The Big Countdown

Do you remember counting down to Santa's arrival as a kid? I sure do! Ryan's art project today was a chain link countdown to the big day - 10 days left!

Breakfast of Champions

Starting the day out right with a bowl of bananas!!!

Happy Birthday, Olivia!

Today we ventured to Byron, MN for Olivia's 5th Birthday Party. The kids loved playing with all of Olivia and Noah's toys and had a great time, as usual. My cousin, Kim and her husband, Shane, are great hosts. Good thing - we almost had to spend the night due to the storm that rolled in - the temps dropped from 40s to 18 in the time we were there - less than 3 hours! We hit some bad roads when we entered the cities. My parents stayed overnight here - they had 9" already at their house!!!

Mackey Christmas

Today we hosted the Mackey Christmas at our house. 7 of the 8 Mackey siblings and their families were in attendance - it was a quiet group, just the 35 of us!!! Growing up as an only child, I am not used to this chaos, especially at gift opening. I have learned to just go with it after all these years - my first year I am sure my jaw hung open, but the kids LOVE it! The cousins have so much fun together. Without my Mom, we would have been eating franks and beans, but thanks to her, we put out a huge turkey/stuffing/potato/2 vegetable/etc. spread. It was delicious - what would I do without her??? Here are some pictures of our day:

The spread of food:

Chaotic gift opening:

Carter was much more interested in the paper than the gift

(Nick could have saved himself a little money on Carter's gift):

Ryan excited about his transformer toys from his Godparents, Uncle Dennis and Auntie Monica:

Kyle with his Pixos sets:

The siblings - Curt, Dennis, Evan, Lisa, Molly, Teresa, Margaret:

The Outlaws - Tony, Mike, Matt, Steph, Monica, and Wanda:

The grandkids and great grandkids:

Time with Grandpa

Both of the boys are Grandpa's boys. They love the time spent with their Grandpa! The boys are a little under the weather this week with colds and Grandpa was just the person to watch movies with them on the couch!

Bridge Demo Over 94

Bolander's (Evan's employer's) crew, led by Tom Skluzacek (don't even try to pronounce that one!) removed the Pedestrian Bridge this weekend over Interstate 94 in Saint Paul. They started before midnight on Friday night and were completely done by 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. Traffic was shut down on 94 in both directions, so their time frame was tight. I was relieved to hear everything went well (for some reason bridge jobs scare me more than the average demos?!) With Tom in charge, why was I worried??? He also led the 35W bridge removal project as well as the Four Bears Bridge in North Dakota. Here are a couple of pictures - at the beginning and near the end:

Perpetual Motion

Ryan started the Cyclones gymnastics class at Perpetual Motion today. He loved it - there was so much to do! The kids started out in a circle - skipping, galloping, and running. They then went to the bars and uneven bars, where he was just like a little monkey! They ended the class with the trampoline (it is built right into the floor - we need one of those here at home!) and the balance beams. It is a good curriculum and the instructors are great with the kids. Ryan wanted to do it again - I said, "you will, next Friday". He said "no, I mean right now"! That is a good sign! :)