May...

May brought about lots of school activities. Noah had his band concert. Jake and Noah also had field day at school, along with the awards ceremony for school. Jake had perfect attendance this year, and both the boys earned the Presidential Fitness Award. Lydia and Jake also had Many soccer games! We finished up the school year at the end of the month and we are all looking forward to Summer vacation!!!! Trent also graduated from Grantsburg HS and will be heading off to UW Superior in the fall

Easter

We spent Easter at Grandma Judy's House. Jill, Tom, Taylor, and Jordan were still in Mexico...we missed them! Great grandpa Henry was also able to make it. Thanks mom for all the great food!

The Human Race

Noah, Jake, and Lydia ran their first official race at St. Thomas in March as a part of their St. Patrick's Day Human Race. Lydia ran 1/4 mile and the boys ran 1/2 mile. They all did great. Tom Tufano, Jim Sloan, and I all ran in the 8K race. I was very happy with my time considering I had not run much since cracking my rib tubing with the youth group!
I am slowly working my way back into the groove for Grandma's Marathon. I'm still a bit behind, but I will be ready as long as I can stay healthy and avoid injuries! I enjoyed running with Aunt Deb last weekend and we got in some COLD but quality runs! The temperature when we started out was 13 degrees! Where is spring?

Kindergarten Circus

Lydia was a balance beam walker in the kindergarten circus. The grandparents and Patty and Brody came to watch her first school program. For weeks we had heard the songs for the program sung over, and over, and over..... Lydia enjoyed being on stage!

Bowling with the Tufanos

We headed to Stars and Strikes in Wyoming, MN for a little bowling with Jill, Tom, Taylor, and Jordan on President's Day. We all had a great time, and we even threw a few strikes. However, I think we get better scores on the Wii when we bowl.

And three months later.....

I've really fallen behind on updating the blog. We spent a good portion of January and February following the 5th grade Hoops basketball team to tournaments. We trudged up to Hayward for one of the tournaments and we all decided that Hayward is much better in the summer than the winter (Hayward is where Deb's parents' cabin is located). Noah had a very good season and the team did better than we expected. Lydia and Jake spent some long Saturdays watching the games, and they were pretty good troopers! Lydia also took part in a volleyball camp and loved it! She was disappointed that Noah did not watch her practice since she went to ALL of his games : )
Noah also competed in the Knights of Columbus Free Throw Contest. He won the local competition, the area competition, and the region competition, to advance to the finals at the state championship level. Noah ended up finishing 5th at the state competition and we are very proud of him!
Jake had the opportunity to be a 'basketball buddy' with the PCHS varsity team. He sat by the bench with the 'big guys' and ate candy and drank pop during the game. The guys were great and treated him well!

Happy New Year!

We rang in the New Year with the Tufanos by attending the Minnesota Wild game. The Wild won in overtime, but Jake and I missed the last goal - bathroom break! We spent the night at Jill and Tom's and all the kids made it until Midnight and Jill made some great Margaritas! The next morning we went for bagels and then hit the hills for some sliding at Taylor's school. We had a great time!

Sliding pictures

More Christmas Pictures

Merry Christmas!

We finished up school at 1:15 on Tuesday, and we jumped right into the holiday celebrations!
Tuesday night we had out progressive outing with our card club. We have been doing this for many years and is always fun to sit and chat, eat, play some games, eat, and then move on to the next house!
On Wednesday, I got up early to finish up the Christmas shopping. I always think I am done, and then end up rushing around on Christmas Eve. I did finish getting the things I needed, then rushed home to get the food ready. We headed over to Grace in Grantsburg to attend the Christmas Eve candlelight service. I love this service and seeing many of the people that we attended church with back when Noah was a baby. After church we came back to our house with Jill, Tom, Taylor, Jordan, Grandma Judy, and Great Grandpa Henry. We ate so delicious food and opened some great gifts. The kids had so much fun playing together, and even grandma Judy took her turn on Guitar Hero!
On Christmas Day, Noah, Jake, and Lydia opened their gifts in their stockings and then we headed to Papa and Grandma Sue's house. Great grandma Margaret, Patty, Trent, Brody, Jim, and Aubrey were all there too. Again, we ate some wonderful food and had some good laughs playing games and watching basketball. It was a lot of fun just to hang out at Papa and Grandma's house like we use to after church when we attended Grace.
On Friday night we had our Christmas Party with the Amundsons. Deb and Patty babysat the Amundson kids while they were growing up, and the Swensons and Amundsons vacationed together near Hayward for many years. Lauren, who is now a sophomore in college was our flower girl at our wedding! We had a great time, once again with yummy food, and a wicked game of "spoons"! We also found out that Jordan and Maria are expecting a child this summer!
Then today (Saturday) we celebrated with the Lindquists at Deb's aunt and uncle's house. One more time...Great FOOD! We all headed out to do some sliding down the hills. What a good time, even with all the wipe outs!

Congratulations Taylor!

We headed down to Maple Grove today to watch Taylor play in the championship game of the Maple Grove third grade teams. Taylor played some tough defense and has some great skills which lead to her team winning the championship for this year. The players on her team all received trophies and metals. We did not tell the Tufanos that we were coming so it was a big surprise when we showed up.
After the game we helped the team celebrate with a pizza part back at Jill and Tom's house. The team had an awards ceremony and lots of pizza! Congratulations Taylor!

Hear the trumpets sound...

Noah started playing the trumpet in band this fall. The students put on a holiday concert and he had to get dressed up (not his favorite thing to do), and he and his buddies looked and sounded pretty darn good. I am amazed at how well the students played considering they have only started band a few months ago. I also purchased a used trumpet so that I can play with him. It took a few times, but it is coming back to me and my lips are not hurting so bad anymore.

Run like a Deer!

Tom and I ran in the Lifetime fitness Reindeer Run this morning around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. It was COLD!!!!! With windchill, it was well below zero. We had a good run, even though there was quite a bit of snow on the road, and a few thousand people! It was fun to get outside and run, even in the cold weather.
Lydia had a birthday part to go to this afternoon too. She was the only girl at the party but that did not matter. She had a great time.
Deb and I attended the Michael W. Smith Christmas Concert at the Xcel Energy Center with some members of our church tonight. We went out for dinner and then went to the concert. He always puts on a good show and gets you into the holiday spirit.

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!

Twin Cities Marathon

After the many weeks of training, the Twin Cities Marathon was finally here. Even though I have run Grandma's marathon twice, I was still nervous and not quite sure what to expect. I had looked over the course, and I actually had run parts of it before (back in 1992 when I lived down in Mpls), but had heard a number of stories about 'the Hill' so we a little apprehensive. I am so glad I had Jim Sloan, a fellow teacher to start the race with. We started strong and I felt good, even through the pounding rain at Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet, and Minnehaha Parkway. It was not until Lake Nokomis when I started to get cold, and I started to slow down a bit. Jim and I lost each other a few times at water stops, but after mile 15, we did not meet up again until the end. I walked up most of 'the Hill' and then ran for most of the way down Summit Avenue to the Capital. It was fun to have Deb and the kids, along with Jill, Tom, Taylor, Jordan, and Grandma Judy cheer me on three different times along the course. The Sloans and Scholin's were also out cheering on the runners. There was times when that support was really needed : ) I crossed the finish line with a chip time of 4:05:35. This is my best marathon time yet. I beat my last time by over 25 minutes! It is such a great feeling to cross that finish line. I have not been as sore as I have been in the past after the marathon, and this was the first time that I really did not have any injuries during training. It all paid off. Next marathon: Grandma's Marathon in June - only 251 days away.