Sleepover!

After the girls finally got Emily's bedroom cleaned and into their jammies (which as you can see Abbie and Emily have Strawberry Shortcake) I said they could pick out a show and have popcorn surprise. Of course they picked a Strawberry Shortcake movie, and the 'surprise' in the popcorn was M&Ms.

They were being goofy and putting the M&Ms on their eyes.




Nick chose not to be a part of the girlie party, so he watched Ben 10 downstairs and had his own plain popcorn.

I'm bored, figured I would ramble for awhile

We finally went and bought the boys shoes today. (Emily went shopping with grandma for her birthday and got 2 pairs) We went to the Mall of America, and let me tell you, never again on Labor Day weekend!! It was packed!! We wanted to go to Payless b/c they were having BOGO (buy one get one) half off, and we had a 20% off coupon too. I really wanted to buy them Airwalks since we had good deals, and Emily got the cutest Airwalks too. We got there, and I headed to the kids shoes while Bill stayed with the stroller (that's usually his job) I found some in Nick's size for him to try on, and went to see if I could find the same ones for Jake. Bill was like, 'you're buying the same ones for both?' and I said well yeah, airwalks are not only comfy, but they last a while. So these are their shoes. Those are jake's on the right, they are a little smaller, not by much though, Emily and Nick's are 1 1/2 and Jake's are 13 ;-)

After we got home and they tortured Rosie for awhile, I shooed them all downstairs so she could rest, and when I found her, this is what I saw:

Isn't she the cutest? So now we're all hanging out. I have Abbie and Ellie here (Jenni's youngest girls) while Jenni is out with her dad and sister who are in town. Jenni called me earlier because Abbie wanted to spend the night, so I said Ellie may as well too, that way they wouldn't have to rush home to get her!! The girls played outside for awhile with bikes and sidewalk chalk, and are now getting ready for bed. I can hear them in the bedroom giggling about underwear. Nice ;-)

Bicycles, Braids, Bumps and Banana Bread

Halfway through the week............ The kids have been busy playing outside with neighbor kids and riding bikes. Emily taught herself how to ride a 2 wheeler back in May, and of course she goes non stop super fast, so usually about once a day she runs in for band aids (can't imagine where she gets that from!) Meanwhile, Nick still has training wheels on his because he's too afraid of riding without them.

The kids and I are addicted to a show called "Jon and Kate Plus 8" It's about a couple who had infertility issues so they had invitro and had twin girls. A few years later they wanted another, and had sextuplets!!! (3 girls and 3 boys) On one episode they took the girls to get cornrows in their hair, and had beads on them. Emily of course wanted something like that, so I tried to braid it and threw some beads in it. I did 3 on top with beads, and braided the sides without beads. It turned out pretty cute and kept it out of her face.

And speaking of bumps, Mr Monkey Boy Jacob was playing on the computer this morning and decided to stand on the chair and flip over the back of the couch onto the cushions. Our couch has a recliner at each end, so his right eye hit the corner on the top, and he's got a little bump on the outside corner. Normally bumps don't phase him but he was crying and crying so I know it hurt. Emily brought him his blanket and then he was fine

I made banana bread yesterday!!! I was cleaning out some bins with a ton of kids' papers and projects in them, and ran across my grandma's recipe for banana bread. The thing I didn't have was baking soda so we went and borrowed Lindsey's. I don't put nuts in mine however ;-)

I met Jacob's teacher yesterday too. I figured he was going to be in half day special ed, half day regular class, which kind of made me nervous, but this teacher is going to have her kids all day. They will eat breakfast in their classroom, and try to have lunch in the cafeteria. If the kids don't do well they will go back to the class. They will go outside for recess, and once a week they will go to the middle school to swim! Jacob will love that!! There are 4 kids in his class that were in his class this past year, and then 2 paras to assist the teacher. She was very impressed that he was reciting the alphabet and reading the posters in the room. :-) Only 6 more days until there will be total peace and quiet at home. I'm sure Rosie is excited ;-)

Emily's Birthday

I think we're all done with having "parties" for the kids. Emily turned 8 today, and we had Abbie sleep over tonight. Bill and I decided that since the kitten was pretty much for her birthday, we weren't doing anything big, not to mention we aren't rich misers.

Abbie gave her a Littlest Pet Shop playset and some tic tacs. We had her pick out a couple small things at the store and of course she wanted more littlest pet shop stuff. If we ever decide to sell it all, we could make a killing!!

awwwww

I made them bring everything to Bill to open ;-)

Rosie-cat (as Jacob calls her)

Peanut girlie

Cake and ice cream after a gourmet meal of chicken nuggets, french fries, and bananas.

Nick stuffed himself.

Colorado Trip May 16-18, 2008

So this is how hardcore my family is (except mom) about baseball. My dad and I took a road trip to Colorado over the weekend to see the Twins play the Rockies. We started a tradition when I was 9 that involved going to one (or more) Major League baseball stadiums on vacation. At last count I think minor and major league combined were 18 or 19. I somehow managed to find sitters for the kids: Mom and Wayne took Nick, Jenni took Emily, and Chris and Brenda took Jacob. I was more worried about the sitters than I was the kids, heh. We left Friday around one (supposed to be at noon but they didn't have the rental car ready) On the way out there we stopped in Sioux Falls SD to see the Canaries play the Saints.

Me outside the Birdcage (I always think of the Robin Williams movie when I hear that!)

Our seats were RIGHT by the visitors dugout!!! :-D

I believe the Saints ended up losing, and we took off after the game. The plan was to drive until we got too tired to drive anymore, and pull into a rest area to sleep in the car. We stopped at a gas station maybe an hour after we set off, and while we were driving we could have swore it was raining. Turned out to be BUGS hitting the windshield and roof!! ICK!!! I took a picture when we stopped, the front of the car is covered. It was so gross and took me about 20 minutes to get even half of them off. I think we ended up stopping to sleep around 12:30ish, neither of us slept very well in the car, (I can't imagine why, dad is like 6' 4" tall) I dozed off and woke up around 4:30 when he started the car to keep driving.

We got to Denver on Saturday around 1 in the afternoon and decided to bomb around a bit before the gates opened at 4. They open 2 hrs before game time so you can watch batting practice. We went to the Hard Rock so dad could get his shot glass, and to McDonalds for shakes. It was very interesting b/c you needed a key for the bathroom. Guess they have primo toilet paper or something.

We finally get to Coors Field, and get in line to wait to go in. By the way, I was VERY excited about this night because the first 10,000 fans got a Rockies reusable grocery bags. I am all about reuseable grocery bags ;-) We were standing there trying to stay awake, and all of a sudden I see Lee and Alex Krueger from church!! Well they went there a while ago, and every once a while I run into them. That was hysterical. We chatted for a bit and when the gates opened we met up with them to watch BP. Only the left field stands were open at that time so it was easy to find someone.

I need this.

View from left field.

There are still more pics on a disk I'm waiting for dad to find. While we were watching BP I was right in front of JOE NATHAN playing catch. And then when we went to our seats (a few rows up from the Twins dugout) I was speechless watching Mauer and Morneau run by :-D It was a great trip. We bonded.

The summer is coming to an end.

We couldn't be happier.  Seriously though, I always say right before school is ending that it's going to be a long summer, but this one flew by too.  Could be due to the fact that I spent the first couple months of it nursing a jacked up ankle, which made it hard to go anywhere. I don't think I have watched so much day time tv!  I *am going to miss the kids when they go. I'll be a wreck when Jacob leaves, but luckily Jenni and I have a date to go out that morning kid free, so she'll be a good distraction!!! 

We're finally at the point where we're letting the kids go out and play by themselves, as long as other kids are out there. (I'm a paranoid mom) Emily taught herself to ride a two wheeler at Jenni's while I was in Colorado, so she loves going out and riding her bike. (Both of their bikes are a little small, but we'll wait until maybe Easter for new ones)  Nick, being his usual timid self,still has the training wheels on.  I told him next year it's 2 wheels or nothing. 

I had an interview today at the Southdale YMCA in the kids area.  I'll hear back by Monday after they determine whether or not I'm a criminal  ;-)   It'll be nice to be able to take the kids with me when I work, and if they don't need as much help during the school day, I could work the front desk or something.

Aaaannnndddddddd......................mom called me today to let me know that she will be taking me to the Twins game at the end of Sept for my birthday!! She won tickets through work, row 4 right behind the Twins bullpen and first base.  Swoon.   Thanks mom!!!!

Ok I'm off to eat my pizza  :-)

State High School Hockey Tournament 2008

The last time I went to the tourney was in 1998. I figured if Jerrod or Dad had an extra ticket, I wouldn't mind going. The first day of the tourney the afternoon games were at 11 and 1:30 or something. I had arranged for the kids to go to Jenni's after school so I could stay for both. Jerrod and I drove seperately from Dad and Larry so I could leave after the 2nd game. We had to park in the next county practically, and as we were walking, a school bus pulled up and the driver asked if we wanted a life to the Xcel. Well duh, it was about 20 degrees out!! A couple minutes into the ride we saw Dad and Larry walking so we told the driver to stop and we started yelling out the door, "HEY HEY DAD!!! LARRY!!!" They were like what? So we got a bus ride.

Ha ha we are cool




We are even cooler in this pic with our paper helmets that make us look like we belong in a mental institution......ok just Jerrod looks like that I guess :-P

Pics from State Fair 2006

Lauren and I were SO excited for this. We were going to see RASCAL FLATTS at the fair.

Mom and Wayne happened to be there the same night so we met up and said hi :-)

Weinermobile!

Me on the Giant Slide

Gary Allan
This concert was awesome. We had Brenda's sweet camera with the ginormous zoom lens so we got awesome pics.

I think this was at about midnight when we got back to Chris and Brenda's. I went over there in the afternoon, and then Brenda dropped us off at the gate. We called her when the concert was over, they picked us up, and went back there to get the pics on a cd. Good times, good times.