Winter Break 2010

Winter break is nearing an end...we've had a busy week and a half since Noah has been off school. Somehow I don't remember being this busy/social on my winter breaks "back in the day", but I guess we want more for our kids, right? ;-)  He'll have some fun stories to tell when he goes back to school.

First day off of school was Dec 23rd for our district, and we were off and running to a play date in Richfield with Noah's friends Carter and Connor.  Noah got to sleep in, and then we spent pretty much the whole day with those friends.  There were 6 boys total at the playday, so it was an active house. Us moms got some "girl time" in between orchestrating activity and snacks.  Thanks Darcy for setting that up!  We visited my mom's congregation meeting that night at Phalen Park, so that was fun to see old friends, and of course we went out for treats afterwards.

(blurry shot, but they were having fun playing rock band)

Friday was a bit more mellow of a family day with everyone home, and we went to lunch with my mom and Davis' at a new Asian buffet on University Avenue, and then as a family we went to see Tron Legacy in 3D at the theater.  Noah really enjoyed that outing.

Saturday we had a total home day - PJ's all day - we all enjoyed the family "down time". My mom was here and it was just nice to have no pressure. We all needed some R&R after crazy weeks.

Sunday was back to busy activity with meeting and then we had a skating party that Ms Percy had set up for Wooddale - a nice crowd showed up. Lots of Noah's friends were there, and lots of mine too.  It was fun to catch up with everyone and watch the skating and game playing and good association. 

Pic from Bee's camera of the moms

Monday was back to work for me and Brent, but Noah and my mom got another mellow home day!! Enjoyable for them (Noah really is a "homebody" and does love some down time).  Out to dinner after work and poof that day was gone.

Tuesday Noah and I had plans with a few friends to head out to Mall of America to Nickelodeon Studios.  Bethany had found $15 unlimited ride wristbands on Craigslist, so that was about half price for the kids to ride for hours.  Problem was the whole state was off of school, and I think a good portion of them were out there. The kids did have fun though, and thankfully at this age have a little more patience for waiting in long ride lines. Us moms had fun chatting while waiting for the kids to get through the rides.  Lunch was interesting at the food court too - having to stalk to get a table - what chaos.  The day was fun overall though.  It was me and Noah and Beth and Sophia and Danika and Renee and Sam (Tori and Mary were out there too, but on their own). We had meeting that night and Noah had a sleepover at Grammy Mary's so that was a long fun day. 

Log Chute - they rode and got wet a couple of times

The new Lego Store was open! (the boys were excited)

Beth took a shot of our crazy lunch table.

Wednesday while Brent and I worked, Noah had a fun day with his Grammy.  She had been working for many days straight with the holidays at Bachman's so she was ready for a Noah day.   Lots of running and some time spent at the library and some other errands.  Noah had fun in the snow too, and then we had a nice family dinner before we went and picked up Sam for an overnight.  I think the boys finally fell asleep around 1 a.m.  Too much fun to be had to want to sleep (at least for Noah - Sam likes his sleep and was trying to talk Noah into slumber around midnight).  They had talked big the night before about getting up early and playing in the snow, but alas, sleepy eyes took over and I had to keep waking them to try to get them up in time to eat breakfast before we headed out for our bowling party at PINZ on Thursday morning.  We had a great time - around 20 kids bowled (Noah, Sam, Lance, Bryce, Turner, Camden, Joe, Sophia, Alyssa, Hannah, Azaria, Elena, Kira, Jade, Danika, Emma, Selah, Coco (with help from Elsa), Abi and Nile plus us older chaperons hanging out chatting and snacking.  Thanks to everyone for making that a successful day - many fun memories and kid pictures (thanks for sharing your pics too Bee!).  Everyone did well and was good sports, even the younger ones in the group did really well and kept up. 

Sam stayed for the day and then he went home for dinner and meeting and I crashed. ;-)  Today - Friday has been a nice home day with Brent running a few errands and take care of home business and Noah slept until like 11:20 to make up for the lack of sleep on Wednesday night. It all evens out. Time to reset and we are having one more sleepover tomorrow night with Lance and Bryce coming over and then Sunday night we are preparing to get back for a "normal" week again. I think I'm glad School is back on Monday.  We had a nice time though, and our "staycation" was memorable.  On to a new year! I can't believe this one is wrapping up tonight - time flies when we're having fun!

Jen

Big MN Blizzard 12/11/2010

So apparently this winter will be a heaping helping of the white winter stuff!  It started a little early this year, and then we got a HUGE dump on Friday night/Saturday 12/11.  Most people were snowed in for at least a while, and of course streets were an adventure. Commuting the following week was a joke - 2 hours was not uncommon.  Good grief.  These are the times I think my friends that moved to FL had the right idea (except they were also complaining about 30 degree evening temps, so I guess it was rough all over. Of course Noah loves it- the best winter ever as far as he is concerned. We have a huge plow mountain in our front yard that is just screaming - SNOW FORT to an 8 year old.  Uncle Cody also showed him the fun of being tossed into snowbanks that are way bigger than him...a new winter sport I guess...now Dad has to "Noah toss" evenings when he gets home from work - good thing N isn't any bigger at this point - that is a back-breaking sport!

A few shots of the depth of our Winter at this point:

It started slowly...

Deck filling up...

Had to shovel a path for the pup...

This was AFTER I had shoveled once to make a path on the deck for the dog and then it filled in again.

Let me in!

 First version of our snow mound - more to come with the street plows.

how tall these snow drifts got! it is crazy - this is at Brent's mom's.

snow play (no coats required)

needing a clothes drier now!

Winter fun to be continued....



Catching up!

Ok, so the blogging idea is my great idea, and then I'm not so great at taking time to update. So sorry!!! So tonight is catch up time!  Lots has happened from September to December, so hitting a few picture highlights of Fall/Winter memories...time flies when we are having fun!

September was back to school busy, and then we had a garage sale late in the month (or Garage Sale Party as Noah calls it.) Yah, not so great at picking a good weather weekend...brrrr did it get cold! and rainy. It is funny how people still certainly do come out in bad weather for a sale...you can tell who the "die hards" are.  And when we would get a downpour, people just stayed longer and chatted...it is amazing what people share at a garage sale...kind of a study in personalities! The joke of the weekend was trying to get rid of a "free" chair.  Everyone that came once we started getting desperate to move it out we would try to get them to take it. Free chair with that pair of shoes!  Oh - you brought your truck, great, let us help you get your new chair into it! LOL - I think we were getting punchy.

Free to Good Home... ;-)

We also had congregation picnic on 9/25 at Lake Elmo Park Reserve.  We had great turn out, and it was a decent fall day.  A little brisk, but everyone enjoyed themselves. Lots of good food, good friends and good fun. It was organized by Stepowoys and Malms with quite a few additional helpers with different aspects of the picnic.  We had a scavenger hunt for all the kids, Florence got a commemorative clock for her many years of pioneer service, Susie did facepainting and balloon animals. There was bocce ball and baseball and playground play, and of course cards, snacks and good conversations.  I didn't take that many pictures, but many who did take pictures sent them in and we received a fun video picture movie of all the memories of the day (Nicole put it together and it turned out really fun).

On October 2nd, the Beckers were so nice and invited a group to join them at Fawn-Doe-Rosa in Wisconsin just across from Taylors Falls.  We met up at their house to form arranged car groups for caravaning. Once there we got in and puchased bags of food to feed all the critters we would see.  They all loved the food bags...they are pretty tame animals there, and especially the deer would come and eat from your hand. A little taste of paradise in the valley where the deer were wandering and were happy to be petted and fed.  The geese and ducks would follow us around to be fed, and the little goats would try to eat the bottoms of your back out to try to get an extra large treat quantity.  We had a really nice variety of people, and the kids all had a fun day of many many pics and smiles and petting.  We all went back to Beckers for a wonderful dinner and more association.  It was a fun day for everyone!

On Oct 16th we made a very spontaneous trip out to Mall of America to surprise Noah to see Big Time Rush performing out there. They are a "boy band" from a show on Nickelodeon channel that he really likes. The place was packed.  Lots of kids all wanting to see the boys.  Many had gotten wristbands from buying the CD out at the mall, but that meant you had to wait in a huge queue (many not even visible to see the concert) and then wait there for hours to meet and get signatures.  Yah, we weren't in for that, so we headed up to a higher floor where we could see the performance from near the railing.  Scads of kids and parents everywhere.  It is a good thing that we kind of like their music since it was quite an ordeal. But they put on a good little free show,and Noah was happy for an unexpected treat.  Recently we found out they filmed that concert and it is now part of their Big Night video- kind of cool.  We walked around for a little bit and he brought some money and got himself a BTR shirt.

Later that same evening we went to spend a little time with our good friends the Hanson family. We enjoyed a nice bon fire in their back yard, and had a nice relaxing time just chatting. We had some hot dogs and smores on the fire, and the 3 kids got to play inside and out.  Good friends, good times -thanks guys!

We had a little storm excitement on 10/26 and I looked out the window and our gazebo was off the deck.  wow - that was a wind!!  Brent got home and we had to try to navigate getting that thing back up on the deck and straighened out.  Good thing a neighbor was also available to help us navigate and twist...hmmm...I didn't think October was tornado season?! LOL (ok it was just straighline winds, but wow.)

A few other random shots I found on my camera from fall/winter:

Not OUR pup, but Malm's newest addition - Sidney - totally cutenes!

We had our first snow fall, and it was a wet heavy one - our poor trees will never be the same.  I'll share our Blizzard 12/11/10 photos in a different entry.  There, now I feel more caught up! on with life!

Jen