite parts were looking out at all the scenery and talking through the headsets.

2014 Muscoda Morel Mushroom Festival

Our 1st stop on Saturday was at the 2014 Muscoda Morel Mushroom Festival in Muscoda WI.  We looked around the flea-market booths, ate some morels and then bought over 6 pounds to take home and fry. 

Kindergarten Round-Up!

Cale's ready for Kindergarten round-up today.

Love this!

Year 5 Photo Shoot

Some of my favs...

Mother's Day

I couldn't ask for a better kid.  He is amazing!!

Let the par-ty begin!

The party got started on Friday, May 2nd and didn't end until May 7th!  Cale turned 5 on 5/5...his golden  birthday.  We celebrated at a "fun farm event" at a local farm in CF, a Tornado/Wizard of Oz party, lunch at Barn Happy, dinner at Cale's favorite place (Applebee's...he loves the pretzel bread), cake, ice-cream, cupcakes with his pre-school friends, a picture in the local paper, an announcement on the local TV station, 2 nights in Moline, Happy Joe's (sirens, horns & singing), the Bungle Jungle  & family pictures.