Werth Family OnlineThe weather is starting to warm up and the leaves are coming out. That can only mean one thing: ice cream! Okay, maybe that isn’t what it means, but it seemed like a good excuse to make a trip to the local “ice cream shop”.
The entertainment was provided by Jacob and Henry who were each enjoying their first ice cream cone.
Happy spring!
After much anticipation, it was time to prepare the Easter eggs! Following a trip to the park and a pasta dinner, we popped the color tablets into the waiting vinegar and patiently waited for the fizzing to finish. Let the fun begin…
Christmas, New Year’s, Birthdays, and Valentine’s day all seemed to blur together this year. We had an enjoyable and relatively low key holiday season spending time at home and with family. Much to my dismay, we’ve had plenty of cold but no snow to go with it. Each time it snowed, it would melt right away so our snow activities have been much more limited than last year. Thankfully, we were able to go sledding once.
After the holidays were over we celebrated Jacob’s fourth birthday, where Elise delighted the boys with her Olaf cake.
Soon after, it was time to make our yearly trek up to Deep Portage (Hackensack, MN) for a fun weekend getaway over Valentine’s Day. Despite the cold (a high of -4° with lots of wind), we were able to get outside a few times. Of course, there were fun things to do indoors as well:
It’s now the end of February, and we’re *hopefully* wrapping up a few weeks of sickness that seems to be affecting almost everyone we know. We’ll see whether or not spring is going to arrive soon, or if we should keep the shovels prepped into May.
Last year’s Christmas greeting turned out well so we decided to give it another go. With Christmas rapidly approaching, we put our creative energies to work this past weekend to produce a Christmas mash-up.
Can you name all 10 songs?
Lyrics:
Here we are again this close to Christmas
How the past year flew
We’ll try to recount our lives in this past year
And wish you all a merry little Christmas
New year did come, oh boy what fun
Jacob turned three, party did we
To Deep Portage, for two day veg
Time in the woods, snow skis and
Sun, snow in March and April
T’was good time overall
Spent time with T’s new puppy
And fam’ly plenty
Spring came and we enjoyed the outdoors
Spending the time at fun play parks
Where the slides do glisten
And children don’t listen
To moms, saying time to
Go, time to go
Father’s day in Glencoe
There were floods, not too bad
We spent all our time outdoors
Landscaping and swing set building
So June was
Gone to the South, to Nashville went
To find work friends and sites
Saw many cool new things, and tasted great
Barbeque food, fresh brewed beer,
Great music, Back to
Home again with family, the school year soon to start
Celebrated Henry turning two
Soon the days got chilly
Early fall brought colors in sight
To St. Johns for Homecoming fight
Walks in nature, days of costumes
Bringing the fall
To all our friends we wish thee well
From our growing family
And have a happy holiday
We send our love to thee
[Henry]
On Saturday morning we headed to the local library to return our books and bring home some new ones. As always, Jacob and Henry were very excited to find new books and to play with the toys. Henry spent a fair amount of time with the abacus.
Later that day, we drove to the nearby town of Loretto as the Canadian Pacific Christmas Train was rolling in to town that afternoon. After dropping off our food shelf donation, we snacked on some hot cider and cookies while waiting for the train to arrive. Upon arrival, one of the boxcars transformed into a stage for musical entertainment. Overall, the boys loved it and Loretto estimated 12,000 people took part in the festivities.
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and along with it, three days of feasting and hanging out with family. The following weekend we traveled to Camp Tanadoona to enjoy the Coldwell Banker customer appreciation day (courtesy of our favorite realtors).
At the camp, we enjoyed a hayride, pancake lunch, and a chance to visit with Santa. Before heading home, we picked out a tree and performed the annual feat of tying it to the roof of our vehicle. At home we set it up and closely supervised Elise/Mama put on the lights.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas if we didn’t make any cookies. As a result, the holiday cookie cutters came out and the fun began. Now we just have to make sure they don’t disappear before Christmas arrives ☺
Halloween is upon us! With October drawing to an end, it was time for Elise to quickly finish the costumes. In preparation for the big day, we carved out the pumpkins on Wednesday night. While Jacob was completely hands on and arms in, Henry was a bit more tentative about the slime. Each boy was able to design (draw) their own pumpkin face with help from Mom, who then carved them out. It was a pretty exciting night, and we got to make use of our sweet new aprons (from the orange big box hardware store).
After dinner on Friday, we bundled everyone up and into their costumes to make the rounds. It was a bit chilly, hovering around freezing with some wind, so the kids were a bit sparse overall. It was a short but good night, with a fair amount of candy to replenish our reserves.
This past weekend we traveled to Saint Paul to witness the Monster Dash Рa running event that focuses on runners wearing costumes. Outfits ranged from the usual superheroes to interesting, but slightly risqu̩ barmaids, along with the occasional banana. Needless to say, the boys had a blast watching all the costumed characters running past. Overall, Laura ran a very good race and we were able to find her at three different spots.
The next day (Sunday), we spent some time making cupcakes for the boys to bring to daycare to celebrate the upcoming holiday. Yum!
It seemed like a perfect fall day. The Werth’s hopped into the van to visit Nanny and Grandpa. Shortly after arriving, we headed over to the Richardson Nature Center to enjoy the weather and see the outdoors. We took a loop on one of the paths, stopping as we went to observe our surroundings.
At the end of our walk, we took some time to look at the animals in the visitor center. The boys loved it and it was a great chance to enjoy the fall weather.