Friday Night Football

Last Friday night we took the kids to the SW Homecoming football game.  It was a beautiful night and the kids had a fun time eating their Ring Pops and playing in the bouncy house in the endzone of the field. Unfortunately the team didn't do so well and they lost pretty badly (to Washburn).

On the way home we were talking about the game and Bishop made the comment about how all the guys go BOOM (and tackle a lot). I asked if he wanted to play football and he said "NO, I don't want to go Boom! I just want to play basketball!"  We'll see how long we can convince him that that is a great idea! :)

Dad and the kids at the game

Mom and the kids at the game!

Ride to Rescue

A couple weeks ago I participated in my first Bike Tour (Ride to Rescue). It was held around Lake Pepin in Red Wing and it was a ride set up by Molly's uncle a few years ago to raise money for rescue dogs, breast cancer and now Multiple Myeloma. I did the 1/2, which was 35 miles and Luke biked 72 miles. I met the crew that did the full at the 1/2 point and biked back to Molly's parents place.  The first 1/2 it rained and was cool-but I got lucky and missed the rain.

I was a bit nervous as I had never ridden before and I don't have a road bike....and we were biking right on the Highway. In the end, it was a blast and I loved it! We stopped 1/2 way (through my 1/2) at the bar, so that helped break things up. It was fun to ride with others and have some pacers to keep up with!

Thanks to my parents for watching the kids so we could do this-it was a great day!

Family Weekend

We had a very nice family weekend! 

Friday night we went to the Hennum's and the kids enjoyed icecream cones together! You can really tell I need a new small camera or phone with a better camera, as the quality on these isn't the best. Regardless, I love the smiles (and the seriousness of eating icecream)!

Saturday we started the day off with a 25 mile bike ride. Luke checked the weather and we were supposed to be good for a couple of hours.....but it rained for most of our ride. Thankfully it wasn't TOO cold during the ride. The kids had had enough of the ride and decided they wanted to go to the zoo after we got home.....so we went to the zoo! We hadn't been there in a long time and it was especially fun for Nora--she laughed at all the animals and they both got really excited to see the animals!

After the zoo we tried to stop for dinner. Nora fell asleep on the way, so I stayed in the car with her while she napped while Bishop and Luke went in to order/eat. I woke Nora up after about a 1/2 hour or so.....and that was the end of our fun times for the afternoon. She was NOT happy and both kids were all wound up in the restuarant. We ate and left, very abruptly.

Saturday night the Moore's stopped by--the boys especially had a good time together. Nora was having a tough time going to bed so we sent Bishop and Danny up to check on her after we heard them commenting on how "Nora's STILL crying". We knew they were up to something as we could hear them running quite a bit......and none of us were too surprised to find Nora buried under all of their books.

 

The boys got warm running around (and watching movies) and they insisted on taking their shirts off.......they are 2 peas in a pod!

Show us your muscles!

Sunday was church/Sunday School and then a trip to the YMCA to go swimming. Bishop has wanted to go swimming for awhile now, so we went right after church and it was great because there weren't many people there. We swam for about a 1/2 hour or so until we were asked to get out.....someone had pooped in the pool. I'm glad we were able to swim for at least a 1/2 hour before leaving. 

After naps we walked/biked/ran down to the bandshell--stopped to climb a tree (he did NOT want me to take his picture--every time I did he jumped out of the tree) and ended up playing at the park!

Domino and Nora eating apples from the neighbors tree

 It was a wonderful weekend at home!

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! :)