Happy 40th Birthday Luke!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy birthday to a wonderful husband, father and friend! The kids can't get enough of their silly dad and he honestly makes any moment fun! I am so thankful for his friendship, support and love in my life! I love you, Luke! I hope you have a wonderful birthday and that the next 40 years are even better than the last 40! ;)

Great Grandma Darlene's birthday

This past Saturday Luke was gone at a friends 40th birthday party. He went golfing and gambling at Mystic Lake Casino, so I took the kids to visit Great Grandpa Ray and Great Grandma Darlene. It was Darlene's birthday, so it was a perfect day to visit....and my Grandpa Ray is doing SO well for having been in the hospital and having surgery this summer. He looked great and was able to get around just fine!

We celebrated with some donuts (and cookies and candy from Great Grandma)! :) Then we headed down to Owatonna for the day. Madelyn was at my parents since Shelly was sick with mono! It was a tough week for Shelly and I felt so bad for her!! It was fun for the kids to play together and they had a blast!

 We played at their house for awhile......

Digging for worms, of course!

The girls on the slide and swing!

Nana and her granddaughters!

And we played at the park....

Nana and Bishop on the teeter totter!

Swinging on the big swing so the girls could have the "baby" swings!

They loved to make trains going down the slide!

Papa pushing the girls!

Nana reading the kids a bedtime story

We took off before bedtime and the kids fell asleep on the way home--I transferred them to bed and went to bed myself.

It was a fun day. Sunday was pretty laid back-we had church and we played at home for most of the day! It was nice to all be home together!

Random Summer pics

I just realized I had a few more pictures on my camera that hadn't been downloaded from this summer......here they are!

Climbing the tree in our neighbors front yard!

A shower in the back yard!

Time out for drinks!

It was a very fun and busy summer! The kids loved getting outside and spent as much time outside as they possibly could.

Biking, Birthday Party, Block Party and Sunday School

We had another fun, busy weekend! Friday we saw our friends, Jesse, Nina and Jack! Nina is due with their 2nd child in November, so it was great to see them! The kids had fun running around and playing together!

Saturday morning we biked/walked over to the farmers market. My parents came up to watch Madelyn and Jack and so they stopped by on their way up. Bishop had to show off his new biking skills for Nana and papa! He was pretty excited!

Bishop and papa with their BLUE popsicles!

Nora and Nana!

Bishop had a birthday party for his friend from school, Fiona. This was his first friend birthday party and he had a blast!! He was so excited to carry the present into the party and to see all his friends from school. They all played at the park and then had cake and opened presents

Bishop, Leo and Eva (Leo and Eva are twins)

Bishop and Fiona at Fiona's 4th birthday party

Opening presents at Fiona's bday party

Fiona's birthday party with friends from school!

It was quite the day as we had our block party that night. There was the bouncy house, which Bishop loved. Nora wasn't quite as interested in it...but she still had a great time!

The fire truck came to visit and the kids LOVED it!! The firemen were all so nice to show the kids the hoses, the inside of the truck and to tell them all about it!  Bishop was a bit confused, as he asked..."where is the fire? Is the fire in the back of the truck?" The innocence of children is so sweet.....it would only make sense to him that a fire truck would have a fire! The firemen thought it was really cute and he said he hears that question a lot! :)

Bishop and Johnny checking out the hose!

Bishop wasn't very interested in sitting in the truck, but Nora loved it and didn't want to leave!

Nora hanging out in the firetruck!

Nora, Claire and Domino in the fire truck

Nora eating her dessert by herself!

Nora is quite the independent little girl! She took her dessert and walked over to the sidewalk, sat down and ate it all by herself! She knows what she wants and she's going to get it! ;)  There is a family on our block (Domino's family) who moved away for a year and they're now back. It's so fun for Nora to have a girlfriend just a few houses down!

Bishop fast asleep after a very fun day!

Sunday morning brought Bishop's first day of Sunday School.  He was hesitant for us to leave....and he kept asking the teacher where all the toys were ;), but he had fun and he said he liked it and was excited to go back next week! On the way there he had a million questions for us about Jesus (why did the bad guys use nails to kill Jesus? Did Jesus have a sword? Where does Jesus live? Who is God? Why? Why? Why?) It was a fascinating conversation and it made me smile.  I told him to ask the teacher as many questions as he liked-I'm not sure if he did or not...but he did get a sticker which was for being a good listener (at least that's what he told us)! 

We celebrated by going out for breakfast (just kidding--we usually go out for breakfast after church...it's just been awhile)! :)

Nora at breakfast after church

I'm so bummed--my little camera broke on Saturday before Fiona's birthday party and my phone doesn't take the best quality pictures (they're not horrible....as all of these pictures are from my phone, but they're not all good). I guess I need to get with the times, as I know not many people carry small cameras around anymore! :)

Labor Day weekend

Luke and I went up to Cold Spring on Saturday to pick up the kids....we had wanted to go camping this summer and so we decided to camp in the meadow at Grandpa and Grandma's!

The kids were having a blast at Grandpa and Grandma's--they had gone frog hunting--they visited the baby ducks at Dave's and they went to the park in town. When we got there Bishop showed us how he could turn the radio on and the kids had a dance party in the kitchen!

We were all excited to make smores around the bonfire--but the rain came in, so we took shelter inside--although we didn't get the "true" camping experience we were very thankful to be able to relax inside where it was dry and warm! When it was time for bed we headed down to the meadow to camp. The kids were so excited!! They slept pretty well--Bishop woke up in the middle of the night with a bloody nose :( and Nora did scream a couple of times--it wasn't bad for us, but we were thankful we weren't at a campground where we would have woken everyone up!

Dance party in the kitchen at Grandpa and Grandma's!

Catching Frogs!

A cute little tree frog!

Excited to go camping!

Watching the rain on the porch!

Uncle Jake is SO fun!

Bishop got to drive the car back up to the house....with no help!  ;)

Hanging out in the tree fort!

Yee Haw, Nora!

Jake put Bishop on the top of the car and told him he had to ride home that way! :)

 The kids were both a little tired on Sunday morning...especially Nora. We played for awhile, had a delicious breakfast, compliments of Jake, and then took off for home!

We went to the Moore's for dinner on Sunday night. The kids had a great time playing together and Bishop did not want to leave!

Danny, Bishop and Nora

Monday we met the Hennum's at Afton State Park to go hiking. We hiked around for a couple of hours and had lunch. We then celebrated with icecream at Sebastian Joe's! Yummy! The Hennum's brought their puppy--Jackson and Bishop loved taking the leash and walking Jackson!  It was a very cool hike/morning and it didn't warm up all that much throughout the day.

The girls!

We ended our great weekend with the Heller's! Michelle texted me in the afternoon asking if we wanted to meet at The Lake Harriet Bandshell for dinner and to let the kids play together, so we walked down to meet them! Bishop's tummy wasn't feeling so good (too much yogurt:(, so he was having a tough time--but it was still fun to see them and it was a great way to end the weekend!

The 2013 State Fair and Music on a Stick

I took the day off on Friday and Luke and I headed to the state fair! We had plans to go with our friends, the Hennum's, but it didn't work out for them to join us....so Luke and I went by ourselves. We walked around, ate some good food (corn dogs, mini donuts, friend scallops, fried pickles, more corn dogs, and some good beer)!  As we were walking around we heard Mason Jennings singing and practicing--and we went up to the gate at the Grandstand to watch him practice--even though we knew we were going to see him in a few hours it was fun to listen to him live!

Our favorite part of the fair was listening/watching the radio stations, especially The Common Man (KFAN). We both really enjoy listening to him and he's even funnier in person! I even got a picture with him after his show. He is so quick on his feet--it was fun to meet him and listen to his show!

The Common Man! I ALTO!

After The Common Man we caught The Current's live broadcast and Mary Lucia was interviewing Mason Jennings-- we've seen Mason many times--but it's always great to see him and hear him live. Mary interviewed him and then he played Raindrops on the Kitchen Floor. We walked back and forth between The Current and KFAN after The Common Man's show. Then we walked around and got more food and talked and caught up. It was so fun to be together and hang out--we both commented on how much more fun it was than we thought it would be! I think we both really appreciated some time alone together. The weather was also perfect! It was 80 and sunny---most of the fair had been HOT--in the 90s....so we got a perfect day!

 The main reason we were at the fair was for the Music on a Stick concert. The bands that played were: The Chalice, POS, Mason Jennings, The Suburbs and Trampled By Turtles! Of course Mason was our favorite--but the other bands were entertaining. The Suburbs are an old band that are making a comeback (or trying to)--they had one band member that was a big mess--he was probably in his 60s and he had long hair and he had a hard time standing up. It was quite entertaining to say the least!

It was a great day/night out for Luke and I! Listening to live music outside is something we both love! Thanks so much to Grandpa and Grandma for taking the kids overnight so we could enjoy a night out! We did talk quite a bit about how much the kids would have loved the fair.....but they got to experience the SCFF and that's a great fair in my opinion! We'll take them one of these years--maybe next year, while they would both still get in for free!