Football - Kieran

Kieran is in tackle football, it's every Tuesday and Thursday nights for six weeks or so.  As part of the program, the kids play football at halftime of a varsity game.  Last night was game night, it was also the Homecoming Football game versus G-F-W, so there was a pretty good crowd.

Here's the 4th grade group playing ball...Kieran is on defense - #16.

You can't find him?  How about now?

There was time for one last picture before we left the game...

The Raiders also won 35-7...so it was a good night.

Homecoming 2015

This week is Homecoming for Central and all the schools are having dress up days.  All the kids love this...I think Sarah even likes it - at least helping with crazy hair day...

The days were/are:
Monday - PJ day
Tuesday - Crazy Hair Day/Mismatch Day
Wednesday - Jersey Day
Thursday - Picture Day, dress up for pictures
Friday - Raider Pride Day

The pictures Sarah sent me on Crazy Hair day were interesting, here is Luke...

From the front...

Kieran from the side...

And the front...

Lex didn't do the crazy hair, but got crazy in her own way...she wore a tiara and a headband...what a wild and crazy girl...

At the bus stop that morning with a neighbor kid...Luke's shirt was also inside out and both boys wore non-matching socks...

Jersey on Wednesday - of course Kieran wore a Tom Brady jersey...

Even Lex got into the spirit on jersey day...

We'll see what the rest of the week brings.

Steamboat Days Parade

Last Sunday was the Steamboat Days parade in Carver.  It's where the kids get to be in the parade and pass out popcorn with Papa and the rest of the Robb's Electric crew.  Sarah and I watched the first part of the parade without the kids...she was eager to get candy - I'm pretty sure she raced some kids to candy and got some first...her she is waiting for some popcorn from the kids.

At the last minute, Lex decided she wanted to be in the parade, it was her first time...Papa put her in the middle of the wagon and kept a close on her...Kieran and Luke were also on the wagon.

After their job was done, Papa walked all the kids back...somewhere they picked up some goodies...

Lex and Luke watched the rest of the parade and got more candy, freezies, milk, toys, etc...Kieran went in the shop and watched football or baseball...

Luke and Lex even got along...

One of the last trucks in the parade was the irrigation truck, offering a quick shower to anyone who wanted one...the kids did!

A good day...

First Days of School

Everyone is in school now...Kieran (Grade 4), Luke (Grade 1) and Lex (Kindergarten) have completed five days of school.  Kieran has homework again (he still doesn't like to do it), Luke has sight words to practice (though they're still the 'easy' ones for him) and Lex...well she doesn't have much after school work (but we're slightly surprised we haven't had a call on her yet...

The first day had a little excitement.  Apparently, the bus came 23 minutes early - good thing the boys were out in the yard when the bus came by and the driver stopped when she saw them (our house is not the bus stop).  Sarah didn't have a whole lot of time for the first day picture...Kieran apparently didn't care his hair was sticking straight up....what a boy!

The second day they had more time for pictures...and they were still smiling!

After five days, they're still excited to go to school...we'll see how long that lasts.

Interstate State Park

On Saturday, we went to Interstate State Park in Taylor's Falls.  It was a warm (85 degrees) and humid (dew point well into the 70s) day, but good day hiking and seeing the sights around the park.  Luke says he wants to camp there now....sounds good to me.

The first thing we did when we got to the park was hike to Curtain Falls, a little more than a mile hike with some decent elevation change (for MN).  The hike takes you along a ledge of Cambrian-aged sandstone...long drop down to the left...

Curtain Falls is basically an extinct waterfall.  It formed in the late Pleistocene as the glaciers were melting and is only active now during spring snowmelt or with heavy rains.

The walk was faster than usual...Lex was hellbent on being the leader and pushing the pace.  Usually, it'll be slower so Luke can pick things up or we notice more natural things...not so much this time...

We did stop for a minute or two at an overlook that gave nice views of the St. Croix River...

Then it was time for Lex to be the leader again and we were off...

After finishing the hike, we drove down to the 'pothole' area.  That's the area where an ancestral St. Croix (much higher and faster flowing that the present) was draining from Glacial Lake Duluth formed lots of potholes in the basalt lava flows.  Here we are examining one...

Actually, Sarah and the kids were looking at two frogs in the pothole...but I'm sure they were thinking about how it formed as well...

People were rock climbing on the Wisconsin side...it was fun to watch...

Kieran though, really didn't want to get close to the edge...this from the kid who climbed 15 foot tall rocks when he was three...

He really didn't want to get out on Angle Rock to take group pictures of see the paddle boats....

We convinced him though...here we are...

If you've never been to the park, some of the potholes are really big...

Kieran and Luke thought it smelled like a "sewer" but Sarah disagreed with them...who do you believe?

Kieran was definitely the least brave of the bunch that day...

Here's one of the smaller potholes....

Wait.  What?  No picture at the state park sign?  Yeah...I forgot it...

Luke says "now we have to go back...."

Luke's Birthday

Lukie turned 7 yesterday...and with anything Luke does, it starts early...

Here is Luke opening his present...we'll before the sun comes up...I'm sure he was the only one so happy.

Luke wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch and games with a couple of his friends.  So after Will got dropped off and we picked up Lincoln...off we went...

Chuck E. Cheese's hasn't changed too much in the past 30 years...still pizza and games, but no more tokens.  Now you scan a card on each game to get it to play and points are deducted on the card until your out of plays.  The boys all played games for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, collecting tickets at each game to 'win' a prize at the end.

I still like this game...took Luke a couple of tries to figure out he needs to roll the ball -- not throw it...

There was a Jurassic Park game where you could shoot a T-Rex...

Here's Kieran, Lincoln and Luke all playing at the same time...

Even Sarah and Lex were playing games...

Of course there was lunch...

And the standard picture with the mouse...

After that, we headed home for cake and ice cream...

We take a lot of pictures...

Luke got a few presents from his friends...

And before long, it was time to take the guys home...I was tired...

The State Fair

School started on Monday, August 31st for 77 districts in the state of Minnesota (including Chaska and Waconia)....but not for Central or Delano...so it was time to go to the fair.  It was Luke's first trip to the fair - our rule is you have to be 7 years old to go to the fair...and Luke was close enough.

We always take the bus down to the fair - being a weekday, we had to go to Eden Prairie to get onto the bus, but it's worth it...

One of the first stops at the fair was the DNR building and the fish ponds...

And we climbed the fire tower...

To take in the fair scene from above...

Then we took off to the Miracle of Birth building to touch a piglet...

And see lambs that were born an hour before we got there...

Then to the Dairy building to see the princess being carved into butter...

Of course, Kieran wanted to go up to the Twins area to play some whiffle ball...

Sometimes the boys even get a long....

We even met TC Bear there...

The fair really wasn't that busy for most of the day...though attendance kept building...

The boys tend to stay close for the most part...

We went up the Space Tower again...

Kieran wanted to go see the traveling trophies the the MN Golden Gopher football team has won recently...here's Floyd of Rosedale (won by beating the Iowa Hawkeyes) and the Governor's Victory Bell (won by beating Penn State)...they currently have quite the collection (though we're missing Paul Bunyan's Axe, which is in Madison, Wisconsin...gotta beat those Badgers)...

At we saw the Little Brown Jug (won by beating Michigan)....I had never seen that...

We took a ride on the Skyride, which happened to go right over the daily parade...

We went to the KARE11 barn and got pictures with news anchor Randy Shaver...

Of course the boys went down the Giant Slide...find them if you can...

And we ate...cookies, fries, pronto pups, malts, etc...

What do you do on the bus ride home after a relatively short day at the fair (we got there around 9:00 and had to leave around 4:00)?