This makes me grin...

 yes holes in my carpet have me grinning and doing a happy dance tonight. who knew? do you see that? that is a hardwood floor...amazing!!! This house is over 100 years old, it was moved to this present location over 30 years ago, moved from a farm site, and tonight we discovered (well kevin did,I stood there repeating this isn't going to be good as I watched carpet and laminate fly away in chunks) an old farmhouse style wood floor. It looks rough right now but I can almost see the glow and shine of a newly finished wood floor. Three rooms worth of hardwood floor!!!! I am so excited! Yes, me who hates any sort of chaos in my home, especially of the home remodeling type is completely and totally excited to start ripping out flooring.

Pippi Longstocking

Pinewood Derby

 Friday night was the annual Boy Scouts Pinewood Derby Anthony sanded and sanded and sanded some more on his car, Grandpa cut the basic shape out for him. Grandpa has power tools, we do not. Anthony chose the colors for his car going with a bright non traditional color scheme this year. Kevin changed some of the design elements this year in that never ending quest to design the perfect car. This year the design changes did not fall in the good category. the car never made it down the track, not once. Apparently a wheel problem which prevented the wheels from rolling. And yet as you can see in the picture he did win a trophy, this year for the most unique car.

Fresh Fruit

4H sells fruit each spring
our order arrived this morning to many ooohhh's and aaaahhh's
quickly followed by request for an apple, a pear, an orange
after cutting up several pieces of fruit the table quickly filled with many eager little fingers as they quickly
consumed the fresh fruit. A welcome taste at the very end of winter when all the fruit we consume comes from the freezer, or a can
and the little bits we buy in the store has so little flavor. A reminder that soon we will be eating our own fresh fruit grown right here at home...soon raspberries, and strawberries will fill out plates, rhubarb and perhaps a pear or two (still waiting patiently for our tree to produce this could be the year) followed by apples early in the fall (we don't want to rush that season tho) We can fill in our selections with weekly visits to the farmers market where others offer a variety of choices in the fresh fruit and veggie department.

Reading

with grandma
one reads and the other listens, when the book is done they switch
...and no, pretty much none of what reyna says makes sense, but grandma listens and to a one year old that is really all that matters.

marbleworks

endless hours of building,racing, fun!
I purchased the first set years ago at a Discovery Toy party
it instantly became a favorite amongst the kids. Over time I have added pieces here
and there, found at yard sales or purchased at yet another toy party, and still it continues to be
a favorite. They build and test and then rearrange and test some more, the excited giggles as they finally
have a course that races their marble for mere seconds up, down around is contagious.
So many concepts challenging those little brains, requiring nothing more than kid power (no batteries, no flashing lights)
love that!

spring

the calendar says it is spring, the view out my window hints that it is arriving. It has
rained for the past two days, complete with thunder and lightening. (just when I thought perhaps we had those girls sleeping in their beds, in their rooms, the first boom of thunder had both in our room in an instant) The rain has certainly done a lot in decreasing the amount of snow but as you can see in the photos it has also increased the size of the pond in the backyard. Not too excited about that "pond" as it inches closer and closer to my house. (so far the sump pump is working keeping the water outside where it belongs and not in my basement) Last night the rain turned to snow and we awoke to this view out our window...it appears winter is not quite ready to give up just yet, covering the ground in one more layer of white.

love those little toes

mud boots

this week we transitioned from snow boots to mud boots...
and of course there was one or two that were determined to try out every puddle they could find
spring is making it's presence known...raindrop by raindrop

St. Patrick's Day

she built a trap, determined to capture that allusive Lephrechan
spent the better part of a day constructing and fine tuning it...
the first thing she did that morning was check to see what she caught...
no Lephrechan but she was pretty excited by the gold (fake) pieces
in fact she shared with her siblings... most of the days discussions revolved around that Lephrechan and
the tricks he was playing.

Weekend get away...

Last weekend we headed south
(an hour to be exact to Iowa)
a weekend away from the normal routine,
a weekend at a resort/water park
just the thing to break up this incredible long winter.
Our entire family was able to make the trip which made it even more special, life doesn't give us too many opportunities
for all of us to be together.
My Cousin and her family joined us for part of the weekend.

the view out our window, at night you could see the lights across the water a very beautiful site even covered in snow and ice

some spent the weekend snoozing, or reading, the little ones spent if in the pool
a bit of shopping in the rather empty town that is Okoboji in the winter
and of course a meal or two eaten out.

Always fun to get away, especially when it's spent with those most important to me.

our room

our home away from home for the weekend...
with the number in our party we decided that a suite would be in order,
a bit of a shock when we arrived to discover just what suite was..
not one, or two, but three rooms that when you opened the connecting doors made for one big open space
perfect for little ones and big ones alike.
one room had two double beds and a sleeper sofa, another had two double beds and the third had a living area with dining, and kitchen areas plus a separate bedroom each room had a balcony with a view of the lake.

water fun!

our weekend away included a lot of hours in the pool area.
The pool complex was made up of several pools a zero entry pool for little ones, the deepest it got was 20 inches
perfect for Reyna, it included lots of slides and things to climb and play on. There was a pirate ship and multiple levels of water fun.
A huge bucket would dump water at random intervals, you can see it in the photo of Yahaira and right below is what it looked like when the bucket dumped. There was a lazy river, and two water slides. a lily pad walk and a deeper pool with basket ball hoops. Something for everyone.

Kindergarten open house

Tonight we went to visit the school...she talked non stop until we arrived at the school.
Once inside she stopped talking and asked if we could leave. Reluctantly she agreed to visit the first room
and seemed quite relieved when she recognized the face of the teacher. Discovering the computer was a huge high
and slowly, ever so slowly she warmed up to visit each room (4 in all) Each room she looked around curiously, wandering around when something caught her eye... When she got home she told her dad she had the best time.
I hope thinks so come fall.

Just waiting...

for some sunshine!

Dance program

She was pretty excited about dancing at school.
even more excited that Josh came to watch her...
Her first of many performances,something tells me that this one is going to love the stage....
I envy and admire her for that.