Trick or treat........

I mean seriously, how is a person supposed to pick from this? What do you all think? Vote for your favorite in the voting box to the left of these pictures! It'll be good practice for November's election!

Another day, another adventure!

Another great weekend! Saturday was spent, much to the chagrin of the girls, trolling local car lots looking for just the right new vehicle for me to roll around in. Unfortunately, after hours of looking, we came up empty. The girls were good sports though and a buzz through the Dairy Queen drive thru and a stop at Frank Olsen park made it all worthwhile.

Today we had Mass and our church picnic. Jason's sister and brother-in-law, Maria and Joel, recently opened Gavin's Garden, an apple orchard, at their house near Parker and hosted the picnic. For those of you in the area, you really must check it out. Hours are 3 or 4-7 during the week and they are open on Saturdays also. We, being such city slickers, don't get out into the country much and I have to tell you, I felt like I was on the prairie with Ma, Pa and Half Pint. This place is the real deal; a country store with caramel apples, homemade pies and other assorted apple and pumpkin related goodies, hay mounds, swimming pools filled with corn and soybeans and lots of animals (You may notice Grace absent in the pictures with the animals. She prefers to be an observer more than a participant when it comes to animals.) As you can see by the pictures, everyone had a real "Hay Day" and the girls were plum tuckered out (see, I do have a little country girl in me)!

***FYI-The picture of Grace and the other girl is from her rollerskating party on Monday night. For those of you who were wondering, she had a great time. Spent equal amounts of time on the floor and on the wheels but in her own words "I can't even explain to you how much fun that was. Of course, she spoke those words in a monotone and with a completely straight face, but that is Grace.

****Another FYI-Prior to the picnic, Jason tapped into his inner Evel Knievel and took Cliff's new motorcycle for a spin. Hopefully this ride on the wild side quenched his thirst for a motorcycle rather than just whetting it!

Anyway, good night and Happy Fall to Y'all!

Reunited and it feels so good.....

Well, except for the slight headache, the fuzzy feeling in my brain all day yesterday and the aches and pains that are of unknown origin. For those of you who were not there or hadn't heard, it was my 15 year class reunion this Saturday! Of course, class reunions are always somewhat anxiety ridden. "What to wear?", "Who is going to be there?", "Are there any remaining hard feelings from any old high school rivalries?" and "Have I made a sufficiently successful life for myself that I don't feel like a complete failure?" are all questions that ran through my mind. Like usual, there was no need for any worries! It so much fun to see everyone, many of whom I haven't seen since our 10 year reunion. Lots of good beer, good music (no matter what JBK thought) and good friends obviously add up to a great time! It's funny to see that even though circumstances in lives change, the people themselves really don't change much. From my perspective, which may have been slightly skewed (especially more towards the end of the evening), most everyone seems pretty much the same as I remember and I would guess people would say I am pretty much the same as I always was. Thanks to Lee for hosting and Wegner for planning! They did a terrific job! Here's looking forward to the 20 year. It could very well be that long before I feel like drinking again! (Although I wasn't the one requesting an ice pack yesterday morning either so maybe I wasn't the worst off!-Sorry Sheila, I had to say it)!

***Notice in the pictures, we were able to get a decent picture of all the classmates but could not pull it together when it was just us girls. I mean seriously, we took about 30 and there wasn't a single decent shot so I picked the best of the worst.

Other events of the incredibly busy weekend was a laugh filled lunch at Encore Cafe in STJ with Melissa, Tanya and Julie, an awesome supper of Jakes Pizza and Joshy (who rode in on his white horse and saved the day by babysitting so that his brother, sister and their respective spouses were able to enjoy a night of debauchery) and the kids had an, by all accounts, awesome sleepover complete with homemade malts and the requiste popcorn.

Another main event of the weekend was visiting Mom in the hospital. She had surgery on Wednesday and we headed to Mankato on Sunday to bring a little of our sunshine to her. I think she was happy to see us, although that could just because Dad has been the main fixture next to her bed and we all know how trying that must be. She looked great, was getting around with ease and the girls were impressed by the big incision going down the middle of her abdomen. I guess she wanted to show us all up by preparing for Halloween early with those staples. There's no way I can top that!

So, tonight we are busy again and then I am looking forward to the rest of the week being very slow and boring. I am definitely in need of that. Ella has her first "friend" birthday party tonight at Backyard Adventures for her friend, Lily. This is extremely confusing for our Lily. She was totally pumped on Friday when I said we needed to go to Target to get a present for "Lily" and then totally let down when she figured out she wasn't the "Lily" that was going to be on the receiving end of the present. Ah the highs and lows of a two year old. Grace is going to hit up the legendary Sioux Falls establishment, Carousel Skate for a school sponsored skating party. Apparently the fact that she doesn't know how to roller skate is irrelevant. I was given a glimpse into the terrifying future of her adolescence and the equally frightening past of MY adolescence when she just informed me that she and her friend Casey have coordinated their outfits and are going to wear the same thing tonight! How interesting to me that I spent the weekend celebrating my high school years and tonight she is making small steps towards her. Talk about full circle!

Around the world in 80 days....

We had a great Labor Day holiday weekend, focusing heavily on the holiday and not so much on the labor. Friday morning we shoved off with the Minnesota Zoo as our destination. After a remarkably calm and quiet drive, we arrived and met with with Sheila, Austin and Emma. Upon entering the zoo grounds, I was immediately taken back to fourth grade (STJ's field trip) minus the school bus ride and the incredibly complex romantic entanglements and angst of fourth graders :). The weather for the zoo was perfect, nice and warm but a slight breeze to cool us down at just the right moment. We saw lots of cool animals, walked a lot and overall, just enjoyed ourselves. After a not so quick stop at two of the gift shops (resulting in two glass penguins, one sippy cup and three hand held fans), we were on our way to our 2nd stop on the tour, the Chanhassen AmericInn. The kids made short work of some Dominos pizza and hit the pool. For the majority of our almost four hour swim-a-thon, the pool belonged to us. Lily was making birthday cakes in the hot tub, Grace and Austin dove for diving sticks and Emma just ran full speed ahead into the pool over and over again. Sheila and the kids took off and the girls put on their PJ's and hopped into bed. Our three little monkeys were all snuggled in bed and then.....one fell out and bumped her head, Ella, of course. Saturday morning the first words out of her mouth were "You know what, I falled out of bed". Jason and I got a good chuckle out of that but were quickly reprimanded that "That's not funny!" although I would argue that since she wasn't injured in the least bit, it really was actually pretty funny.

A trip through the continental breakfast room and another dip in the pool and onto Austin's birthday party. Hot cha-chas's and Mom's spanish rice, what more does a person need? In keeping with the rest of our trip, we all had a very lovely time and then it was time to head to St. James for the evening. We swung by the obvious choice for supper, Jakes Pizza, and then hunkered down at Mom and Dad's. The girls took a few trips around the four wheeler track and were ready for bed. The planned fishing trip with Papa to STJ lake was derailed due to the bait shop being closed so the park was a sufficiently enjoyable replacement. Also on the Sunday schedule was Jason's appointment to Breet's Boutique. Luckily Grandma was able to squeeze Jason in for a haircut because his head was seriously beginning to resemble a haystack. With Jason's hair back under control, we were back on the road headed for home. Jason and I both felt like we had been gone forever and couldn't believe it had only been two days that we had been gone.

The weekend was capped off on Monday with lawn care, garage cleaning, grocery shopping, a trip to Target so the girls could use their gift cards (they got charm bracelets for anyone who was wondering) and a BBQ feed at Jason's sister, Nicole's house. The girls played with their cousins and Jason and I fed our faces. As you can imagine, after all of this excitement, the girls were definitely ready for bed and fell asleep moments after laying their weary heads down. I guess you could call it a pretty successful weekend! So, thanks to all who contributed to the fun we had and for those who didn't, we missed you!