Logan's 7th Birthday Celebration

Logan had a full day on his birthday celebration. One of the blessings of having a December 23 birthday is that there is never school on your birthday.

We started the day off at 8:30am at the Mall of America. After checking out the new Lego land and playing on their computers, we spent several hours going on rides at Nickelodeon Universe. Little secret - kids get a free all-day wrist band on their birthday if they register in advance online. Our two clowns spent hours going on the flume, jumping in the pineapple, driving the bumper cars, shooting ghosts on the magic ghost ride, etc.

After Nickelodeon, we had a family lunch at the Rainforest cafe' eating dinosaur nuggets and Logan's favorite food - RIBS!

After lunch Logan really wanted to go to "build-a-bear." Age 7 is a little odd - one minute they are on the cusp of a tween and the next minute they want to build a stuffed animal. Logan made his "fuzzy doggy" and dressed him as Joe Mauer. The store does a great job making the bears with the kids - they even get to give the bear a bath and go online to print a birth certificate.

In the evening Grandma closer, Jason, Matt and the Easton's came over for pizza and cake. After that we all went to Hosanna! for an early Christmas Eve service with the camels (Joe and Cody), sheep, chickens, lama and Dominic the donkey. Needless to say....we were exhausted after that and Logan crashed until 9AM the next morning.

48 Hours till your "7"

Logan -

Almost 7 years ago your mother woke me up in the middle of the night and said the bags were packed and it was time to go to the hospital. Being the "patient Dad" that I am I encouraged her to relax a little and after I showered we would be on our way. After driving 30 minutes "into the dark city of Minneapolis" at 1AM I gently pulled the car around to the identified entrance during our new mommy/daddy orientation - of course the door was locked and all the lights were dark. I tried to move the car into the parking garage and encourage your mom to walk a little - that was not such a good suggestion. Finally we found an open door and made our way upstairs to the maternity ward - 6 hours later you decided to join the world....screaming! And more screaming....and more screaming. I don't think you stopped screaming upon waking up from any nap/nighttime until after you had your anoids/tonsils removed at 3 years of age....just ask daycare.

Now 7 years have passed and you are a little man. So grown up going to school and learning to read. We have watched you go from crawling across the living room floor to scoring "3" goals in a single soccer game. We have been blessed watching you transition from eating off a tray on the garbage can - still have the pictures - to eating your favorite food...RIBSs. Your sensitive disposition has created numerous friendships in the neighborhood and school.

We look forward to the next 7 years and where they will take us: how many more stamps will you get in your passport?....what sports will you continue to play?.....when will you walk off the bus and tell us about your first girlfriend?....when will you go down your first waterslide - please soon!....etc.

Happy 7th Birthday Little Man!

Blizzard 2010

In Minnesota we pride ourselves on snow - but sometimes even we are amazed! Everything is closed...they even pulled the snowplows and state patrol off the roads. We probably have about 12+ inches and it is still snowing hard...but it is the wind that is crazy. The boys and I just came in and some of the drifts are 4+ feet. You can barely see across the street. Check out the picture below of our backdoor in the garage. The drift is about 3/4 up the door. You can also see our family room windows are getting covered in snow drifts. After the storm the temps are suppose to drop to -20 degrees.

Tonight we are joining the neighbors on snowmobiles to go caroling - only in MN!

Happy 7th Birthday Logan

Yes we are about 2 weeks early, but due to the holidays Logan had his 7th birthday last night at "Triple Play Sports." Eleven of his best buddies (including 1 brave little girl) - plus little brother Carter - spent 3 hours running around like kids on a sugar high. They played kickball in the gym, jumped on inflatables, played unlimited laser tag, smashed some balls in the batting cage, aced the mini golf course, and battled against the arcade games for tickets. Logan was in heaven!

Man vs Deer

Life always has a way of keeping perspective. Tonight Shawn and Carter were in another car accident. This time a deer tried to play chicken with the Pilot. We all had dinner at Culvers and then Sara and Logan went to the ski hill while Shawn and Carter went home. Going down Cty Rd 50 at about 40 miles per hour a deer came out of no where and hit us. Good thing is Shawn never saw it until they hit - hence they didn't swerve into oncoming traffic. Bad thing is there is a lot of damage: we will need to replace the front bumper, hood, right passenger door, paint on the back passenger door, get a wheel realignment and replacement the front right wheel well. I guess that is why you have insurance. At first it wasn't drivable, but after pulling some of the wheel well casing off it appears ok to drive short distances - not sure we will go on the highway.

Good thing it was the Pilot, I think if it was the BMW the deer would have flipped right up onto the wind shield and who knows what would happen from there.

Lakeville = 11.7" of Snow

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=886527

Snow totals as of 12 p.m. Saturday:

Lakeville: 11.7"

Hutchinson: 11.6"

Zumbrota: 11"

Carver: 10.5"

Chaska: 10.5"

Burnsville: 10.5"

Northfield: 10.2"

Brownton: 10"

Prior Lake: 9.9"

Farmington: 9.5"

Chanhassen: 8.1"

Minneapolis: 8.0"

Our Ski Deamons

The snow has been flying in MN. Carter went skiing for the first time last weekend and did great. Today all (4) of us strapped on our equipment and enjoyed the 10" of new snow - unfortunately fresh snow is more difficult to ski in and Carter had a hard time. Logan is doing great - today he made it through all the gates on the black diamond race hill twice. I thought the kids would be exhausted after skiing, but 30 minutes after being home they announced, "lets go to the health club." Tonight Sara and I have a date night to get some Christmas shopping done while our Friends watch the boys - something tells me they will crash tonight!