Last Day of School

Yesterday was the last day of school for the girls. Chris and I went to pick them so we could get the required pictures with their teachers. Katie probably wouldn't care as much but Meghan, if we ever forgot again to get that picture, we would be in the dog house. So of course we go to Meghan's class room first. When we get there Meghan of course has tears in her eyes and is standing with her teacher. Snap!





Katie of course is all happy when we meet her at her classroom. She loves school, but loves to be done and not have to think. Snap!




Coming out of the school we meet up with Katie's friend Marissa who likes in our old house. Both are excited to get together this summer and ride bikes and the like. Plans, plans, plans.




Meghan is going to a movie this afternoon with her friend Sydney. She is growing up way too fast for sure. Hard for me to want to let her go. Makes me nervous, but I know I must cut the apron strings. Like on Weds when we let them come home by themselves and let themselves into the house and stay there till I got home at 3:30. I know it was only a half an hour, but still makes me uneasy. Of course at 9 1/2 I was babysitting three kids by myself. Time to let go a little bit. Yikes!

The Hot Tree Guy!

When we moved into our house in July 2006, we knew eventually we would have to cut down the big tree right outside our patio door. The house has a small deck on it and this huge cottonless cottonwood was growing right next to it and pushing our deck up at an angle. Since we dreamed of a much bigger deck and one that was level of course we knew the tree had to go.

So Chris called a few tree removal people and got quotes around $1000-$1500 to take the tree down, cut it up and move it out. We first tried to get Chris's brother to do it, but the task seemed too daunting. Chris called one last guy on a recommendation from a friend. This was the hot tree guy (HTG) as I named him when he showed up in my back yard one day. He gave Chris a quote of $1300 and I told Chris he should hire him because he was hot. Well we hired him, because he is a local guy and not a big named company. We like to hire the little people. It seems right. But of course in my mind we hired him because he was hot.

Yesterday the HTG comes over and down the tree came. Chris was at work, the girls at school, and the boys and I went to Crookston for pictures. I got home at 3:30 and they were just taking down the rest of the tree. The HTG cuts them down and the other two guys, not hot by the way, clean up the mess. Our neighbor said the HTG literally climbed up the tree like a monkey to start piecing the tree down. I am thinking I should have stayed home.

Anyway, Chris said that the city will take anything 10 inches in diameter and smaller and for the HTG to leave that in a pile and he would drag it to the curb for the city to haul away. That would cut down our cost anyway. SO I get home and the pile is HUGE! OH man did I laugh. It reminded me of the time that Chris said it would only take like 10 wheel barrels to move a yard of sand from the driveway to the sand box. I think the final count on that was 44 wheelbarrels.

So here are the pictures of our tree. Cool huh? Our backyard looks so huge and I can't wait to see how much more light we get in the house once the sun comes out again. Thanks HTG!

August 2006 - right after we moved in.



August 2006



Yesterday morning. It really is two trees. One of the trees was growing at an angle that the HTG could just cut it so it would fall. The other tree split into two at about my height and was growing the opposite direction. That is the one the HTG scaled and the cut down, piece by piece. He then sent the sections down using a rope pulley system. Pretty cool. Still wish I would have stayed home to watch.



No that isn't the HTG.



Neither is this one. I never got his picture. :(






The boys outside checking out the new yard!



Look how small Ryan is compared to the pile, Chris agreed to move. It was a fair deal since we only ended up paying $1,050 instead of $1300.

Aaron is always ready to go

On Sunday Chris needed to run to Menards said he would take Aaron with him. So he tells Aaron "Should we go bye-bye?" Aaron runs to the closet and starts looking for his shoes. Chris gets his shoes on and Aaron gets up and walks into the living room looking for something. He goes over to the chest in the dining room, grabs his Hello Kitty purse and slings it around his neck and then runs to sit down on the stairs. He's ready to go.

Holy cow!

Since the beginning of May I have taken 794 pictures. Holy cow that's a lot of pictures!

The Fargo Marathon!

The Fargo Marathon is now over for another year. We had over 12,000 runners in town and it was an amazing sight to see. Chris ran the 1/2 Marathon finishing in 2:20:45. He wasn't really pleased with his time, but he didn't lose 3 weeks of training in April due to Bronchitis. So that kind of hurt him. I think he will be going back to the 5K next year because he really missed watching the marathoners run by our house.

The race started at 8AM and the first runners ran by our cul de sac at 9 AM. Mind you we are at mile marker 10. Those are some fast runners. The winner came in at 2 hours 30 minutes. Unreal! We handed out water and licorice to the runners as they came by. The kids thought it was great. Ryan would get super excited if a runner took something from him! We went in the house at about 10:45 and checked to see how Chris did on the computer. I think the last marathoner ran by at about 11:10. Chris made it home by noon.

The kid's fun run was at 3PM up at the dome. Ryan and our neighbor Noelle who is also 3 ran the .5 mile. They did really well and came in in the middle of the pack. Ryan kept saying " I did a good job!" They got water, pretzels and apples to re-energize! Then we watched for the girls to come in. Meghan and Katie ran the 1.2 mile with their friends Lauren, Jaye and MaKayla. They came in closer to the front and ran really well.

When we got back to the house we had dinner over at the Lewis house and then the girls stayed over night. Ryan, Aaron, Chris and I went outside at about 7:30 to watch the coordinator of the marathon running the course. He was dedicating his run to a little girl, Caroline Vetter that just lost her fight with leukodystrophy and epilepsy. There was also a guy that ran from Grand Forks, 76 miles, and then once he got to Fargo he ran the marathon course 26.1 miles. He was running for stroke awareness. That's a lot of miles!

Here are some pictures of the day!

Waiting for the runners.



Our friend Matt (in red) He ran with the 3:40 pace group.



Ryan blew bubbles for the runners



The girls waiting for the race. Meghan, Katie, Jaye, MaKayla, Lauren



Ryan and me before the race



Ryan running the .5 mile



Cruising!



Ryan and Noelle with their medals!



Ryan coming in



Eating a snack afterwards.



The girls running in. Jaye, MaKayla, Katie, Meghan and Bob!



The little ones showing Bob their medals.



The Andreachi family!

Boy am I behind in posts!

I just realized I haven't posted in like 2 weeks. OOOPS! It has been crazy busy around here and I haven't felt inspired to write. Sorry about that.

So in the last two weeks we have had the wrap up party for DI. Everyone came and had pizza and ice cream and it was a lot of fun. Looks like we are all on deck for next year. Yes, I know I swore I wouldn't do it again, but it's for the kids!!! :):)

I went to muffins for moms with the girls at school. That was fun and there were over 500 moms present.

Katie had her birthday slumber party even though her birthday isn't for another 2 weeks. Being that she has a summer birthday she gets kind of slighted on the party thing because everyone scatters for the summer so we did it early and it was great. The girls tie-dyed pillow cases and made yarn octopuses. Of course lots of pizza, cake and popcorn.

Both girls had their spring music programs at school. Meghan played the recorder and I was surprised to find I still have mine. Duets, perhaps?? NOT! Both classes use a lot of dances or games in their singing and it is really entertaining.

Yesterday I brought the boys to the Wahpeton zoo and they had a blast! Ryan loved the bears and he got a stuffed monkey which he has been giving piggy back rides to. The weather was beautiful too. We helped a lost boy that crossed our paths and we ended up eating lunch with him and his school. There were probably only 15 from Henning, MN. The teacher let Ryan check out his bus and he thought that was way cool too.

Which brings us to today. The Fargo Marathon! We have over 12,000 runners in town to take part in it. Chris is running the 1/2 marathon and the girls are running the 1.2 mile and Ryan is running the .5 mile. The full marathon will be running past our cul de sac so we are going out to watch and cheer them on. The weather is beautiful. Yeah!

Anyway that is the last couple of weeks. I will get pictures on here this afternoon.
Cheers!

I ate a worm!

No, not me! Yuck! Not one of the boys either. MEGHAN! She just came home from the neighbors house proclaiming that she ate a worm. Yuck! Unbelieveable. I thought I wouldn't have to hear that coming from one of the girls. The boys, sure, but the girls. *sigh*

We went to a County Fair!

Yesterday the boys and I went to a county fair. Meghan's classroom studied the book Charlotte's Web and has been working on various projects for the last month. Their final project was a county fair. We were all invited to it along with the other classes at Centennial.

Ryan was very excited as Meghan told him he could play games and win candy!


Meghan showing Ryan Charolette, Templeton and Wilbur



Playing the ring toss game.



County Fair projects from the students. Everyone got a blue ribbon!



Ryan told his dad how he got to play the game where he got to toss a marshmellow in a basket and get candy.



The kids sold cookies and bars, popcorn and little sculptures of Charolotte, Wilbur and Templeton.



Ryan eating his cookie with blue frosting and sprinkles!



The kids all had a fun day hosting their county fair. Ryan even believed he was at a real county fair!