Continued Big Week - First Week of School

On Thursday, September 4th, Mom was picking up Canyon from school. He was showing his loose front tooth to a friend's Mom. As Mom began to talking to the other parent, Presley shouted, "Look at all the blood!". I turned and Canyon's mouth was bleeding. He had started to twist his front tooth. So we went to the bathroom, grabbed a paper towel, and Canyon yanked out the tooth the rest of the way. What a brave little guy!

The week ended with a vehicle fair at Presley's school. Visits from the fire truck, a mail truck, a snow plow, a street sweeper, a garbage truck, a police car, an earth truck and lots of treats and snacks. What a special and memorable first week of school.

First Day of School - A Big Day!

This week the kids started school. Canyon started 1st grade with Senora Goldman. And Presley started her first day in the Chameleon room (Pre-K). We kicked off the day with the kids' choice breakfast. Canyon choose "Eggs Maxie" with eggs, sausage, and english muffins. Presley chose Lucky Charms, sausage, and english muffins. We also took our traditional first day of school photos outside in front of the tree. At the end of this special day, Canyon declared that his first day was "Awesome"! And Presley came home ready to ride her bike for the first time without training wheels. She just took off. Our babies are growing up sooooo fast!

Minnesota's Annual Get Together

Time for the Minnesota State Fair, a Pergande family favorite. This year, we started the day off early at 9:30 AM. We ate our way through the fair with cheese curds, smores, french fries, corn on the cob, pronto pubs, icies, a scotch egg (thanks to the recommendation from our neighbor Nick), and our very favorite Nitro icecream!! The kids loved their rides. Canyon talked Dad into going on the Octopus this year. Dad hates spinning rides and was up late the night before. Needless to say he wasn't feeling well and needed a rest afterwards! Mom took the kids on the river raft ride. And we ended the day with a show at the skate park and headed home around 4:00 PM. Whew! We all need a rest now!

Enjoying Local Neighborhood Treasures

Last year, Canyon and Mom discovered a very cool trail near our house. This last week, we decided to do a family adventure to see how far the trail went. On route to the trail we found a big turtle along side the road. Presley touched it's shell but the turtle "HISSED" at her. Our hike offered many cool twists and turns and creeks and hills. It felt like our very own State Park. But after about 2 miles (and 7 bridges and 3 plank ways) we decided to turned around. We'll have to find the end of the trail another day. Dad ended up carrying Presley most of the way home.

Summer Begins to Wind Down

The summer season is beginning to wind down. We were super busy but stayed local this past weekend! Canyon began his first week of fall soccer. We also enjoyed a neighborhood block party (and the kids got to stay up late watching movies outside on the big screen in their sleeping bags). But the major events telling us that summer was over was Canyon's open house at school and Presley's "hopping up" party to become a Chameleon (Pre-K) at her school, Hopkins Early Learning Center.

Haddon and Rizzo Annual Get Together

The Haddons and Rizzos ventured to Minnesota this year for our annual get together. We had a busy weekend of frisbee golf, boating and tubing, fishing, swimming, water balloon fights, tennis matches, long bike rides, fires, games, and general catching up. It's so nice to spend time with good friends. And we even got to watch the local air show!

Grandma Wanda's 90th Birthday Celebration

On the weekend of 08/08/08, approximately 45 grandparents, cousins, parents, kids and family of Grandma Wanda joined together from around the country (and world - Kathy surprised us from Australia) to celebrate Grandma Wanda's 90th birthday in the Villages, Florida. And to celebrate the joy she has created and brought to her family. The weekend was filled with pool parties, golf outings, puzzle creations, mass, and a fun family dinner. Of course it went by too fast but what a great celebration!! it also brought Ron, Kathy, Don, and Annie together for the first time in many years.