Life with a teenager and a "little princess"

So it has been a long time since I wrote something on here ~ 2 years to be exact! The last time I posted something was when we were on our fantastic vacation to Denmark- only my favorite place on the planet with some of the most amazing people I know!! Fast forward 2 years- Well Gabe is going to be a freshman in high school and Mette Marie will be in 2nd grade right across the hall from my classroom! OOOOHHH how time flies! Gabe has been super busy with basketball all summer long! He has played more basketball this summer than the last few combined! He also has enjoyed playing some tennis and golf! He is such a natural at sports! :) Mette Marie has also played basketball and tennis this summer! She has enjoyed piano lessons for the first time...well....enjoyed maybe a strong word- She loves to go and hang with Ms. Miller (her music teacher at school) but HATES to practice!!! Both are looking forward to school starting and seeing their friends every day again!
Jerry and I are doing great! He is working very hard for Culligan still and enjoys spending as much time at home with the family as he can!! I am enjoying having the summer off from teaching but I have not been able to really slow down any! Between running kids to golf, basketball, tennis, basketball, piano, basketball, and spending time with family and friends- we are one busy family!!!
We did take a week out of the craziness to go to Duluth for a night and we had dinner with some of our favorite people, Craig and Cara! It was great to see them and have a night in a beautiful place! The next morning we were off to Bear Head Lake State Park for 5 nights in a fantastic camping cabin!! It was WONDERFUL!!! The only real problems with the vacation were the awful biting flies and the fact that my husband got into something (itch weed or got stung by something) and we spent a short time in the ER in Ely! He was fine after some large amounts of steroids and benadryl! :) We saw lots of wild life including beavers, lots of deer, squirrels, "chick-munks" as Mette calls them, and even a very large WOLF! I thought it was a deer it was so big! Good thing we were in the car and a ways away- it was really cool to see!!!
In the next coming weeks we will be busy with a trip to Mankato to see Vikings Training Camp, more time to hang out with family and friends, football starting, and a few meetings for work here and there! My goal- to relax as much as I can before the real craziness starts at the end of August. The pictures below are just a snapshot of some of the fun we are having....

Family outing to the Twins Game in June!!! Great tickets from my sister Sarah and her husband Dana for all of the help we gave them on the new house! :) THANKS!!! It was a great time....Mette even lost a tooth that night!!

Mette dressed for her play! She was a "TOWNIE" in the play Tom Sawyer!! She had a blast!! The first of MANY performances she will have I am sure! :)

Some fun times were had over the 4th of July at the lake with Nana and Papa!!!

The kids and my dad, PAPA, walking down to the lake for some serious fun on the water!! One of my favorite pictures ever! They love my dad so much!!!

Fun on Bear Head lake...Mette seems to have the hang of it (even if her dad is holding the front of the Kayak!
Gabe on the other hand.... had a bit of trouble at first....

Poor kid! Not the way you want to start out your adventure :) But with his dads help he was able to get in and take off on a great adventure filled with Loons and some pretty cool beavers- they got pretty close to both! Close enough to hear the loons preening themselves and close enough to hear the beavers chomping on Lilly pad leaves!!!

Another great time at Bear Head was hanging at the beach....

Our camping cabin was wonderful!! Much better than the tent!! I don't think I can go back to a tent after how nice the cabin was!

Mette had a great time with my sister at the Monticello Riverfest weekend...they even took a kiddy train ride...they were behind bars- where they both belong at times!!! :)

Gabe had a great time at basketball camp and got plenty of awards for his hard work!

My parents are on vacation this week at the lake so the kids and I crashed their vacation for a couple days...one of the best times we had was fishing! They were biting and we had a great time!!! Mette was showing off her best FISH face with my big catch of the day...10 inch crappie!!! :)

That is just a snap shot of a few favorite things we have done this summer...Looking forward to a few more weeks of fun before school starts back up! :)
We sure are blessed to have such an amazing family and so many wonderful friends to spend time with!!

Enjoying some quiet time with family!

If I can figure out how to upload photos on this ...I will...but for now it I will just write about life here in Denmark. This weekend we spent most of, ok, all of our time with my family at their beautiful home in Herning. We had 2 lovely little cousins to play with Tobias is 5 years old and Andrea is 2 (and full of spunk!) We went to the swimming hall yesterday where Gabe and Jerry both jumped off a 5 meter platform! IT was NUTS!!! Gabe's face was priceless. You could not have paid me to do what he did! So his Uncle Michael did just that...paid him 20 Kroner to jump! Then later last night..we played cards, as we do often when we are together, and Michel did a double or nothing...and lost again..so Michael 0 Gabe 2! And his is now 40 Kroner richer! Which will buy him a very nice Ice cream cone or 3 or 4 of them!
We went on a couple nice walks today around their home which is beautiful wooded areas and there are picnic tables in little nooks and small playgrounds hidden in there too! Tonight for dinner we went to my little brothers home where he and his girlfriend Gry made the most amazing meal...FRIKEDILLA! It was SOOOO good! Mette and Gabe both ate a TON and so did Jerry and I to be fair. Homemade potato salad, pasta salad...everything was wonderful and their home is so very nice! They look out over a nice lake with great walking-running paths. You can see my host parents home for their deck. Nice and close to each other!
Tomorrow we are off to an adventure with my host dad to Germany! It is known as a "Beer Run" to get cheap beer just across the borader. My mom Ann said we have to have the "BIG SAUSAGES" too! It will be a little over 2 hours to drive there and then 2 hours back home but when everyone else is working we have all day to play!
It has been a great vacation so far and we still have over 2 weeks to go!

Danmark at its finest!!!

Here I sit....at my host mom's desk in the beautiful Herning Denmark! We arrived in this amazing country on Tuesday afternoon....fight was ok and they only lost one of our bags! We have it back now and we stayed at a nice little hotel just outside of Copenhagen for two nights. We saw many beautiful things in Copenhagen like the Queens castle, the harbor, walking streets, tivoli, and had many wonderful things to eat. We were very happy to take the 3 hour train ride yesterday to come stay with my family here! Jerry and Gabe went to a FCMitjutland soccer game last night and Mette and I stayed home and enjoyed an amazing and eventful dinner. Only one child needed a trip to the ER for the removal of a toy cannon ball she shoved up her nose! No problem she was back in about an hour ready to keep playing. Even with the language difference Mette and Gabe are able to play and have a wonderful time with their cousions here! Today, my good friend Betina is having a baby and we hope to see them soon! Other than that we are planning on hanging out and enjoying the company, great food, great beer and wine, and LOTS of laughs at my danish that is coming back after 16 years and my host mom Ann's english which she is quite good at but never wants to use! For now this has been an amazing trip already and we still have 2 1-2 weeks to go!!!

We're leaving on a jet plane.......

Oh vacation is coming soon!!! We are so very excited to begin this wonderful family vacation that is MUCH needed for everyone! We can't wait to bum around Copenhagen for a few days and then off to Herning to be with my wonderful family there! Be looking for fun updates (as I will try to do this from Denmark). Only a few last minute things to do and then we will be on a flight to Iceland...then Copenhagen Denmark!

Birthday pictures and Let summer vacation begin.....

It has been about 2 weeks since we ended classes with kids and life has yet to really slow down for the Severson clan! We have been very busy with swimming lessons for Mette and basketball camp for Gabe! We are looking forward to a little break in the action starting next week! As of now, I only have one day that is busy...they rest I get to be home and hanging out! Sleeping in....as much as Mette will let me, going for many bike rides...now that Mette can ride a 2 wheeler she is ALWAYS up for a bike ride, shooting hoops with Gabe....It is not going to be much longer that I will be able to beat him in horse- not only is his shooting improving but he is almost as tall as I am!
Speaking of getting taller....and growing up- Here are a few pictures of the kids from their birthdays

We have enjoyed some time with family a few weekends ago (Memorial Weekend) up at the lake with my parents and close friends. Here are some good ones from that weekend too!

We also had the preschool graduation of Miss Mette....she will be off to Kindergarten next year!!! Hard to believe that our baby is this old already...here are some pictures from her big day!

We also said "goodbye" to dance for the summer. Mette had her performance of a life time last weekend... oh lord can she dance! Our dear friend Anne took many wonderful pictures and they will make an appearance later...but for now - here are a few Jerry and I took from that day....

There is so many exciting things yet to come for our family and we are looking forward to every minute of our summer time together....and we can't wait for 3 weeks in Denmark with the most wonderful family anyone could ever ask for!!!

2 down 2 to go!

There is less than a 6 weeks span for all of the Severson's to have their birthdays! Mette and Gabe have had wonderful birthday parties! Both filled with lots of family and friends, presents, cake, presents, great grilled food complements of daddy Severson, presents, lots of laughs, presents, and a little chaos and we would not want it any other way! We have had a great time celebrating two amazing kids that are now 5 and 12 years old. Next on the schedule is a quiet day at home for Mother's Day! I am VERY excited about this! I need a day of rest to recover from the parties. I am looking forward to cuddling my kiddos and having breakfast in bed.....let's see what happens! I will try to post more soon with pictures of the parties! Happy birthday to the Severson kids...we are so blessed to have such wonderful children...now if I could just get time to slow down a little and they would stop growing up so fast!

End of "Spring Break"

Well....all good things have to come to an end....our "spring break" is now reaching its end and we have done many fun things this last week.
~ Spent time with our wonderful neighbor Erin and my god daughter Vivi
~ Went to a hotel and swam with Nana, then shopping and build a bear!!
~ Had friends and their families over for a little get together that was full of good food and laughter
~Took a couple naps!
~Played countless games of Monopoly Deal with my son....we are about even with wins and losses
~Watched a few movies with popcorn, m&m's and jr. mints
~Worked out EVERY day!
~Cleaned my house...it was feeling pretty neglected
~Had a sleep over for Mette with Ellie (Ellie's first one! she did GREAT!)
....and many more fun memories from this week...now it is back to the grind stone...tomorrow night brings Jerry and I to our first Parent Meeting for Kindergarten for miss Mette (she REALLY is growing up WAY too fast!) I have parent teacher conferences the next two weeks! We will be busy but we always seem to be!