Royal Wedding Week

This week went by very quickly for the Oppenheimer Family.

Last Sunday, we visited some relatives of Marisa's for Easter and had a very nice time. Henry played some baseball with Marisa's cousin Zach, who currently plays for Southwest Minnesota State University. Gemma got to eat lots of food (her favorite pass time) and played in Marisa's cousin's old playhouse. It was very nice to be at a family Easter and eat a some tasty food.
Friday of course was the Royal Wedding. Marisa and I were both up at 4.30am to watch it. Actually, Marisa woke up at 4.15 before the alarm because she was so excited. That afternoon, I served Tea, Crumpets, McVities Digestives and Hob Nobs at work, as well as dressing up Progressive's advertising icon, "Flo" in a Union Jack. It was a lovely day and one that I did not want to come to an end.
 
When Gemma woke up, she loved watching the horses in the parade. She kept saying, "horse" and "neigh." Gemmas was glued to the TV for a while. Henry saw Buckingham Palace and asked if that was where Nana lived.

Marisa started her women's volleyball league this week with a victory in some blustery outdoor weather. She is playing with some friends and it sounds like a good time was had by all.

Yesterday (Saturday), I ran in the Viking 5k held for the 1st time at Augustana College in Sioux Falls. There were only about 40 runners. I came 5th with a time of 22.10. This is a 1 minute and 2 second improvement on my last 5k time. Today I ran 5 miles in 42 minutes, which was pretty good too. I am now concentrating on starting to extend my distance working towards a half marathon, although I think I will hit another 5k or 10k race in late May or early June.

On Saturday morning, we took the kids to the circus. They had a great time until the snacks ran out. Henry very much enjoyed the elephants, and seeing a very large yellow snake up close. Again, the food was the highlight for Gemma.

My girls soccer team had another horrible beating last Thursday. We have games on Tuesday and Saturday this week, both of which we should win, so hopefully that will get the confidence back.

Gemma has a new speech therapist named Kara. She started this week. We got a written report. Gemma is now working on stringing 2 words together and is progressing nicely.

Henry has not been too active this week. We are working on his manners at the moment. We are trying to make sure he asks nicely for things and does not complain or whine too much.

Finally, last night Marisa and I got a babysitter for a few hours and went out. We ended up going with a few friends to a bar to play pool and darts. It was a refreshing change to be out without kids, and something we both enjoyed.

This week is Marisa's rescheduled trip to Minneapolis. She cancelled it in March because of how ill Henry was, but is going to go ahead this week. She is leaving Wednesday to return Friday. It should be an interesting few days for me with the kids.

Have a great week.

The Oppenheimer Family Easter Egg Hunt

This week was a fun one for our family, highlighted by the 1st Annual Oppenheimer Family Easter Egg Hunt.
All of the pictures are from our little hunt.

The hunt happened at 10am today. We invited a few other families over to hunt for eggs in our back garden. Prior to everyone arriving, Marisa and I filled 150 eggs with jelly beans, gummie bears and other sugar snacks.

Once all of the families had arrived we opened our garage and let 8 children between the ages of 2 and 4 out with their basket to hunt for eggs.

Some were well hidden,


some were not so well hidden.


We were outside for only 15 minutes due to the fact that it was only 40 degrees Fahrenheit here this morning.

After all of the eggs had been successfully hunted, we went inside where we served coffee, orange juice, coffee cake, monkey bread, and some other treats.
 

A great time was had by both children and adults.





Other excitement this week has included my Under 12 Girls Football Team getting an 8-2 beating on Tuesday in the wind and rain.

Gemma's speech therapist met with Marisa and gave us a very positive update on her speech. She is going to continue to do therapy once a week, but is apparently progressing extremely well.

I am still on alert to be potentially sent to Cleveland for work some time soon for 3 weeks, but have not received the call yet.

We are hoping for some improved weather this week. It will give us a chance to use our newly fenced in yard more. Also, Marisa is starting playing in a sand volleyball league on Wednesday nights. That is outdoors, so will be a lot more pleasant if it's not cold and raining.

Tomorrow, we are driving to Luverne, Minnesota (about 30 minutes away) to celebrate Easter with Marisa's Uncle Amos, Aunt Jan and their kids Zach, Paige and Gunnar.

Have a great week

Back from Florida and peeling!

This was another fun week for the South Dakota Oppenheimers.

We had a great time in Florida. It was very nice to see Mum, Mark and James. We had some really fun days, which included the kids going on, "A Day Out With Thomas," a boat ride, and a trip to the aquarium with Nana. We also loved having the kids playing at the beach. While Henry destroyed sandcastles, Gemma made it her mission to empty the ocean taking bucket after bucket of water from the ocean to the sandcastle moat.
The kids were surprisingly well behaved both on the flights to and from Florida as well as during the time we were in Sarasota. Henry loved our last flight where he and I got to sit in the front row, so he could see the cockpit before take off and talk with the air hostess, as well as be the 1st person off the plane.




When we came back to Sioux Falls, the temperature was a beautiful 70 degrees at 9pm. 3 days later, we had snow, causing all of my Under 12 girls soccer to be canceled ! That is a testament to the crazy weather we get here !

The kids are slowly settling back into their routine, but continue to talk about days out with Thomas, and play with their new toys.

I had a surprise when I came back to work. I was told I was going to be sent to Cleveland for 3 weeks to be on the CAT (Catastrophe) team since there has been a lot of hail in the South and they need people. This is something I signed up for at the beginning of Spring. If you are deployed for 3 weeks, it is a considerable pay increase for those weeks. As I was making preparations, toward the end of the day, I was told plans had changed and I was no longer going. Made for a stressful day.


This week promises much of the same. I play soccer tonight then have girls soccer on Tuesday and Thursday, and we have a fence being put up in our back garden this week. Nothing new for the kids really.

Have a great week.

A week of sickness

This week was dominated by Henry being ill. He had a temperature between 103-106 between Saturday afternoon and Wednesday of this week. We treated him with various over the counter medications to control his temperature. Eventually, the Doctor, who thought he had mono initially told us they now thought it was just a bad virus. He is on antibiotics and is now back to normal.


This obviously changed all of our plans for the week. Marisa got to stay home for most of this week, Henry did not have any swimming, Marisa was supposed to take a 3 day trip to Minneapolis for work, but that was also cancelled because of Henry being ill.

In short, we spent a lot of time at home. Gemma is still getting better at talking day by day, coming up with all kinds of new things to say. Her vocabulary includes, "thank you," "Henry" , "yes" and "no"

On a personal note, I score 3 goals in the 1st 5 minutes of my football team's 4-1 win last night. That was a first for me, and something I am sure I will never repeat. I also found out that I came 20th out of 218 people in the 5k last week, and have immediately signed myself up for another one at the end of April.

My Under 12 girls team looks good, and is going to play their 1st 2 games this week in my absence. I will be in Florida enjoying our much anticipated vacation.

The weather is finally good enough to play outside here, so the kids are loving being outdoors. We have 1 open side to our back yard. We are getting that finished so we will have a totally private back yard, which will be nice.

Probably wont blog next week since we will be in Florida. Sorry it's not very exciting this week.

This week with the Oppenheimers

It has been another exciting week at the Oppenheimer house.

Highlights include Henry and Gemma's first attempt at bowling. On Friday, Marisa took the kids to the Hartford Bowling Alley. They had such a good time that I took them again on Saturday (I do have to say that I bowled a 211 game, which included me opening with 6 strikes). The kids rolled the ball down the lane.

The average time from when Henry or Gemma started the ball rolling and it hitting the pins was approximately 2 minutes, but they loved it. When I tried to help Gemma, she said, "move" to me, and pushed my hand away.


Henry did not have any swimming lessons this week due to the schools being on Spring Break. I did, however, discover that Henry has a mean basketball jump shot. It is pretty impressive. I also discovered that Gemma is left footed, which could make her football life interesting as she gets older. I am seeing a white, female, Ashley Cole.


Henry's latest obsession is running around either our house or the block pushing a big plastic truck. Gemma has been very jealous and we finally found one for her this week. Getting her own, :"Monster Truck" was the highlight of Gemma's week.

On a personal note, my soccer team won 2-1 this evening in our 11.15pm game, and I ran in a 5k race this morning posting a time of 23 mins 14 seconds. It did snow for a portion of the race, which made it interesting.

This is a pretty short blog for a pretty normal week here. Nothing unusual going on at the moment. Although we did eat at a great new Indian place in Sioux Falls, and at our favorite Mexican restaurant this week as well.

Another week, another sick kid

 

This was a busy, but ultimately not overly exciting week at the Oppenheimer household.

 Gemma's speech has come on leaps and bounds. Every day she comes up with something new, and improves.

We finally has some very nice warm days this week and almost all of the snow has melted. The kids have been playing outside, although it appears they have forgotten how to play outside. They seem to want to come in after a few minutes. We have taken some walks to the park though and played on the swings, including the park at Henrys new school.

Henry has discovered that he is very quick at pushing his truck around the track at the middle school.

Marisa was out the first couple of nights this week at a spa night, then at a cooking class, giving me some quality time with Henry and Gemma. I was out late Tuesday for the Major League Soccer opening night, and St. Patricks Day.

Both kids got to wear green on St. Patricks Day. They wore matching Hyvee t-shirts (sorry, no pictures), and loved it. 

Henry had his second swimming class on Wednesday night. He did not like it quite as much this week. Let's just say there were a few tears.

Yesterday included my soccer team losing 1-0 in our late game. Our game next week is at 11.15pm !

The plan was to go out today, but Henry woke up puking this morning, so we are just staying home for the day. Gemma is loving the extra attention she is getting while Henry is sleeping. Hopefully he will be ok by tomorrow.

 Finally, a new Indian Place opened up, so Marisa and I are going to get a take away curry tonight. I am not sure that a Chicken Madras would be the best thing for Henry's tummy though, so he will not be having curry!

Next week, my Under 12 Girl team (Team Mia Hamm) is going to get started for our spring session, so I am coming up with training plans and team strategy)

Have a good week everyone.

Henry and Gemma - speech, swimming and Catholic School

This week has been a fun one for our little family in Sioux Falls.

We do have 1 big announcement to make.

Starting in August/September, Henry is going to be attending St. Marys Catholic School for pre-school. This is a little school attached to a huge Catholic Church right next to our house. The cost is not different to any other pre-school in the area. We went to do a tour the other day, and it is a beautiful facility with some great staff members. It has a wonderful family atmosphere which we think will suit our shy little boy. Neither of us are Catholic, but after discussion with the principal we concluded that there will not be too much religious teaching at his young age. The plan is to only have him go there for pre-school for a few years. If all goes well, Gemma will start there in 2012.

When there is no school, Henry will still go to Nikki's house, which is where Gemma will continue to go for daycare.

Marisa is very excited to be able to walk Henry to and from pre-school every day and is adjusting her work schedule accordingly.

At the time that Henry gets to actual school age, we will likely send him to Mark Twain Elementary School, which is one of the better elementary schools in the area and is about 7 blocks from our house. He will obviously attend middle school at Patrick Henry across the street from our house.

The other fun thing about the pre-school is that Henry will wear a school uniform. A white polo shirt and navy blue trousers (not unlike the Spurs strip).

Henry also had his first solo swimming lesson this week, meaning he was in a group without Mum and Dad in the pool. He did extremely well. While every other kid in the class was crying, Henry was being a big boy and learning how to swim. He even told the teacher when he needed to get out and go to the potty. I am guessing that not every kid did that.

Gemma is having a bit of a speech explosion. She is talking more and more. Although she is still a long way behind where she should be at her age, the gap is closing fast, and we are optimistic that she will be caught up soon.

Other fun stuff we have done this week included Marisa and I going out on another date night last night. We went bowling with some friends again. As usual I was dominating with scores in the 130's. I played soccer on Friday, scoring a goal and assisting in a goal in a disappointing 3-3 draw. We conceded with 30 seconds left.  We also took Henry and Gemma to watch some kids basketball on Saturday. One of Nikki's children, Kaden, was playing in an under 12 tournament. They won their tournament with us cheering them on.

Last weekend Marisa's parents came and visited last weekend. We did not end up eating at Grille 26 but did have a great time. Henry, Gemma, Jim (Marisa's dad) and I went to the humane society to see some cats and dogs. We discovered that while Henry loves cats, Gemma is more of a dog person, as she made connections with some animals twice her size.

This week is a busy one for the Oppenheimers. Marisa has a cooking class 1 night, and spa night on another night. I am planning on a St Patricks day happy hour 1 night as well. I also have a meeting tonight to get the season started for my under 12 girls soccer team, so that will take over shortly here.


Finally, as you probably read on facebook, Henry has come up with some nicknames for Gemma. They include Shemma, juju and video. You have to love is imagination. He also said at lunch on Friday, "Henry's cool, Mummy's cool, Gemma's cool, Daddys not cool"
So that's the summary of our week.... Hope you all are well.