Picking the Right Tree

We headed out to the woods in Grantsburg to pick out our Christmas tree for this year. It was the last weekend of deer hunting, so we all needed to be in orange. Lydia spotted the tree first, and papa cut it down and hauled it back to the vehicles. We also enjoyed some of grandma's cookies down by Peterson Lake before heading back to Pine City. We then all gathered at Pat's house for pizza with Jim and Aubrey.

Thanksgiving week

We survived parent-teacher conferences, and now we moved on to Thanksgiving week. On Monday, Noah started basketball. Deb is assisting in the coaching of his team this year. He is looking forward to a good season. On Tuesday, we had four extra kids overnight while their parents were returning from a trip. It was a lot of fun, but getting seven kids ages 2 to 13 ready, fed, and out of the house by 7:15 for school is not something I would be able to do everyday.
Wednesday, Lydia had her Thanksgiving program. She was an Indian with a cute outfit she made at school. Then we started preparing food for the feast!
Thursday morning, Tom, aunt Deb and her friend Tim, and I ran in the Turkey Day 5K in Minneapolis. I could not believe all the people! We had a great time, and Tom finished his first 5K. We will run another one next weekend!
We ended up with a group of 20 for dinner! What a great time. The kids ran around (only a little blood - of course from Jake), we watched football, and we ate, ate, ate. We were lucky to have Grandpa Henry, Papa, and Grandma Sue, Grandma Judy, Uncle Mick and Aunt Nancy, Aunt Deb, Tom, Jill, Taylor, and Jordan, Pat, Wade, Trent, and Brody all here with the five of us. We had many laughs and was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving. Aunt Nancy had all the kids help with making Turkey place cards for the table. I think they finished their dinner quickly so they could eat their Turkeys!
Friday morning brought the annual shopping trip for mom, Jill, and I. We did well and were back home by 11:00 a.m.

A small break

Lydia had a little accident three weeks ago. While wrestling with Jake on mom and dad's bed, she fell and landed wrong breaking her arm. We spent some time in the emergency room and had x-rays taken. It ended up being a 'green-stick' fracture. Her arm is healing well, and fast so they decided to just keep on the temporary cast until this coming up Monday (December 1st). We always thought Jake would be the first to break a bone - but he was involved! He felt bad and has been pretty nice to his little sister since the accident. We will see if this all changes once the cast comes off.

It finally arrived...40

I turned 40 on November 6th. Deb threw me a surprise party that was a lot of fun. Mom, Jill, Tom, Taylor, and Jordan came up for pizza to celebrate Jill and my birthdays. Then all of a sudden people started appearing at our door. I was a bit stunned and overwhelmed when we all of a sudden had over 60 people in our house. I am a 'planner' and not being in the loop threw me a bit. Deb had thought of everything...the food, beverages, cake, and guests. I really appreciated the time she must have put into this to pull it off - I was clueless! The time with family and friends...what a great gift.

Halloween!!!

Our family split up a little on Halloween. Noah went with a friend to Ramsey, MN for trick-or-treating. Deb and I took Lydia and Jake to Grandma Judy's and then to Papa and Grandma Sue's house. Grandma sue had sloppy Joe's and warm rice pudding waiting for us. What a great treat! Noah and his friend Beau dressed up as hobos and took in a haul of candy - good thing Noah is not a huge fan of the sweets so that the rest of benefited from his efforts!
Lydia dressed up as a Vikings cheerleader, and Jake was a Gangsta' . (Misha would be proud) The kids had fun answering the door and handing out candy at Papa and Grandma Sue's house. We were able to see Chris, Casey, and girls, and also Dan, Kelly, and boys.
The next night, Deb and I attended a Halloween Party at the Lorsungs. I think we scared our own kids!

Yikes - I need to catch up on blogging!

I realized that I have not blogged wince the marathon! It is now Thanksgiving weekend! So to back track a little - Noah had a great football season. We had many fun Saturdays in Forest Lake cheering on the guys! They ended the season with a 4-3 record and have shown so much improvement this year. Over the weeks Noah had many fans show up - Grandma Judy, Papa and Grandma Sue, Pat, Trent, and Brody, and Tom, Jill, Taylor, and Jordan. THANKS for supporting Noah! Perkins is going to miss us coming in for lunch after each game!