Nerd Convention

Last weekend I was lucky enough to join some friends at a “nerd convention”.  What is a nerd convention you ask?  According to my friends’ husband, a scrapbooking retreat is.  It seems crazy to some that so many hours could be spent scrapbooking, but I love it!  We rented a house set up for craft retreats north of St. Paul.  We spent 3 days/2 nights there and we had a blast.  I worked on Brennan’s 1st year book and got almost all done!  Here are a few of my favorite pages:

Racy Stickers

So, yesterday Norah was working on a project(paper, markers, stickers, ect..) when she came over to me and said excitedly “look Mom, mine has bras on it.” I only smirked a little and told her that no, those are not bras, they are bikini tops.  Then she said just as excited, “Look mom, mine has bikinis on it.”   The last time we bought stickers she picked out the summer ones because they had flip flops and other cool things….bras too, I guess.

We took the kids to the Waseca County Fair on Sunday afternoon and Brennan rode rides for the first time.  I will say that he loved it, but his eyes were as big as softballs each time a ride started with jolt.  It was so cute.  Norah was a good big sister and rode with him.Yep, they rode in the back of the car!

We walked through the animal barns, and the most interesting comment that came out of Norah’s mouth was when we passed a horse eating some hay.  She said it looked like the horse was trying to poop.  I was slightly confused where that came from because I didn't think the horse looked that way at all.  But then I remembered that every night when we sit down for supper Norah gets about 3-4 bites in before she says, “ I need to go poopy”.  Seriously it is like freaking clockwork.  So one of us ends up leaving our warm food to wipe a tush.  Maybe she has a special gift and sensed it in the horse too.  I am happy to say that I passed on my love of cotton candy to both my kids!

 

For those of you who know my nephew Owen, you know he is a quiet, shy, laid back little guy, and so I think this story will make you giggle too….

We were at Ally&Ryan’s in the toy room and Owen showed me a tiny dinosaur, and a little bear and a couple other tiny trinkets he had. I told him they were really cool and that is when Olivia piped up and said that the dino was Sawyer’s(the neighbor boy).  She went on to say that Owen goes to his house and stuffs these cool things into his pockets and comes home with his treasures.  I was already giggling at that fact when Owen says with sooo much sass “He doesn’t even want it!”

After talking to Allyson and Ryan it seems this is a common practice of both those boys finding “unwanted” things at each others house. When Owen walked home from Sawyer’s house before we left the first thing Ally asked him was what was in his pocket.  His smirk was a dead giveaway…a marker Sawyer “didn't want”! Awesome!

Brennan and Owen in their matching Jammies!  They don't look alike at all, do they?

Parades, Weddings & More

After the rainy run on the 4th of July, we gathered with friends and family to walk for Kory  in the Blooming Prairie parade.  The turnout was great even with the threat of not so fantastic weather.  We got through the parade route without getting rained on and had a great time.  Norah and Brennan had a BLAST throwing candy.  Norah is old enough to understand that she should just throw a few pieces at a time.  Her brother on the other hand, he was a crazy man!  Handfuls of tootsie rolls we being tossed out of the wagon by him every 3.4 seconds.  Man did he have fun!  After the parade we had a party back at home with the castle bounce for the kids and plenty of good food to eat.  We see the fireworks perfectly from the backyard and both my kids stayed up until the last people had gone home.  It was a lot of fun! 

 

On Thursday night, Dawn picked me up after she got off of work and we headed to Treasure Island Casino in Red Wing to do hair for one of my clients wedding.  We stayed overnight that night and got up early and started doing hair at 8 am on Friday morning.  The whole wedding party was great and fun to work with and they looked amazing.  It was great—I also came home $80 ahead on a penny slot machine.  Lucky me.

Saturday morning was a busy one a work, the five of us did another wedding party that morning. Beth Standke and Eric Fink were the bride and groom. There were 11 people in to get styled up and they were a blast.  The volume in the salon increases significantly, but it is so fun.  Kory and I attended the wedding that afternoon.  It had been about 3 years since we were at a wedding. It was a fun day, and the kiddos had a blast with a sleepover at Nana Judy and Papa Kevin’s house. 

Sunday brought us to another parade.  This one was in New Richland for Farm and City days.  The kids we tired out from their sleepover, so they were not into the candy throwing as much, and it was HOT!  We made it through, but then enjoyed the A/C on the way home. 

There is always something going on to keep us busy….that’s a good thing, right?

A couple Norah comments:

On Saturday Kory took the kids to the farmers market and they couldn’t get enough of the fountain in central park. Norah kept throwing in pennies.  Kory told her that if she threw in a penny she had to make a wish.  After some deep thought she wound up tossed the penny and said “ I wish, I wish today was my birthday.”  That’s my Girl. 

Today she kept telling on Brennan if he did anything remotely wrong, and after multiple times I told her to stop being a tattle tale.  Her response was.  “Mom, I DON’T have a tail.”  Can’t you just hear her sassy little voice saying that?

Waseca Lakefest Freedom Run

Happy 4th of July!  This morning Dawn, Jason, and I ran in the Lakefest Freedom 5 mile Run in Waseca.  I know you are asking yourself, “Wasn’t it raining?”  The answer is Yes, it sure was.  While we were there waiting to begin it was dry, but as soon as we started so did the rain.  As Dawn said, the rain was a good thing otherwise it would have felt hotter than it already did.  Jason of course rocked it in about 46 mins(shout out to someone who only runs 1-2 tlmes a year except for bases!)  Dawn and I are super proud of the run we finished in 48 mins and 16 secs!  I cant quite remember what our time was last year, but we were for sure faster this year! Before the Run

After—Still Smiling, Just wet!

Thanks to Dawn and Jason for representin’ Kath for Rep, too!

 

Kory ended up staying home with the kiddos because of the rain and Norah was still sleeping and we figured with a busy afternoon, letting her sleep would be smart.  I was greeted home with these great signs the kids made while I was gone.

 

Thanks Norah & Brennan(daddy, too)!  I love you!

Shoeless Saturday

Today we started the day with a Jumping Castle being delivered to the house for our 4th of July gathering.  The family we rent it from left for vacation today and asked if they could bring it a day early…we didn't object.  It gave my frady cat daughter a chance to get brave enough to jump by herself and gave my afraid of nothing son a chance to get limbered up to keep up with the big kids tomorrow.

After jumping, we headed over to waseca for a festival the historical society was having.  We only have two kids, but sometimes it seems like 12.  Don’t get me wrong, as Brennan gets older going places gets easier and easier, but some days getting out the door seems frantic.  Today went pretty smooth, we all load up in the van, myself always last out the door making sure milks are full, we have a nuk , diapers, ect….  We make the journey to Waseca, park the van and get ready to go.  Kory gets Norah out, I get Brennan and I hear Kory tell Norah to get her sandals back on(she usually kicks them off in the car).  Next thing I hear is Norah saying “I didn’t wear any”.  What?  You seriously didn’t put any shoes on before you got in the van?  It is at this time that a parent could scream at their child or their spouse and believe me we probably both considered that, but by this time Norah was crying because she didnt wear shoes, and knew that she was in trouble.  So, long story short, Norah is the proud owner of red, white and blue flip flops purchased at the waseca walmart.  So about 20 mins later than planned we got to the festival that I had no idea what it was about.  I turned out to be a lot of fun for the kids.  There was music and crafts and walking in the woods. 

After the festival we went to a super cute candy store in Waseca.  It is called Miss Nancy’s Candy Store.  Almost any candy/candy bar you can dream of is there.  Norah got a variety of flavored tootsie rolls, and Brennan thought his Nerds Rope was delish!  Yep they are spoiled.

After Norah had a nap, I scooped her up and we went to get our toes done.( Yes, I got over the whole shoe fiasco….she felt really bad and is only 3.)  I had been wanting a pedicure and Norah loves having her nails polished, so I took her and they polished her up while I got a pedicure.  She was super good and loved every minute.   

We had  a great day and we still have the Holiday tomorrow!