The ALS Challenge

August 2014 was the month of the great ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  It started out with someone donating money to the ALS foundation and challenging a friend to do the same - or else he had to dump a bucket of ice water over his head. After that the ALS challenge has swept like a wildfire through the nation. We were challenged by Aunt B and, after dousing ourselves with cold water we passed the mantel. 

The boys were offered to pour the water on us but they wanted to be fully participating! 

Brrrrr! It was cold! 

The summer ritual

It wouldn't be the end of summer without a demolition derby.  Keeping with several years of history we went to the Carver County Fair. We marveled over how the big-iron cars of our youth are becoming scarcer a mid-90s mid-size sedan doesn't hold up very to being repeatedly run into.

It was a blast until the very end when the skies opened up and the rain started coming down by the bucket. Not having any umbrellas with us. we scurried and arrived to our car soaking wet. 

At least we got to see all the car crashes! 

Friends with wings

We turned our kitchen into a housing workshop for critters that may use our yard for a home. Mathias chose to build a bird house. Johan built a bat house.  Why a bat house? They supposedly eat 1,000 mosquitoes in a night. How many bats would you like to have in your yard?  We have yet to see any bats sleeping in it during daytime. Maybe it needs a front porch or something.

Put me in too!

The five and six year-olds also melded into a team by the time the season ended. Johan was a fan of the hitting part of baseball. In the outfield things got a bit slow for him. But he was always out there with a big smile on his face! 

He says he wants to do it again. So we'll sign up for more tee ball come summer 2015.