Twins

We ended our summer with a trip to the Minnesota Twins baseball game this past weekend. I was looking forward to taking the kids. Both are into the game and know stats, plays, and players. I talked Mike into spending the money on decent seats....I was tired of sitting in the nose-bleed section only squinting at the field when people started clapping because that was the only way to know something was happening.

The kids made signs to hold up in between innings. We had a good time trying to get the cameras to notice them!

Can you tell who Noah's favorite players are? I thought they turned out great!

We enjoyed Dome dogs, mini-doughnuts, pretzels with cheese, and sunflower seeds.

Our All-Star Joe Mauer

TC the mascot

We will forever miss you Kirby

BACK TO SCHOOL! I started today with three days of teacher work-shop this week and then we ALL officially start back the day after Labor Day.

I already miss my leisurely summer.

20 years

Last weekend I was invited (and helped plan) a 20th high school reunion. It was not a reunion for me. I am not that old. The people, however, did look oddly very familiar.

It was a weekend event starting with a trip to Ye Old Beer Gardens at our local county fair. I did not attend this because Mike and I took the kids out there that night to go on the rides. Saturday started with a family picnic at a local park and finished with a get-together at the local VFW.

A group of about 20 of us met for dinner before the evening festivities began. It was the only place I took pictures. I am regretting it now, but I did not at the time.

Stacy and Michael

Lisa and Rob

Lisa (she just had twins) and Cindy (due with her 4th ANY SECOND!)

Julie and Allison (pregnant with baby #3!)

Mike and I

Joe and Lisa

Lisa, Shelly, Tammy

I had such a great time. I will admit. I was dreading going. I was hoping for some kind of illness that would prevent me from going, that's how bad I didn't want to go to this! And then I went and had the best time ever! We laughed, we danced and danced (does it get any better than 80's music?), and I saw people I hadn't seen since graduation.

Between the fair all week and this reunion, we were quite tired Sunday night. Good thing I have a couple of weeks before those 5:30 wake-up calls officially start.

Purple #4

Brett Favre is a Minnesota Viking!

I am quite happy. Favre has already said that his main reason for coming to the Vikings is because he thinks they can win a Superbowl....and he wants to win the Superbowl this year. Well then I say....WELCOME TO PURPLE!

Do I care that he played for our rival, the Green Bay Packers?

No. He's a good person, he's a great player....I don't care where he's been. I never talked smack about him, I have always liked him. It's just the poopy Packers I don't like. Ha!

Do I care that he held-out so he didn't have to go through training camp?

No, he's BRETT FAVRE for goodness sakes. He knows the offense inside and out, or so I understand after listening to news reports all day. Apparently the Vikings offensive coordinator is someone Favre has worked with for years.

Do I feel a little sorry for Jackson?

Yes. BUT, just think how much he will learn while working with someone of Favre's caliber for even one season. Plus, it's not like he lost his job.

October 5th the Vikings play the Packers in a Monday night game. Holy Smokes. Can you imagine what those tickets will go for? I might have to take that Tuesday following off of work to recover.

Brett Favre + Adrian Peterson = Superbowl!

Gosh he looks good in purple, don't you think?

The Dells 2009

We had such a great time in Wisconsin Dells this year! We can really tell that that kids are growing up. Both can swim well and we spend less time following them around and more time lounging in the sun...bonus! In fact, we spent more time babysitting the stupid camera than we did the kids. (It's the only downfall to hauling along the good camera) Don't get me wrong, we didn't let them out of our sights....but didn't have to be in the water with them every single second.

We announced to the kids that we had a surprise for them the night before. I took Stacey's advice and created a scavenger hunt for them. Great idea Stacey! There were two clues at each station, one that gave the next clue and another that was a clue to save until the end of the hunt. These second clues would help the kids figure out what the surprise was.

Putting the clues together.

Reaction to figuring it out!

We arrived in The Dells around 4:00 and checked into our room. We didn't waste much time, and changed into our suits and hit the water parks. The Wilderness had changed a lot since we had been there last and it now has four outdoor/indoor water parks, an outdoor zip line, an indoor wave pool, and bumper boats! We visited three of the four parks on the first night and the kids also road the bumper boats.

After playing in the sun all day Saturday (imagine me sipping a cocktail, while lying on the lounger, listening to great music through the pool-side speakers, while watching the kids swim) we decided to get cleaned up and go downtown for dinner. In all the years of coming to the Dells, we have never been fortunate to find good food at any of the restaurants we tried. This time I decided to check Trip Advisor to see if we could find somewhere decent to eat. We decided to try the #1 rated restaurant....High Rock Cafe. We were not disappointed. I had such a yummy Waldorf chicken salad with this maple apple dressing. YUM! Connor's pb&j was made like a grilled cheese with the bread nice and crispy, and the peanut butter all melty....oh.my.goodness. Afterwards we walked around and checked out all the neat little shops and candy stores.

The only time we have been to a drive-in movie was in WI Dells. I got all excited when Mike reminded me that we went to one there because I thought it would be a perfect way to end the weekend, plus I knew Connor didn't remember the drive-in last time because he was too little. However, the movies being shown were not kid movies. So, we had to skip that this year.

Also, both kids had two injuries at the park. Noah ripped part of his toenail off while running up the steps in the ball room and Connor gouged a chunk out of his while in one of the water parks. Not bad considering we have had to call an ambulance once before while visiting a water park in MN, and have been to the urgent care another time while at the Wilderness (which is right across the street from the resort, quite convenient.)

Lots of great memories were made this past weekend. Good times!

Need Some Creative Help

We are leaving tomorrow for WI Dells for a short two days. We have not told the kids. They are going to freak-out when they find out what we are doing.

How should we tell them? Any creative people out there? Someone from Honolulu visits quite often......do you have any ideas? Go ahead, leave a comment! It won't hurt and you are by far the most exotic lurker I have on this blog! All you people that visit and never comment, this is your chance to de-lurk. Trust me, it will make you feel good.

Have I mentioned I am terrified of big water slides? Oh, let's be honest.....I am terrified of all water slides. That slide above...I know I will be forced against my will to go on that thing. See that WARNING sign? It haunts me in my sleep.

The things I do for my children.

For The Love Of The Game

Another baseball season has come to an end. Connor finally finished t-ball (this level was tough for someone like Connor that has played ball with his brother since he could stand) and Noah completed his last season with a pitching machine, next year it's completely kid-pitched. Noah did get some pitching time in this season as they started the transition away from machine-pitch and allowed the kids to try it, if they wanted, for a couple of innings. Mike coached Noah this season and last night Connor got to play with the team. The opposing team didn't show up so the kids just split and played for fun.

I took a bunch of pictures to frame for the kids' rooms. Not sure how I will display them, but it was fun to mess with them today in Photoshop. I even got rid of a really ugly blue tarp that was in the most of the pictures!

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Noah loves playing short stop and first base. Last night, while playing short, he had a bare-handed snag and threw the runner out at first. I teased him he reminded me of Nick Punto. Noah has his favorite Minnesota Twins player and I have mine. I bet you can guess who my favorite player is. (I can't resist the scrappy, slightly-pudgy, always-sliding-head-first-into-every-base short stop)

It's hard to go all season without baseball. Maybe we should move to Florida.

Peace out,

LB

A Weekend in the Bedroom

Yes...Mike and I spent the WHOLE weekend painting in the kids' rooms.

What?

What did you think I meant by that title?

*****DISCLAIMER*****

All of the pictures in this post are taken with my old, yucky camera. I still have not bought a regular lens for my camera. My zoom lens obviously isn't conducive to taking photos in a small bedroom. Lots of odd sunlight shadows and flashes....don't say I didn't warn you.

Poor Connor has had the same room since we bought this house. I am embarrassed to say he was 6 months old when we moved here. I had changed a few pictures, added a few shelves, but the poor kid has generally suffered with this childish room for quite some time. Just ask him.

OK, I agree. The yellow screamed little kid, but I liked his name above his closet. He would not allow that back in his new room. I am still not happy about that.

He also was not diggin' this star rug. ***sigh***

Nor was he a fan of these charming black and white photos displayed on the shelf, taken by his mother. Ungrateful child. (Yes, that one on the left was taken in the tub.)

Here is the new and improved! We did pretty good, huh? I love the colors. I still need to get a new dust ruffle, and there are a couple of posters that need to be framed, but the hard part (painting) is done!

The new shelf display. Still a work in progress.

These are two of the black and whites I took to frame. The others I can not upload to blogger because I messed with them too much in Photoshop. Blogger doesn't recognize all those fixes....unless someone knows something I don't know!

Noah's room. I go into his room to gaze at his bedspread when I need something to cheer me up. I absolutely love it and it is SOOO his personality.

Another view with his shelf that houses his Lego masterpieces.

I am still working on more baseball photos to frame and other things for the walls, but that will come. I don't want it to be too "theme-y" so I am trying to pick and choose decorations wisely.

Minus a small, minor RED-PAINT-ON-THE-CARPET-SPILLAGE....things went pretty smoothly while painting this weekend. I wonder how long it will take for my body to recover?

Love, LB