Izzy & Tori Make Dinner

As part of their at home learning, I've asked the girls to plan and prepare a balanced meal each one night of the week. It's been a great success! I got a big kick out of this one though: Victoria made spaghetti tacos.



(Perhaps 2 starches don't count as balanced, but she did serve it with meatballs and broccoli on the side.)

All Hallows Eve 2009

A very merry Samhain was had by all: Izzy was a pop star, Victoria was Judy Garland from the movie roll "Get Happy," John was Van Helsing, Joy was Sweeney Todd and mom was a pirate. Cadence was a butterfly and a marshmallow peep, Liam was a "piece of candy corn" and Rowan, a giraffe.

Jetta Gets A Fat Flat

The jetta got a flat one evening. Snapped this shot.

Izzy's 10th Birthday!

Wow. Isobelle is 10 years old!

She had a couple friends over to celebrate on the weekend. Isobelle invented Littest Pet Shoppe themed games for them to play. Brownies were her choice of "cake" with buttercreme frosting. They had snacks and prizes. A good time was had by all.

Today, October 12th, is her actually birthday. We are taking the day off of school. She enjoying her new presents with Victoria.

Winter Arrives In Cloquet

I'm SO NOT ready for winter to come this year. And to top it off, it's settling in nice and early. We had our first snowfall October 10th and it DIDN'T melt! Ugh! Usually the first few melt away. Winter, ready or not...

John's Rendezvous

Sometime in late September, John was asked to participate in Duluth's Lester River Rendezvous. Here he is depicted showing his skills to a interested boy. A most excellent festival!




John has been trying to sell the truck for many months. Finally, this fall is sold and is going to a good home that will use it exclusively for it's plowing talents and not it's reliability (though it was none too shabby in that department either, if you minus the carbon monoxide poisoning you fast approached while riding long distances.) Here John waves around the cash. Victoria was very put out he would not share.

Burning Down The House

Yes, I almost burnt down the house. Well, I suppose that's a bit of an exaggeration. I just burnt something IN the house, but it was by far the worst kitchen mishap to date.

Twice I week I've been browning up expensive lamb patties for Joony (the dog) for her allergies. This particular morning, I forgot until about 9am that the girls had swimming lessons at 9am. They were still in pj's and didn't have any breakfast yet. We rushed out the door and DID make it in time, as the pool is only 2 blocks away.

An hour later, we return home. The smoke that fills the entire house along with the fire alarm screeching reminds me of the fresh, expensive lamb I was cooking on the stove top for Joony. Needless to say, I won't be feeding her the lamb and I probably ruined my nicest pot....

The bright side of things: the house is nice and airy today (because every last opening is wide open, we had to find something fun to do while the house was clearing (so the girls went to friends houses and I went to the lester park rendezvous) and lastly and most importantly, the house didn't burn down and nobody was hurt.

No flames were inspired today. At least not by me. ;)

Anniversary Trip to the Ren Fest

In honor of their 9th anniversary on Sept 22nd, John and Emily make their way to the Ren Fest alone for another day of debauchery and drunken stupor. Oh yeah, and empty pocketbooks.

Ren Fest With The Family

John, Emily, Izzy, Tori and Emily's sister Joy spent a long, wonderful day at the MN Ren Fest in early August.