First Grader!

What a weekend - it was the annual Bean Days celebration - which means pancakes, parades, pews, parents, and parties. We started the morning with the Lions pancake feed at the fire station, then went over to the old Horace Lutheran Church for a salvage sale. They were selling the old church pews and we thought about getting one as a bench for our entryway. We went to the parade while we pondered the decision.





Alison took part in the parade as part of the Girl Scouts.



After the parade, we finally decided to buy the pew. After paying, we went back to the house, had lunch and chased down a neighbor with a trailer. Robert graciously helped haul the pew back to the house, and then we started preparations for the street dance. The annual street dance is a uniquely small town thing - driving four wheelers to an event where they use cattle gates to create an enclosed party area on Main Street. The band has a semi trailer with roll-up sides that they just back across the road to create a stage.

To close out the weekend, we got Alison ready for her first day of first grade! Today was the first day at Horace Elementary School, and by all accounts it was a great day.

Hawaiian Bash

West Fargo Parks had a Hawaiian bash earlier this week and it gave the kids a chance to get out and play.

Here's Eli attacking the inflatable slide with gusto:




And here's Alison showing off her slick hula hoop skills:

From Across the Tracks

"Reading" a Book

Eli has gone through his Johnny Tractor book so many times with us reading to him, he almost has the whole thing memorized. Not sure if this video is going to work from Facebook, but we'll see!




If it doesn't work, here's a picture.


Friday was Jennifer's birthday, we celebrated by smoking a brisket, making sweet potato fries and a tres leche cake and having a few friends over.



Sunday morning I met Joel for a bike ride out to Rothsay, where the girls picked us up and we all went to Carrie and Joel's family lake place for a relaxing day.