happy halloween!

Tonight is very frigid, but we managed to get out for a little tricks and treats. Our Katie is still out with her friend, Maggie. We ran into her one time in our time of trooping around the neighborhood.

Katie the pirate...outfit from Treasures

Star Lord aka Mr. Wil

Osten's master chief pumpkin

my kitty cat pumpkin

Brad's pumpkin (carved by Katie)

Anders' pumpkin (carved by Katie)

Katie's pumpkin (carved by Katie)

our pumpkin gutting/carving session. 

tricks or treats in the residence halls

On Monday evening, Osten, Wil, Maggie, Michelle, Rose of Sharon and I went to the UW River Falls campus to trick or treat in the residence halls. We had a blast and Osten spent much of the time flirting and interacting with the college students. He is such a ham!

getting some much needed nourishment before our big walk to campus

here we are in the halls

wearing red for Reformation Sunday!

Today our church was teeming with red wearers all related to the Reformation of Christianity!

Here is the story of Luther from history.com

Born in Eisleben, Germany, in 1483, Martin Luther went on to become one of Western history’s most significant figures. Luther spent his early years in relative anonymity as a monk and scholar. But in 1517 Luther penned a document attacking the Catholic Church’s corrupt practice of selling “indulgences” to absolve sin. His “95 Theses,” which propounded two central beliefs—that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds—was to spark the Protestant Reformation. Although these ideas had been advanced before, Martin Luther codified them at a moment in history ripe for religious reformation. The Catholic Church was ever after divided, and the Protestantism that soon emerged was shaped by Luther’s ideas. His writings changed the course of religious and cultural history in the West.

stranger things

So my daughter spent the day on our little sofa binge watching Stranger Things...I was at a math grant meeting and am trying not to be extremely envious. I can wait, I know I can ;).

wacky tacky day

Our school hosted Wacky Tacky Day today. The kids were pretty riled up as we experienced our first snow of the season and were dressed pretty crazy all day.

front row: Sara, Abby, Chantel
back row: me, Maggie, Michelle, Katie and Mitch

I arrived home and it was much the same...really riled up Osten and Katie.

first place!

Last night, our staff went out to celebrate one of our amazing paraprofessionals who is moving onto other career opportunities at the university. As we were out, we realized our friend, Karyn was going to be leading trivia at the place where we were eating.

We stayed for trivia, played under the name "Moon boots" in honor of our sweet Anders Cole. One of the other players on my team was a school counselor at Greenwood and MMS and was enchanted by our ACO and his flair for dramatic, genuine funny nature and his affinity for wearing his winter boots all day long when we was an 8th grader at Meyer Middle School. As you can tell from the title of my post, our team placed first and were awarded a $30 gift certificate for appetizers at Juniors...I hope we can make a repeat appearance soon because it was sure a lot of fun!

blast from the past

On a social media website, I had posted this photo six year ago. It popped up on my newsfeed. I paused as I saw the angelic beauty of our sweet then 5 year old with her friend, Maddox doing a sheet about their 5 senses. I love my tiny beauty.

night out at Swinging Bridge

We went to dinner at the Swinging Bridge last Friday night. It was the two younger kids, Brad and I. The kids really loved the homemade soda and we enjoyed some locally brewed beers. Thanks family!

picking pumpkins and applesi

picking a golden crisps from the Maple Leaf Orchard

hayride to go pick apples

Momma and son

Osten and I had fun going to pick apples at the Maple Leaf orchard on Sunday. It was a beautiful day at the orchard and we picked some yummy apples and 5 perfect pumpkins for our front steps. Thanks for a fun day OJO!

cinnamon roll Sunday

Today was our first fundraiser for Anders' trip to Houston next summer for the 2018 ELCA National Youth Gathering. 288 cinnamon rolls were baked, served and consumed.

I fondly recall my days at the first ELCA National Youth Gathering in San Antonio. The year was 1988. It was really incredible. I will always remember the theme--Rejoice, in the Lord always. I saw the mayor of San Antonio, Mary Hart from Entertainment tonight, Guy Dowd, the National Teacher of the year. I also remember seeing the Alamo, the River Walk, riding mass transit, ordering "coke" aka pop, and learning that there were people with regional dialects. Most of the people I  met were from the midwest, but it was fun to meet people from California, Arizona, Texas and find our differences and similarities.


Here is a photo from flikr archives of some of the participants of the gathering wearing sombreros near the River Walk.

30 years later, my son gets to experience the same thing. Very exciting. The theme this year is this changes everything and the dates are June 27-July 1.

windy

This is a windy fall day. I hope to get to some pumpkin picking out tomorrow for our family so we can start preparing even more for Halloween.

Anders' concert went well--didn't win anything at the silent auction, but still very impressed by the music programs here in River Falls. He is in first chair euphonium in the symphonic band. Sounded terrific.

transitioning

Last weekend I transitioned the kids and my wardrobes from spring/summer to fall/winter. I also started the task of washing windows in preparation to take screens off/installing storm windows.

Yesterday (Friday) I finished the window transition with Brad's assistance of getting storms down and screens up in the rafters of the garage. Today the rain falls down upon squeaky clean storm windows.

Today I'm starting the transition of mid spring/summer/early fall sheets to the cozy sheets of mid-fall to early spring. In between all that I will be doing normal Saturday cleaning and going to the high school to watch the marching band's final performance of the season and then Anders' first concert band concert of the season.

What a great day!

fun morning meeting song

This morning, Osten was singing a song in the shower called Vowel Bat. He learned it with Mrs. Anderson and was belting it out. I asked him if I could teach it to my class this morning and he was thrilled.

It was a huge hit. It is sung to the tune of Batman...very very catchy and I heard the kids singing throughout the day.

great conferences

I had Katie's parent teacher conferences this week. She has adjusted to middle school beautifully was the phrase echoed by every single teacher. Way to go Katie!

fun day on campus

Our class took a walking field trip to campus on Tuesday to work with International Students playing games and learning about different cultures. It was a  really fun day, but the kids (and their teacher) got pretty pooped out on our walk to and fro.

the pikachus!

Here is the team photo of the mighty Pikachus! Thanks for a fun season. Osten is in the front row--first kid on the left.

runner up

The Marching Wildcats did great at state. It sounds like they got first place in several events,

My friend Angie posted "Flash Flood Warning during WI State Marching Band Competition! Marching Wildcatws performed their hearts out in POURING rain. BEST Color Guard, BEST Percussion, BEST Visual Presentation and they placed a 2nd Place WIN! In awe of this band and proud of our drummer. What a season!

These are all promotional photos that I plan on purchasing in the near future. It has been an incredible experience for our ACO this year and he should be so proud of his team!

first in her heat

Today our family is far flung in many directions. Osten and Brad are up north bringing in the dock. Anders is at state marching band in Whitewater. Katie and I are in River Falls for the Autumn Dash--the home meet for the River Falls Swim Club.

Katie competed in three events today and looked great in all three. She was especially excited because she got first in her heat in the 50 freestyle. She got 2nd in her heat in the 50 breast and then finished 2nd in the 200IM relay.

fall fest

Last night our school gathered once again for our annual fall fest at Glen Park. I tasted the most delicious pumpkin soup I've ever tasted. Totally warmed the soul

Afterwards, Katie and I went and bought snacks for our movie watching night. It was a really tasty way to end the week.

that ticking clock

On Thursday morning about 6:45am I realized that my three kids were all eating breakfast at the same time. I had to snap a photo because these times are getting fewer and farther between.

The clock just keeps ticking.

learning opportunities

I am very excited to say that two young women from Zizu University in China are spending every Wednesday in my classroom until early May. Today was their first day and they have already made a great impression on our classroom community.

Thank you Judy and Gabby!

good high school conferences

We had high school conferences on Monday night and Anders is doing quite well. He has some really fun classes like World Studies 1, Honors English, marching band, concert band and concert choir. 

We are very proud of him!

rhythm by the river

I went to my first River Falls Rhythm by the River. I worked the concession stand which was really fast paced and fun! Our marching band performed without getting judged as they were the host school. Beautiful day and I believe the band made some good sales at their concession stand!

Osten spent the day with his buddy Coulter, Katie went to Confirmation retreat at Luther Point and now Anders is spending time with friends.

Osten and I went to Hudson to make a sizable donation to Goodwill, then out to dinner at Smash Burger and finally to Lego Ninjago at the Hudson Theatre. Osten was disappointed that the green ninja didn't have any ultimate powers, so is looking forward to the next movie to see if that dream will come true.

first place at chi high

Last night, Katie, Osten and I drove to Chippewa Falls to watch the River Falls marching band take the field. They placed first place in AAA competition! Way to go Cats!

photos taken by my friend, Tina Domeyer

happy 11th dear Siri

The beautiful, intelligent, fun-loving, funny, deep thinking Siri A. Olson has now joined the 11 club.

We LOVE you and wish you well in your year of being 11.

dear cousins during our family photo shoot in September--Katie and Siri

great field trip

I try not to post too many things about school because I'm trying to journal family things mostly, but we had an awesome field trip on Friday. My former colleagues, Dr. Bill Cordua and Dr. Holly Dolliver led our students on a fossil hunt and lessons on the layers of soil/rock in the River Falls area. The kids had a blast and I slept like a baby when I finally got to hit the hay last night. I love hands on learning!

player of the night

When Osten practiced football on Thursday, his coach recognized his hard work and great listening by letting him pick the warm up music for Saturday morning's game. He chose ACDC much to the coach's delight.

home safe and sound

Brad went on a short trip to Denver for business. Our 7 year old was convinced Dad was gone for five years and was traveling in Vegas. I am so happy he's already returned just two days away...

happy birthday Evan Lee!

Happy 19th birthday to our amazing nephew and cousin Evan Lee Blomgren.

marching marching

Here is a great photo of Anders in his marching band uniform. I found it on the theater page on FB.

homecoming dance, football game and hunters safety day

Anders spent the day practicing his marching with the Wildcats yesterday and then last night took his friend, Emma to the homecoming dance.

Katie spent the day at the rifle range getting her hunters safety certification. She got 100% on her test.

Osten and the Pikachus suffered their first loss on the field on Saturday morning. He was just fine with the result...whew!

and he's wearing his grandpa B's shoes ;)