Memorial Day weekend 2020

The stay-at-home restrictions were relaxed a bit, so we went up north to my parents' place over Memorial Day weekend. Based on the photos, we spent a lot of time on their boat.

Veronica walked the runway wearing this season's latest boating fashion:

Omri had a cute smile:

Fishing with Grandpa:

V caught a whopper:

Still under the 10-person gathering limit:

The kids want to try this rope swing sometime:

Cousins!

The kids managed to get in the frigid water, although mostly just to get to the lily pad:

Washing G&G's car:

Working hard:

The Pink Fluffy Unicorns singing the national anthem prior to beating the Biting Sharks at kickball:

Tyler turned 9:

Grave markers of my grandfathers who fought for our freedom in WWII:

I also shot a roll of film during some morning walks around the Range. We will see how those results look in a few weeks.

Read more...

2000th post

Sorry for the delay. I wanted to have something special to mark my 2000th blog post and, well, this is something a bit different at least.

I captured a sort of video time capsule of the kids. However, even with the delay, we didn't put a lot of time or thought into these and the results are so-so. I also cut out a bunch of footage where the kids attempted to describe their typical day because it just went on too long. But I like this idea of interviewing them and will appreciate having videos like this in my repository one day. Next time I'll ask some harder hitting questions.

Just a few words about hitting 2000 posts (not counting my 338 wordier posts on Midnight Toast)...

This blog was started almost 10 years ago, so I guess I'm averaging around 200 posts a year. The 1000th entry was marked here a little over five years ago. I have slowed down a little, and I predict that trend will continue, frankly, because the pace is difficult to keep up! And having older kids means I'm less willing to get in their faces with a camera. I have to respect their privacy.

But I will continue posting for the foreseeable future. I really like having this visual log of my family life. You would be surprised by how often we look back to see what we were doing on a particular day years ago or what toy somebody got for their birthday, etc. It's our story and it will be interesting to see what the next 10 years bring.

Read more...

Audiophile

Read more...

R turns 40

The situation around R's birthday may not have been ideal, but we tried to make the most of it. She video chatted with some friends from out east (Quincy and Libby), took a walk with Emily, and had Marcie over for drink on the deck. We got some take-out for breakfast (PLNT BSD, Anchor Coffee) and dinner (Hai Hai).

We gifted her a new Apple Watch! (The real one came in the mail two days late).

And we enjoyed some angel food cake that the kids helped me put together.

It feels like we have some unfinished business, so I consider the celebration to be continued, on a larger scale, on another date...

Read more...

Happy 40th birthday to R!

One of our core peas turns 40 today. I spent all of my blogging time this week working on a Facebook tribute, so check that out.

We were planning to celebrate by hosting a gathering of friends at Cafe Lurcat this weekend, but that is postponed until August due to the pandemic. And let's hope we can even hold it then.

One thing is for sure: R is loved and we will do what we can to show her that today.

Happy birthday, honey!

Read more...

Mother's Day 2020

As is our usual tradition, we surprised R in bed with a cup of coffee (in a new photo mug) and a cinnamon roll.

Looking through this year's additions to the Mother's Day journal:

Momma loves her kids:

Veronica's gift to mom was providing table space while she ate:

Time to relax on the couch:

Tulips:

We made it out for a bike ride, but otherwise it was a quiet Mother's Day at home.

Read more...

Happy Mother's Day to our wonderful moms!

Read more...

Crazy hair day

Read more...

Domestic exploration

Read more...

Low key anniversary

We had some really hard-to-get dinner reservations at a place called Demi in Minneapolis, but those will have to wait because the world is still on lock-down. Instead, we grabbed some take-out from our favorite Asian place in White Bear Lake and celebrated the start of our family... with the family.

Thank you, Veronica, for this photo:

Mizu threw in a roll of toilet paper with the meal:

After dinner we took a walk/ride around the neighborhood:

I love these three very much!

Read more...