Excited

While we don't feel stressed about Christmas around here (just excited) there have been lots of good and fun things happening! Madison's artwork is featured at Dunn Bros. Coffee house in Farmington. Twenty-four artists in fifth grade at Riverview were selected to paint their images on canvas. Pictures of the canvases were made into Christmas cards. Between her dance classes, we went to Meet the Artist night at the coffee house that unveiled all their hard-work. Her painting is the snowman in the middle of a blizzard.

 Last weekend, we got to visit Dakota City, a 1900s town in Farmington. Our girls can't seem to get enough of this place. We're thinking of volunteering since we're there almost all the time anyways.

I told Derrick, "this is a picture!" While I don't bring the Canon out on the ski slopes, this was too great to no drop on my belly to snap this one: all those ski boots lined up in a row the night before and ready to go. Four pair. Momma stayed in the lodge and took the tired ones home early. While downhill skiing isn't exactly a cheap pastime, Derrick and I agree that at least this way, we're all together spending money.

 Madison performed in her third Winter Dance recital on the 21st. She performed in three dances. Grandpa Leon and Grandma Linda got to join in on the excitement!

Those eyes...

 

"Those eyes would be big on a cow!" - Bedtime Stories

Typecast

"I don't believe this, I'm being typecast!" (Kramer from "Seinfeld.")

Little Miss Breanne seems to have been typecast. In her acting career she's always played some sort of a gang member: Munchkin, Dwarf, Elf and now a rough and rowdy Herdman in "The Best Christmas Pageant EVER." And as the doctor in that "Seinfeld" episode says, "Oh, it's no mistake. We loved what you did with it."
Mom and Dad are so proud of you Breanne (or shall I say, Gladys Herdman?)!

"I think she went home. I think she got sick. All I did was I just said hi, Beverly and she left. 

The Christmas Pageant

Aliya was a baby angel…her second play.

The last line of the play: "Hey, hey, unto you a child is born!"

The Herdman kids.

Seriously, we did it

We're in the far right corner.

Madison & I really were at the 5K Chocofrolic Race last Sunday in St. Paul. Madison beat her goal by 30 seconds: 32.32 seconds. Her first race and she says she'd do it again in a heart beat for chocolate, but only for chocolate.

After a full recovery, in our shirts.

Patriotic Day Celebration

This week Thursday, Breanne sang in the Farmington Patriotic Day Celebration. It was a terrific program and they sounded great.

Barn Bluffs

 All this 60+ degree weather this October makes me want to get out and enjoy it. You never know what the winter will hold. As much as "hiking" pains some of the children, we got out and enjoyed the views of the Mississippi from Barn Bluffs in Red Wing yesterday.

6! But likely not a high-heel cupcake

What a complete joy and privilege to celebrate Aliya's birthday with seven cousins, five aunts and uncles and three grandparents! The only doubtful factor is, do these cupcakes really look like a high-heel shoe? I didn't think so either, but we went with it!

 Following a delightful tea party with fabulous stories (both fiction and non-fiction) about the tea cups, the cousins headed out on an treasure hunt adventure. A series of five clues led them to the hidden clues and lastly, they literally dug up buried treasure. Fun, but clearly, with no food in the treasure box, this auntie failed. Note taken and next time there will be golden chocolate coins.