It’s a blustery, early fall evening here in Minneapolis… the leaves have begun changing colors, and many of them have been swept off the tress by the forceful winds today. My children are tucked in bed uncharacteristically early – 9:15 pm, leaving me with an open chunk of time to write a quick update.

We celebrated Axel’s 3rd birthday this past Monday night – it’s hard to believe how fast those three years have gone! Chad and I collaborated on the football shaped birthday cake (thank you, Pampered Chef batter bowl!), and the dinner menu, at request of the birthday boy, included the following: chicken strips wrapped in tortillas with ranch dressing (with spinach and cheese for some!), bananas and strawberries (whole, not sliced), cheese puffs and chocolate milk. We chuckled about how this may have been our first family birthday dinner where no silverware was needed. J

 

Today we were at Kaijsa’s school to participate in an assembly where she was recognized as one of the September Citizens of the Month. She received a COTM button, a pencil and a certificate with her photo on it that reads, “Kaijsa is such a sweet girl. She has caught on quickly to our class routines, and knows where everything goes and what is expected of her in school. She always follows directions and cooperates. She is eager to learn and participate in class. She is a very talented reader, and is already reading books at a 2nd grade level. Kaijsa is a great student and a true joy to have in kindergarten.”

 

In other news, we’ve enjoyed having Chad’s mom, Ruth, here visiting from Friday the 23rd thru yesterday afternoon. We packed lots of fun into her short visit, including the kids’ 3 and 6 year photographs, the zoo, church, a hymn sing, Nickelodeon Universe, a morning at kindergarten with Kaijsa, the Children’s Museum, dinner at Buca’s and some time at Lake Nokomis. We also caught two mice in our house during the five days she was with us – uggh! That’s one part of colder weather and an old house that I’m not looking forward to! We’ve just finished a replacement of our roof and gutters – Matt’s company, BFH (The Big Friendly Hammer), was the general contractor, and it looks great! Chad’s work is still soooo slow – quite discouraging, but we’re working on some marketing ideas that hopefully will help a bit. I’ve been keeping busy doing some work on our church’s upcoming forum on Human Trafficking (Saturday, October 29th from 9 am-12:30 pm at Bloomington Covenant Church), selling some things on craigslist, couponing, being outside with the kids as much as possible, and just helping to keep our household running in a somewhat smooth manner!  I’ll attempt to add a few photos below – I think that if you click on them, they’ll appear a little bigger….

 

Happy Fall! J

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