Someone Has A New Elmo Shirt

Adeline has herself a brand spanking new Elmo shirt...and we all know how much she loves her Elmo shirts.  Thanks Grandma Ellen!

And as payback for me taking like a hundred pictures of her each and every day, once in a while she insists that I let her snap a photo of me.  Here's the one she took tonight.  Not too bad for a 2 year old photographer!

A First Place Book Cover

Careline entered an optional contest at her school in which she had to create a book cover for one of her favorite books.  She chose Ramona and Beezus by Beverly Cleary.  In typical Careline fashion, she put a lot of time and creativity in to her work and her efforts paid off as today she was announced as the 3rd Grade 1st place winner!  The girl was so excited that her Teacher let her use the phone to call me and tell me the good news.

How Bout' Them Gophers

Fans stormed the court in celebration after tonight's HUGE 77-73 victory over #1 ranked Indiana.

Buddy - The Ladies Man

It's not a secret that Braden and Lily have been "an item" since they were in diapers (literally), but there appears to now be another girl hoping to make her way into Buddy's heart.

Today as I was cleaning I came upon a pile of notes (hey...he left them out, I wasn't snooping around!) and I found this one to be rather cute...

If deciphering 2nd grade handwriting isn't your forte, let me translate it for you:

Braden wrote to Erika - What's your favorite thing in the world?
Erika's response - You

Can't blame the girl....I mean, who really could resist this face???

A Warm Welcome Home

I arrived home tonight after being away for two nights for work and was greeted with the sweetest welcome home sign made for me by my dear Daughters.  Awwwwww.

Life Is Just Better When You Have Painted Nails

PBS...It's Not Just For Sesame Street Anymore

I absolutely love the PBS hit DOWNTON ABBEY!  If you haven't seen it, it's a British period drama series set in the Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey.  It depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their many servants.  The show has deservedly received critical acclaim and has won numerous accolades as it is absolutely fantastic.  

The Season 3 finale aired last night and if you missed it and would still like to check it out you're in luck.  Season 1 is available on Netflix and all three seasons can be streamed free of charge to your computer.  I actually only started watching the show myself 2 weeks ago and have already caught up on 3 seasons...that's how very good it is..you just can't stop watching!

Daddy's Biggest Fans

Yesterday the kids resurrected the sign they made last year to cheer on Daddy and Uncle David's broomball team and we headed over to St Paul to watch them play.  Daddy scored the lone Polecat goal of the game which unfortunately was not enough and their season came to an end.

Pat made it through this year of broomball injury-free though...so I'd say it was a successful season!

Grandpa Jerry's Birthday

Today would have marked Grandpa Jerry's 76th and oh how he loved to celebrate!  The day will most certainly will not be the same this year but the family will be gathering for a good meal at Axel's where we will undoubtedly share happy memories of Grandpa Jer.

Here's a clip from Grandpa's 75th birthday party.  So many of his friends and family were in attendance and Grandpa thoroughly enjoyed himself that day.

Happy Valentines Day!

Ash Wednesday

Another Field Trip

I'm certainly getting to go to lots of cool places with the kids this year. This morning I chaperoned Careline's class on their visit to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. I don't know if the kids appreciated seeing these original works of art like the Vincent Van Gogh painting that Careline is standing in front of...but I sure did.

Visitors From Texas

My Mom's friends Dick and Pat are in town from Texas for a long-weekend visit.  It's always wonderful to see these two dear people and as an added bonus, Pat cooked us up a most delicious fried chicken dinner with the help of her assistant Grandma Ginger.  Notice the cute matching aprons worn by the cooks...created especially for the occasion by my crafty Mother.

Braden's First Reconciliation

Buddy walked in to church this morning a sinner but was able to exit an hour later absolved of all of his sins by the Father after saying his First Confession and doing his penance of reciting 3 Our Father's 2 Hail Mary's and 1 Glory Be.

Pat wasn't able to be with us this morning as Careline had a basketball game...so I texted him this photo as we exited church along with the caption "Officially sin-free"...to which my dear Husband promptly resplied, "I'm sure not for long".  Probably true, probably true.  

Field Trip!

This morning I'm joining Buddy and his classmates on a field trip. As I write this we are on a bus en route to a play in St Paul about Ruby Bridges...should be fun!

The Dells - Day 3

The kids and I got about an hour of water park fun in this morning while Dad and Grandma packed everything up. Sure glad Grandma was able to join us this time...we all had a great time.

Day 2 In The Dells

 

 It's Day 2 of our trip and as always we continue to have a fabulous time here in The Dells.  We spent the morning at the wave pool, my personal favorite of the many waterparks located within this complex.  The kids (well, mainly Careline) talked Grandma Ellen in to riding raft rides not once, not twice, not even three times...but 4 times!  Even I don't really like to ride these scary rides because it's so dark inside those tubes and the turns and dropoffs seem to come out of nowhere.  Grandma Ellen was a trooper though...but you can tell by the look on her face in the next photo that she didn't exactly love it.  What a Grandmother won't do for the love of her Grandchildren!

Pat thought it would be a good idea to take Adeline down that same raft ride.  She was clearly NOT impressed! 

While she didn't like the big slides...she found one later in the day that she went down continuously for more than an hour straight.  All of that playing really wore her out.  She ate her spaghetti dinner tonight and then literally passed out on her chair.  I do believe this is the first time in her lifetime that she may be down for the count by 7 pm.  Thank You Wisconsin Dells!

Wisconsin Dells

We are back at one of our favorite vacation spots...The Wisconsin Dells..and this time we brought Grandma Ellen along. 

Everyone had fun on Day 1 floating around on the lazy river.  Careline and Daddy  went down The Hurricane (yes it's as scary as it sounds), but the rest of us had a nice relaxing first day of vacation.

Oh Thank God...they sell Coors Light in the Dells!

 

 

And if you're looking for a photo of me, you're out of luck.  You're just gonna have to trust that I looked like a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model in my suit today (wink wink).

How Low Can We Go???