Lake Martha Days Fun

Last Friday through Sunday was Lake Martha Days in Osseo. Most of our weekend was spent enjoying the activities. The kids rode rides Friday night for three hours and Saturday during the day for three hours. They had a a blast!

Brody, Brenna and Aunt Jessie on the apple ride. Brody make Jessie promise him numerous times that she would NOT make the apple spin.

Brenna and Brody went down the big slide many times. The motorcyles and cars were also a favorite. The carousel was a hit. Especially when I let them go on alone.
Walking with Aunt Jessie. Brody got a new haircut on Friday. He wanted it cut so he could spike it. He's been spiking it ever since.

Two of a kind... enjoying one of the many lefse busses that were eaten over the weekend.

Sunday was the Lake Martha Day's parade. A carpenter that Steve works with asked if Brody and Brenna wanted to ride with him and his wife and throw candy. Brenna opted to watch the parade but Brody wanted to be in the parade. Brody's face lit up when he looked and saw his family. It was very sweet to see how proud and excited he was.
Cousin Heather and Abbi. Brenna stayed by Aunt Jessie's side during the parade. She collected a lot of candy! Friend Jaxon, Uncle Jimmy, Jeremy, and Eldie also watched the parade.Wayne, Shane, Alex, Jennie, and Angie waiting for the parade to start. Great Grandma De-De, Grandma Merri, Colleen, Sarah and Avery also watched the parade with us.

Brody making Spot wave. :)

Nothing else new or exciting from last week. Brenna and Brody finished up their week of intro to 4k last week and seemed to like it. The teacher said that if one gets sad, the other one tends to get sad too. I told Brenna and Brody that if one of them gets sad, they need to help each out and try to make the sad one happy. The next day when I picked them up. Brody said, "Brenna was sad but I just gave her a hug and said, "Don't worry be happy." "Then Brenna was happy."

Very sweet.

Brody started a habit of chewing on his shirt a few weeks ago and Brenna began chewing on her hair. I will never again wish one bad habit away because it just gets replaced with one that is worse. I thought nail biting was bad but I will take that over shirt and hair chewing! This week it has been much better so I'm hoping it was a short lived bad habit!

And to end with a cute story....

Brody and Brenna were playing doctor the other night. Here's the dialogue that made me smile. Brody was the doctor.

Brenna: Listen to my baby's heart.

Brody: It's beating 110 Miles per hour.

Brenna: What does that mean?

Brody: She needs to go to the emergency room.

They played doctor for about 1/2 hour together. It was very fun listening to their dialogue as they played. I was also impressed that they played alone for at least 30 minutes. I guess that means they are growing up.

Summer fun, finally...

It finally feels like I am on vacation! Last week, I was officially off from work but was not officially done with work so I spent two days at Sherman finishing up. The remainder of the week was spent getting ready for a thrift sale at my sister's house.

Last Tuesday friend Sarah still had to work and she needed someone to watch Avery. Brenna and Brody were estactic to have her come visit. We had a fun day and even managed to get some items marked for the thrift sale. With three kids, two dogs (one who is naughty) it was a busy day. Great Grandma De-De came out to help.

Brenna and Brody pushed Avery around in a laundry basket. She ended up falling asleep. They are good little babysitters, with supervision of course!
As usual, Brenna and Brody were never far from Avery.

Brenna reading to Tess, Cooper, and her baby.

This was cute. Brenna and Brody hopped in their jeeps and drove down to the edge of the field to watch the tractor (put-put as they call it). Brody had been waiting for the tractor to finally do some work when he was actually home. They sat there for at least 20 minutes. I love that they appreciate the simple things in life!

Last Thursday Sarah and Colleen (Sarah's mom) invited us to an Express game. Colleen had gotten free tickets from the place where she works. It was a great night for baseball and we all had a good time. Brenna and Brody were very excited to sing, "Take me out to the Ballgame" at the end of the 6th inning.

Collen with Brenna. Cousin Ty-Ty with Brody. Brody was connected to Tyler the entire game.
This week, I watched Brenna and Brody get on a bus for the first time! This week is intro to 4K at Osseo Elementary and we had the option of having Brenna and Brody be picked up by the bus at the Foster gas station. We decided to have them ride so they could have the experience prior to starting school in the fall. I know this will surprise those who know me but I cried. I'm hoping this will mean less tears in the fall. They were so brave and didn't even shed a tear. I did end up driving to Osseo to make sure they made it their first day. I felt like I was stalking the bus. I walked them into their room and watched them both find their name tags. Brenna cracks me up because she recognizes Brody's name more easily than her own.

Brody-- first day of 4K summer school. He insisted on holding the flag up.
Brenna screaming at me to not take her picture. Brenna has been anti-picture lately so if you see more pictures of Brody on the blog you will know why!
My big kids!
All ready to go! Brenna sort of committing to the picture.
Monday after lunch with Great Grandma De-De, we made our first visit to the Osseo pool. It was a great day to be outside. Notice Brenna being anti-picture again. Good thing she forgots about it once in awhile.


Brody had his goggles on the entire time. Hanging out by friend, Jaxon. Brody did not waste anytime getting wet and swimming around. Brenna was a little more reluctant to trust that her floaties would hold her up.
Taking a break to talk to Nana and have a treat.
A day in the sun makes for a tired Avery.

Brody and Brenna had a good first day of school! Cousin Abbi ended up coming home with us and spending the night. They had fun with her! Today, which was their second day, they both had a slight meltdown when I picked them up. I guess they had wanted to give me a hug when they were at school. They were also sad because they wanted cousin Abbi to leave summer school and come home with us since she had the day before. They were teary eyed and just not themselves. Hopefully tomorrow will be better with a little more sleep tonight.

Have a great week!

Catching up.....

I know, I said my next blog would not be as long, but I lied...I got behind again!

I'll start with last weekend. We were invited to Carrie's husband's (Matt) surprise 40th birthday party at Riverview Park in Eau Claire. I had thought the party started at noon so you can imagine our surprise when Steve, the kids, and I showed up at noon and no one else was there. I scrambled to find Carrie's neighbor's number and called them to see if we had the wrong day or the wrong time. Thankfully we found out that we were two hours early, but unfortunately that meant finding things to do for two hours in Eau Claire when we already had a busy day ahead of us (1 birthday party and three graduations). We ended up getting lunch and running errands and arrived at the birthday party with plenty of time to spare before the birthday boy arrived! The kids were very excited to see Matt and Carrie. Matt didn't have a clue about the party. It was a nice party and the kids had fun.

Matt and Carrie when they first arrived.

The kids at the birthday party were entertained by the dirt and worms.

Carrie and Brenna looking cute together. After leaving Matt's birthday party, we traveled to Levis for Cousin Katie's high school graduation party. The Brian Bethke band played at her party. She is singing a song with him in this party. Congratulations Katie! No pictures from the 3rd and 4th parties. Brenna and Brody chose to go home after this party and stay with a babysitter (cousin Heather). Brody said, "We've been to enough parties, mom."

Friday, my last day of work for the school year. Brenna was looking like I felt by then! Too much end of the year stuff! Happy last day of work to me!

Well, the end of the school year is a great thing because it means I get to spend more time with my kiddos! Since meeting Carrie and having her take care of Brenna and Brody, it has also turned into a kind of sad time. This is the last year that Brenna and Brody will be at Carrie's full time for daycare. Thankfully, they might get to spend Fridays with her next year, which made saying good-bye a little easier. Since Brody and Brenna began going to Carrie's at the age of 15 months, I have never felt like I was bringing them to daycare but more like I was dropping them off with a friend or family member. Needless to say, we were very lucky to have Carrie taking care of Brenna and Brody. Brenna and Brody have also gotten to know Carrie's neighbors, Brenda, John, Bob and Carol, quite well.

I gave Carrie a three-fold frame for an end of the year present. One side had a picture of her with Brenna, Brody and Oscar. The middle had a poem that I had written and the other side was a picture of Brenna and Brody. The poem is below.

We met you when we were “1”
Since then we have had a lot of fun
You’ve played with us inside and outside too
You took us to parks, museums, to the library, and school.

You made us nice lunches and snacks
You read us books and let us help you bake
You never complained when hugs or a kiss we would take
You made us feel loved when our mom was at work, which helped
Mommy feel like she wouldn’t go bazurk.

You helped us get rid of our “binky,”
Our bike skills you allowed us to hone
We liked talking to your family on the phone
Picnics and parks were sometimes part of our day
There was always time to run and play!

Now we are four and four year old kindergarten needs us there
We have learned so much from the one we used to call Care-Care
With all of the fun we have had, the time has gone by too fast
But we want to say thank you for making it a blast.

You’ve been like a mom so we can’t say good-bye
So we’ll say see yah later till the next time we say “Hi!”

Carrie gave Brenna and Brody a picture frame with the saying, "live, laugh, laugh" around it and a gift certificate to the new waterpark in E.C. Thank you Carrie for all of the love you gave Brenna and Brody!

Brody has actually cried a couple of times since Friday saying he is going to miss Carrie. He can be very sensitive. I assured him we will go visit her.

Onto the last bit of news that all started Thursday night after Steve played volleyball. Basically, he found out about a Weimeraner that was not going to be alive much longer because the owners did not want to keep it. Why they couldn't take it to the animal shelter, I don't know.. Anway, Steve has always wanted to get a second weimeraner, so he volunteered to take the dog. we thought we would keep him for a trial period. Friday, after staying at work until 7:00, I finally got to meet Cooper. He is a big, strong, fast puppy who needs some training. Tess is slowly warming up to him. He is hard not to love......
The top picture is Cooper. He is a 10 month old male. This is Tess. She is our five-year old female Weimeraner. Tess looks like she needs a diet. :)Aunt Jessie, and De-De came out to meet Cooper and have pizza Saturday night. Brenna and Brody LOVE their Aunt Jessie!
Have a great week!