Turkey and Tears

Well the day has finally come. Today we sent Shannon, Ken and Liam off on their move to Alaska with a full-on 15 head-count family turkey dinner (for lunch). While the tone was anxious and a bit sad and bewildered we had a great lunch and were able to send the crew (Tom & Hannah the dogs too) off with plenty of left overs to tide them throughout the 9 DAY drive up north. They promised to blog whenever possible (Link to the right: "Da Family up Nort") during the trip up so we can follow along. Here are a couple pictures and I'll add more as I get some in from others. Now we all just need to plan when our own Alaska adventures are going to begin to visit them...

Hip 50's Bash a Hit!

Mom & Dad's 50's theme 60th Birthday bash was a Hit. We all dressed up 50's style. Ian and Mike in their white shirts, dark jeans and slicked hair. Mike even sported a black leather jacket and traded his motorcycle for a 50's style one! I wore a 50's style dress with cateye glasses and a neck scarf. FUN! But of course, Ian took the cutest prize and even sported a pack rolled in his sleeve (of organic raisins of course!:-) ).


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I decorated the place in all black, red and white with jukebox and record-like balloons and ice cream sundae flower decorations. Of course we had 50s music playing and hula hoops for fun. For dinner we had burgers and hot dogs in baskets and ice cream floats, and libations all around. For dessert we had ice cream sundaes and I made 2 cakes both looking like records with black frosting -- which made all our mouths turn purple! Yum Yum.

But the guests we of course the most important ingredient. Almost everybody dressed up and it was a hoot. Here are a couple pictures. I'll post more when I get back some from others that were clicking away....







By the end of the night Ian was still running strong and sleepy at the same time. I snagged this hilarious picture when he laid down on the couch and the static electricity made his hair stand straight up!

...and the OBSESSION gets deeper

The boy is obsessed, possessed and definitely has a bit of the ol’ North Dakota in him. As most of you know the only thing Ian can focus on for longer than 2 minutes is “Go-Go”. Well, he has now been to multiple games of his cousin Liam this year, and still can’t get enough. Some kids have a blanket or stuffed toy as a lovey, not this kid he has a hockey stick. He has just started to say “hockey” instead of “go-go,” but has been saying puck, face off, stick, net and goal for quite a while…what’s more he knows what they are and how they all work together! Daily I hear “No goal Mama” and “in the net” and “Face off!” – where he requires someone to drop the puck/ball in a predetermined spot on the kitchen floor. Crazy kid :-) So we decided to finally take him skating….with skates that were 2 sizes too big he immediately jumped off the bench and started walking (not knowing that it should be a bit hard I guess). We hit the ice, and he was in heaven. We still had to hold him up because he couldn’t keep his weight in front of him and kept falling back off his heels, but he did AWESOME! Of course he couldn’t give up his lovely hockey stick so we had to hold him on one side under his arm, not so good on the back! While I was trying to make sure he didn’t fall we went pass the face off hash marks, and he said “Face off Mama!” When it was time to go it was as if the world was coming to an end, I think all of Windsor knew he wasn’t happy. Such a goofy kid…where does he get it all from???