Busy weekend

The weekend started on Friday night with a trip to the Y to go swimming with friends. After two hours of fun, the boys slept well.

Saturday we went to get cultured more by going here and seeing "Little House on the Prairie, the Musical". Everyone loved it. My favorite part was that Melissa Gilbert played "Ma". We hung out downtown for a bit to look at the new bridge and stuff. (I'm still learning how to use the camera on my phone, so the impromptu pictures I took were horrible)

Saturday evening our good Argentine friends came over for dinner and we had a lot of fun chatting all night. I have to admit dinner was delicious also. But nothing beats the homemade Tiramisu they brought.

Sunday, I finally have pictures, we went to a water park after church with friends. The kids loved playing in the water all day and the adults just chatted. There was a cool breeze, but what Minnesotan is going to complain about temps in the low 80's.

Lance at the top of the water slide.(what do you mean you can't see him?)

Lance at the bottom of the water slide. (Look in the water)

Liam smiling nicely. (I had to have at least one picture where you can see a kid)

I know maybe I should use my spare time to learn how to take better pictures. If you had seen me try to take 100+ takes of the boys learning how to dive this summer, you would know how terrible I am. I just can't do action shots I guess:)

Fall activities

Well fall has begun to really set in. The boys have been in school for 3 weeks already and this is good because outside activities are picking up. Tonight we split duties, Ryan took Liam to soccer practice and I took Lance to violin lessons. Soon we will be adding Confirmation class for Lance and Wed. church school for Liam. Lance starts his community orchestra after Labor Day also. With all of this running they still want to add swimming lessons to our week. Too bad for Ryan that I work evenings and he gets to do all the running.

Working is overrated

I just want to say that I am exhausted these days. I know boo hoo, but it gets worse. I am so tired because I am working ALMOST full time while I wait for my part time job to start. I worked 4 days a week the past two weeks and 3 days this week. I don't know how all of you full time working people do it. I can't even use the excuse that I clean or cook or anything.
You can make excuses for me, but I know that I'm just a wimp. Luckily I start back to work Sept.2nd and then I will be able to take a break.

Culture bribery

Last night I had to bribe my family into watching a good classic movie. Ryan and I are currently on a mission to watch all of the best picture Oscar winners from 1928 to present, we are on 1964. This mission collided with Friday Family Fun night, this is when we eat pizza in the living room and watch a family movie. We had ordered "Waterhorse" for the occasion, but Netflix had a rough week and it didn't get here on time. The only movie we had in the house (that was new) was our classic "My Fair Lady". I negotiated with the boys for over a half hour to watch the movie, finally resulting in a bribe of letting them go see the new Star Wars movie this weekend if they watched it. Lance finally gave in and he really enjoyed it. Liam held a silent protest through much of the movie, but it was silent, so I didn't care. Ryan is part of the mission so he enjoyed watching the movie, in fact he said he thinks he likes it better than "Sound of Music". That is my all time fave movie and he must be mistaken. In the end, mom got her way and the boys got some culture and it was a fun family night once again.
P.S. We read on line that they are going to do a new version with Keira Knightley and my whole family is excited to go see it now.

The Stroll

Last night we went to the Stroll for Epilepsy. The kids raised close to $1500 when all was said and done! It was 3 miles around the lake and the kids thought they should run. However, the 10 of us parents agreed that we were strolling and they needed to slow down. Because they couldn't set the pace they wanted, they decided to delight (annoy) everyone with cheers and chants. They were very well known by the end of the walk. The kids had a great time and they are ready to do it again next year. The only downer of the night was that Oliver had a seizure at one point and that ruined his fun for a few minutes. But what a trooper, we all stopped, he recovered and he just kept on walking! Thanks again for all of the support.

Here is the team picture before the walk. One boy was late, so he didn't make the picture unfortunately. Also a friend from school not on the team joined them to walk. The left half of the front row are the team siblings and they all walked (ran) the whole thing also!

The people you see in the very top of this picture are our kids. Then there is a small group of adults keeping track of those kids. I took this picture from the spot of the third wave of adults. I must have yelled "slow down" about a hundred times last night.

Break time! This is a little past the halfway mark. They are still smiling.Finally the end of the walk. They sat down and took a much deserved break.

I love reading blogs

My sister in law just started a blog today to keep friends and family informed and it made me reflect on how much I love reading blogs. I love keeping in touch with old friends from the military and college. I love sharing the big events in their lives and the every day fun. I love meeting new people that I have something in common with. I also like learning from blogs, this is my favorite idea lately. And there are some blogs that just put me to shame because the blogger is so perfect, but I really enjoy reading anyway. These are just a few of the blogs that I visit on a daily basis. I just want to say thank you to everyone for sharing your highs and your lows, I look forward to more adventures.

First Day of School