MN Thompson's

What a great week! We started at the Great Wolf Lodge, hung out with some old friends (drank lots of yummy wine and some even yummier varieties of oatmeal stout beer), saw a magic show, saw How to Train Your Dragon (in 3D, of course), went for a bike ride & to a park, got the pond & stream working in our backyard, found the first tick of the season on me (we haven’t had very many tick encounters in Minnesota – this was rare even though ticks used to LOVE me), and ended our week with perfect weather.

The Great Wolf was fun as always. E & Wendy came up from Lafayette so it was great to hang out. I thought maybe on Easter that there would be less people – but no, it was the busiest we’ve ever seen it. Somehow the Easter Bunny still found us – in our hotel room and in the water park. The younger kids got to find eggs in the play structure area and the big kids got to find eggs all over the entire water park – there were eggs everywhere.

E & Wen brought an extra kid – you should see the photo after this one when I had everyone make crazy faces.

We went to Jeremy Allen’s Grand Illusions show. They started the show with funky music and these native-type people came out on stage in grass skirts and big masks and were pounding on drums while they moved around. They didn’t do any tricks but just got the show started. After that Jeremy Allen did all sorts of cool tricks and amazing illusions – it was really a pretty good show. Afterwards I asked the kids what their favorite part was – Colleen liked when they put a lady in a box and then made her head move all around separate from her body. I forget what Christopher liked, but when I asked Megan she so cutely said “the dancing monkeys”. Everytime I think about her saying that it gets me laughing all over again…so innocent and sweet 🙂

After four years we have our Dells routine pretty set. We typically go to the Moosejaw restaurant. Beth can’t resist sampling the 10 microbrews they offer there so I go along for the ride and try to enjoy myself. When we were driving home from the Moosejaw a year ago that’s when Dan called me to say they just had their baby…not sure what all I said to him then but I’m sure it wasn’t my proudest tipsy moment. You can’t leave there without everyone wearing antlers…maybe next year we’ll ask directions on the proper way to wear them.

The Great Wolf used to have this awesome 4-story air gun area where you blasted each other with nerf balls. They replaced the guns and balls this year with MagiQuest . You pay crazy amounts of money for a wand that sort of works and then go on quests and adventures. The game actually isn’t all that bad once you start playing – Colleen and Christopher both did good at it while Megan was just happy running around and around and around. After we completed our quests we then had various spells (e.g., freeze, lightening, protection) so we could go on adventures and try to kill a dragon or goblin. We decided our first adventure would be to kill the goblin. You’re supposed to use your lightening spell to kill the goblin but my theory is that somehow Colleen mixed up her spells and used freeze instead because the video screen completely froze as she was casting her spell (and she was beating him too) and…they couldn’t fix it…and it was broken for over a day (for all the kids)…don’t mess with Colleen’s magic powers – she is a Master Magi!!!

Ok – here’s the quiz…quick, find Beth in this picture:

Did you find her? The correct answer is “no, she’s not in this picture”. If that wasn’t your answer then please keep that to yourself. Another correct answer would have been “I forgot to look for Beth because I was so distracted by Arnold Schwarzenegger standing next to Christopher”.

Can’t wait to see some of you in a few weeks. The weather is beautiful here – sunny, 60’s and 70’s, and the days are getting longer.

Randomness…

Here is the beautiful cake the kids made with their cake decorating kit (thanks Aunt Katherine). Yes, I’m glad you asked, it definitely tasted as just as good as it looks.

We’ve been training Christopher to at least leave the table when he’s going to let one rip. When you come to visit – if Christopher suddenly runs from the table and then suddenly runs back, please remember not to ask him where he just went. Either he or Ms. Megan will be more than happy to give you a very direct answer. So…here’s my proud parenting moment of the week. Listening to Christopher in another room say “Cannon fire one” (followed by you know what)….”Cannon fire two” (yes, again, followed by you know what). We feed him beans for breakfast, what can I say.

Saw our pheasant in the backyard this week for the first time this year. Spring is almost here. And our daffodils are blooming – I can’t remember that ever happening this early.

Here’s the first draft of a poem Colleen is writing for school – shhhh, don’t tell her I shared this here:

Colleen
Friendly, silly, jolly and kind.
Lover of ice cream, pizza and parties.
Who is grateful for my friends and family and sad for my grandma.
Who needs friends, pools and puppies.
Who is afraid of ghosts the dark and big storms.
Resident of xxxxx Minnesota.
Thompson

I’ve had to buy a few pies for the fire station lately. Guess news is slow and the paper got desperate.

Here are your tax dollars at work (can you find me 37 seconds into the video – don’t blink – but this still qualified for pies – grrrrrr) – the next time some cows gets loose they will most certainly be impressed with my mad herding techniques. Yeehaw.

WDIO TV – Duluth – Animal Rescue Training

Christopher’s now a double yellow belt (or something like that). I can still whoop him though. I’m letting my hair grow out just like his instructor’s.

Hippity hoppity…

We went to a science fair last weekend. There was a “science magic” show in the hallway as you entered the fair so we stayed there for over 1/2 hour because Christopher was loving it. When we first arrived they were setting up this contraption with two plates that they had stuck a dollar bill between. Then they sucked the air out between the plates and said if anyone in the audience could pull the plates apart they could keep the dollar. And then they made a fatal mistake…they chose Christopher from the audience. Nobody loves small denominations of money more than Christopher…he went right up there, grabbed the handles, instantly pulled them apart, picked up the dollar and left. After that his hand was the first one up any time they needed a volunteer!

And to top if all off, I was reading the paper and guess who I saw a picture of…if you look real close you can see at least parts of all of us…(shhhh – don’t tell the fire department or I have to buy pies for the station)…

It was “Dad’s night” at Megan’s preschool last week. No exaggeration…we probably heard one of the songs rehearsed 100+ times last week…sung to the tune of B-i-n-g-o…”there is a man I love a lot, and Daddy is his name-o, D-a-d-d-y”…it’s definitely great to hear, and cute, and touches your heart…the first 99 times…after that you find yourself singing this everywhere you go and making up your own verses (there is a boy who toots a lot, and Christopher is his name-o).

It was a busy scouting week too – first I gave the scouts in our pack a tour of the fire station (Christopher was trying his hardest to make a sad face but couldn’t quite pull it off in time).

And then we had the pinewood derby. It is amazing how high-tech it is…every car ended up racing down all 6 lanes and they tallied all of the results…they even gave you a sheet of paper with all of your times for each heat. The fastest cars raced down the track at 220 mph – zoom! Christopher’s car is in the right lane behind him in this picture.

Ok, time to get serious for a second, it was a sad week, a cherished member of our household departed us. Something near and dear to my heart, that I’ve had countless meals with, and lots of good memories, that has got me through good times and bad…they just don’t make ’em like they used to…my beloved sandwich maker from college finally had to get tossed out. I had a tuna melt today for the first time using my new sandwich maker…it tasted great but I felt a bit guilty…give me time.

RIP 1990 – 2010

Here’s the before picture…

And here’s the after picture (after daddy popped Christopher in the mouth for not behaving!)…

All in good fun…here are my Christmas card winners by category:

* Most likely to be made into a Gap commercial…goes to Katherine, Erik, and Sarah on the beach.

* Best kung fu pose by a baby…goes to Simon Thomas Fox.

* Most people forced (yah, you heard me, forced) to wear the same clothes for the picture…this was the hardest one to judge this year. Normally this is a slam dunk for the Noonan family but this year they shockingly didn’t even compete in this category (maybe they’re saving up a huge matching surprise for the next family reunion). The Wong’s had three kids dressed alike and the Desai’s had four kids dressed alike but both unfortunately lost style points for not wearing matching pants. The surprise winner and first time nominee in this category goes to Preston and Cameron Thompson for wearing three different sets of matching outfits on their card. The bar has been set high!

* Cutest kids….goes to…heh heh heh. You’ll have to come to our house to find out. Cutest photos are in the upper left corner of our ‘fridge and let me just say you don’t want to be in the bottom right corner 🙂

We keep the photos on our ‘fridge all year and love looking at them all the time. Hope everyone is having a great start to their New Year! Congratulations on this year’s Christmas Card winners – all prizes must be collected in person…

We escaped last week’s theat of 2′ of snow (we ended up with 1′ of heavy, wet, nastiness instead) and now tomorrow it is supposed to dip below zero again. I love this type of weather – I love storms and snow and winter – bring it!

It’s been a little while again so here are a ton of pictures. I can’t even remember what was going on here…just another day in the house with Megan.

Orca’s favorite outdoor activity in the winter is stealing hats. I can’t remember if I wrote about this last year but she absolutely drives the kids insane. She chases after them at the bottom of the sledding hill and pounces on them – stealing their hats and then she’s off and won’t give them back. It drives the kids nuts!

Christopher continues to prove he’s one bad dude when it comes to kung fu. He got his yellow belt a few weeks ago and is still enjoying his classes.

This is also the time of year when we get to go to dance recitals. I can’t believe I’m saying this but it is getting more enjoyable (or at least tolerable :)) to go to these. Colleen has really gotten a lot better – taking classes twice a week makes a huge difference. This is Megan’s first year and she wasn’t so thrilled to be performing. She barely smiled at all and was even yawning through parts of her number. They are so cute out there at that age no matter what they do. I think the parents like it more when the little ones do some random things on their own to liven up the program.

Either Megan’s timing was perfect and none of the other girls were paying attention or…well…you decide.

Colleen is all the way on the left (yes, she’s the one holding up all the legs in this picture). She gets to initiate what the girls do as the wave travels down the line. I tried to get her to pick her nose or do something else really silly so all of the other girls would have to do the same thing – maybe next year…

We also got to see Megan at her preschool show. Last year we missed all this because we were in the middle of changing Megan from one school to another. Megan had fun with this one and definitely knew the songs and what to do.

And we also just had the annual fire department children’s Christmas party. It’s always a fun time for the kids. Santa rides in on a fire truck and every year we get two huge inflatable bouncy slides donated for the event. Colleen wasn’t so thrilled to be another year older – santa gave her a bottle of skin lotion this year 🙂

This was santa’s reaction while lifting Christopher onto his knee…Christopher thought that was really funny when santa was groaning 🙂

The kids have been out sledding at least once a day almost every day for the past few weeks. Colleen has stopped using her hands when she slides down the hill…and Megan has stopped using her hands and feet…I’m not sure what tricks they go to from here…

Here’s Pat Benatar, Christopher, and Colleen getting ready to sing in choir on Christmas Eve. For part of this service they brought in these 12′ high puppets that took 3 people to control. They were way cool and thankfully haven’t resulted in any nightmares for the kids.

And here’s Colleen wrapped up in her Purdue Christmas snuggie playing her DSi on Christmas morning.

And Megan later on that day playing with some new dolls. We had an awesome Christmas and know we’re blessed with our health and family and jobs and everything else, and are looking forward to a great 2010 ahead of us.

The cold weather finally came. This year has been awesome – November was great. But then all of a sudden it got cold late last week (in to the teens) and my pond froze overnight (the fish have been hiding for at least a month already – the next time we’ll see them will be April at the earliest). Things have been crazy insane busy. Beth’s parents came up for Thanksgiving and we had a great week. I kept busy that week getting the yard and house ready for winter – our latest landscaping changes left me with quite a few to-do’s – so it was great to have someone distract the kids for several days! And of course they got to do lots of fun things, including baking cookies with papa – they dipped the cookies in chocolate and then got to decorate them with icing – yummy!!!

Sometimes the kids get quiet for a while…and you start to wonder if they are up to something good or bad…and then decide you really don’t care as long as they stay quiet…

Christopher had his space derby race with his cub scout pack this past week. This was clearly communicated as a non-competitive event (not to be confused with the pinewood derby event in a few months which is competitive and a chance for dad’s to show off their toy building abilities). We only saw Christopher’s space derby race once and it went the furthest in his heat (but not near as far as a few of the rockets in other heats that looked like they were jet propelled). I wonder how big of a rubber band I would need to power my Mazda 3 to work…

And here Christopher is with some friends from his den…pay attention…these are our future senators, doctors, CEOs, etc…

Every year there is a turkey coloring contest in the newspaper and every year Colleen says she’s going to do it but her enthusiasm quickly fades. This year she colored the whole turkey and we sent it in…keep your fingers crossed for her (and unlucky for her she is now in the 9 – 12 year old category).

Not to be outdone, Megan colored this one (about as fast as her arm could move) that was also a contest in the paper. It keeps cracking me up because of the standard legal wording that says this is now the property of some automotive dealership and may be used for promotial purposes – ha! Yah, you are stuck with this now – it’s your property. And I’d love to see them use this one in their ads!

Awwww…some lucky kid will get a Megan doll under the tree this year…how lucky! It poops, spits, talks back, annoys its siblings, and is oh so cute 🙂

This past Friday I went to Colleen’s school to talk about fire fighting. I had never done anything like this before – but it turned out great – a lot of fun. I even got to eat lunch with the class and then play tetherball. I haven’t played tetherball probably since Horace Mann in Ohio when I was in 3rd grade – but it was always my favorite game then – and I think it still is! It was me against 10 girls and a boy or two towards the end. We had some close matches – and not that I’m bragging – but I managed to pull out 3 victories. I’ve still got the tetherball touch I guess – I’m blessed, what can I say. English isn’t allowed in their classroom so I had to do my presentation in the hallway. Colleen got to dress up with me.

Yesterday (Saturday) was insane. Orca to the groomers at 8:30 a.m.; all three kids to swimming at 9:00 a.m.; I played racquetball at 9:00 a.m.; pick up Orca; kung fu at 11:30 a.m.; Colleen danced at the gophers men’s basketball game at 2:30 a.m. (so we left at 1:15 p.m. for that and got home at 5:30 p.m.); and then it was our neighborhood’s progressive dinner and we had one of the soup and salad courses at our house (so in between all of the other activities, every chance we got we were cooking or cleaning) – and had a babysitter at our house from 1:00 p.m. to midnight! It was a fun night as always…the whole neighborhood gets into it. We even met a boilermaker couple that moved to the neighborhood last year.

The men’s basketball game was 100% different from the women’s game we went to a few weeks ago (e.g., people actually came to the men’s game). Here’s Colleen (always on the far left) – she lead’s the line in it’s various “waves”.

Jumbotron!!!

Here’s a preview of our Christmas card this year – that’s what happens when the dog is cuter than your kids 😉