Fall Harvest Orchard

We took a trip to "the cities" for a quick weekend visit. We stayed with Mick and Mel and they showed us the local sites. Funny how we went to "the cities" to visit a farm, but well, that's just how it goes sometimes (there are way too many pine trees in Bemidji for an apple orchard!). The kids really wanted to pick apples, so we found this fun little orchard that has animals, hayrides, and apples!
The apples were big and beautiful and tasty. We picked enough for eating, and pie baking and maybe even some applesauce.

Ha, ha. Mick and Sadie are the cutest chicks in Minnesota.I think the kids enjoyed the corn bin best of all.
They could feed the goats...

And hold the babies...
and feed all of the apples that have fallen off the trees to the cows.
There was also a hayride where we got to pick gourds and popcorn, that will be dry enough to eat come January. There were also lots of other animals too: peacocks, sheep, pigs, lots and lots of chickens and even a super-friendly farm cat. This little orchard was big on family fun.

Sadie and Mom Date: Itasca State Park

We never made it on our annual trek to walk across the Mississippi while school was out. So, before Sadie started pre-school and while the temperature was still in the 80's we had a Sadie and mom date and headed to Itasca State Park for the day.

Sadie didn't just cross the Mississippi once. No, she crossed about 30 times.


Sadie was bound and determined to touch this duck. The duck would have none of it though and swam away as soon as she made it to this rock.
We also saw Minnesota's largest white pine and did a short hike to see what used to be Minnesota's largest red pine until a storm blew it over! We also hiked to the top of the fire tower.
A picnic, girl talk, skipping and laughing were had. What a spectacular day, one to treasure!
The leaves were already starting to change and now, a week later, it feels like fall. Good-bye summer, hello fall! We welcome you as long as it doesn't get too cold!

First Day of School: Pre-School

Sadie has been waiting for pre-school since we toured last spring. We drive by everyday and she says, "there's my school!" She will be going Mon, Weds, and Fri. afternoons from 12:30-3:00. She was all gung-ho this morning and got ready in her new first-day-of-school dress. She was ready for pictures outside of the church. As soon as we went to walk in, she said, "I don't feel very good." So, we talked about feeling nervous and that it was ok, but that still didn't stop her from crying when I left. I was sort of expecting it considering she'll cry when I leave her with Dennis when I go for a walk. So, I did what I did with Eli on his first day of pre-school. I walked around the building a couple of times, went in and checked on her and she was fine. Same as with Eli only this time I didn't have Alyssa to coach me through it!

Eli's pre-school in Ohio was at a Trinity Lutheran Church too only they called it "Trinity" here it's called "TLC".

This is Sadie's teacher, Cheryl. She's new to TLC this year so I don't know anything about her. Sadie was all smiles when I picked her up and she said she had fun. I have no doubts that Sadie will be her usual self on Wednesday!

First Day of School: Kindergarten!

Today another milestone: Kindergarten. Eli attends the Paul Bunyan Kindergarten Center and was excited to meet his teacher, Miss Albright. He was a little anxious this morning, but was happy to see that two boys from his class last year are in his class. There are 21 students in his class and he said that there are more girls than boys. He will be riding the bus to and from school each day and he is happy that Wes and Roy are his bus drivers again. He'll be gone everyday from 7:30 to 3:20. That seems like a lot of time. We're going to miss him around here.
Sadie can't wait until it's her turn, but until next year she'll just have to live vicariously through Eli. Really, it isn't too bad for her to get to spend all day with mom. She'll start pre-school next week.

Eli was surprised to see that his classroom has a bathtub! I was sort of hoping that he'd come home spic and span everyday, but, alas, it's a cozy little reading area!
He made it home safe and didn't have much to report. They didn't have chocolate milk at lunch, he didn't like the french fries, he loves gym, they played at recess before lunch instead of after, and all of the kids in his class are his new friends. I think he's going to do just fine.
Here's to a wonderful school year!

The Golden Egg

We've been eagerly checking for eggs everyday now since the end of July. Imagine the excitement when we found our first lovely green colored egg this morning? It felt like Christmas!

It occurred to me that you probably haven't seen "the ladies," as they're lovingly referred, in quite awhile. Look at how beautiful they are. Now which one laid the egg? We have no idea, but we have our guesses. We're thinking either Mable or Penelope. From the all white chicken in the front clockwise: Annie, Penelope, Mable, and Brownie.
Woot for town-fresh eggs!!

Run for Fun!

Every Tuesday afternoon in June and July the Bemidji Parks and Rec. sponsors a track meet for kids of all ages. They run the 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, mile and long jump. The kids are split up by age group and gender. Sadie was in the 4 and under group. She usually got first or second place ribbons because her competition was often kids 1 or 2 years younger. She did manage to run the half mile once but she was not interested in running the mile. Eli on the other hand got lots of "great job" ribbons because there were always lots and lots of boys in the 5-6 year old age group. He seemed to do better on the longer distances, but didn't run more than the 400.

Amnicon Falls State Park

We met Dennis' college friend, Jon, and his family in Wisconsin at Amnicon Falls State Park just outside of Duluth. It's a great little state park with fun hiking trails and a series of waterfalls. There are plenty of places to view the river and falls from the trail with opportunities to swim or walk in the river. The weather was perfect, but the mosquitoes were ravenous.

The boys loved all of the opportunites to rock climb. Zack(on right) and Eli loved racing bikes together. They got quite adventurous on the dirt trails. Jonathan and Eli share a love for games, so when Zack and Eli weren't riding bikes Jonathan and Eli were playing board games.

Sadie and Sophie share a gift of the gab and a love of princesses. They never ran out of things to talk about.
This is the first time we've visited a state park and never left the park. There was plenty to do and the kids enjoyed each other's company so much. The adults got lots of time to visit and the whole trip worked out just great.

Happy 6th Birthday Eli!!

I really can't believe that Eli is six years old already. This year: kindergarten and in a blink of an eye: college. Where does the time go?
Eli was super-excited for this birthday. He even woke me up in the middle of the night telling me that he just can't sleep because he's so excited for his birthday. He did wake up early so he could open presents.

He got a Nintendo DSlite, which is like a GameBoy (for you old folks, like me, who just don't keep up with the gaming world). He was pretty excited. He has also obtained 5 games for his DS, so that will keep him entertained and stupefied for awhile!
Dennis had to work late, so we went to breakfast at Eli's favorite donut shop, Raphaels. Later we went to the Smurf movie and had a dinner of fried chicken and buttered noodles with "special salt" (Lawreys seasoned salt)-- his request.

We planned his birthday party on the 18th because his BFF also shares Eli's birthday and we wanted him to be able to celebrate with his family. Eli wanted a Rock-n-roll themed party. So, we went to the bowling alley and did rockin' glo-bowl. Before everyone got there, the kids did video games to waste some time.

Look at those awesome bowling shoes!

The bowlers: Abby, Zoe, Eli, Ryan, Nile and Sadie

Then we went back to our house for pizza, presents...

and cake!

Grandma Z. pulled through for us again and made this awesome guitar cake!

Then is was time for a rock-n-roll dance party!

The six year olds (Ryan and Zoe) stayed for a slumber party. They went to bed late only to be woken up by the biggest thunder storm that Bemidji has had in a long time. No one was scared (except me! It was a loud, house shaking storm.) thank goodness and they all went back to sleep. They were up early playing and having fun. I was exhausted. I think the kids had a blast. Six will be a birthday to remember!

Mutton Bustin'

As the previous post mentions, we spent the entire day at the Beltrami County Fair yesterday. One of the highlights was going to the rodeo. A few days before the rodeo Eli and Sadie asked if they could ride the sheep and we reluctantly said yes thinking that they would never do it. Before the day of the fair, we watched some youtube videos so they knew what they were getting into. They learned from those videos that they probably wouldn't be on the sheep for more than a second and they learned that they would probably fall hard and fast. They knew that they'd have to hug a sheep pretty hard wearing a heavy-duty vest and hockey helmet.
The time of the rodeo came and the kids were looking pretty ragged considering we'd already spent 7 hours at the fair and Sadie was beginning her meltdown. So, when they called all the registered kids down for the mutton busting we were surprised when the kids happily jumped up and went down to the gate.
Eli and Sadie watched as the 15 kids before them instantly fell of the sheep as soon as they got on and 2 left crying before they even got on the sheep. Then they called Eli's name and he was on a sheep and did this:



He stayed on the longest of all the kids! Sorry the video is so bad, but I got pretty excited. I wish it showed his fall, him standing up and waving to the crowd, the crowd cheering loudly and him limping out of the arena (apparently the sheep landed on his leg). But, I'm no videographer so you're just going to have to take my word for it.
Then, it was Sadie's turn:



(I swear I was going to do better on her video, but I just get too darn excited.) She stayed on a smidge longer than most of the kids, but you can tell that it's over quite quickly. Sadie was a little shook up afterwards, but then was talking about next year when she rides the sheep at the rodeo...

A Day at the Fair

Parking and Gate Fees: $5

2 Corn Dogs, 1 large order of fresh cut french fries, 1 Uff Da Taco, a Cheeseburger, 2 icee pops, 2 waters, 2 pops: $30

2 games: $10

2 Ride-all-the-rides wrist-band: $36

2 pony rides: $10

4 tickets to the rodeo: $50

9 hours spent at the Beltrami County Fair: $141

We had a ton of fun!!