Our Everyday Talk

MNVA’s got Talent!

The Minnesota Virtual Academy held a talent show for their elementary and middle school kids last week, and all 3 of the kids decided to participate.   J.D. joined his brother and sister, even though he isn’t in MNVA.   He of course wanted to be part of the fun!  They did a 6 minute magic show that included 3 tricks, and did a great job!    I was so impressed by all the talented kids that performed!   There were 21 acts in all, and the show lasted exactly 2 hours.   I didn’t get pictures of all the different acts but here are a few of the amazing kids that showed off their gifts of talent for us.

First off the teachers all did an opening song to get us started.

Ethan and his brother,Ezra, sang and  played the piano beautifully.   These boys are friends of ours that don’t live too far away.   Obviously I wasn’t sitting in the right spot for getting any good shots of the piano players.   There were several piano players, and I couldn’t see any of them :(

              

These two girls each sang beautifully A cappella.  One of them sang “Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer)” by Nick Jonas and the other sang “Call on Jesus” by Nicole C. Mullen.

                  

Two young men playing different instruments.

   

A few other examples of the talents displayed, Kung Fu and Poetry Reciting with his brother doing a little acting, and young lady who did some card tricks.

   

                   

There were several dancing acts that were really fun, each different than the other.   And our family’s favorite act was a young man that did a monologue from a scene from “The Incredibles.”   He did a scene between the characters Frozone and his wife.   He split his costume down the middle and stood in profile so he was both the parts talking to each other.   He was so amazing and FUNNY!   I wished I would have taken some pictures, but I was enjoying his act so much I forgot to take pictures.  

And finally there was Family FUNtastic!

  They started with the dollhouse trick.   They did this trick with the background music, “Love is in the House” by TobyMac.

    

Then Noah read Mr. Biatto’s mind.

And last Hannah made a dove appear out of an empty tube.

   

    You can’t see it very well, but Hannah’s  holding a dove in the picture above.

Here’s a group shot of all the kids who performed at MNVA’s got Talent 2009.   Good job everybody!!!

Nancy

Our “Social” Event at Monticello Community Center

Last week we went to the K12 Social Event at the Monticello Community Center.   K12 Inc. is the company that publishes the curriculum we use, and the company hosts several social events around the state each month.   I had heard that that a few other MNVA families were going to be able to make it and was excited for a fun day with some friends.   Unfortunately, we were the ONLY ones there.   We still had a great time, but the kids would have loved to have some friends to swim and play basketball with, and Todd and I would have enjoyed some more adult company.   We usually get to one of these K12 Social events each month, and at least 50% of the time we’re the only family there.   We’ve been golfing several times, a couple ice cream socials at Cold Stone Creamery (is it still an ice  cream social if its just our family and the K12 marketing person?) , bowling, an apple orchard, the History Museum, and to Summerland water park.

So here are our kids having fun playing water basketball.  

  

     

    Hannah flippin’ around

 

 

Don’t they look like they’re having fun!   Wish some other MNVA kids could have joined us!

Cowboy Church

This post has been edited.   After reading my post I found a bunch of errors and felt like it just kind of fell flat, so here it is again.  

Our Church had us some “Cowboy Church” two weeks ago, and it was SO MUCH FUN!   Pastor Denny invited a friend, Duke Edwards, who is a real Cowboy Pastor from Colorado to join us for a fun day of rodeo.   It was a pretty big deal in our little community of about 8,000.   About 1,000 people enjoyed a hot day in the sun, that included our 2 hour rodeo/service, with lunch and tons of fun activities for the kids afterward. 

It was a very nice fall weekend!   Our family was there the day before helping with some of the preparations, and practicing for some of the clown skits.     I didn't think much about sun protection on these beautiful fall days, but I should have, because after the 2 days my family of fair skinned folks were sun burned!

Noah got to be one the rodeo clowns.

Our little cowboy and cowgirl.

                    

     Both of my brothers and their families were able to come for the fun day of rodeo.   They enjoyed the fun day, and we enjoyed spending the day with them.   This is a picture of Noah clowning around with my brother, Tom, and his family.

Hannah and her friends,Abby and Clarisse, got front row seats. 

 

Todd video taped the service.   He looks a little warm in his black hat, and long sleeved shirt.   But he wasn’t complaining, he was having a great time.

Here are our friends Minsan and Neil in the worship band.   I'll add a short little video at the end of the post with some rodeo highlights, and its Neil singing in the background on the video.   Their country worship music made the day that much more wonderful!

We had Mutton Bustin' (the kids riding sheep), Pigs in a Barrel (with H.S. kids chasing pigs and putting them in barrels), Pole Bending(young women racing their horses around the poles), a Calf Scramble (the kids chasing the calf to pull off a ribbon around his neck), Calf Ropin' with our 4 younger pastors, and finally came the Bull Riding.   Pastor Denny saved the best for last, and got on the bull.   He was only a tiny bit shy of a glorious 8 second ride, like maybe 6 seconds. ;)   But at least the bull gave him a little buck.   As you will see in the video, when it was time for Pastor Kirby's ride, the bull had decided it was just too hot for all of this.   And our Youth Pastor got off easy, much to the disappointment to about a hundred High School kids.   What their rides lacked in breathing taking excitement, they made up for in humor!

When the rodeo was all over, I was talking to Pastor Adam, thanking him for his part in this really fun day.   He told me, “I told God,’God you know I don’t have any talents for this, so please just keep me safe and let me be funny.”  And Praise God his prayers were answered!   No one got hurt, and I thought Adam was the funniest guy out there the whole day!   He had so many hilarious moments, like getting tripped up by Pastor Corey’s rope and falling flat on his back while Corey took a dive.   And starring down the calf, I don't know if he was trying to psych the calf out, or make some sort of connection with the little guy or what, but it was hilarious!

3 twenty-something year old men vs. 1 three month old calf, who won - the calf. They never did get him down.

Click on the arrow in the middle of the picture to watch the 3 minute video.

Even though it was all fun and games for us watching,  a lot of time and work went into this amazing day.   The 2 hour rodeo/service, lunch afterward, and all the other activities like the pony rides, petting zoo, hay rides, and face painting, made for a very full day for everyone involved.   While taking a hayride I had a nice conversation with a couple who were at our church for the first time.  They were in awe of all that was going on.   They couldn’t believe that we had 6 Pastors on our staff, 7 if you include Pastor Amber who is part of our amazing administrative staff of 4.   God has blessed our church with these 11 amazing people who work as his stewards, and our family and our entire community is so blessed by all of them!

Underwater World

We visited Underwater World at the Mall of America a couple weeks ago.   We hadn’t been there for over 5 years I think, and the kids enjoyed it more and got more out of it this time.   The kids loved the underwater tube where they could watch the fish swim around and above them.

The kids touched the starfish in the touch tanks.

The Seahorses were really cool!

   

Of course messing around in the “shark cage” was a lot of fun too.

   

This is the type of place that our family visit once every 5 years and enjoy, but there isn’t enough to hold our attention more often than that.   It isn’t either exciting enough or interesting enough.  But we didn’t have to pay for it this time, and so it was worth the drive down to the cities.   On our way home we stopped and had dinner with my sister and her family, and spending time with them is always well worth a trip to the Cities.

A Day at Summerland

The kids and I went to Summerland a couple weeks ago.   The kids went down the water slide a few times, but it was just a little windy and they thought it got just a little chilly walking up the stairs.   They spent LOTS of time on the bumper boats.   There were very few people there, so they got to have long turns and when they did have to get off.   They got back in line and got right back on again the next time.   

    

 

We have had such a great summer!   We haven't taken any trips or done any huge or spectacular events, but our summer has been full of sunshine, and water, and relaxing fun.  

Clowning Around this Summer

Here are a few pictures from a couple of clowning/magic shows we did this summer.   We were hired by the Coborn’s grocery store chain to entertain at their family carnivals this summer.   I think this is the 3rd year we’ve done some of these shows.   They are a lot of fun, and this year the weather was perfect!  

This little girl was a volunteer many, many times during our show.   She was such so precious, and had such a happy heart!   Her name was Megan, but she was wearing a Hannah Montana shirt so every time she came up they’d ask her her name like it was the first time she’d been up helping, and then they’d call her Hannah Montana anyway.   She thought that was so funny.   Then once after she had been up there at least 10 times, she smiled at them when they called her “Hannah” and said,”You know, my name really is MEGAN!”   Still smiling, but like she could not figure out why they kept calling her Hannah.    So funny!

  

    

  

The kids have decided to pool the money that they've earned from these shows and put it towards a Wii.   They're getting close, just 1 or 2 more shows and they'll have enough.   It's been great motivation for them, and fun to see them working hard towards their common goal.

A Summer full of baseball

No one in this family is a baseball fanatic, but you’d be hard pressed not to think so this summer.   The boys decided to play baseball this summer and we joined a fun league in St. Cloud.   So for 9 weeks we’ve driven into St. Cloud 4 days a week for either baseball practice or games.   The boys have never plaid league baseball before, so it was a big learning experience for them.   They had lots of fun, and by the end of the season, had improved some.   They had some really good players on their team, and at the end of the season made it to the championship game.   It was a night game under the lights, and announcers over the PA system that announced their names.   Quite an event.   They lost the game 10-5, but Noah scored the first 2 runs of the game which was huge for him.   They tell me they think they’d like to do it again next summer. We’ll see …

   

         

   

We also went to a couple Riverbats games, courtesy of some friends.  The Riverbats are the collegiate league that plays in St. Cloud.

                             

And we even made it to a couple of Twins games too.   It really has been a summer of baseball!

           

Sonshine Music Festival

J.D. and the F.L.O.O.D. team performed at the 3 day Christian Musical Festival in Willmar last weekend.   He did some magic, a puppet show, the “We All Want to be Loved” human video, some clowning, and some balloon sculpturing.   Afterwards our family enjoyed some great concerts.   We saw Matthew West, Family Force 5, Hawk Nelson, Skillet, David Crowder, tobyMac (Yeah baby! ;), and Reliant K.

The FLOOD team on Thursday

 

The FLOOD team as clowns on Saturday 

Hanging out at the camper

The boys in the SONSHINE ;)

The kids at the concerts

Matthew West

Hawk Nelson

Family Force 5  -  I have to bite my tongue SO hard not to say, “You call this music?!?” when they listen to these guys.   Now I know how my mom felt.   At least these guys have a more wholesome message than music I was listening to, even if the head banging noise is the same.

And saving the best for last . . . tobyMac!   He makes me giddy like a teenager.   He’s the same age as me,  and I’ve been a fan for almost as long as he’s been singing.   And he’s been singing for a lonnggg time.

4th of July

Todd's parents joined us for a fun weekend.   We spent time relaxing on the water, playing games, golfing, eating lots of yummy food, and fireworks.

       

              

This is a little bay on the Sauk River that is the closest point on the river to our back yard. 

         

If you walk through the marshy low land for a tenth of a mile, and then trek up this big ol' hill . . . 

                                  

You'll end up in our back yard.   I've looked, and can't find a picture of our backyard - lots of pictures of kids and animals in the backyard, but none of just the backyard.

Some birds we saw while on the "Chain of Lakes" . . .

         

Blue Herons and Mallards

           

Hannah baiting the hook for her brother.

J.D. driving the boat

The kids swimming

That evening we went to St. Cloud for fireworks.

Happy 233rd Birthday America! 

We Love Little Baby Ducks

The momma duck that had built a nest in our front yard, had 11 little babies about a month ago.   They were only here for about a day before she brought them down to the pond, so I'm glad the kids got a close-up look before they left.