Wordless Wednesday-Bloom Where You are Planted

I have Black Eyed Susan's on one side of my garden and Day Lillies on the other side.  This year, a Black Eyed Susan popped up in a new place and bloomed all on it's own!

BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED!

Time With Daddy

Joe is working 14 days in a row between his regular job and working at the State Fair, so we have to fit in quality time when we can.

That meant finding him at work and spending some quality time together.

It didn't take much to bring a smile to both of their faces!  I love to see my boys together!

*Side note-there was a young girl about 8 who walked by when Joe was flipping E around and she looked like she was wondering where the line formed for her turn to play with the cop!  I have to say, it was good cop PR!

I Did It!!!

I finished my first 5k as an adult!  I ran the whole entire thing!  I finished in 38 minutes!  My goal was to finish in 45 minutes and not walk and I accomplished both of those goals!

Someone wrote some sayings on the path that we ran on, a few that have stuck in my mind..."Running is easier than childbirth",  "There are people still in bed and you are here running!", "At least you can run", and my favorite, "Stop thinking, quit it, stop thinking right now!"  How true was that last statement.  For every positive thought, I had at least one negative thought - for awhile at least.  Then I saw the last statement and realized that my thinking was getting in the way of my running and enjoying myself.

Don't get me wrong, it was tough, but I really felt alive and I want to do it again!

My mom and E came to support me (Joe worked the night before and had to work at the fair that evening, so he was sleeping).  There was a 2k walk/run following the 5k.  The three of us were signed up for the 2k.  E was very excited for his race and boy did he race!

He RAN at least 3/4 of the entire 2k.  He did fall going down the hill once and he did feel the urge to crawl back up the hill for some reason, but he ran most of it.  He reminded me very much of his uncle Kyle and the joy he had in running.

Following the 2k was the award ceremony for the top three finishers in each age group.  Sven Sundgaard was there along with Shawn's wife Jennifer to hand out the awards.

Jennifer is such a strong woman and she has given me strength!  I will write more on her later-but back to running!

E was signed up for the kids 50 yard Daisy Dash.  He was even more excited for this race.  For days prior, anytime I talked about the race, he told me that he "was going to win a shiny medal!"  I wasn't sure if there was going to be a shiny medal, but lucky us, there was a shiny medal for him at the end of the race.

Very serious before the start of his race.

A SHINY medal!

E told me that he wasn't tired, and this was the scene two minutes after we left the park!

What a fabulous day!  I can't wait for next years run!

Stationery Card

Pattern Party Blue Thank You Card

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Birthday Cake Practice

E's birthday is in September and 6 months ago, we started talking about what theme he wanted for his birthday party.  He chose MONSTERS!  Not monster trucks or super scary monsters and not Monsters, Inc monsters.  Friendly monsters!

I have been looking up different cake designs for a monster cake and I found one that I thought I could do.  While looking online, I found an awesome baking website   http://www.whisk-kid.com/  She has an AWESOME rainbow cake and that was the inspiration for the inside of my monster cake.



E is very intense on adding the gel food coloring.  Gel food coloring is a lot brighter than your mom's food coloring.  As you can see, it makes the colors very bright.

I wasn't sure what color I wanted the monster cake to be, so I made four different colors.

I didn't want to make four different cakes and I wanted to see what would happen when I mixed them together in one pan.  Here is the pan before it went in the oven.

Here's what it looked like when it came out of the oven.  It looked even cooler when I cut into it, but I didn't get a picture of that.

The cake tasted very good and the colors were very bright too.  I also had to make a practice run at the buttercream frosting and how I was going to decorate the cake to make it look like a monster! 

Wordless Wednesday-Happy 9th Birthday Factor!

Kettle Falls Vacation

We went on a 5 day vacation to Kettle Falls Hotel which is on Rainy Lake and Lake Kabetogema.  It is so peaceful and the walleye fishing is GREAT!

On the 5 hour drive up to Voyageur National Park, we made a stop at Cold Springs Deer Farm/Bait Shop/Gas Station.  E was excited to see the deer.  He fed them food out of his hand, he was very brave.  After the visit at the deer farm, we were on our way to launch the boat.

There was a total of 16 adults, 1 child, and 1 puppy and 8 boats in our group.  The first evening, Saturday, we traditionally have a steak dinner together.  It is a great time to reconnect, as some of us haven't seen each other for a year.


Grilling the steaks



Enjoying an AMAZING dinner together!



E showing off his great smile.

After breakfast on Sunday morning, we went out on the boat for a day of fishing.  It didn't take E long, to make himself at home on the boat.  The weather was perfect for a day on the lake.

Going for a ride.

The fish were biting quickly, but not many fit within the slot limit.



Helping dad reel in a Big One!



E was such a happy guy on the boat

When we weren't on the boat, eating or napping, E was playing in the water.  At first he was pretty hesitant of the water, but he quickly became the brave boy that I know so well.

Trying to touch the water without falling in.  Don't worry, I had a hold of his leg.

E enjoyed throwing big sticks in the water.

He thought that he was a puppy and went in to get the "treats"

He also pretended that he was a BIG fish and needed to be pulled out of the water.

Joe caught a nice sized small mouth bass

E even got in on the fishing action.  He actually caught two fish on his Ugly Stick Junior.  He caught an 11 inch walleye and reeled it in all on his own.  He called out the orders to "Get the net" and knew that it needed to be measured to find out if it was a "keeper" or not.  It wasn't a keeper, but we got a picture with E and his first fish.  

This wasn't my best photographic composition-with Joe's leg in the background, but at least we captured the moment.

One afternoon, while we were going in for the day, E asked if he could drive the boat.  We were in the middle of a large body of water, so Joe let E take the wheel.  He even had his bandana on like Jake the Pirate.  These are some of my FAVORITE pictures of E.  I can still hear his giggle and laughter while looking at these pictures.

Family vacations like this are what memories are made of.  I am so glad that we have the opportunity to bring E on these vacations.  I am not sure how much of this trip that he will remember, but I know that Joe and I will hold these memories in our hearts forever.

The only picture of Joe and I on the trip

The entire group minus one couple

We took these two pictures of E and MiMi two years apart.  It so much fun to see how he has grown and how my mom is wearing a pink shirt in both the pictures.



2009

2011

We can't wait to make more family memories.

Wordless Wednesday-Pure Joy!