Surprise 40th Anniversary Party

Nick and his brothers and sisters decided to throw their parents a surprise 40th wedding anniversary last night. The party was held at our house and was a ton of work (thanks Michelle for all your help) but everything went well!! Lorraine and Rich were surprised and had no clue that we had planned such an elaborate event for Saturday night. Lorraine had already wanted us to attend a dedication mass at St. Charles on Sunday, November 16th, their actual anniversary and then do brunch at the Bridgewater Restaurant. Nick had said we wanted to buy them a portrait sitting at Sharp Photo in Eau Claire and then to come to our house for a late lunch Saturday to celebrate Nick's birthday which was on Nov. 7th. Most everything went off without a hitch. We did have a few mishaps: Ian with a large goose egg on his head above his right eye and Michelle with 3 stitches in her hand after cutting it on a glass while doing dishes on Friday night!! It can be expected that everything will not go perfectly but it was pretty darn close. Michelle had made up a wonderful slide show of Rich and Lorraine throughout their 40 years of marriage. I hope Nick and I have as much to be grateful for in another 33 years!! I am sure we will as we are very lucky already being blessed with 3, soon to be 4, beautiful children, wonderful, loving families and good health for all. All in all it was fun to see everyone and help celebrate a long, prosperous marriage. Wishing them many more years of happiness!!

Halloween 2008

Halloween was a busy run around as usual. Sam was a farmer, Katarina was a cheerleader and Ian was a gorilla. The good thing was that the weather was awesome!! And the farmer made fresh hay bales just for my Halloween pictures. We went trick or treating downtown with Christina and Alan. Then to Grandma and Grandpa Bowe's, next was Grandma and Grandpa Gardow's for supper and cake for Papa Rich's birthday (Nov. 1). Dad took the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, then off to home and to bed. The next morning we traveled to the Mall of America for a 4H outing at the Nickelodeon Studios for a day of fun. It turned out okay until Ian got overtired and overstimulated at the very end of our day and made for long walk out of the mall. Other than that the day was great. Would have been better if Nick could have got the day off work and gone with but oh well.

November 12th, 2008

I have decided to try a blog. Facebook has proven to be way too much and I want something simple where I can post pictures and what we are up to pictures, that friends and family, especially those far away can enjoy. Pictures to come later. Right now we are busy setting up the baby's room and getting ready for a big event at our house on Saturday (more to come, it's a surprise!). Enjoying the first snowfall. Maybe this year we will have enough snow to be able to take the kids downhill skiing for the first time. I will keep you updated. Have an awesome day and week!!