Winter Wonderland

We arrived home from our Christmas trip to a house covered in snow. Thank goodness we have an awesome neighbor who blew all of the snow out of our driveway and blazed a trail up to our front door. Doesn't our house look so pretty?Santa Claus brought the kids snowshoes and cross country skis. The snow conditions weren't quite right for either as they both promptly sunk knee-deep in snow. They didn't really care though.

It turns out that eating snow and licking icicles is much more fun:

Christmas In a Nutshell

A family art project-- Eli did the reindeer, sled, santa and some stars, Sadie did the snowmen, moon, and ornamentsWe opened presents early this year so we could spend the holiday in Napoleon with Dennis' family.

We had to leave earlier than we anticpated because of all the winter storm warnings and blizzard warnings. We made it just in time as mother nature decided it was time to snow and blow. Luckily, Dennis' parents made the big move into the "city" so we weren't stuck out on the farm. (Which was good, because Sperles like to shovel. I think they shoveled out every single driveway in Napoleon 3 times!) They moved in right across from the church (which was good otherwise we would have missed midnight mass--ok we missed that anyways). The snowdrifts got kind of big as can be viewed here: Sadie and her cousin, Cole, were the only ones who braved the wind to go outside and play. They could have made it onto the church roof, but the parents were kind of against it. We ended up being snowed in for an extra day. But, we got in a lot of game playing. I am now a wake boarding expert (but only on the wii, not actually in the water), still can't beat Betty or Caroline in May I, and an Old Maid champ!

Cookies

The Christmas holiday wouldn't be complete without the making and decorating of cookies. We invited Eli's best friend from school and her family over for a little cookie decorating and merry making. As usual, the kids had a blast, decorated only a handful of cookies with way too much frosting, and didn't eat a bite of their dinner.
Dusting off a little flour:Oh the anticipation:Only in Minnesota do you have a Christmas moose:

Leanna using just a little bit of pink:There is no such thing as too many sprinkles:

Swimming

There is a resort just down the road about a mile that offers locals memberships to use their facilities. In the summer, they have a private beach, an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, paddle boats, kayaks, etc. In the winter, they have an indoor pool, hot tub, sauna, excercise room, and outdoor skating. We thought about signing the kids up for swimming lessons this winter but for the price of lessons we could get a membership at Ruttger's and take the kids swimming as often as they wanted to go. Well, we don't go as often as they would like to go because I would be swimming every day in the morning, afternoon and evening, but we do manage to go about every-other day. The pool is pretty warm and there is rarely anyone else in the pool with us. The kids have just recently starting wearing their life jackets in the water and it's awesome. They're "swimming" and I don't have to carry them around in the pool. We do have "practice swim" time where they try to swim without their life jackets, but the rest of the time is spent doing stuff like this:

Now that we have a new computer and it's a thousand times faster than our old one, I might be putting on a lot more videos!!

A Wrestling Match

A Weekend with Grandma and Grandpa

For the first time in 10 years, I had Thanksgiving with my mom and dad and brother. Dennis had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving so we had everyone over here for dinner. It was the first time I ever made Thanksgiving dinner and I have to say it turned out pretty good. The turkey was a bit dry, but the chipotle sweet potatoes rocked!
My parents took the kids home with them for the weekend so I could paint the guest room and repaint the awful color I painted the kids' room. I am still amazed at how much I was able to accomplish in just a few days. Apparently the kids spent the weekend being spoiled. I don't ask too many questions. What happens at Grandma's, stays at grandmas. On one of their expeditions they went to a local park for "sleigh" rides (I'm guessing a wagon ride might be more accurate as there wasn't any snow) and to visit Santa.Eli and Sadie told me that Santa was working out on the farm that day so he had to wear his work clothes. Much to my amazement, both kids sat on Santa's lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas. Eli wants a hockey stick and a puck. Sadie wants a princess, a Tinkerbell princess.
The good thing is that they behaved themselves enough so they get to go back to grandmas. I think she might even take them for a weekend again sometime. Although I'm not sure who has more fun...

A Trip to Minneapolis

I'm behind again at posting pictures with no excuse except for being lazy. So, here I am playing a little catch-up. Also, I feel I must add that I've been really horrible taking pictures, even on this trip I only took about 10. I'm so bad, I need to work on this.
Several weeks ago Dennis had a four day weekend. He didn't take any days off, it just happened because he was on call one weekend and ended up working Veterans Day, so we decided to take advantage of his schedule and the beautiful weather and head down to Minneapolis/St. Paul for an Ikea run, a little Christmas shopping and some extra-curricular activities on the side. We stayed with Auntie Mick and Uncle Mel, which is really enough fun, but we also went to The Minnesota Children's Museum.
It may seem like I only have a daughter, but that is because I was in charge of Sadie and Dennis was in charge of Eli. He was there.The weather was so beautiful (notice Sadie is just wearing a sweatshirt. In late November. In Minnesota.), we had to spend a little time outside. We went to the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory because it was close to the children's museum and because it's free.

I didn't take any pictures of real animals, but Sadie had to pose by every statue and hug and kiss every statue... You can never get that girl out of a gift shop...

Side note: I hate that every stinkin' museum feeds you into the gift shop at the end of the tour.The kids thought it would be funny to pose by the nude statue: I can't believe I'm going to admit the next place we took the kids. Actually, I can admit it, it's probably Dennis who would have a harder time admiting that he took the kids to The Mall of America. I mean, what's next, Disney World?? Dennis' values have gone slightly downhill since we've had kids.
Besides shopping, they do have lots of other ways to blow hundreds of dollars in a few hours. Take LegoLand for instance. The line was insane. Too bad I wasn't patient enough to wait in line to buy anything though I did find some things I wanted to buy. The kids got to play for free though.

Then we went to Nickelodeon Universe so the kids could ride the rides of their favorite Nickelodon shows. Dora and Diego were both in attendance, as well as Blue:Eli's first bumper cars. He looked petrified before he started but had fun once the cars started moving:
We also ate at the Rainforest Cafe and went to Underwater Adventures, an aquarium. Really, it was much too much for all of us. Can you imagine doing all of that AND going shopping too. Ai yai yai!!!
We did make it to Ikea and the Albertville Outlet Mall too which really weren't worthy of taking pictures at. It was a fun weekend!! Hopefully Dennis will get another one of those four day weekends again soon!

Even Superheroes Need a Nap

Sadie's Third Birthday

Wow! I'm so surprised at how behind I am at posting pictures. Sadie has been three for almost 3 weeks now, and she wears three very well. She is loud, demanding, opinionated, stubborn, but she's also hilarious and pretty darn cute. Anyways, moving on to the all-important three year old birthday party. Of course Sadie had to have a princess themed birthday party.She asked all of the guests-of-honor to arrive in their very best princess outfits. Sadie's grandma came as a vampire Queen, Nile made a beautiful princess and Zoe came as batgirl wearing a wolf hat, but what else would one expect from a girl who also goes by the name "Pete" (don't worry, Sadie approved this beforehand. But, Sadie is sort of convinced that Zoe is a boy, even though she has been told numerous times that Zoe is in-fact a girl.)I even managed to pull off being a princess quite well. The kids decorated lovely foam crowns with jewels, and glitter and princess stickers:As you can see, they turned out lovely. I wish I had a shot with them all wearing their finished crowns, but the glitter was still a little wet when everyone left:Yum...pizza!The much anticipated gift-opening which resulted in lots of princess gear and things for dancing and things for bouncing:The cake. Grandma pulled it off again:

Bad Day for a Hike

It was a mild weekend by Minnesota standards, so we thought it would be a great idea to go for a hike. It was the opening weekend for deer hunting, so we knew we had to go somewhere safe. "Let's go to a State Park," we thought. "There won't be deer hunters there." WRONG. I guess they do let hunters hunt in state parks in Minnesota. When we arrived at Itasca State Park, they handed us a map of where the hunters are supposed to be and then gave us all bright orange vests "just in case." Needless to say, I was not very gung-ho to go on a hike after that. So, we had our picnic, went on a short walk then on a nice scenic drive to see men in orange with gutted deer in the back of their trucks. It started to rain anyways. It was a bust, but on the good side, Sadie took a nap on the way there and on the way home.

Happy Halloween

We spent Halloween at Grandma and Grandpa Sperle's new house in Napoleon. Trick-or-treating was kind of a bust, but they got enough candy to last several months anyways. You'll have to thank Auntie Paula for the pictures because I forgot my camera!! Sadie went as as a very scary witch. She loved having her face painted, but she hated having her face washed! Luckily her witch costume was large enough to wear her winter coat underneath it. Sadie was pretty tuckered out and fell asleep at 6:00!The cousins: Miss Napoleon, an M&M, a witchy skittle, a witch, a knight and a jelly fish!

A Three Year Old!!!

My sweet Sadie is three today. This is a little bit of the sweetness that I get to experience everyday! (She's making macaroni necklaces for her friends that are coming to her party today. Her idea. So sweet.) Happy Birthday, Sadie-girl!!

When in Bemidji, Do as the Bemidjians

This past weekend Eli and Sadie got new ice skates. You can't live in Northern Minnesota without owning a pair and Eli has been excited about playing hockey all summer. You might remember last year, when Eli wouldn't get on the ice. Well, this year was a little more successful. With the help of the EZ-Skater, Eli made it around the rink several times and was even brave enough to try it without any help. He fell a few times, but when we left he asked when we were going to go again!! I'm hoping that by the end of the winter he can skate with a hockey stick instead of the EZ-Skater. Sadie loved her skates but was very nervous about the "slippery ice". However, she did very well considering this was her first time. She stayed on her skates most of the time and shuffled along.

Fun at the Science Center

Bemidji has a very small but very fun science center. From first glance, you'd think that the kids would get bored there; there's no flashy lights, no monstrous exhibits, nothing to play on. It looks like it is from the '70's and it's filled with a bunch of odds and ends science exhibits. But, the kids have such a blast there and it is one of the funnest science centers that I've been in. First off, it's always quiet, the staff is always willing and ready to let animals out of their cages and are good at helping the kids understand concepts, every exhibit is hands-on, and they have awesome toddler classes every Wednesday. I'll need to remember to take more pictures next time. But, here are kids holding one of the many snakes that they have on exhibit:

First Snow

We woke up Saturday morning, October 10, to snow. Sadie was beside herself with excitement. She kept going on and on about all of the things that she was going to do in the snow. She even woke me up and invited me to go outside and play in the snow with her at 6:00 in the morning!! Needless to say she had to wait a little bit before she could have her snow play, but she got it. First thing we did was go shopping for a winter coat for Sadie. As you can tell by these pictures, she still doesn't have one and was forced to wear her spring rain coat with lots of layers underneath. It turns out that 2T is a very popular size...

The kids had to go sledding. I think the people in Bemidji were thinking that the people with the Ohio license plate were crazy for sledding when there was barely any snow on the ground. Not to mention that the wind was blowing a gazillion miles an hour and it was cold especially when you don't have a winter coat! But, we did it anyways.

Sadie and dad built this lovely snowman family. I'm the one with the crazy hair!

The snow has since melted and it's supposed to be in the fifties this weekend with the sun shining. WooHoo!! The snow can wait awhile before it sticks around for good.

Minnesota Canoe Trip

We borrowed our friends canoe one beautiful fall morning in September. You can't tell by looking at us in our sweatshirts (and my hat!) but it actually warmed up to about 80 that day!The canoe ride was so pleasant. The water was calm, the loons were out, and we had the whole lake to ourselves. It was rather peaceful until we ran out of snacks and the kids were tired of paddling us in circles, but we all enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.