Last week

Here's a glimpse into our week last week!

Bishop asked me to make smoothies and then he wanted a "smoothie face picture". Then he insisted I send it to his teacher, Ms. Janelle! :)

On Thursday we went to SeSalt for dinner. Bishop had been asking to go all week--he just LOVES their "circles" (calamari). Unfortunately for Bishop it was National Eat Healthy day so they weren't making any fried food--but he enjoyed some steamed shrimp instead.

It was a rainy/dreary day, but we were able to enjoy a little time outside that night....splashing in the puddles!

It was spirt week at school last week and Friday was Superhero (or princess) day! Bishop went as BatMan! He asked me to take his picture! :) Nora wasn't quite as festive--she wasn't interested in putting on her princess dress!

Luke left for his fishing trip on Friday, so the kids and I went to the park Friday night. It turned out to be a beautiful night. We played at the park for awhile and played in the neighborhood when we got back.

Mother's Day with Grandma!

Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day with Luke's mom. His parents came down and joined us, along with Jake, for brunch after church.

Rich brought 2 trees and 4 bushes that he planted and then the kids helped water them! It was an absolutely beautiful day, so it was fun to be outside and enjoy our time together!

You can't really even see the tree that the kids are watering in these pictures! :)

Blowing bubbles with Gma

We had planned to celebrate Mother's day with our family that afternoon/evening since Luke will be out of town on Mother's Day. I wasn't feeling very well that day (very tired and weak, etc)....so our plan to bike to Minnehaha Falls was changed to driving, which ended up working out just great!  We started out by eating icecream in the sun and the kids threw pennies into the water and made wishes. Bishop's wishes were (a tiger, a small fish and MS. JANELLE!) :) He absolutely LOVES Ms. Janelle! :)

There was live music while we ate and the kids danced and danced! Bishop really got into it and was dancing on the ground (breakdancing?!) :) It was fun to see....and there were other kids for them to dance with too!

I am still bummed that I wasn't feeling well, but I still enjoyed the day.....and am excited that this nice weather is just getting started! :)

Great Grandpa Arnie

Saturday started out with football in the morning! Nora and I walked over to the school park while Bishop was practicing and then came back to watch his "game"! I'm glad we made it back for the game, because he scored 2 touchdowns!

This is one of my favorite pictures--it's not unusual for the kids to start running towards the wrong endzone--thankfully the refs and even the opposing coaches are there to help out! :)

Running in for a touchdown

After football we drove down to Owatonna and had lunch at my parents. After lunch we went to bury my Grandpa's ashes. It was just our immediate family, so it was a nice, casual ceremony. After the pastor said a few words they put his urn in the ground and we all placed some dirt in the hole. The kids kept going back for more handfuls and it made for a special time. Bishop was excited to be able to throw in a worm--Great Grandpa would have gotten a chuckle out of that!

Nana with her loves......

This headstone was given by the US Army. It is beautiful and very well deserved!

Nora putting more dirt in

Jack was so proud of putting the dirt in-he'd clap everytime! :)

Bishop had quite a few questions regarding the urn/burial (is Gpa's head in there? Where is his blood? Are people buried so they can live again underground?). It must be confusing for kids to understand the process of cremation. We were thankful to have a nice day to perform his burial. It was quite windy, but after all the rain we had last week, it could have been much worse!

We all went back to play at my parents after the burial and it was nice to all be together! It's been sad and different not going to visit him when we're in town (Easter, especially), but he's in a better place now, so that makes it easier.

Flag Football and Friends

Luke was gone a couple nights last week and thankfully it was nice enough to get outside to play! We stopped at the park on our way home from school to play at the park! The kids had a blast!  I know I've said this a lot in the past, but it's so fun to watch them play together!

 This is Bishop--he makes me smile all the time....and he wasn't even trying to be funny--this is just the way he is! I love this kid! He cracks me up and yet he is so sweet! He's at the age where he doesn't want to upset me and I like that! ;)

 Friday night Luke and I had a date night--Ms. Janelle (short haired Ms. Janelle--both of Bishop's teachers are Ms. Janelle) came to watch the kids and Bishop could hardly wait! He asked all week long how much longer it would be until Ms. Janelle came! I'm so glad he likes his teachers and that he was excited for mom and dad to leave for a night! :)

We went to The Bachelor Farmer for dinner and then grabbed a drink at Marvel Bar afterwards. It was the perfect night out just the two of us!

This is us! :)

Saturday morning brought Bishop's first Flag Football game. He absolutely LOVED it and seemed like a natural on the field....maybe a bit too natural for this mama (who is a little apprehensive about football and injuries, etc). He's young and I want to introduce him to many different sports and activities so he can choose what he wants to do. And, it was really fun to see him enjoy it so much! His friends, Danny and Colin are both on his team, so that was fun for him too! He's been talking nonstop about wanting to play football--so next week can't come soon enough!

Practicing catching with Danny

While Bishop was playing Nora ran out onto the field a couple of times. She picked out her own outfit--her favorite color is purple, if you couldn't tell! And she insisted on the red shoes!

Saturday afternoon the kids and I went down to my friend, Melissa's, in Burnsville for a little playdate with all our HS friends. It was an absolute blast! There were 12 kids there and Nora was the only girl! Melissa's got the perfect set up--they live in a cul-de-sac and the kids rode their bikes and played and had such a great time together!

Nora and Grant (Melissa's youngest son)

 We tried for a group picture--but poor Max wasn't having it!

Christian, Miles, Oliver, Grant, Bishop, Nora, Charlie, Sawyer
Bennet, Nolan and Griffin!

We usually try to get the girls together every few months, but it's hard to get all the kids together--this was so fun and it made me miss my HS girls so much!

The kids and I left as everyone went in to eat pizza, as we had dinner at the Retzer's! It was such a fun day with friends!

Nora has been working on going potty in the toilet lately and she's been doing really well!! She's interested and gets excited and proud when she goes! She's in undies when she's home (before and after school and on the weekends) and if all continues to go well we'll put her in undies to go to school next week. She's growing up so fast!

As I mentioned earlier Bishop is obsessed with his teacher, Ms. Janelle! All he wants to do is give her hugs and go to school to see her! I'm SO happy he is happy at school-he has formed some pretty deep relationships with his teachers, which makes me know he's being well taken care of at school!

Easter 2014

We started Holy Week by coloring Easter Eggs! The kids had a great time dunking their eggs and Nora especially liked playing with her eggs!

 We started Easter weekend by going to Owatonna on Friday night! It was nice enough to bike to the park, so we played at the park at Wilson School for awhile.

Nana is so fun!

Nora had so much fun playing with Nana at the park!

Cuddles with Papa!

 The Bormann's joined us on Saturday and we started our day by going on an Egg Hunt!

The girls were excited for the Egg Hunt!

There is an Egg Hunt for each age group starting at age 2, so this was Nora's first official year to get Eggs. There were a lot of 2 year olds and since most won't go out by themselves, all the parents go out too. It made it hard for Nora to get eggs--but she got one purple one, which is exactly what she wanted! :)  Bishop definitely made up for shortage of Nora's eggs by getting a ton of eggs! The 2 and 3 year olds were inside and all the older kids were outside. It was a nice, sunny day--but it was VERY windy!

Bishop ready for his Egg Hunt!

When we got home we played in the garage-the kids loved it!

Cousins!

 The Easter Bunny visited Nana and Papa's--the kids were thrilled!

 We ate a delicious Easter lunch and then went to visit Great Grandma Marlys! There was another Egg hunt at her place. The kids definitely had their fill of candy!

It's hard to get a picture of us all together! ;)

Great Grandma LOVES hugs!

Another Egg Hunt

Jack loved the piano

Cuddles for Great Grandma

 After visiting Great Grandma we headed up to Cold Spring for the night and to celebrate Easter with Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Jake!

Bishop and Grandpa!

Nora and Grandma and Grandpa!

 Easter Sunday was a beautiful day! We went to Grandpa and Grandma's church at 8:30 and then came back to play outside before lunch.  The service lasted almost 1 1/2 hours so the kids lost patience and interest before it was over. Luke and I took turns taking the kids out to let them run around a bit during the service. When we got home we took a hike to the lake and then hiked to the "big rock" to play on the rock!

3 Generations!

The Easter Bunny visited Grandpa and Grandma's as well--and the kids got Butterfly nets!

"Fishing with their Butterfly nets"

 It was an absolutely beautiful day and we had so much fun playing outside at Grandpa and Grandma's-after lunch we came home and the Easter Bunny had visited OUR house too! Wow!

We were so fortunate to be able to spend the weekend with both our families! It was such a wonderful weekend!