Walking with Worms

Luke was out of town, fishing, this past weekend, so on Friday Nora went to my parents and Bishop and I had a little date night. He chose to play basketball at our neighbors and eat "green icecream" at home (I was secretly hoping to go to Sebastian Joe's)! ;)

Saturday morning he had swimming lessons and he got to ride in a boat in the pool! He had no problem getting in and he thought it was pretty fun!

Bishop's in the front of the boat!

After swimming lessons we drove down to Owatonna to spend the rest of our weekend there. We visited Great Grandpa Arnie.....

The kids helped Papa pick up sticks in the yard......

The kids helped Papa dig a hole to look for worms............

Bishop became pretty excited about the worms he found.......

We went for a walk to the park, to visit the ducks and Bishop had to bring his worms along (and he dressed himself).......

And we celebrated Mother's Day on Sunday ( updated in another post). It was a really fun weekend in Owatonna--thanks mom and dad for all the help! :)

Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day 2013 was a great day! I got to celebrate my Mother's day last weekend, as Luke was fishing this past weekend. We went to church, went out for brunch and had a great day at home with the kids! After naps we went to Minnehaha Falls and ate at SeSalt--it was a beautiful night to be out and I loved my time with my family!

I feel so fortunate that Bishop and Nora call me "mama/mom". It is the best job in the world and it makes me appreciate my mother even more! ;)

I had to post two pictures-as I couldn't get a decent one of both of them at the same time! ;)

Happy Nora at SeSalt

What a grown up little man he's becoming! Looking handsome in dad's hat!

We celebrated Mother's Day in Owatonna with my mom and grandma Marlys. It was a beautiful day (although a little cold, as you'll see from the winter coat and hat)! My dad treated my mom and I to coffee in the morning, grilled hamburgers for lunch and made us feel special all day long! ;)

Happy  Mother's Day Mom!

We visited my Grandma in the nursing home and getting a picture was a little tough. This was the best I got on my camera. I'm glad we could be together and that my grandparents could see the kids. Although my Grandma's health is failing, she has always been an amazing source of love and support for our entire family. I don't think she ever missed a basketball game, recital or performance of mine and I'll always remember her telling stories and reading to me in the rocker at her house when I was little. She made it clear that her family was her everything! It makes me happy to know that she's gotten to know our kids and I hope to pass her love on to my kids and our family! She is a truly caring and compassionate woman!

Happy Mother's Day Great Grandma Marlys!

Happy Mother's day, Eileen! Thanks for being such a wonderful mother, mother-in-law and grandma! We love you very much!

Happy Mother's Day Grandma!

Happy Mother's Day, Great Grandma Darlene! You are SO SO SO good to our kids and we appreciate all the love you share with us! We love you very much!

Happy Mother's Day Great Grandma Darlene!

Mom, happiest of Mother's Day to you! You have always been an amazing source of support, unconditional love and guidance for me and I could never thank you enough! Your smile and laugh is contagious and as I think back over the years I think of your open arms ALWAYS there to console and celebrate with me. There is nothing like a Mother's love--THANK YOU for yours, it is the best! I love you more than you'll ever know!

Soccer week 2

During Bishop's second week of soccer they learned a few new skills and got to play some fun, new games. The new skills they learned included kicking the ball with the inside of their foot and also kicking the ball with the top of their foot. The parents played the role of big, swaying trees, while the soccer players tried to kick their ball through the moving roots (legs). I am very impressed with the coach and the structure!

The scrimmage this week was extra exciting, as Bishop, Danny and Johnny all got to be on the same team!: ) The boys were pretty excited about that! These kids are tough--I'm surprised and impressed with the amount of physical play for 3 year olds! :)

Johnny, Danny and Bishop

Go Team Orange!!

It's a good thing they're still too young to understand keeping score, as the team they played was pretty good! ;) That didn't diminish their smiles at all! :)

I LOVE MY PAPA and I LOVE MY NANA

On Saturday we (finally) celebrated our NCAA winners with dinner--it's been years since we celebrated the winners, so we had some catching up to do! :)  Our past tradition was that the winner chose where we went to eat and it became tradition that we celebrated at The Hubbell House in Southern Minnesota. With 4 kids 3 and under we figured The Hubbell House might not be the best choice....so we chose to order in and celebrate at our house. It worked out great!

My good friend, Michelle, gave Bishop a shirt that said I LOVE MY PAPA. It was a size too small, so I found a size bigger for him and one for Nora that says I LOVE MY NANA. We gave Madelyn the other I LOVE MY PAPA shirt. The 3 "big" kids stood at the front glass door when my parents got to our house....they were banging on the door, yelling NANA...PAPA....NANA...PAPA! I wish I had gotten a picture of that. Regardless, here is a picture of the 3 "big" grandkids with their nana and papa......baby Jack was sleeping when we took the picture (sorry Jack)!

We haven't gotten a Bishop family picture taken since Jack's been born. We tried at his baptism, but the big kids were a mess, so the pictures didn't turn out that great......so here we are!

Happy Baby Jack! I LOVE his smile! He was so happy all night! :)

It was a fun night...it's always fun to be together and this time was especially enjoyable, as no one had to cook, prepare or do anything!

On Thursday morning my Grandpa called my mom at 6am to tell her he had to get to ER because he was having problems breathing. Due to all the snow (13+ inches) they got, my parents couldn't get out to him, so he took an ambulance to the ER to be checked out. It was determined that he needed to be admitted. The Owatonna hospital was full so he was admitted to the Fairbault hospital (15 minutes from Owatonna). He was discharged on Saturday, so my mom was able to get him back to Countryside before coming up. He continues to improve and we hope he stays out of the ER now for awhile. I feel so bad for him, as it must be the most frustrating thing to not be able to breathe!

Bishop and Soccer

We signed Bishop up for soccer for the first time this spring. The 1st two weeks were postponed due to snow, so when they were finally able to get out and play they were pretty excited.

Bishop, Johnny, Danny and Leo are all in this league together and the first night was a blast! I laughed and smiled the entire 45 minutes and I know Bishop did too!

They started out doing some drills and learning about the game of soccer. It takes some time and practice (and reminders) to not use your hands, which is why they teach the kids to tie their hands behind their back! :)

No hands!

At the end of the session they got to scrimmage--2 on 2. Bishop ran around with a smile on his face the entire scrimmage.

This is a parent/child involvement sport, which is why I'm trying to get the ball back in the vicinity of their playing field--these kids could run for hours.....in the wrong direction...they didn't care, as long as they were running!

After soccer, we played at the park for awhile and then came home. Unwinding and heading to bed was a little tough after so much excitement!

I left for Kansas City on Wednesday morning for a regional meeting. It's always hard for me to leave the kids and Luke..but coming home is the best thing ever! I face timed them both nights and Bishop asked me "Mom, can you come home and put me to bed tonight"......I really wish I could have! Thankfully it was just 2 nights. While I was gone, Nora learned to crawl into this chair and it has become one of her favorite things to do. She is still "sweet Nora".   She is constantly smiling and she can't stand to be away from her brother!

Rich's 1963 Team and Cloud Cult

The weekend of April 26-28 was a busy one for us and it was very fun! We started the weekend off with swimming lessons on Saturday morning. Our weekly tradition usually includes, swimming lessons, swimming as a family and then Luke and I work out for a bit while the kids go to their respective daycares. Once you turn 3 you can go into this really neat slide area, so Bishop loves it. Unfortunately, Nora is still with the baby, babies, so she's not so fond of it, but it's growing on here. However, April 27th, it was beautiful out, so we left right after swimming and hung out outside for awhile instead.

Grandma and Grandpa came in the afternoon to hang out with the kids. Luke and I biked downtown to the Cloud Cult Concert at First Ave. I'll be honest....I put up a bit of a "fight" against biking downtown to a show, but as Luke suspected, I survived the bike and even enjoyed it! I'm not in shape and I had a million excuses lined up (what will I wear, I'm not comfortable biking in the dark, especially after drinking, etc). Luke was right-it was fun and it didn't take us too long to get there (or get home) ;) I'm sure we'll be doing that again sometime in the future.

Sunday night we celebrated Rich's 1963 St John's Football team that won the National Championship! They were definitely the underdogs in the game and they pulled off a big upset. It was a program held at St Thomas (of all places;), honoring all sorts of football players and contributors (high school scholars, college players, some Vikings players and even some contributors to the sport). It was a fun night for Rich to catch up with some of his old teammates and we heard some great stories about Rich! He was (and still is) a tough guy who was an integral part of their win! Congrats, Rich, you deserve it!

1963 Team
Rich is number 41 on the right

Number 41.......Rich Froehle!

Rich and his proud sons

Rich introduced himself to Leslie Frazier! :)

Snowy Spring

I want to make sure to document this winter that never ends (in case I somehow forget it in the future)! :) We had enough snow to make a snowman on April 18th 2013. Owatonna got 13+ inches of snow on May 2nd!! We've seen some 70 degree days now, so we're hoping we can say spring is finally here (to stay)!

The kids were so excited for spring they didn't care what the weather was like....once April hit they wanted to be outside whether it was raining, snowy or sunny!