Pumpkin Carving

Happy Halloween!  It's time to carve the pumpkins again.  It went surprisingly well for Lex considering she doesn't like to get dirty...

Kieran dove right into the pumpkin, getting rid of the 'guts'....

Luke had to show a little flair....

 Here are the final products (we still have one to go)...Luke wanted a scary one...

Kieran wanted one that would represent the Central Raider football team (they play in the section final Halloween night for a trip to state)...

The last one represents Sarah's Ironman triathlon this summer in Couer d'Alene, Idaho...

Altogether...

Reconciliation Park

Sarah, Pam and I ran the Mankato 1/2 Marathon on October 19.  After we crossed the finish line, we had to walk past Reconciliation Park to get to our buses.  I've driven past the park for years, but had never walked through it.

Reconciliation Park is the site of the largest mass execution in the history of the United States.  38 Dakota Indians were hung there as a result of the U.S./Dakota Conflict in 1862.

The park now has a large, limestone buffalo, a tepee and a large, scribe with the names of those hung.  It was all dedicated in 1997, it was interesting to see how quickly the white limestone has been weathering over the last 17 years or so.

The Pumpkin Patch

Stopped by the local Pumpkin Patch this morning to see what we could find.  Answer....a lot a pumpkins...$5.00 per pumpkin, you pick your own.  So off we went...

Wasn't too long before people were off on their search...

Sarah found one early on...

Then Luke found one too...

Kieran was just to busy talking....

Maddy felt like she should dress in costume...and in bare feet...to go to the pumpkin patch.  (Actually, this was the morning after the homecoming dance...costume?).

Lex found one...it had to be a little one, because she's little...

You need superheroes if you're afraid of the Great Pumpkin!

This is the haul from the pumpkin patch!

They are now sitting by the front door waiting to be carved in a few weeks...

Friday Night Lights - Kieran plays at halftime

Kieran's playing tackle football this fall, practices are Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6:00 - 7:30. The highlight of the fall was last night when the 3rd and 4th graders played at halftime of the Central Raider game.  Kieran has really been looking forward to it (last week when the Raiders were in Watertown, their little ones played at halftime and Kieran said "that will be me next week dad!").

We go to all the games and Kieran really does enjoy watching his favorite players (#4 and #5).  Last night he just had to wear his football pants...

Friday nights at Central are always great to watch the sunset (if there aren't any clouds like last night)...

Can you find Kieran?  He's the fullback in the backfield, getting down into position ready for the snap of the ball...he got a carry, went for almost two yards and got creamed...

He plays defense too...here he is as the left cornerback...you can almost make out the 0 on his jersey (his number is 10)...

Everyone came out to watch him play...although Luke and Lex were too busy running around to notice that he was on the field.

The Raiders beat Sibley East 35-6, it was a good night for Kieran.  The team is now 4-1 on the season, though they have two really tough games coming up yet.

The team picture....look to the front right...

Duluth-Goosberry Falls-Split Rock Lighthouse

A few weekends ago, we were up on the North Shore.  Maddy was scheduled to do the Inline 1/2 marathon and Sarah was going to do the Wheels Off Half Marathon run.  We decided to camp at Gooseberry because I had two nights reserved at the campground in July that we couldn't keep because of Luke going to school.  We were able to change the reservation, though we couldn't keep our favorite site - #27.

The races were on Saturday morning, we woke up to temperatures around 38 degrees and the skies were sunny.  We've been to a lot of races, but we're not familiar with times for inline skates -- we missed Maddy coming through, but caught Sarah on the run.

What do you do on the North Shore?  The kids throw rocks....lots of rocks.  Though Luke always looks for something bigger....

After the mornings races, Sarah wanted to go to Split Rock Lighthouse since Maddy had never been there....so off we went.  Of course you have to climb to the top.

Of course you have to walk all the way down to the Lake...though not everybody goes at the same speed...

Since it's so many steps down to the lake, most people require a short rest before walking back up, these four were no different...

It is a nice view from below the lighthouse...

It was certainly cool when the sun went behind the clouds, the wind didn't help either.

Sunday morning, we had to go check out the falls near the visitor center...

Kieran and I took a quick 1.7 mile hike up to the fifth falls, we had never seen them before...

They're in a gorge, but with the low sun angle and just the phone, it was tough to get a decent picture.  That means we'll have to go back...

Site #25 wasn't too bad...it certainly isn't as good as #27, but not too bad.  I've actually made reservations for the same site next summer during the weekend of Grandma's Marathon for the same site.

The Conservation Corps has been busy at Gooseberry's campground, they've completely re-landscaped the area around the bathroom and shower...nobody thought that was very cool, but I certainly noticed!  (actually, they thought it was pretty dumb that I was taking a picture of a bathroom....).

Steamboat Days Parade

Carver Steamboat Days were the weekend after Labor Day.  We went to the fireworks on Saturday night and the parade on Sunday.  All the kids except for Lex helped papa and Robb's Electric hand out popcorn/cotton candy.

Some of them rode....

Some of them walked...

Luke wondered if he had to give his sister some popcorn...

In the end, he did...

All in all, it was an exhausting day...

Lex's First Day of Preschool

We've finally sent our last one off to school!  Lex went to preschool for the first time today.  She was very excited for the last few weeks, then suddenly there were a few tears this morning, but she got over them fairly quickly.

This is what it looks like when you send 3 feet 4 inches and 27 pounds (I'm not quite sure of the actual stats, but she's tiny) off to school...

She had everything picked out early --- she accessorized with the hat, shoes and even a neckless.

Sarah came back to Cologne to see her off to school and take the pictures.  Lex rides a smaller, preschool bus to school, but rides the regular elementary bus back to daycare (Kieran and Luke also ride that bus, but it sounds as though they pretty much ignored her until they all got off the bus).

So where is this bus anyway?  I'm ready!

See you later mom!

State Fair

Four of us went to the Minnesota State Fair the Sunday before Labor Day.  What do we do when we go to the state fair?

Our first stop was to the DNR building, Kieran wanted to see the fish.  We couldn't pass up a picture opportunity supporting the Conservation Corps...

Last year we didn't climb the first tower because the heat index the day we went to the fair was about 105-110 degrees.  We climbed the tower this year.

And scouted where we would head next.  "Mom....where's that big slide?"

"It's right over there Kieran"

Some of us had other plans...."Maddy, how do we ditch these loser parents?"

It was a busy day at the fair, the fair set an all-time attendance record this year.

We made it to the dairy building, the lines for shakes was so long we settled for watching a dairy princesses likeness getting carved into butter.

Had to check out the Miracle of Birth building, some of the little piglets were just minutes old (check out Kieran's face for a record of some of the food we ate)...

When we went to the KARE11 barn, news anchor, Rena Sarigianopoulos was there taking pictures.  So of course, we had the kids get one...

We took a ride on the Space Tower this year...see here we all are somewhere on the way up or down.

Here's our picture after the ride...it's a lot taller than the fire tower!

The only thing Kieran wanted to do that day was play a 3 inning whiffle ball game.  He got his chance, though we had to go there twice until it was open.

It was a fun day!