MARK!

MARK!

 With his Twinners on Father's Day in Wayzata, looking good in his Father's Day Ray Bans!

 With his silly son Dean!

 With his dog Oliver intensely work on our patio one morning this summer!

With his wife at Bruno Mars at Xcel Energy Center!

With a cardboard banjo playing hard a work one day!

Happy Father's Day Dad/Papa 2014

Hey Kids, Can we all please get a picture with Papa!

Charlie, Can you please stand up?

Charlie, Please will you stand for just a minute!

 Charlie - Stop!

Charlie - Get in the PICTURE NOW!

 Look how good Peter is Charlie!

Dean - Do you always have to be silly?

 And... We give up!

But - Look at the smile on my Dad's face in every photo!

Happy Father's Day Grandpa David!

Last Day of First Grade!

The days leading up to the last day of first grade included:

Chaperoning both kids trip to the Coon Rapids Dam.
Here is Marly with her BESTIES - Izzi and Alex!

 Track and Field Day - I volunteered and sold lunch tickets to parents.

 MN Zoo field trip.

 And the LAST DAY of First Grade at CBPA with Mrs. Dahl for Marly and Mrs. Gotz for Dean.

The Twinner's year end gift to their teachers included a gift certificate to the liquor store. I kid you not!!! Teachers have a TOUGH JOB!

Of course our new puppy Oliver made the shot on their last morning!

What we wore - Marly is wearing a Matilda Jane skirt, and Dean is wearing a thrifted Hawaiian shirt and his "too cool for school" fedora from Children's Place!

Oliver the Dog!

Meet our new pet - Oliver the miniature schnauzer puppy!

Mark has talked about a puppy for a year or two now, and in last 6 months, the discussion has ramped up. Last Christmas, Mark began noting some darling Facebook photos of a friends new puppy on my Facebook Feed. Each time, Mark would comment something like,

• "Hey - Did you see Kathyrn's puppy?"
• "Isn't he soooo cute?"
• "Can you find out where she got him?"
• "I started following that breeder on Facebook for you where Kathryn got the dog."
• "Did you see 'Marly's Schnauzers' has a new litter of puppies?"
• "Maybe we should get one of those new puppies..."

Then one night this spring he said, "Oh, by the way... I sent a down payment on that black and white puppy on Facebook..."

Fast forward 8 weeks.

Mark and I took a "date day" of PTO from work and headed to Lakeville with kennel in car to pick up the dog we had already named "Oliver". The kids had NO IDEA, although we had taken a family vote on a dog name, if we were to ever get a dog.

 After school, I picked Dean up from the bus stop, and then cruised back to school to get Marly from her reading tutor, then headed home. The kids walked in the door, and 4 pound Oliver was sitting at the top of the steps. Mark had the video rolling on the I-phone.... and there was......

....NO REACTION.

 Dean asked, "What is that?"
Then both kids circled the tiny puppy.
Marly asked, "Whose dog is this?"

It wasn't until we were eating supper on the patio (with Oliver on the floor near us), that Marly began to believe this was OUR DOG - Forever!!!

Dean offered to "re-enact" there arrival home from school, with more excitement and drama. Dad declined the offer. After supper Marly took Oliver around to many neighbor's, rang door-bells, and introduced her NEW PUPPY Oliver!

He is here to stay, and has made regular trips to the bus stop, been to the Champlin Parade, and meet all the neighborhood pouches!

Mother's Day 2014

This Mother's Day I choose to do something unusual for me! We spent  the day as a the Thomberg Foursome.  You know we normally have brunch or lunch with the other Mother's or women in our lives, and have hosted many times myself.

 This year, I choose a day surrounded by the three individuals that make me a mom - Mark, Marly and Dean.  We started off at church, where our family greeted and Mark and I served Communion.

The kids made this "bling" for me at Sunday School.

From there, we headed to Taylor's Falls for a picnic with cheese, salomi, olives and more from Byerly's. We hiked along the bluff. After I got a Latte from a coffee shop on Main Street and we headed across to the Wisconsin side heading south.

Back in town at Stillwater we got ice cream, hung out by the River, and meander home.

We continued our yearly burger tradition, but this time we went simply and picked it up at Sonic Burger.

It was a WONDERFUL and AMAZING day and I had a fantastic time!

...and I may have purchased these Maui Jim's off e-bay as a gift too!!!