MN Thompson's

Warning – here comes a whole bunch of randomness…

I’m bringing the kids luck at their soccer games. I got to watch them both score goals in the past week. Colleen is a scoring machine but Christopher on the other hand is our staunch defenseman. I was the substitute coach for his team last week so it was even cooler that he scored under my watch. Soccer hasn’t quite clicked for him. He looks at it as social time where he can catch up on all that’s happening with his buddies on the other teams. He’s quite the chatterbox out there!

Beth’s parents were up again all last week – they are a huge help with everything, especially since school let out for the summer on Tuesday. It seems like every night we keep busy doing something these days too.

I ordered my “complaint free world” bracelets today…wish me luck. Google it.

The kids made Indian headbands on their own last week. I then asked them to make their best Indian face for the photo. I don’t think any of them had a clue what that meant, probably because we aren’t allowed to say “Indian” any more in school. Criss cross applesauce faces???

This week is sports life church camp for the kids. This will also be their first week at the YMCA for the summer. Colleen goes to a water park tomorrow and Christopher goes Thursday I think.

I’m busy helping organize a car wash in a few weeks for the fire department so that we can raise money for Relay for Life (cancer). I’ll be at Beth’s family reunion for the actual Relay for Life this year (I’m very bummed about that but the family reunion will be fun too). I don’t ask for money very often on this blog but if there is one event that you want to support me on this year then you should pick the Relay for Life. No pressure (ok, a little pressure) – you should be able to find my name at one of these links on the Eden Prairie Fire team (the first link should work but if it doesn’t you can find my name on the 2nd link):

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09MW?px=7304795&pg=personal&fr_id=16133

http://relayforlife.edenprairiefire.org/default.aspx

See…the fishies do survive the winter. The pond is really coming to life – all of the plants in it survived the winter which is way cool. Hopefully the water lilies (with their flowers) will come back in full force this year – the flowers are awesome to see. We saw an artist a few years ago at the Uptown Art Fair that I thought was really cool. He painted and cut metal shapes (copper I think) but the art I really liked was looking down on a pond just like this. I don’t know where we’d put it but here’s my hint to Beth (hee hee) – Michael Bruckdorfer was his name.

I saw Up today with Colleen and Christopher (while Megan went to the park with Beth). Up was good – funny parts here and there with grown up themes. I think it just may change my life…as soon as I can get enough balloons saved up…

Ok, enough rambling for today.

Schooner Days happened this weekend. This is the 3-day carnival that comes to town for Beth’s birthday (it came a week early this year). It raises between 20 – 25K and I think we contributed at least a 4th of that this year. We went all 3 days 🙂

This morning I got up early so that I could start a 1/2 marathon at 7:00 a.m. in downtown Minneapolis. I’ve only ever run a total of 13 miles in a week twice before, and I’ve only run 10 miles 2x in my life, so I wasn’t sure how today would go. I finished in 2:06, or 9:40 miles. No complaints. My goal was to finish the 1/2 marathon before the full-marathon people passed me – I easily did that. It was a beautiful morning and this was the first running of this race so they only had 2,500 people enter it 🙂

Every year I like to see a deer in my yard and pick up a turtle somewhere nearby. The turtles are out in full force so I can check that one off my list for this year. Megan and I spent some time inspecting a turtle that was smashed in the street too – Colleen wouldn’t go near it. Although Colleen helped me name it…Flat Stanley.

The past few years there was a snake in our yard and pond. I knew where he liked to curl up in a few spots and I could find him pretty regularly. Maybe the last time I mowed the yard last year Mr. Snake showed up in a new spot and I chopped him in half. Bummer. The past few years I’ve also had a little tree frog that likes to stay on the edge of the hot tub. I usually push him down to the ground when I go in the hot tub so he doesn’t get smooshed. Sometimes he would jump into the hot water so I would have to work to catch him. He always was on the side of the hot tub…so the past several weeks I’ve been watching out for him. Well…he decided to change his location too and ended up getting smashed behind the hot tub cover. I’m slowly unintentionally killing all my woodland friends. Note, I had nothing to do with the duck eggs getting eaten – can’t blame that one on me.

We are in desperate need of rain. It is dry, dry, dry – maybe the driest May on record. Perfect time to bring out the slip-n-slide. Colleen now has a 2-piece bathing suit and Christopher is puzzled by what he’s calling her “swim underwear”…

This is absolutely by far the fastest any year has ever flown by in my life. Unbelievable that it is almost June. Insane. And things are just starting to pick up too…

Beth’s p’s are in town this week. We’ve had a good visit – the weather has been great for sitting outside and chatting – low 80’s tonight. This past weekend Colleen had a performance, the kids had soccer, we did the Crohn’s walk, and I ran 11 miles without stopping (not bad, eh?).

Here’s Megan running with scissors!!! The kids cut some flowers from the yard for Mother’s Day. Colleen was still sleeping at this point but the other two were up and ready to make some breakfast for mommy.

Here’s Colleen leading the line for Crocodile Rock. How fitting since Beth and I just saw Billy “I can still throw a great concert” Joel and Elton “lame and low energy” John a few weeks before.

Colleen up top…

Here we are at the Crohn’s walk. And this is the bathroom line before the walk (hardy har har).

No lie, Colleen and Christopher’s favorite part of the walk was the bus ride to the park. They were fascinated – bouncing from seat to seat – maybe next year we’ll just ride the bus back and forth. This was probably the worst event like this I’ve ever attended – logistics weren’t great and the walking loop was small. They can learn a thing or two or three from the March of Dimes walks.

Proof that we were there supporting Aunt Katherine. I’ve donated my share to Crohn’s this year between this walk and sending Aunt Kat money – so SEND ME THE LATEST KATHERINE’S MOVEMENT T-SHIRT or you get NO MORE SUPPORT NEXT YEAR. I’ve earned my t-shirt. No more warnings. Get it in the mail pronto.

We stayed and played after the walk, and then watched an African lady behind us balance a whole box of yogurts and water bottles on her head in line. Scroll up and she is the one all the way on the right in my “bathroom line” photo. That was probably Beth’s favorite part of the walk. The lady said she hadn’t done that in over 20 years but that box stayed on her head like it was glued there. Cool. Can you find all 3 kids playing?

What a great (but busy) weekend! Friday night started with Christopher going to a birthday party and Colleen spending the night at a friend’s house. Saturday was the annual neighborhood egg-hunt. The people across the street host a huge party – the egg hunt starts at 10:00 a.m., bloody-mary’s come out at 11:00 a.m., and I think the last people left his house around midnight this year. He says the sign of a good party is when you serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner! It was a great time hanging out with neighbors and sitting in the sun. We stayed until after 3:00 p.m. this year – a new record for us. The kids had a blast. The Easter Bunny visits every year and I guestimated easily over 2000 plastic eggs (filled with candy or a toy) covering two lawns. Today the kids sang in church and then we went to another neighbor’s house who had several families over. Another relaxing afternoon catching up on things with people who have been hidden all winter. The only thing that would have made the weekend better would have been Tiger pulling off a big come-from-behind victory.

I counted that just in our 3 baskets we had about 120 plasic eggs.

The face painting got a bit wild this year. Christopher and one of his friends both got the same thing done and looked like a duo to be reckoned with.

Colleen and her friends were left alone at the face painting table…and had fun decorating each other…looks like the work of a fraternity prank…

Christopher decided this year that he was going to sleep downstairs on the chairs in the kitchen and catch the Easter Bunny in the act. He had two hard kitchen chairs pulled together with his blanket on them. I managed to talk him into at least sleeping on the couch downstairs. Well…here he is at midnight…he’ll have to catch the Easter Bunny next year I guess 🙂

I’m not sure how it happened because I won’t ever be part of a family that has to dress itself in the same color for holiday photos. Not a chance. But somehow we all ended up green this year…I’ll make sure to coordinate so we are uncoordinated next year. Happy St. Paddies day 😉

And how did you celebrate Earth Hour? Everyone on the planet was supposed to turn off their lights from 8:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. wherever they were today. We did it. We survived. No sign of lights in front of Christopher and Megan in this photo (yes, our house is straight ahead of them somewhere) – no lights, no electronics, no tv…for a whole hour!!!

I haven’t quite figured out everything on my camera yet…which sometimes makes shots turn out better than anticipated 🙂

We head to the Dells soon…which means I’ve been blogging for a whole year! Megan tripped on the driveway today and smacked her forehead on the cement (yes, on daddy’s shift again)…get ready to see bumps and bruises in upcoming photos 🙁

It’s been a very busy week. Christopher got his white belt in Kung Fu, Colleen did a show for U Can Danz at the Mall of America, Colleen had a concert at school too, the kids had dress-up day at school, and the ducks are back in the pond day and night. And soon (well…a week away) we’ll be splashing and sliding at the Great Wolf Lodge.

I’m not sure what to think of these guys from Purdue…too bad they don’t focus more on inner beauty 🙂

Because the kids at Eagle Heights read so many books for their read-a-thon they got to have a “dress up as your favorite character in a book” day. Luckily the same people who ruin all the fun at Halloween haven’t started complaining about this day too. Colleen went as the magical Aunt in Purple Pickle Juice and Christopher was a random cop because he had the costume and superman didn’t fit him any more 🙂

Christopher had to go before a panel of seven black belts. They each rated the kids on who knows what because somehow all of the kids passed and got their white belts. Christopher seems to enjoy it – I just need him to grow so all of his punches aren’t aimed directly at my groin 🙂

Here’s Colleen at her show at the Mall of America. She did two routines. The second routine ended with her getting picked up in the air by her friends. They dropped her in practice right before the show started so we had our fingers crossed when they did it for real…

You can’t go to the MOA without spending 100 bucks on rides and food…when easily spent our ‘Bama Bump this week – doing our part to boost the economy.

Here’s Colleen’s 2nd grade class with Sra. Roos after their concert at school. Sra. Roos has been with the kids for 3 years now…it’s going to be sad when they finally leave her in a few months.