Family Reunion 2010

Dennis' family had their yearly family reunion at Greg's lake home in Park Rapids, MN. There was a great turnout with all 12 siblings in attendance along with spouses and their progeny(40 all together, plus 3 dogs). There was a whole lot of family time which means a lot of food, a lot of laughs and a whole lot of fun. The kids got lots of cousin time in along with a lot of swimming and a lot of Ninja (which I'll have to film next time so you can get a feel of how much fun we're talking about...). We camped, we swam, we fished, we ate and ate and ate some more. Do you know how many pounds of gummy worms 17 kids can eat in one weekend? 15 pounds!!! I can't even begin to count the number of bags of chips, pounds of pasta, and number of pies, cookies, bars and kuchen. Let's just say that this family can eat!!
A huge thanks goes out to Greg, Michele and Jack for being such great hosts and volunteering to have 40 guests invade their house for the weekend. I know it's a huge undertaking and a huge toll on the septic system!!Anyways, we had an awesome time. Thanks for all of your hard work and great boat driving skills (and patience)!
Here is Dennis and all of his siblings. I can name them all too: Dave, Pat, Duane, Dennis, Becky, Greg, Cindy, Paula, Terri, Mary, Mick and Lisa
Can you believe that I've been married to Dennis for 8 years and I've known him for almost 16 years and this is the first time that I've met his brother Dave? Crazy. Dennis thinks that this is the first time that they've all been together since Cindy's wedding in the early '90s.

Grace, Maddie, Sadie, Eli and Jaime

Pete, Jake, Betty, Jack

Maddie, Ashley, Sadie, Elizabeth

Cindy, Erin, Kristen, Maddie, Grace, Cole, Greg

Pat, Gabe, Eli, Dennis

Sadie, Jack

Dennis, Eli, Sharleen, Sadie

Blueberries!!

Blueberry patches, like mushroom locations, are tightly held secrets around these parts. Luckily, one of Dennis' co-workers revealed her spot. We were there picking bucketfuls of blueberries faster than you can say "blueberry patch". We made quite a haul and we might go back for more...

Winnipeg Folk Fest 2010

We just got back from spending 5 days camping and attending the Winnipeg Folk Festival. I've been to a few folk festivals in my day and this is one of the best. It is well run, clean, environmentally friendly, and always has great music. I've attended this festival several times without kids and, let me tell you, it is a very different experience when you bring kids. The kids loved the kids tent and all of the gazillion activities that they had for them to do: music, face painting, arts and crafts, hula hoops, tight ropes, bubbles, juggling sticks, etc. The problem is that the adults didn't get to listen to any music except for in the evenings when we'd go to the main stage for the concerts. But, then we sat in the back so the kids could play soccer, blow bubbles, dance, spin, and twirl without bothering anyone. Either way we all had a blast just being out in the sun, listening to some good tunes, eating some good grub, and just experiencing folk fest and all of it's fun quirks. We did find a few new favorite musicians when we managed to get away from the kid's tent.

Sadie wore this dress the entire weekend. She refused to change. She also refused to comb hair and wear shoes. By Sunday, she was really looking like a hippie. When I asked her why she wouldn't change or wear shoes she said, "because I'm 3 and a half." Well, that just about says it all doesn't it?

Chocolate-covered bananas, a folk fest must have:Our good friends, Jeremy and Stacy,
More good friends: Mark, Brandy, Aiden, Noni and Liam. In case you didn't know, 18 month old twins are a ton of work. Just watching Brandy and Mark made me exhausted.Staying up until midnight dancing every night really makes you tired:Zoe all tuckered out:

The kids got their faces (or some body part) painted every day. The first day, Sadie thought it was going to hurt so she only got a little something on her arm.

Perfoming some actions with Aaron Burnett:

Admiring themselves:

Eli's favorite parts: the main stage at night, face painting and Peter Loung, an acrobat who performed in the Toronto Zero Gravity Circus.

Sadie's favorite parts: the clown at the circus and dancing

Water Fun

After an amazing spring, June decided to be rainy. I think it rained every single day in June. Then, July rolled around and I think summer has finally arrived! We got out the kiddie pool (they barely fit anymore) to cool off on a steamy-hot afternoon.

Strawberry Picking

Berry picking season is short and sweet and we made it point to find time for it this year. The berries were plentiful and we managed to pick 18 pounds of them in 30 minutes.
Eli, as usual, was the taskmaster. He picked and picked and told Sadie, "We can't go until your bucket is full!". He managed to find time to eat a few though too.
Unlike Eli, Sadie had a hard time filling her bucket because there were just too many strawberries to eat.What did we do with 18 pounds of strawberries? We froze a bunch, but we had strawberry lemonade, strawberry pancakes, strawberry fruit leather, strawberry milkshakes, strawberry salad, strawberry popsicles, and just plain old strawberries. They are Yum-o!

Happy Birthday America!

We had a very eventful Fourth of July here in Bemidji. My parents came for the weekend to help us celebrate.
We attended the very political and highly commercialized parade with my brother Darren, Talia (with soon to be niece) and Reid.Reid devoured his sandwich:I've never been to a parade where the kids get more than 5 or 6 pieces of candy. Well, I guess in Bemidji you can get the motherload. We came home with a gallon sized bag full of tootsie rolls, lollipops, laffy taffy, pencils, stickers, rubber duckies, balls, icee-pops, etc.After the parade, we walked down to the carnival:We went home, rested up, ate some hotdogs and prepared for the fireworks over the water. Eli took the pictures:

Sparklers!

Summer Soccer

In the spring, Sadie and Eli both played soccer. They were on the same team and played with the 2s, 3s, and 4s. I know it seems crazy to have 2 year olds and 4 year olds on the same team, but usually 5 minutes into it the 2 year olds have wandered off the field and just the "bigger" kids were left. Mind you, they never actually played soccer, they just did silly games that may or may not include the soccer ball. Skip to summer soccer... There are no 2s and 3s so we put Eli on the 4s team only to find out that they still don't play soccer they only do silly games and drills. Eli was not happy. He refused to play and said, "I just want to play 'real' soccer." So, we moved him up to the 5 and 6 year olds. It took him a couple of practices before he got the nerve up to play with the big kids (and I don't mean by age, Eli is the smallest by quite a few inches and the tallest kid is at least a foot taller than him), but now that he's out there, he's a wild man.

Sometimes, a few get by:And sometimes not..

It is so much fun watching the kids go out and have a blast. It's so much fun to watch Eli have confidence in his abilities and to just get out there and knock 'em dead. And I can't believe that I'm the mom who yells little helpful hints from the sidelines. (Rats, I swore I wasn't going to be that mom.) Now all I need is the mini-van and I'll officially be a soccer mom!