St. Patty's Day weekend

Last year, St. Patrick's Day weekend was a warm one:

In contrast, this year is a tad bit colder:

That is our pond in the foreground.  Frozen.  No frogs hopping around this weekend!!

But at least the girls got to go sledding this weekend!!  And I don't have to fire up the lawnmower any time soon!

We made corned beef with cabbage, potatoes, and carrots for dinner tonight:

Served with Kilkenny beer, fresh from Ireland!!  Megan liked it...we are in trouble with that one!!

More March pics

Here are some random March pics to enjoy!

Video of Katie's solo at church on March 2nd.  She did a wonderful job leading the whole church in song!

Katie singing!

 

Can you find all three girls in the choir??

This is the prettiest my kitchen window has looked in a long time!  Both of my very old amaryllises bloomed at the same time, I have an old orchid that's been in bloom for 6 mos or so, and I got a new orchid at Bordine's for my birthday!  It's so pretty, it almost makes me want to do dishes!  (but not quite)

Megan decorating a chalice to remember her first communion!

Katie and Jess playing a balancing game at gymnastics open gym.  My friend Shari works at this gymnastics place about 20 min north of us, and she told us about their homeschooler open gyms each week.  Katie and Jess LOVE it!  They get free reign over all the equipment - bars, beams, floor, trampoline, ropes, foam pit, etc etc.  Katie has perfected her back walkover these past few weeks, and Jess has learned how to hang upside down by her legs alone!

 

Chris's weekend adventure - he was in Italy this past week.  He usually flies coach, with a stop in Paris (a terrible airport).  But he lucked out and got a seat on the corporate jet on the way TO Italy last Sunday.  He got to wine, dine, rub elbows, AND play poker with the CEO!  He also lucked out on the flight home and got a seat on a secondary corporate jet with more bigwigs.  The flight left late on Saturday, so he took advantage of the free day and drove to the Alps to go skiing for the day!!  He said it was the most amazing skiing ever!!  Here is one of the runs at Monterosa:

On the flight home, the plane had to stop in Shannon, Ireland.  The flight attendant promised to pick up Guinness for the passengers, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, but Chris asked if Kilkenny was an option.  She called ahead and got a case of Kilkenny for them!  Chris was in heaven - it was his favorite beer when we visited Ireland!  And apparently all the other people loved it, too - no one drank a Guinness.

Sarah's 9th Angelversary

Tuesday was Sarah's 9th Angelversary.  Chris was out of town, but the girls and I went to the cemetery to "celebrate" and to spruce things up.

 

I snapped a pic of her grave pillow before we removed it.

Girls by the garden art they picked out for Sarah.  We also got her the pink hyacinths, a ceramic angel (hidden behind the flowers), and a mylar balloon.

Today, when Chris was home, we went back to the cemetery to do our annual balloon launch.  It was a cold, but gorgeous day!

We each wrote a little note to Sarah!  The girls were very secretive about theirs!

 

 

 

 

And I forgot to take a pic of her new wind chimes.  She has had the same ones for the past 9 years, but they finally broke last month.  This is a cheapy from the dollar store til I can find a nicer one to have at the cemetery and at home.

Katie's 11th Birthday

Katie turned 11 on a Saturday, but we didn't get to celebrate with her much.  She wanted to volunteer at the school's all-day crop fundraising event!  She helped out from 11am-7:30pm!  So we celebrated on Sunday, when Mom & Dad Christensen came up to visit.

Katie picked lunch at Hibachi House after hearing what a great time we had there with Chris on Wednesday!  The food is amazing, so Chris and I didn't mind going back.  It was quite a show - onion volcano included!

Megan found an inventive use of chopsticks

Katie and Grandpa got spicy chicken, and Grandma got scallops.  Yum!

We got a whole table to ourselves!

Singing to Katie

Happy Birthday with tempura-fried cheesecake!!

Opening presents at home

Denim jacket from G&G Christensen

Artwork and gifts from Bram

Clothes from G&G Kennedy

Beautiful dress from G&G Kennedy!

Katie used her blender cookbook to make us chocolate peanut butter shakes!

Katie loved shopping at Barnes & Noble with the gift card from Uncle Joe

And she loved picking out cute clothes at Justice thanks to the gift card from Auntie Erin & Uncle Chad!

 Thanks, everyone, for making her birthday special!

Chris' 40th Birthday

I'm catching up on all the excitement from the last two weeks.  First up - Chris' 40th Birthday!

I stayed up late the night before his birthday so I could decorate the kitchen.  He woke up to this surprise!  The girls picked out all of the decorations and blew up the black balloons.  We hid them in the garage after school.

After work, I took him out to dinner at a hibachi place in downtown Rochester...but DIDN'T tell him that his friends were meeting us there!  He was happily surprised!

Girls side of the table.

Birthday kids get a tempura-fried cheesecake...yum!



The gang!  (Steve is missing...out of town for work that night)



The next night, we made him a chocolate peanut butter shake for his birthday dessert. 

The girls picked out this comb for him!  :)

It was a low-key, yet special celebration for him.  I had to keep it nice because I'm next!

Katie's Birthday Party

We are having Katie's 11th Birthday Party tonight, because we'll be busy next weekend with the school's all-day crop.  Can you believe that Katie wants to volunteer there all day, on her birthday?

Katie invited two friends over for a sleepover, and planned a "pool party" (aka billiards)!

Look how awesome our cupcakes turned out!!

We added a red tablecloth (to match our pool table's felt), a white cue ball cupcake, a rack, and a cue stick to complete the cupcakes!

 Katie picked out a dinner of pesto pasta with chicken, and green beans.  Her friends were skeptical at first, but then loved it!

Singing to Katie.

Can you believe she's almost 11??!!

Opening presents

Photobomb!!!

Girls playing the numbers game

The three of them are all snuggled in down in the basement, on couches and aerobeds.  I brought down lots of popcorn, and they're watching a movie (Bridge to Terabithia).  I don't know when they'll finally go to bed, but I'm getting tired!

Tomorrow, all three girls (plus the friend in pink) are singing in the children's choir at our11am mass.  Everyone's very excited, especially Katie, who has a solo again!  She will lead the entire church in the Alleluia replacement: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."