church night

Ezekiel had a lovely event this evening.  The confirmation kids hosted s family fun night.  The kids played games and got a lot of candy.  A was one of the game hosts so didn't get to eat much candy.  I think he will survive...he is going trick or treating tomorrow night.

pumpkin carving

Brad and I have been busy carving pumpkins--actually, Brad has been carving, I have been doing some scooping and also pumpkin seed roasting.  The kids don't really enjoy the insides of the pumpkin and K announced that she will make her kids do it when she is a Mom.  I thought that was pretty funny...

my pumpkin--really hard to carve

Brad's

A's

O's

K's

lucky

Lovely Abby Rae Blomgren has just celebrated her lucky #13 on October 24.  Happy birthday sweet girl.

chicago

On Friday evening, I hosted twelve ladies at our home for a pre-play glass of wine and hors de vours.  We went to the play Chicago on the UWRF campus.  It was a really nice evening and it was wonderful to have Grandma Betty make the food, the kids to go out to dinner with her, have Julie and Sarah stop by early to help get prepped and for the onslaught of women to come and enjoy one anothers' company.  The play was fun, but the pre and post play was even more enjoyable. 

pheasant hunter

Brad just called to report that pheasant hunting has been a little lean this year.  The birds are hanging out in the unharvested corn, so I don't know how many pheasants will be in our freeze, but I know he is having a restorative trip with his buddies. 

partay day

Yesterday our family attended two Halloween bashes.  The Mitchell's had a great party at their lovely home in the country and the Harer's had a great party at their welcoming home in town.  O made it through the first party and then stayed home with Grandma Betty while A, K and I dressed up and went to the Harer's.  We stayed until about 9:30 and returned home and retired shortly thereafter. 

The wind, the cold and the excitement tuckered us out!  It was a grand old day though.

leaves hanging on

I'm not positive, but I think the late Spring is making the trees hang onto their leaves this year.  It has been windy, but the leaves are just clinging to the trees and some of them are still green!  We feel like we should be raking, but with all the leaves still up there, I believe we will wait until there are more leaves on the ground than on the trees.

activity Friday

Middle School is much more challenging as far as academics goes.  Pretty rigorous rubrics, hard numbers and accountability increase.  Last Friday, A was able to enjoy Activity Friday.  He loved playing video games in the afternoon but there were rootbeer floats for sale, basketball games and dance to enjoy.  I think he is starting to really enjoy the change. 

calm to home

I brought the new theory gleaned from the classroom to life at home and it's pretty exciting to see the productivity of our family today on a day of chores, relaxing and recharging.  K has been super productive and is looking forward to a little pampering from Grandma and Mom at 2pm.  Great times.

calm

The coordinator of the school came and observed our classroom last Thursday morning during morning meeting.  It was really great to have a Montessori trained person come in and make suggestions.  I am a pretty animated person and can be quite loud at times.  Nate had great insight into being more calm and having a more modulated voice. 

I practiced on Friday and it was miraculous at how much calmer the class operated.  I don't think it will always happen, but I think if I keep it in mind, we won't have as many challenging loud behaviors. 

struggling team

The Vikings are having a very tricky year.  Last Sunday was another day of lean playing.  Hopefully we can pull something together today and find a win. 

Another week of flying

Life goes quickly and another week is behind us.  On Friday, October 18, we celebrated our neighbor July's 23rd birthday.  She made a delicious tres leches cake and we sang her Happy Birthday.  It was an honor to be invited to her party.  A had attended the High School football game and watched the Wildcats win.  It was a nice end to the week. 

high school football

Tonight, A asked to go to the Wildcats football game and wanted to hang out with his buddies.  First time that we are dropping him off at a High School event.  He has my phone to call when the game is over.  I'm sure he will have a blast!

By the way, the moon is full and lovely this evening.  What a night for some football!

fun at Luther Point

A and Brad went to a confirmation retreat at Luther Point this weekend.  They both had a great time and here are some photos from the retreat:

green

This summer, our friend Mike asked us if he could take some photos of our garden and our neighbor's solar panels in the background.  Brad is on the cover shot of River Falls Municipal Utilities...cool!

photos scanned

Here we are!  Happy and ready for a GREAT school year!  I love A's expression--so excited!

Lucky streak ends

The Tuesday after a long weekend is tough..the great day streak ended.  Hopefully it won't be too long until another.

Friendship Day

Parent teacher conferences on Monday, then to the University to turn in all of my employee stuff and I made dinner for one of the first times all school year.  Felt great to be normal.

playdate

K  had a playdate with her friend Kally.  I prepped for the week and then we headed to the 4H meeting.  After the meeting, we went to RF Family Restaurant, grocery shopping and then hoke to watch a movie.  I did what my Mom always used to do.  Fall asleep.

final game

They played the number 1 team in the league and scored a touchdown.  The season is over, but heads should be held high.  Way to go wolves!

3 great days

I don't know if I'm improving my teaching or if I'm just plain lucky.  The last 3 days have been terrific!  On Friday our class cleaned up the garden and had a nice little botany lesson.  Now a nice weekend for Brad and A to go to Luther Point for a confirmation retreat.

heater

So we have broken down and have turned on the furnace a few mornings...59 degrees was a bit too drastic!

school photos

I am hoping to get our school photos scanned soon to share how grown up the kids look.  A looks pretty excited in his photo and I look kind of goofy.  They will be fun photos to share with friends and family ;)

busy boy

O has been growing so much lately.  Tonight we went to the library and he went running to the computers, put on the headphones and tried to start the book, The Tortoise and the Hare on the desktop computer.  My friend Dawn saw him sitting there and couldn't believe he was that big.  When you see someone every day, you don't see the changes, but he is growing up for sure.

siriously

happy birthday Siri Olson!  You are now the magic number 7.  Wishing you rainbows and happiness this year and every year to come.

meekend

Last weekend was a me weekend.  Brad took the kids up north after A's football game on Saturday.  They won the game in overtime and now their record is 2 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie.  This weekend is the last football game of the season.  It will be good to see who they face in the final game.

Anyway, Brad and the kids headed north and I spent the rest of the day on Saturday and almost all day Sunday in the classroom getting ready for the week of teaching.  I did watch two movies as well--Silver Linings Playbook and SafeHaven.  Two fun movies.  I cleaned the house and everything still looked the same when I was finished.  It was kind of nice.

It was nice to see the family after a long weekend, but it was really nice to have some me time.

15

Our handsome, funny, charming and overall wonderful nephew Evan Lee B is 15.  I'm wordless.  I can't even fathom that he is edging in on adulthood.

Happy birthday none the less.

winterizing

The last two days have been quite grey and wet.  Brad has been busying winterizing the house by putting windows on our screened porch.  I am very proud of his work and impressed that he has the ingenuity to make it work.  I am eager to see how the end result.

field trip

A went on an all day field trip on Wednesday to a nature reserve in Northern Wisconsin.  He had a great time and couldn't believe that his class was away from school for an entire day.  Such is the life of a 6th grader.

gymnastics

K has been attending classes for about 2 years and is getting quite accomplished at gymnastics.  Her energy and enthusiasm is so infectious.  I hope she can stick with it and stay healthy and strong for many years to come.

monday morning

I have been putting in about 15 miles per week at Anytime Fitness and this week I decided to switch up my workout routine and go in the morning.  It was mighty early and I haven't done it again, but it felt really great to have my workout done before school.

cleaning day

It had been a really long time since I had a chance to thoroughly clean our castle.  Bruce was coming for a few days to work with Brad so I thought it was time to get cleaned up.  It's amazing what housecleaning can do for the soul.  The house looks nice and I feel so much cleaner as well.

I will just have to remember that for next time it gets as dirty as it was last week.

fast forward one week

I'm able to post again!  Last weekend was a whirlwind and the week had the same effect.  Saturday A played football and they are now 1-2-1.  They played the Mueller/Noreen team and Peter was on FIRE!  He had a great game.  A was ok with the result, but I could tell he was disappointed.  On Saturday evening, I joined some friends for a play in Minneapolis and went out for dancing.  It was fun to be with friends and let loose a little.

It was also great to get home to sleeping kids (A babysat K) and get my lesson ready for class the next day.