Boys Fun in Minneapolis

Last week the boys and I went to the Northwest Sports Show. In addition to trout fishing, shooting and looking at travel trailers and 4 wheelers, the big attraction was Jack Dagger; world famous knife thrower, roping expert and whip handler. He actually was quite impressive. We caught one of the shows and Sam was invited to come up on stage and help with his roping.

Juggling

Andrew has taken his talent to a new level. He is now juggling with fire. We made some juggling clubs and use citronella oil and he is becoming quite good. Pepper decided to draw a picture of this today and the picture is really good for a five year olds interpretation. He has the fire, the colored balls and then he decided the next thing that Andrew should start juggling is lamps.

It has been a little while

One of our after Christmas activities has been ballet. Annie started about 2 months ago and then kind of lost her way; so the teachers asked if she had a sister that could come too. Of course, Emie is all over that; so Emie and Annie have been doing ballet together on Wednesday nights. A few fun photos.

February Madness

Katie, Emie and dad ventured off to NW College in St. Paul on Saturday afternoon to watch Kasie play basketball. Kasie is one of our helpers for the girls and was a regular fixture for a big part of last year and also the summer. She is a freshman at NW and plays forward for the Eagles. We have been meaning to get to a game and this was the last game of the season; it was really fun. Eagles lost - but a fun game to watch. The girls got to go into the locker room after the game and meet the players. We'll be back next year for one or two!

Sam Turns 11

We have had a big week here. Sam turned 11. We had Nana & Poppa S here last weekend to help celebrate and they stayed through Sams recorder concert at school on Tuesday night and then this past weekend - Sam had 4 friends over for swimming, pizza, movies, games and a sleepover. A pretty big birthday week for a great 11 year old.

A Brave Little Girl

Our brave little girl Emie had her tonsils and adenoids taken out during surgery on Friday @ St. Paul Childrens Hospital. Emie has had some swallowing and breathing issues and after seeing a specialist last fall - one of the main causes is that she had VERY large tonsils. She would aspirate and have trouble swallowing and choke and she was such a good sport about it - but we think this surgery will give her a huge improvement in eating, breathing and just being a normal little girl.



Everyone at St. Paul Childrens was so pleasant, helpful and caring - it was really a good experience. Emie and I (dad) got to spend the night there last night and other than being woken up every 3 hours for meds - it wasn't too bad a night. She hit the popsicles and ice cream pretty hard yesterday and this morning.

We got home around 10:00 AM this morning and she is doing well. She will be sore for a few days; and probably not see much school this week - but it won't be long and she will be back to 100% again.

We love our Emie :)

Goldy & Gill

The girls bought Pepper the makings of a goldfish tank for Christmas. One bought food, one bought colored rock and another a plant to go into the tank. I salvage an odd shaped beaker from the garbage at work and presto - a fish tank. Last Saturday morning, Pepper, Katie, Poppa Lind and I drove up to Wal-Mart and spent $.68 to get 2 little goldfish.

Pepper has called his Goldy - which happens to be the same name that Franklin (the turtle, from the book series) named his. Sam is to name the other one - but so far names have not been forthcoming - so I have named him Gill. We'll see if it sticks. We now have 3 cats and 2 fish as a start to our zoo.