Friday Funny

I don't think I can explian this one....so why bother.

Farm theme

In keeping with the farm theme that seems to be in a lot of pictures this week...



The kids and I had a fun time last week at a fundraiser put on by our church. During the week they run a small preschool for about 25-30 3-5 year-olds. Every spring they put on a "Family County Fair" to raise money for some of their yearly expenses. It's an evening of kiddie games, raffles, silent auctions, face painting, hot dogs, etc. And while we didn't win any of the raffles or auctions, we did have fun at the games.

Gosh darn it....that's another 'lady' hat on Will, isn't it.

Do you ever wonder....

Do you ever wonder how many pictures I have of Will dressed as a girl? I should sit and count them up someday. Honestly, he enjoyed himself as much as I did, snapping away.

Trip to the zoo....

Last Friday the four of us took some time and went to the zoo together. The kids and I try to go every year, but John hasn't gone with us since Katie was a baby.

If you remember, I said I wasn't going to take the stroller. Ok, that MAY have been a bit premature. In any case, it was a lot easier thanks to John....and his shoulders.

Will liked petting the baby goats. I'm pretty sure he just thought they were

strange looking dogs.

Katie in the chicken coop.

Not a real pig, by the way...

Happy Birthday!

Another Birthday shout-out today to my Dad!!



Happy Birthday Dad - take a snooze, you deserve it!

Friday Funny

Happy Friday!

There's no school today because it's kindergarten roundup. So, Katie, Will, me and maybe even John are heading to the zoo. I'm not taking a stroller with us...we're all going to hoof it. We'll see how it goes...I am feeling optimistic. (Stop laughing...it MAY go smoothly!)

Happy First Birthday!

Happy 1st Birthday today to my neice and nephew, Ethan and Emily! Wow, that first year sure flew by. Of course it goes faster when you're not the one taking care of them every day!



They are mobile now, crawling and rolling up a storm. I suppose those first steps are only weeks away!

Our green thumb

It's been SO nice lately that it's difficult to wait on the garden. This past weekend we decided that it's probably safe to get some things in the ground, so we all made a trip to the green house and spent $20 on some fun plants for around the house.

We have about 1/4 of our garden full of strawberry plants. We'd love to have 1/2 our garden strawberries. They are so easy to maintain, easy for the kids to pick and ALL get eaten quickly. We bought 2 more strawberry plants and divided a few clusters up. We're hoping they keep spreading. So far, so good.

We bought 1 tomato plant. Last year we bought one as well, and had 2 surprise ones pop up. See? It makes sense not to pick them all. :)

We got 4 cucumber plants. It's our first year for those...we'll see.

We bought 8 green pepper plants. Yes, I said 8. I don't think we realized that we had 2 containers, but oh well. They may not all make it. If they do, well, we'll have extras.

I got 2 purple geraniums for our front door planter. I tried a plant in there 2 years ago and kept forgetting to water it. It doesn't get any rain water, so you can imagine how long it lasted. Again, so far, so good.

Finally, our neighbors across the street were thinning out their flower beds and gave us a bunch of day lilies that we planted on the side of the house. It was pretty sandy, rocky soil....so we'll see how they do. Not sure what color they are, but I'm hoping they live long enough to find out.

This weekend we MIGHT get the rest of the garden planted. We are doing beans, peas and carrots yet. Those seem to do well, and get eaten most of the time. Next year we may be looking at expanding the garden a bit...we'll see.

Happy Birthday John!!

Today is John's 40th birthday!! (Yeah, I said it.)

We brought his office cupcakes and rice krispie bars this afternoon. The kids always like visiting there and today was even better cuz they got sugar. :)


You're right, this isn't an embarrassing picture. I have to live with the guy. I'm not stupid. :)

Saturday project

This is what we (and by 'we', I mean John) are working on today.


Thanks to the MN appliance rebate program we got $150 to put towards a new dishwasher. The new one has been sitting in the garage for the past few weeks and today is the day my "boys" are going to try to get it in. Luckily John has an assistant. Will told me that I couldn't help...it was only for him and Daddy.

Friday Funny

To honor the start of baseball season....

I don't know what to call this one

I don't know what to "title" this entry....it's a little bit of everything. Well, there, that would have been a nice one.


I finally have a chance to post some pictures from when we were back in IA a week and a half ago. We couldn't make it back Easter weekend, so we went back to visit family the weekend before. We got to see my brother's twins (who will turn 1 in a couple weeks!) and the kids got to do some painting at Grandma Mary's....well, the big kids too.

Obviously Will likes green. He said his picture was of a dragon and a guy, and then there's also a lion in a cage and something else too. It's open to interpretation.

Yesterday was a busy day for everyone here. John finally got a bid put in on a job that he'd spent Easter working on. The kids and I were busy getting the house ready for a fundraising get-together that we were having for a non-profit group I volunteer with. We had a photographer taking pictures of the moms and kids that participated. I was able to get pictures of Katie and Will sitting in a kid's rocking chair that belonged to my dad and my aunt, Carol, when they were little. The chair has always been in Carol's house and now it sits in mine. 70 years later, a third generation of kids get to enjoy it.

Now that that's done, maybe we can get outside this weekend and enjoy some sunny weather.

Oh wait, I have a garage sale in 11 days....maybe after that.

Outdoor baseball

The Twins played their first and second games in their new stadium this past weekend. John worked on the stadium last year so we got 2 free tickets to the game on Saturday afternoon. That means Will and Katie got to spend the day with Jamie, Joe and Noah. Thank you guys AGAIN for watching them for us. They had an awesome time! I'm able to return the favor anytime!

The view from our bleacher seats....it was a full house - very cool for an exhibition game!

The Budweiser porch...there's a fire pit on the top level. It's quite nice standing over there in the sun.

The jumbo HD screen...great for watching replays.

Part of the Minneapolis skyline from the Budweiser sun porch. On the left you'll see the two guys on the Minnesota sign...that's Minnie and Paul. They shake hands after every homerun.

One of the great things about this stadium is that as you walk around the concourse, there are hundreds of places to just stop and watch the game. You are never away from the action! This is the first outdoor stadium I've been to, so I can't compare, but I think it's awesome!

The Chicken or the Egg....

First of all, Happy Easter! I hope you all got to spend the day the way you wanted to. We are hanging out at home today, playing with our plastic eggs and enjoying jelly beans. Well, most of us are...John had to get some work done today so he is at the office. I think he had to work last Easter too...just that time of year when things start to pick up a bit.

I got a better Easter picture this year....

The kids and I went to church while John got some work done at home and kept a close eye out for the Easter Bunny. It was a full house at church, as to be expected. Katie went up front for Pastor Nate's children's sermon. Today he was talking about what a surprise Easter blessings and the Resurrection are. Then he talked about coloring Easter eggs. First you have to cook them or they make a mess when you break them, but not all eggs are the same. He cracked a bunch in a bowl, looking for that one special egg. "Is it this one? No. How about this one? Nope." All the eggs broke just the same way. After cracking 3 in the bowl he quickly took one and cracked it over his teenage helpers head. This was quite a surprise to his assistant who jumped out of the way and was able to miss most of the mess. But the egg 'insides' had to land somewhere....

It was this Sunday that Katie chose to sit up close for the children's sermon.

Yep, you guessed it. Katie got an egg bath all over her head and her dress. Pastor Nate quickly cleaned off what he could and then grabbed his 'special' egg and cracked it over his adult helper's head. This one was full of glitter which he sprinkled on all the kids. He bent down to talk to Katie and commented on how nicely she was taking it and hoping her mom would take it as well as she did, although he thought he would have to owe her an apology.

This whole time I was laughing and gasping right along with everyone else in the congregation because I couldn't see who the little girl was that 'got the egg'. It wasn't until she stood up and walked down the aisle that I saw it was Katie. I whispered to the people behind me "Oh no - it was mine..." Katie was forcing smiles until she got to my side, then she broke out in tears. We went to the bathroom and cleaned up as best we could. After some jokes and laughs she decided it wasn't so bad. We agreed that if Pastor Nate decided to douse her with another egg, she would get to throw one at him. He thought that seemed fair too.

I guess that's why people wear hats on Easter Sunday.

There's a giant grasshopper in your house!

April Fool's! (That's Katie's joke)

I have some quick pictures to load from our trip to the Mall of America yesterday. We went there to meet my niece, Sarah, who was in town on a school field trip to the dinner theater. They stopped at the mall for a bit to eat and shop.

So I guess you would think that I would have pictures of Sarah and the kids, but no. We ate together then let Sarah hang with her friends while the kids went on a couple rides in the park. I had some left over ride points from our last visit so they each got to do a ride. While we were walking around we happened to see Dora doing a meet & greet, so of course we had to stop. Will was NOT impressed.

We saw that Dora's cousin, Diego, was going to be there in about 15 minutes so we stopped back after our rides. (I also realize that if you are over the age of 15 and have no children, you probably don't know who in the sam hill these characters are.)

Will liked Diego a whole lot more than Dora...even gave him a high-five. Diego was just funnier...

He liked Katie's sparkle shoes, played with her hair, and got them both to laugh.

On our way out we found a bunny that was more to Will's liking. Also, could be that everyone we'd talked to in the last 30 minutes had fuzzy, giant heads - so it was becoming weirdly normal.

Oh yeah, and this rabbit gave out candy and colored chalk...that always helps.