Halloween, Muppet Style

I couldn't let Halloween go by without sharing some pictures with family and friends. This year Kelli had her mind made up early, she wanted be a ladybug. I spent a fair amount of time planning how I would make the costume, made a list of supplies and even sketched a plan for the perfect set of ladybug wings. Plans changed when my friend Denise mentioned that she had her eye on a Kermit costume for her 4 yr old Kane. Kane has been an official "daycare kid" since he was about 8 weeks old but to call him just a daycare kid would be down right offensive. He's the the closest thing to a little brother Kelli is ever going to have. And Kane's big brother Kyle and Nick are best friends. So when Kelli heard Kane might be Kermit for Halloween her plan to be a ladybug was scrapped and she instantly decided that she had to be Miss Piggy. Thanks to ebay I was quickly able to find the perfect dress and the costume took off from there. I took advantge of the perfect fall weather we had Thursday afternoon to get the kids outside for a round of pics.

Piggy and her one and only love...Kermit

The frog stands alone

Can you tell this kid knows her part well?

I'd call her a ham but that would be inappropriate.

She's all diva.

Miss Piggy with her adoring fans, Daryn and Mickie.

Kisses for Kermie.

Another group shot.

Kermit playing hard to get.

Ready for her close up.

I had to get her good side.

This is perfect, I love it!

Piggy in pursuit once again.

Moi??

Honestly, is there anything cuter than a Muppet hand?

My favorite blue eyed frog :)

Thanks for taking a look. We hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Love, the Ericksons

P.S. I case anyone is wondering about the boys, Mitch dressed up but his costume boardered on disturbing so I'll spare you all the shock and post pics of his birthday later this week. Nick got stuck working, he gave up the costume gig about 3 years ago.

Happy Birthday Kelli

Kelli turned 7 on March 10th. I put together a slide show to share with everyone.

She definately had a great day and is happy to finally join the ranks of her fellow 7 year olds. Thanks for taking a look :)

As for the rest of us, we're anxiously waiting for Spring to arrive and for the snow to start melting. Steve, Mitch and Kelli can't wait to hit the trails on their bikes. Speaking of bikes, I think we'll all be logging extra miles just as soon as the snow clears, the price of gas is unreal up here. Maybe all the extra time spent indoors will motivate me to update the blog more often ;)

Hope everyone is doing well.....Love, the Ericksons

Steve Takes Third!

I'm a week late posting this news because I wanted to wait until I had some good pics to share. Last Saturday June 15th, Steve rode in the Keweenaw Chain Drive mountain bike race. He took third place in the 30-39 year old age bracket for the 16 mile race and finished 21st over all out of 200 racers. Not too bad for a 37 year old racing for only the third time :) Next up is the Ore to Shore race in August, then the Tour Da Woods in September. He's pushing to join a few more races before summer ends and I'd be all for it if it didn't involve time, money and travel. Despite the sacrifices, we are very proud of all that he has been able to accomplish in only two years time.

Forget a car, Nick wants a moustache

Nick turned 16 on June 19th and while he has yet to have his drivers license ( he'll tell you it's all my fault), he almost came close to his other goal, growing a moustache. Since this is such a dream of his we decided to incorporate it into his birthday party. With the help of my trusty side kick Mitchell and perfect clip art on the internet, we were able to surprise Nick with a little game of "Pin the Moustache on Nick". Actually the words Dagger Moustache were used in referance to an inside joke between Nick, his best friend Kyle and his parents. While most didn't understand the meaning, it got enough laughs from those who knew exactly what it meant. There is some dispute to who actually won the game but lucky no fighting erupted over the grand prize of a gigantic Hershey bar, It was divided up amongst the participants with the 2 1/2 year old scarfing down a good portion of it.

Seems Nick wasn't the only one longing for a moustache that night because even after the game was long over, they were still being worn. Some were worn as eyebrows and uni-brows and some were scaled down, worn upside down or used as a beard. Who knew a paper moustache could be so versatile and good for so many laughs.

Busy Weekend for the Ericksons

This past weekend was a crazy one with Kelli in two dance recitals and Nick going to the Prom. Mitch's excitement happened mid week when he spent 3 days at science camp with the rest of the 6th graders. Judging by the sunburned cheeks and glassey eyes, he had a blast. He spent the weekend lounging and catching up on sleep. Luckily he was away from home and missed the Puke Fairy that paid a visit to Kelli and I in the wee hours of Thursday and Friday morning. Thankfully we were able to recover quickly and devote the entire weekend to all things dance related.

Kelli did fantastic in both recitals. She was able to get through the whole number without tears or deep breathing excercises ;) She dances with a great group of kids, most of whom have been together for 3 years now. It's so neat to see how they've progressed over the years. Cousin Courtney was also in the recital and rocked the show with her awesome Hip Hop moves. She definatley knows her stuff and struts it with attitude and all.








So after recital numero uno on Saturday we raced back to Munisng to see Nick off to the Prom. He had the honor of escorting a Senior, his friend Lucy. They made a pretty cute couple and despite Nick looking a bit shell shocked in the pictures, he really did have a good time. It was nice to see him wearing something besides a black t-shirt with an obscure bands logo scrawled across it or one of two "church shirts" he donns every Sunday for Mass.









Sunday was the second and final recital so again we headed up to Marquette. I was had signed up to help supervise Kelli's class backstage. Imagine trying to keep twelve 5 & 6 year olds entertained, civil and clean. Oh and imagine them all with bright red lipstick in the finest shade of Hootchy Mama Red and trying to keep them all from smearing it across their faces before having to perform onstage. Next year I'm smuggling in a cooler full of adult beverages. I'm sure to be most popular with the rest of the parents backstage.





Well that just about does it for this update. Thank you all for the past comments, I really enjoy the feedback and quick "hello's" we get from everyone.

Love and Hugs to all....Carla

snow

Happy......ummm, Easter?????

Over the past 4 days us Yoopers have been victims of a belated April Fool's prank played out by Mother Nature. It all started in wee hours of Wednesday morning and finally the sun peeked through this afternoon. Four days and 3 feet of snow later, it's hard to look outside and think it's actually April. We weren't sure whether to sing Here Comes Peter Cottontail or Here Comes Santa Claus. And with the storm comes snow days. The kids scored a mini vacation with all the mess, which puts them at a total of 8 snow days this winter. I wonder if Lansing will ever change their tune when it comes to only allowing two snow days per year. They are off again tomorrow for something called "Easter Monday", I call it insanity because it means yet another day of hearing "I'm bored", only with extra kids here it's more like "I'm bored" multiplied by 8.

And how can I forget the other event that coincided with the Spring Blizzard of '07, a dead furnace. We knew the 'ol gal was on the way out so luckily we had a new furnace ordered courtesy of Steve's boss. With Spring approaching we figured we could eek out what life was left and make it another month or so. We planned on having the new furnace installed when heating the inside was no long a priority......wrong! We woke up Thursday morning to a bit more than the average chill in the air. We managed with space heaters and extra blankets but by Friday morning it had gotten downright unbearable. Once again, Steve's boss came to our rescue and sent the company's furnace gurus up from Gulliver and by 11:30a.m, the Erickson house was alive with the hum of a brand new furnace.

The Easter Bunny was able to find his way through the snow drifts to hide a few baskets around the house. Kelli was excited to find another Webkinz, a white terrier she named Lady Bug, along with the usually assortment of jelly beans and chocolate with a few marshmallow Peeps thrown in. Mitch got a Webkinz too, but was a bit miffed to find it was a white rabbit and not the spotted leopard he was hoping for. That's what happens when you ask the Easter Bunny to bring something that the rest of the country is currently obsessed with. It could have been worse, the Bunny could have left him something boring like the Holiday gift card that Nick found in his basket. It's no fun getting older, the cute fuzzy surprises are replaced with $10 worth of gas station cappuccino.

I should also mention that Mitch finally met his goal saving money and was able to buy a shiny new Trek mountain bike. He and Steve were riding over the past few weeks and had logged quite a few miles before being sidelined by the new snowfall. Steve is really itching to get training for his first race of the season. We'll be spending Father's Day weekend in Ontonogon cheering him on.

Well that's it for now. Hopefully my next post will be about Spring blossoms and green grass but judging from the weather forecast, I think we'll be hearing the roar of snow blowers before the humming of lawnmowers.

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter.....Love and hugs to all!
P.S....I've include a slide show of pictures in a seperate post below. I tried to include as part of this post but the computer had other plans. I will try to fix it in the morning...enjoy:)