Renaissance Festival

We took the kids to the Renaissance Festival for the first time on Saturday. It was an absolutely beautiful day--sunny and 75! Summer is hanging on just a little longer and I love it! We had such a nice summer--not TOO hot-lots of sun and 70s and 80s!

I didn't take a ton of pictures while we were there, but we had a great time walking around, checking out some entertainment, eating some food and playing a game! There isn't a lot of shade or coverage, so it got pretty hot and it was packed!! We were there for about 3-4 hours and when we left there were hardly any parking spots left and cars were lined up on 169 just to turn into the festival!

Nora wore her wings and Bishop wore his Batman cape--lots of people dress up and it's an interesting get together!

The kids visited a fairy and Bishop got a few special treasure coins from her. He wanted to go back to find her to get more! We watched the horses--it wasn't the knight fight, but it was fun to watch! We saw the elephant and llama rides, saw a jousting match, a juggler/entertainer, the tomato throw, the bucket of water dump game and enjoyed people watching. It was a fun day and the kids seemed to enjoy it!

 This turtle walked around the fair and followed his owner--it was pretty incredible (and maybe a little sad)?!?

 Luke left on Sunday for a week long meeting for work. I wasn't feeling that great and Bishop threw up in the middle of the night Saturday night, but immediately felt better, so we went to church and brunch and then hung out at home the rest of the day.  Domino came over to play for awhile, which was fun for Nora.

 The kids put together ALL the puzzles we have--I think there were 6 or 8 of them lined up! They loved it!

 Luke left around 3:15--we finished putting puzzles together, went to the park, colored some pictures, had dinner, baths a movie and bedtime! It was a good first day/night!

Teamwork!

 On Monday night we went to Nina's to hang out with Andrew and Jack, as Jesse is at the same meeting as Luke. Their neighbors were over as well and Ashton (who is in Nora's class at school). The kids had a blast running around and playing together!

Jack, Bishop, Nora and Ashton

The kids have been so great so far since Luke's been gone. Every time he leaves things get easier and easier!  We all sleep together in my bed, which makes bedtime a little later than usual, but it all works out and for the most part they sleep in a little later (past 7), so that helps!

Labor Day weekend 2014

We closed out the summer of 2014 with a very nice weekend! We started off by going to the Heller's on Friday night for dinner. 

I got a message from my mom that my Grandma wasn't doing well on Friday-she hadn't gotten out of bed all day and refused to eat or sit up. Hospice had been called in not too long ago and so they're just trying to keep her comfortable. I decided to drive down to visit her on Saturday morning while Luke took the kids to meet his parents, as they were going to have the kids overnight.  My Grandma was laying in bed the whole time I was there--she would talk to me and said she'd eat some applesauce, but she never rolled over or sat up to eat it. I sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed her back and tried to encourage her to eat. Thankfully after a few days in bed she's back to herself and she was up, dressed and eating breakfast yesterday morning.

Bishop and Nora went to Grandma and Grandpa's for the day/night on Saturday. They really wanted to go to Dave's to look for frogs/salamanders, etc. Dave's friend, Carmen, was there and she let them come over to do some frog catching. They had a blast! On Sunday they went to a small zoo in the area and it sounds like they all had a great time! I met them on Sunday afternoon to pick them up-I think they were all a little exhausted from their time together! Thanks Rich and Eileen-we really appreciate you helping us out so we could go to the State Fair.

While the kids were in Cold Spring we went to the State Fair--not as much for the fair, but for the concert that night. It was Music on a Stick night--and we got to see Cactus Blossoms, Har Mar Superstar (Sean Tillman from Owatonna), Cloud Cult, Bob Mould, Doomtree and Brother Ali. We were mostly interested in Har Mar Superstar and Cloud Cult! The fair was absolutely PACKED--a record was set for attendance on Saturday and you could tell! We still had a good time walking around, people watching and checking a few things out--plus it was a beautiful day!

Sunday night the Sweetman's came over for dinner. The kids had a blast together--Bishop loved having an older boy to look up to and follow around while they were here!

Monday was a nice bonus day to our weekend! We had a nice, lazy morning, we went and caught some frogs and then biked to Minnehaha Falls for dinner at SeSalt! There was a bluegrass festival going on while we were there, so it was a lot of fun!

Nora, Liam, Bishop and Max

Looking for frogs at Dave's

Hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma!

Relaxing at the State Fair

Just an impressive mustache!

Har Mar Superstar--he was SUPER entertaining!

This is Liana and I while Cloud Cult was playing....All I need is a good good friend! Thanks for being one of the best, Liana-I treasure your friendship!

Nora, Margaret, Jeannie and Ramona (on top)

Nora absolutely loves Matt and loved sitting on his lap!

Ramona, Jeannie, Margaret, Bishop, Nora and Walter

Nora painting Matt's nails

Catching frogs

 EVERY SINGLE time we bike around the lake Bishop has to go to the bathroom and we have to stop at this porta potty, which is only about 5 minutes from our house. It NEVER fails--we stop every time we are biking. Luke and I always just laugh about it--we're not sure what the allure is to the porta potty, but he insists on stopping! :)

The Froehle's on Labor Day

Wrestling with dad at the park

They both LOVE their daddy-and he's SO good to them!

Monday was another beautiful day and it ended a very nice long weekend. It's always hard going back to the routine after a fun weekend together. We had such a great summer and it's sad to see it come to an end-we made lots of memories and we look forward to making even more this fall!

Bishop Family Vacation

We took our annual Bishop Family vacation this past weekend and we went to Arrowwood in Alexandria, MN this year! It was the perfect spot for our family--with lots of room in the cabin for the kids to play.....and plenty to do outside to keep everyone happy!

On Thursday afternoon I got a call from daycare that Nora had a fever. :( I took her in to the Dr right away to make sure she didn't have anything contagious. By the time I got there her temp was back to normal and the Dr checked her for strep (negative) and determined she was fine to go on vacation. Whew! The Bormann's woke up Friday morning and Jack had gotten sick in his crib overnight. Thankfully it was just a fluke, as he was acting fine and was fine all weekend. Never a dull moment! Nora had a great time--although I could tell she got tired and nighttime was tough for her as her fever would come back...she didn't nap and I know that didn't help, but she had fun and recovered within a few days!

Friday was a beautiful day, so we swam in the outdoor pool-it was perfect!! The kids had a blast--and Papa and Bishop had quite the water gun fight!

 It was family weekend and they had a number of activities for the kids--one was cookie decorating--so the big kids went and decorated their cookies (while Jack napped)!

There was a LOT of frog catching that occurred throughout the weekend. There were many ponds by our place with LOTS of frogs in them. We were here last year for the Froehle Family Reunion and 2 of Luke's cousins kids, Nate and Ben, took Bishop frog hunting...so he calls Arrowwood, Nate and Ben's! He would get so excited to catch a frog--and he told me many times that that's all he wanted to do and it's what made him happy. My dad, Luke and I all took turns taking him out--it's fun to see him get so excited!

Saturday was a little dreary--so we spent the morning playing inside our condo and playing at the waterpark.  We played some mini golf in the afternoon and the kids went on the zip line. We ended the day with another trip to the outdoor pool!

 

These 2 girls had so much fun together! 

Nora getting her nails painted for the first time by Auntie Shelly! 

Nora LOVES holding the frogs!

Bishop LOVED the waterslides and even went on the big ones with his dad!

Going down the waterslide with Madelyn!

Still not 100%-getting some love from nana

 Playing mini golf was quite the adventure with 4 kids, 4 and under. It was hard to keep track of your ball--and oftentimes it was picked up shortly after being hit! Bishop was distracted by the frogs, of course!

Our final morning of frog hunting--we caught 8!

This cracks me up! 

It was such a fun weekend and I love our family time so much! The girls had so much fun together--they just adored each other! Every year gets a little easier! Thanks mom and dad for such a fun weekend--we really appreciated it!