Sadie and Iggie are getting along great!

 Iggie is attacking Sadie's back foot.

Playing in the hallway.

More spelling video

"suburban"

"vestige"

"labyrinth"

"piano"

 "chassis" part 1

"chassis" part 2

"bratwurst"

Connor wins Lakewood School Spelling Bee!

I've always been a good speller.  Well, it looks like it's passed onto Connor.  He took a written test before Christmas and then got all 10 (residue, thought, fallacy, cabbage, diagonal, hysterical, suburban, parable, vestige, labyrinth) words correct in the oral competition.  He tied with a fourth grader, so there had to be a tie breaker.  His tie breaker words were piano, missile, whetstone, evaluate, gurney, dimension, calibrate, supplement, panacea, benevolent, ominous, incorruptible (x), carafe (x), entourage (x), stethoscope, chassis (x), liverwurst.  Connor ended up winning with "bratwurst".  What a fitting ending!  We are so proud.  Connor now moves onto Eastern (Duluth) Sectionals with other surrounding elementary school fifth graders and sixth graders (I think).  It's next Thursday at his school.  We'll be studying hard!

 The top ten spellers in fourth and fifth grade with their teachers

 The fifth grade reserve champion, the fifth grade champion (Connor)

and the fourth grade champion

 The champions with their proud moms

Dad and Mom so proud!

Enjoy the videos!

 

"Residue"

"thought"

 "fallacy"

"cabbage"

"diagonal"

"hysterical"

New Year's Eve

We went to the Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells for New Year's.  My brother, nephew and sister-in-law met my family and my mom there.  We didn't get together at Christmas, so this was our celebration.  We got to the Dells on Thursday night and went straight to the waterpark.  Holy cow, was it crowded!  The kids ran off and I got a cocktail, sat down and people watched.  It was grand!

We hit the indoor play land, arcade and another waterpark the next day.  My brother and his family and my mom met us at the waterpark.  Baby Andrew got his first taste.  He seemed fairly unaffected by the chaos and the water.  Pretty low key kid.  Bret and my kids braved the wave pool.  Bret, Connor, Maren and I went on some family raft ride, which was fun for all except Bret because he went backwards the whole way.  Pretty unsettling, I guess.  We headed over to our 3 BR condo and settled in.  We had dinner reservations at The Fields, which was amazing.  I had a crab cake, lobster bisque, barrel cut tenderloin with Merlot sauce, then a flourless chocolate cake a la mode.  It was great! 

Connor tried an oyster, and liked it.  Thata boy!  The oysters were my brothers, and he got sick later that night.  Sorry Dave!

We headed back to the condo, then the kids, Bret, Dave and I headed over to the arcade and indoor play land.  We headed home about 10p.  We ended up watching a movie.  Maren and Brendan made it past 12a.

We spent the next day going to the store because Connor received a cookbook for Christmas from Dave and Jenny.  He wanted to cook dinner Saturday night.  So he read throught the cookbook, came up with 3 possible meals and then Dave and he headed off to the market.  They decided on a menu, then headed back to the condo.  My family headed to the waterpark, then back home so Connor could cook the feast.  It was wonderful!  Roasted pork tenderloin with pomegranite and roasted root vegetables.  Way to go Connor (with Dave's help)!

We went to Denny's for our send-off breakfast, then headed home.  It was great to see Dave and his family!  Of course, I took no pictures, but will post some if I get any from Jenny or my mom.

Happy New Year!

Hockey Jamboree

 Connor reaching for a puck

Connor's team had 3 scrimmages over the winter break at an outside rink in Duluth.  The team is really bonding, and they are fun to watch.  Connor is playing defense this year, which he's loving.  Enjoy the pictures!

 Connor taking a shot

 Connor (center in back) goofing around with team mates between scrimmages

 Connor taking a shot during warm-ups

 Connor's in red

 Connor's on the boards

Connor battling against the boards

Connor's kneeling on right

Christmas

Well, I'm learning that it's not Christmas in Duluth without Bentleyville.  My mom came up after the snow storm on Tuesday and still got to see the kids holiday program (postponed due to weather).  Bret was on hospital service this Christmas (yuck!), so my mom, the kids and I went to church on Christmas Eve, then to Josh and Bridget's for Gayle's famous chili.  We headed home, got cookies out for Santa, wrapped some more presents and went to bed at a reasonable hour.  Maren almost spoiled it by coming down while Bret put Santa's presents out, but he caught her in time.  So far, all of my kids still believe, which is pretty cool.  We had Christmas morning with Bret, then he went into work.  Then he came back and we had the Friday clan over for prime rib and snow crab.  What a feast!  It was delicious!  My mom went home the next day and we had my new niece Hadley's baptism, then back over to Josh and Bridget's for sledding and linner (lunch/dinner).  It was a wonderful Christmas!

 For some reason, I can't get this picture to rotate.  Sorry!

The kids with Mrs. Clause

(the line was much shorter!)