Lake La Salle / Itasca

We did our first camping trip of the summer a couple of weeks ago at Lake La Salle recreation area. The area is currently closed after 80mph winds went through that area and all of Bemidji last week destroying property and ripping up trees. It was a quick camping trip, but we filled it with lots of swimming, bikeriding, fishing and canoeing and snorkeling....

I have to admit that my kids are not big lake swimmers because they hate the muck and the weeds. I don't blame them, I hate that too. They usually swim with their shoes on!

I think we're already on our 8th bag of marshmellows for the summer. Who can resist s'mores?

Lake LaSalle is a hop, skip and a jump to Itasca so we headed there for bit of river crossing, and tower climbing.

We ended our day by going to the locally famous Beceida Bar where the kids ate mini hotdogs and played pool.  It was a fun weekend and the weather was perfect!

So I Went and Got a Job...

With both kids starting school in the fall, I knew that I wanted to find some kind of work, but I also wanted to be able to get them to school, be home when they're done with school in the afternoon, and be able to spend some time in their classrooms. This seemed like an almost impossible wish list and I thought so too thinking that I'd end up subbing at Schoolcraft (which I still may end up doing in my spare time).

I will be working for an organization called Peacemaker Resources that focuses on teaching non-violent communication and social and emotional learning to teachers, parents and children. I will be going into a school 2 days a week and teaching about bullying, mindfulness (self-calming, etc.), and various non-violent communication tools to students. 

I feel like I have a lot to learn, but so far the learning has been very interesting and helpful in my own life. I hope I can pass these important life-skills to the students in a fun and interesting way. Wish me luck!  

Camp Oak Hills

The kids spent the week going to day camp at Camp Oak Hills. Camp Oak Hills is a Christian camp and the kids spent the week doing the "usual" camp things: singing, hiking, swimming, arts/crafts, boating, etc. They will both say that their favorite part of camp was the giant slip and slide and ga-ga ball which is a gentle form of dodgeball tag.

This was Sadie's first time going anywhere all day. She was tired by the end of the week and had a few meltdowns, but wants to go back next year.

What did I do all week? Well, I had grand plans to get housework down including scrubbing the outside of the house to rid it of all the pine pollen and doing windows. However, it rained several days, but I can't blame the rain. I have two girlfriends that also had kids in camp all week, so we hung out like we did pre-kids. We drank a lot of margaritas, and exercised every day, and went shopping and out for lunch... It was AWESOME!

I wasn't at camp so I didn't get any pictures. These are the pictures that they sent home with the kids.

Spruce Cabin with counselors Sam and Seth



Birch Cabin with counselors Claire and Napthalie

Father's Day Weekend

We had a fun weekend celebrating dad and hanging as a family. On Saturday, we loaded up the canoe (have I mentioned that we got a new/used canoe?) and bikes and drove 1/2 mile down the road to the state park to spend the day. When we started packing up the weather was really nice. By the time we got to the park, it was overcast and windy. The kids were determined to canoe though, so we put in only to get out 5 minutes later because the waves were coming over and into the canoe. They decided that biking was a much better option.

On Sunday, the kids and I woke up to find Dennis MIA. I assumed he was out for a run. He called later in the morning stating that he was running his marathon. Let me backtrack for a moment here. Dennis has been training for a marathon for awhile, but couldn't decide which marathon to run. Then, he decided that he was going to run the "Dennis Sperle Marathon" because a) he didn't want to pay anyone for him to run and b) he didn't want to run with 10,000 of his closest friends! So, he mapped out his 26.2 miles and ran it. He did great and ran it with an unofficial time of 3:40. After Dennis rested for several hours we went to Putt-N-Go for a little mini-golfing...

And bumper boats...

And ice-cream at the Dairy Queen. It was a fun and relaxing day (for me at least, I'm pretty sure that Dennis was exhausted).

Saying Good-Bye to Auntie Barb

 My dad and I drove across North Dakota on Friday to say good-by to my Auntie Barb who passed away last November. Barb loved lots of things but especially Betty Boop and beauty products of all kinds. My aunt loved to do me up all fancy when I was younger (and would let her) and we both thought I looked great. Looking back and after seeing some of the pictures of me from when Barb got her hands on me, I can say that I looked a little inappropriate (think Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver). Unfortunately by aunt also liked to party and it was the drinking that got her in the end.

My aunts and mom planned a very nice memorial service for her. They all wore green (Barb's favorite color) with Betty Boop on their sleeves.

Mom, Auntie Luci, Auntie Mel, Auntie Dorothy

All of my aunts and uncles: Mom, Don, Luci, Cal, Al, Les, Mel and Dorothy

Eli's Kindergarten Celebration

Tomorrow is Eli's last day of kindergarten. It's hard to believe how fast the year has gone. He's had  a great school year, has made a lot of new friends, has mastered his crazy bus schedule, and  has become a little less shy. He's grown in so many ways.
Last Friday, he had his kindergarten celebration. All of the kindergarteners sang some songs then we went back to the classroom for a slideshow, awards, and refreshments.
I thought this picture of Eli was hilarious.

Dad and Sadie enjoyed the show:

Eli's class sang 5 Little Monkeys:


Eli received the Dove award for being the class peacemaker. We only wish he applied those skills at home!:

It's been a great year. Thanks Miss A.!

 Look out first grade, here he comes!

Gym Bin Circus 2012

The annual Gym Bin Circus was held this past weekend. The circus is a fun event in which all of the gymnasts prepare acts and perform for an audience. The "big girls" do rings and trapeze and high wire and the like. Sadie is a level 2 this year which means she got to do a tumbling routine and a dance routine with all of the level 2s and 3s. She also performed at all 4 circus shows. It was a big and tiring responsibility for her but she handled it like a pro. We are very proud of her! Here is her tumbling routine: Her dance routine:

Spring Piano Recital 2012

On Saturday, the kids had their spring piano recital. They both worked very hard preparing their two songs. Sadie played Mary Had a Little Lamb (with chords) and Lightly Row: Eli played Copycat and Cuckoo: They will continue piano through the summer with a break in August. Both kids want to pick up another instrument but I think we need to wait at least another year for that. Sadie wants to play violin and Eli wants to play the guitar or drums.

Eli Loses His First Tooth

A major milestone has been reached in Eli's life; he lost his first tooth. That poor tooth has been wiggly forever and it finally came out, with a little help, on Thursday night. You probably don't know this about me, but I love pulling teeth. I discovered this passion while I was a first grade teacher and the kids just kept on having loose teeth that needed pulling. In fact, the school nurse knew how much I loved to pull teeth so she would always send other students to my classroom so I could pull their teeth. It was fantastic.

Imagine how excited I was when Eli asked me to pull his tooth. I told him that it would only hurt for a second and then he'd see his tooth and forget about the pain because he'd be so excited and that's exactly what happened. You can tell by these pictures that he was thrilled!

The tooth fairy came and brought him 2 gold presidential dollars. I'm pretty sure the tooth fairy will be visiting a lot considering his second wiggly tooth is almost ready to pop out!

Sadie's Spring Pre-School Program

Sadie's last day of school is tomorrow!! She's had a great year and is ready for Kindergarten. Her pre-school put on a little program. Here is a highlight:

Entryway Lockers

We have an awesome entryway. It's big, has two closets and is it's own little room that collects dirt, pineneedles, wet snow and whatever else collects on the bottom of shoes (ahem, chicken poop). It's the envy of homeowners everywhere. But, it still wasn't perfect. We didn't use half of the space, guests had no where to hang their coats and the kids just hung about 8 coats on one coat hook. It was usually a pretty big mess. Entryway before (taken from the front door):

So you can get a better idea of the layout, this picture was taken from the oppostie direction. One door leads outside, the other into the house and there is another closet to the right of the one shown.

I found a picture in Better Homes and Gardens of a set of built-in lockers and I knew that it was exactly what we needed in our entryway to help with the organization of coats, boots and the like. Well, it turns out that I married a pretty good carpenter (those farm boys can do anything!) not only can he build chicken coops, but he can build lockers too:

They turned out even better than I expected and the kids love having their own space for their things. It's a little big for them, but they're growing fast! I love them and I think they make the space much more functional and they look cool too!

Three cheers for handy husbands who give their wives exactly what they want. Yea!

A Couple of Cute Chicks!

It's chick season and we decided to add to our brood. Chicks are always a delight and watching them grow is amazing as it seems they double in size over night. We'd like to introduce you to Reddy (named by Sadie. We have a Brownie, afterall.) And Louise, named by me in honor of one our favorite book characters Minerva Louise. It's hard to tell them apart, I know, but a mama always knows her babies. Louise is darker with more black and Reddy is larger.

These two little girls are Rhode Island Reds, a hearty, well-laying breed.

I think they will get along just fine with the other girls, but only time will tell if they officially get along without too much hen-pecking!

Easter 2012

We spent Easter in Napoleon visiting grandma and grandpa S. and lots of aunts, uncles and cousins.

Grandma always boils about 12 dozen eggs for the kids to dye. There were enough kids that they had to dye eggs in two shifts. While the second shift was dying the eggs the first shifters went to the communtity egg hunt.

The egg hunt was supposed to be held at the city park but was moved to the community center because of high winds. Before we left Eli said, "I hate egg hunts in the park, because there are lots of good places to hide eggs, but they never use them." Boy, was he disappointed when he saw this:

But, that didn't stop him from finding picking up a few eggs.

The crew at the egg hunt:

The most interesting event happened at about 4pm Saturday when the sewer backed up. This is a very unfortunate event when you have lots of people at your house and you've been drinking pop and kool-aid and coffee all day. Luckily, the Catholic Church is right across the street so we just ran across the street and did our business over there when we needed to. Luckily, I have a brother-in-law who is a plumber and he knows how to call in another plumber to do the job. Hah! By 11:00 that night we could use our own facility once again!
With all of those cousins around you'd think the kids could find something better to do than this:

When Easter arrived we hid eggs in the yard. They were pretty well hid and the kids had to look for the eggs. But, they were too fast for me. Luckily Madisen posed for me:

The Tramp!

 We are the proud owners of a brand new 15' trampoline. Come jump with us!!!

Sugarin'

Our good friends, Candy and Mary and their boys, Carlos and Luis, invited us to their house for pancakes and fresh maple syrup. Candy tapped trees for the first time and was just figuring out how sugarin' works, but we had fun watching her efforts. This year, with the weather being so crazy, has been an odd year for sugarin'. Lots of people didn't even bother tapping trees this year as it needs to be warm during the day and cool at night, but it never got really cool enough at night to produce as much sap as usual. Candy gave it a whirl and it was well worth her effort. The syrup was delicious!
Here is the sap boiling. Lots of sap = a very little amount of syrup:

Tasting the syrup:

Straining the sap before the final boiling which took place on the stove:

The kids played and played and played while the sap boiled. It is a loooooong process:

Man, I wish I had pictures of them eating the pancakes. They were delicious!

Jack Came to Visit

Dennis' brother, Greg, and his wife Michele were heading to San Antonio for a conference and needed someone to watch Jack. We happily agreed to it and enjoyed every minute of it. Sadie enjoyed playing the big cousin ("like Emily," she says) and Eli was bummed that he had to go to school every day. Jack is a pretty easy toddler and reminded me a lot of Eli at this age. As long as Jack got to do whatever is was that was a part of Jack's routine then Jack was as happy as a clam. He has an intense focus and can sit and entertain himself for quite a while. He knows all of his letters and numbers (seriously, I have a bag of magnetic letters and numbers and he'd pull them out at random and say every letter) colors and shapes. And he happily does whatever you ask him to do.
The only bad thing is that he arrived in the midst of our sickest week here at our house. Jack made 2 trips to the dr. once for Eli and once for me. By the time Jack left, we were all on antibiotics and Jack was too! But, we did manage to have fun doing lots of other stuff that helped us forget about the coughs and runny noses. The weather was amazing so we spent lots of time outside. Here are some highlights of Jack's stay:
A trip to the gym bin (at the begninning of the week we still had a lot of snow so it was hard to be outside as it was wet and slippery). He loved the pit and would say "C'up Sadie" which was his way of saying cover-up sadie. So we would hide Sadie in the blocks and she would jump out:

No trip to a cousin's house would be complete without a bathtub picture:

One of Jack's favorite things, pushing "the button":

Pusing "Jack's bike". I love that the chickens are in this picure, seems fitting considering how much Jack loved chasing them:

Breakfast (and lunch and supper) of champions-- Pancakes-- it's about all we could get him to eat:

Sadie Rides on Two Wheels

Sadie was bound and determined to learn to ride her bike without training wheels. I thought that she wasn't quite ready as she wouldn't ever let me let go of her seat and her balance was all off. True to Sadie form, she decided she was going to do it so she did it. There was a long day of screaming and falling and pushing her bike over and kicking her bike and blaming me for her falling and more screaming, before she was finally able to do it, but she did it.