Prairie Park Playdate

Natalie had a playdate with her friend Hannah at a park close by. I don't have too many pictures of the girls together because they wouldn't be still long enough. They were having a great time climbing all over the play structures. We played for a while on the playground and then had a picnic lunch. We stopped at Sonic on our way there and Natalie had her first slush - an apple juice slush. I had my favorite - Cherry Limeade!

Nate's 1st Track Meet

Nate is on the track team for his middle school this spring. These pictures were taken at his first track meet a couple of weeks ago. He had a second meet last week. They came in 2nd place at the 1st meet and won the meet last week. Nate has tried different events, but seems to like the hurdles, long jump and 100m the best. He placed first in the long jump last week for 6th grade.

Happy Easter & Happy Birthday Sarah!

Easter Sunday was also Sarah's birthday this year! She was very excited and enjoyed decorating her easter egg cake. I took Sarah and her friend Abby to see the new Hannah Montana movie on Saturday, then they both helped decorate the cake.


Sunday morning the kids woke to find that the Easter bunny had hidden their baskets. Natalie found her's first, then Nate, then Sarah and all enjoyed a piece of candy before breakfast. We headed off for Easter mass then came home to enjoy a fun family afternoon including an outdoor egg hunt. It was so nice to be outside this year!

Sarah got to chose dinner so we had turkey and dumplings before we dug into her yummy cake! She received many phone calls from friends and family wishing her a happy birthday, which made her day very special.

Family Field Trip to New Ulm

Steve had Good Friday off from work so we decided to have a family field trip. There's a small german town a couple of hours south of us that sounded interesting so we loaded up the Durango and took off for the day. We enjoyed a good "all you can eat" fish lunch at a small, family run diner and then spent the afternoon enjoying the beautiful weather. There is a small brewery in New Ulm that is one of 2 remaining, family owned brewerys in the U.S. - Schell Brewing Co. We were able to tour the brewery and visit the grounds which included several peacocks! They also make root beer there which the kids really enjoyed.

New Ulm also has a cathedral and an outdoor Way of the Cross. It is a beautiful hillside walk with the 14 Stations of the Cross. What a wonderful way to end our Good Friday afternoon - remembering all that Jesus has sacrificed for us.

Spring Haircuts

There's a duck in the fireplace!

Monday, March 30th - Sarah came running upstairs yelling that something was in the fireplace trying to get out! She had heard it when she went downstairs to get breakfast. When I went downstairs and slowly opened the fireplace doors, I saw a duck staring back at me! It must have fallen down the chimney. Well, it startled me and I startled it, so it burrowed into the ashes under the grate. I decided to just leave it alone until I got the kids off to school and could figure out what to do with it. It was hard to tell if it was hurt.

I called Steve to tell him our latest adventure, and he said I'd have to send a picture - he couldn't believe that a duck would be in our fireplace! I had to run a quick errand and when I came back I opened the doors to take a picture.....the duck was gone! I couldn't find it anywhere! I grabbed a flashlight and scanned the entire fireplace and didn't see it. I even stuck my head in and looked up the chimney. All I saw were some little feathers on the damper, so the only thing I could think was that the duck had flown back up - I didn't think a duck could do that, but I seriously could not find it.

Later that day, Steve came home and was teasing me....."OK, so where is this duck you were talking about?" He threw open the fireplace doors and there it was staring back at him!!!! He sure wasn't expecting that and neither was I. After dinner Steve had to get the duck out, so armed with gloves and long sleeves, he reached in to grab the duck who was not hurt at all. It flapped it's wings like crazy trying to get away and eventually did - right into our family room! We had kids screaming, a duck flying, soot all over - it was really quite funny!

We did capture the duck and get her into a cage and then we released her in the front yard. Keep in mind, we also have a bird dog who we had to keep away from the duck this whole time. Tucker spent the rest of the evening in the front yard searching for the duck!

SisterChicks in Chicago

Last weekend I got some quality girltime with my best friend Jodi in Chicago. She picked me up at the airport on Friday and we headed into the city for a fun weekend of sightseeing, eating and hanging out. As you can see we took many pictures, mostly focused on the architecture in downtown Chicago. We both had just read the book, "The Devil in the White City", which is about Chicago during the time of the World's Fair and explains a lot of the history behind the many buildings in Chicago. We were even able to take a riverboat architecture tour on Saturday because the weather was so nice. Normally the boats aren't running until May! I should have taken notes because I don't remember most of what our docent told us, but the pictures show the many varied styles of architecture represented in downtown Chicago.

Of course our weekend included lots of good food - Oven Grinder style pizza, Greek salad, Chinese food, blueberry & cashew pancakes (a favorite), Garrett's popcorn and Gino's East deep dish pizza. We also managed to squeeze in a visit to Navy Pier, the Art Institute, a makeover at Nordstroms and a movie.

It was such a fun weekend with awesome weather - 50's and sunny in March ....this is only one of many adventures we will share in our lifetime. Thanks friend!