Double shot: Trip to the farm stand / Halloween

Well.  Since I've clearly been neglecting my assigned duty to keep you all up-to-date with our doings, probably should get going on that.  Here is a little fall gallery for your viewing pleasure.  The first section is from a little trip we took to a local farm stand in Dexter back in the beginning of October.  Oopsie, I've had this one in the works for a while.  Also oopsie, I forgot the camera at home and so was forced to document our visit using the camera phone (tough world we live in, isn't it?); the pictures actually turned out pretty good except for the ones where I zoomed in.

Feeding the horses.

Julia and Mama hangin' out.

Mary, getting ready to go into the straw maze, and Luke, doin his thing.

This thing was pretty cool...about fifteen feet high, with tunnels and rooms inside the giant pile of straw.  I didn't go in, except at the end to extract the kidlets; just looking at it made me claustrophobic.

 And finally, two things that are ubiquitous in Michigan in the fall:

1. Pumpkins, and

2. Pumpkin donuts, because apparently donuts themselves are not amazing enough.

There's usually cider, too, but it was really expensive this year since we lost all the apple crop because of the spring frost.  Donuts and cider in the fall are everywhere in Michigan.  I was talking to Sarah about this the other day...I don't remember having that be such a big thing in Minnesota this time of year.  I mean, we went apple-picking, and I'm sure that they had those for sale on a small scale at the orchards, but here, it's like a requirement of life.  Every year, September comes, and they get out the donuts.  And they eat them for two solid months.  I'm not objecting to this, mind you.

Next up: obligatory Halloween photos.  As is our tradition, Grandma came to visit this year for the week after a one-year hiatus.  It was pretty darn cold so we conned Mary into wearing the marshmallow suit instead of her ballerina costume.  As it was she still got too cold after about half an hour.
I think the other two could have kept it up all night.

Moosie had a cold coming on and so was pretty gorked through much of the process.

Two visits

A couple weeks ago Grandma Ruth was in town to visit for a few days.  We went to visit Great-Grandma Sprengeler for an afternoon.  The weather turned out to be beautiful and the children had a fun afternoon with a grandma, great-grandma, and great-aunt Becky. 

Puddles.  The BEST part.

Moosie is still learning to smile on command.

Family times

Hello out there in blogland...

Thanksgiving is such a fun holiday: family, eating, napping (well...OK...sometimes), leftovers, and not a whole lot of stress. Plus, when the festivities are over, you get to go pick up your Christmas tree and move right into Christmas season! We had a good week. Mike worked the Holiday and we both needed to work the day after, so the Sprengelers came up for dinner at our house. Despite a minor mishap involving a twenty three pound frozen bird, gravity (darnit Newton!!!), and a broken plastic baking bag lightly dusted with flour; a little frenzy during morning church service; and a few margaritas and some wine for our guests (and our cook...) dinner made it onto the table. I think everybody was satisfied, even Mary, who spent dinnertime in her bouncy seat eating a bun with her face. I guess I have to hand it to her....eating with your mouth directly off of the table saves a step. There's no need to allow your hands to get in the way of things.
Here's Julia playing this rockband video game of Tim's. It's like DDR (dance dance revolution) with drums and guitars and vocals. She really got into things!


The Thanksgiving spread
We somehow made it to Penney's with matching outfits on for a Christmas picture. We'll see how they turn out....


On the way to grandma's house. Sorry Annie for the half-face shot.
grandpa Roger
Mary, Aunt Susie, and Nala the dog.
Mary and I had a little photo shoot while I was putting some laundry away

These last few pictures were put in backwards by a computer-illiterate individual. Oopie... Just pretend that the tree was decorated first, then we turned the lights off for an "oooh, ahhh moment." sigh...

Julia took the liberty to arrange the Nativity. I thought she did a pretty good job. Jesus, who didn't have a jacket on, was given a blanket. The kings are off to the left. Joseph ("big Jesus") is standing at baby Jesus' side....Mary is nowhere to be found, and Minnie Mouse stepped in for her.

A weekend of fun

Last weekend, we were HOME in DULUTH....which is such a rare thing these days. You know, the summer is kind of supposed to be a relaxing thing, I usually picture a Grain Belt Premium in a can koozie, a grill, some lounging in the sun, and lots of time to do "the stuff that needs to get done..." In all actuality, I think we're twice as busy in the summer with family get-togethers, weddings, etc....especially on the weekends. It's nice to have a whole weekend at home where we don't have to pack up everything we own into little bags and laundry baskets, pack non-perishable food items, and load everything into the minivan.

This past Saturday, we went to Carleton Days, a little town festival just outside of Duluth. It was very small, but we had a great time. There was a craft sale for mommy to explore, a used book sale for papa to explore, a "portable zoo visit" and lots of yummy foods for Julia, and shade for Mary so she could eat in peace. All in all a good time. I bought some homemade wash cloths from a lady, Mike bought a bunch of used books for five bucks from the library fundraiser (which was being hosted by the same lady who made the crafts.....these small towners know how to multi-task.) Julia ate some corn on the cob and a candy necklace, she also commandeered our root beer float and walking taco.

The highlight of the day was when Julia heard the TRAIN coming. She LOVES trains. And like most MN small towns, there's a train track running through the center of town, just past the grain elevator and just behind the storefronts of downtown. So we took off running toward the tracks and Julia got to see the train first hand. The engine guy....(is that the engineer?) tooted his horn at her and it was so loud she cried...but then laughed, I think... She tried to jump up and down in excitement, but she hasn't figured out jumping yet...one leg goes up and the other stays on the ground. She also does this "happy dance" that looks like an injured gazellle....you have to see it, I guess. Anyways, we saw the train and headed home after a busy afternoon and NO NAP. Mommy and Papa were happy to put her highness to bed at 7:30. Ahhhhhhh.

On Sunday, while the girls was napping, I left Mike at home and went boating on Lake Superior with a buddy. So, fortunately, there WAS some Grain Belt Premium, a can koozie, and lounging in the sun. What a lovely relaxing way to spend a beautiful day!

Here's Mary, looking shocked to hear that we were planning to make her sit in her carseat while we drove to Target. (She hates the carseat....this look could also be called, Not Acceptable!)Here's my seafaring buddy, Jeff, who was the captain of our Lake-dwelling vessel
Here's Mary tolerating her car seat on the way to Carleton Days
Julia and the train. She looks like she's posing for a musical number...don't you think she looks like she's about to turn around and start singing the chorus?

Here's the tortoise from the portable zoo.

Mary was happy to be home that night....notice the change of outfits during the day. Mayday Mary struck again.

Happy Anniversary!

Five years ago, Mike and I set a trend. (We have never been the cool ones, mind you...band nerds, science geeks yes....not cool enough to be trendsetters.) Anyways, we went and got married...on a rainy Friday afternoon in June, the longest day of the year. We were the first amongst friends to take the plunge and we're so glad that we did! We celebrated with dinner at the Pickwick restaurant and a walk on the Lakewalk. Beautiful night!

Happy anniversary to Dave and Miriam...four years today! You sure picked a nice date to get married on. Also a nice date to have your first child on.... :)

Mike, Julia, and I all had interesting days, even though we weren't together.

Mike went to a bunch of meetings at the pharmacy. He learned that it's illegal to ask any prospective employees about any sort of criminal history they've had. I thought that was dumb. He also noticed a very important drug error: sertraline (Zoloft..an antidepressant) and tramadol (ultram...a pain medicine) taking these two drugs can cause "serotonin syndrome" which is bad news. He could have saved a life! yay for husband!

I spent the day learning ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) and practicing intubating, CPR-ing, and giving iv meds to mannequins. Which brings me to my next question: camp people....WHO was it that came up with the mantra during the "shark song" that goes, "C...P....R do do....do doo da do...." ???? I am a bit embarrassed and also a bit proud to say that whenever I am giving CPR, I sing that little number in the back of my head. It helps keep the rhythm. OK...now don't ever tell that to a patient. I can just see it now, "Doctor sings shark song during resuscitation and victim ends up "going to heaven." (...if you remember right....after the CPR part, the next verse is "going to heaven do do....dooo doo...da do"; not "patient's breathing doo doo....doo doo da do.") woe is me.

Julia had a fun day as well. Auntie Annie took her to the lake walk, then to the beach, then to the dairy queen. This evening, she attended Dan's softball game while we were out to dinner, and it was the first time Dan's team won their game! Julia cheered....and also stole some chips from a seven year old. She is a brave soul.

Well, that was our day. I hope yours fun, too.....until tomorrow,
Sprengeler clan