Thanks to my gfriend Pat

Pat this post is for you!!   Thanks for posting comments. You are usually the only one that does.  Sometimes I wonder why I take the time to blog.  If it is for my own good, then I might as well quit.  SOOOOO if anyone is reading this blog besides Pat, please let me know you have been here, or I will just start sending the pics to her and close this blog down.

And then it was time to say "So Long"

Then Thursday night arrived. I got them some new toys and they were playing with them while they waited for their mom and sisters to come. Luke loved this Hot Wheels track. Even Abbe played with it for a while. I had to laugh at one point they were having some problem with what they wanted to do and Luke said "Abbe, wait, we are having some technical difficulties" Just too cute.

Abbe spend time playing with her Barbie dolls. She can do that for hours. It is soooo cute.
AND THEN... it was time to say So Long. Here they are in the back seat of their Mom's van preparing to take off. Mamma had tears in her eyes.... Retirement cant come soon enough,

I love you Luke and Abbe. Thanks for coming and staying with us.,

We took a ride on the Mississippi

It was such a beautiful day on Thursday. We decided to take a river boat ride. So we went to the paddleford company and got on a boat. Not a paddle boat, but a boat none the less. Here is Luke standing on a rock in the park there while we were waiting to get on.

Abbe on that same rock giving me some of her attitude for the picture This little gal seldom had an attitude. Both of the kids are a delight to have around
This is us getting off the boat after the ride. Luke was no so sure he wanted to go on it. Before we got on he fretted. He wanted to make sure there were life jackets and that it wasn't going to go too fast. But once we were on the way, he said, is this as fast as we are going to go and I said yes, and he was a happy boy and he and Abbe explored the boat and even stood at the rail and hung over a bit. I am glad he wasn't scared the whole ride.

This was an anchor I think that was there that they climbed up on so it was a photo op.

More stuff that went on

Mommy did not allow them to take any of their electronic games along. So there was no DS, or Wii, or Nintendo. So we filled the time doing other things. Jim took them to the zoo one day. Do we have pictures of that?? Nope,, camera left at home. But sometimes they just chilled. Here is Luke reading. He must have laid there and read for 2 hours.

Abbe spent part of that time on the phone talking with her friends back home. A girl just HAS to keep up with her friends!!!
Last Tuesday night Jim's granddaughter Bri and grandson Nate spent the night then on Wednesday we celebrated Nate's 6th birthday.. Here is Nate with his mini cupcakes.

And then a picture of the 4 of them. They had a great time.

Another fishing post

At the museum there was this caveman, so we had to take pictures by it. Luke is not so sure he wants to be there.

On Sunday they went fishing from the shore. This is the 4 of them out there. Will is not fishing, just helping the others butting on bait and getting hooks out of trees...

Abbe is quite the fisher girl. She was catching those little ones left and right. In fact they went out in the boat fishing on Sat evening, (it was dark by 8:15 and they were not home by 9:10 and I was scared out of my wits something had happened and was about to call the sheriff (that after taking the car to look for them. Smart move when I had no idea where they had gone and ended up getting a bit lost myself before I got back to the house) AND one of the reasons they were later then they thought they would be is this little girl kept begging for just one more cast...

Luke caught some too, but wanted no part of putting his fingers inside that fishes mouth, so dad held it while I took the picture.

It was a perfect day to be fishing... It was hard to get them going from there too

PS... Did I give them heck for being late?? Who me? Well yes, I guess you might say I was a bit vocal. You can ask Will or Jim about that!!

At the huge Muskie Museum in Hayward

We spent a morning at the Muskie Museum in Hayward. An interesting place if you like fish or fishing. Here Luke caught a big one!!!

Then Abbe reeled one in
Will, Abbe, Luke and Gpa Jim in front of one of the big fishes. Don't ask me to name them!!

The centerpiece of the museum is this huge Muskie. You can walk up in to the mouth of it.

Here are Will, Abbe and Luke looking down at me, and this is using the strongest zoom I have with my little camera!!

A good time!!

Trip to Hayward, WI

We spent last weekend in Hayward WI. We stayed in a hotel there. I had made reservations for a double queen room. When we checked in, they had over booked their double queen rooms so we got a queen suite. It was perfect. We had our room with a queen bed and off in another small room were bunk beds. The kids were excited to sleep in them, and so it worked out better then we had planned. Thank you God!

We went out to Will's grandmother's place and she has 18 acres there, so Will let them ride the riding lawn tractor. Luke thought is OK BUT
Miss Abbe was Crazy Lady on the thing. Her Dad said he is not looking forward to her getting behind the wheel of a car. Awwww she will calm down,,,, wont she??

Tonight I am posting 7 blogs, hope I get them in the right order

FROG!!!!!!!

Yes inded folks. That is what I screamed one morning last week, while I was up getting ready for work and the rest of the house was sound asleep. Why you ask did I scream that? Well I turned on the hall light and looked down and was about to step on a frog. What would you yell? It brought them all out of bed, and Abbe took the thing outside!! I think it should have been disposed of, but I let it live to enter another house someday.. just not ours!!!

Time is winding down

Abbe and Luke's mom came last night. Today they headed to the state fair. On Sunday they will return home. I know that I am going to miss Abbe and Luke like crazy. My body might say,, ahhhhh,,,,, but my heart is going to be crying.

No pictures but promise I will get to adding some next week.

And some more of the MOA

Some more of Dewey just not so sure all this ride stuff is cracked up to be as they say.

Luke in his favorite ride the Swiper

Faith and Abbe showing off in the Swiper

This Dewey again on the Swiper. He did not like this ride too much at all. His eyes were closed most of the time and he was hugging Momma pretty tight. But he did good for an 18 month old baby.

I didn't get too many pictures of Abbe and Faith. Kim posted quite a few at facebook so you can get a look at those there.

All the way to Thursday with some MOA pics

Here it is 10 AM and we are all bright eyed and bush tailed

This year we got Luke to ride the carousel and even one that went up and down.
Time to introduce Dewey to Nik Universe so Gpa Jim went on with him and helped him on his first ride. A privilege for Gpa Jim

Luke is the non adventurous one of the group. He preferred to hang out with Dewey and ride the rides that Dewey did. You have to have one of those tender little guys. You would never imagine that he would be afraid of riding a little roller coaster if you watched him go down the big hill in their back yard with the big wheel!!!

All on the school bus. Looks like Kim is the only one really enjoying the ride hehehe Dewey is shutting his eyes and cuddling in with Mommy.

Tuesday - and no pictures

Today it was back to work for me. Jim took the kids to the Como Park and Zoo. They had a good time then he took them to Wendy's for lunch. The kids spent the rest of the day playing with the neighborhood kids and watching some TV. I had a crazy zoo like day at work and my head was spinning before I left. I was glad to be out of there. I had to go and get my drivers license renewed.. It expires next week!! It is nuts what they charge for renewal. $24.

When I got home I got dinner on the table. We had meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn, tomatoes and cukes. I was not gong to make gravy, as you just don't make gravy from meatloaf but the kids insisted they needed gravy with mashed tators, so believe it or not folks, I made gravy from meatloaf drippings. The kids said it was very good. That was all that counted.

After dinner we made monster cookies. Luke has been insisting since he got here that we would make monster cookies. So he helped me get the batter all mixed up and then Abbe helped me form them. Then it was all that clean up to do, dinner and baking dishes. Jim had mowed the lawn after being at the zoo so I was not gong to ask him to help. So when it was all done I was ready for my shower and now ready to go to bed.

I had asked Jim to take the camera with to the zoo for some pics, but he forgot. And I do have one pic of Luke putting peanut butter in the batter but to lazy to go and get it and put the card in. So next time.

Ta- da-ta-da that's all folks

Good night

The end of day 2 and day 3 update

Here the are, Josiah, Abbe, Faith, and Luke lined up for a picture for me at the park

We got home from the park and we were hanging out and they were giving me the "I'm bored" speech, so I told Faith I would polish her nails. Then Abbe came and wanted hers done. When we were almost done with Abbe's the boys came in and Joe wanted his nails painted red, blue and white. So we got his done. Luke wasn't sure Joe has "OK". But when he was done, he slapped one of his hands down and said "One hand, white". I had to laugh Here are the polished fingers.

The rest of the evening was dinner and ice cream and bed time. They were so good about going to bed and to sleep. I love these little Darlings.

Something I forgot to post about Sat. The boys needed a bath to clean off the smore gook, and grass and whatever. So they were in the bathroom for quite a while and I heard they were having fun. I decided it was time to come out: WHOA.....I walked in there and you would have sworn the ENTIRE bathroom was a shower. There was water on all the walls, mirror and floor. AND get this. They had used the little squirty rubber duckies and had squirt the ceiling in the bathroom..... So now I need to paint the bathroom ceiling. Maybe I will buy the paint and the weekend of the 27th when we all gather, my children can do a little paint project??? (^_^)

Day 3

Both Jim and I had to go to work today, so Kim came out (thank you Kim) and she took the kids to a park with their scooters and a picnic lunch. Kim had to go home around 2 or so and the kids just chilled out with Gpa and some Disney channel TV. When I got home we went to Costco and had dinner their (I love that place) When we got home they kids went out with their scooters and met a block full of kids, and about 8 I had to go and get them in and Abbe got in the shower then it was time to watch Ella Enchanted. Now it is bedtime.. I suppose a snack first. if no one else needs bed... Mamma does..

Day 2

While Gpa and I were busy straightening up the house, the Little Munchkins took residence on our bed and watched cartoons.

Then it was lunch time. After lunch we went to see the movie "Dogs and Cats" (I think that was the title). The kids found it very entertaining and we were not bored out of our minds. After the movie I took them to the playground near our house. There they ran off some energy after sitting in the theater for over an our.

Here is Abbe, and Luke got in on the picture action
Then it was Luke's turn for the camera

Then Faith

And Joe showing us his muscles.

All in all it was a pretty good time up to this point.

Continue Day 1

After lunch it was time to play outside. Our yard must be a breeding site for frogs, as the kids all found their own personal frog to hold and have them race and turn over. I told them not to torture them, and I think they were kind to them. Well that was how I felt, the frogs might have another opinion.

After the frogs had done their job entertaining them, the water sprinklers went off and without any provocation, the 2 boys were wet from head to toe.

And the girls were off scootin around the block.

While all this was going on, Gpa Jim was out back building a fire for the making of Smore's. I know they "roasted" a whole bag of chocolate marshmallows except for 5 marshmallows and I made only 4 smores. What do you think happened to the remainder of those marshmallows. Some of them were eaten, but some of them became flaming torches!! Here Faith is enjoying a smore!!

OK,, more with when I can upload more pictures.

Sat Morning and the fun begins

Here we are picking up a bike that Kim and Eric are giving to Missy to have at collage.

We've gottem. We had lunch and now time to head back to MN
Unbeknownst to Abbe and Luke we had made plans to pick up Faith and Joe on the way back to spend a couple of nights here with them. We kinda broke the law and we had to buckle Luke and Joe in the same belt. Wouldn't have mattered most as we ran into road construction and for about 45 min of the trip we drove about 5 miles an hour!! GRRRRR The kids were better through this then I was.

And that fun begins, Pokeman cards alll over the living room floor. Never heard so many strange sounding names. At the end of the night I asked them to pick them up and they just piled them in the little box. I told them to give it to me and while I watched the Vikings I would put them in neat. This is what I overheard Luke tell Joe. "We should teach her how to put them in order for us" Evidently Joe must not have thought that a good idea as they didn't come and ask me. Smart boys!!!

When it was time for supper.. Everyone's favorite the first night, hot dogs, mac and cheese and brown beans. Well they don't all like brown beans. But the rest of it was a hit Faith and Abbe were both happy to help set the table.

I have more pictures and information to share but can only get 6 pictures uploaded to one blog,, at lease as far as I can figure it out. So now I need to go and make supper and will post some more when i have the chance.