family birthday

celebrated on sunday..
more great food, more presents,
and yes more cake...
it doesn't get much better than that!

Friend party

held on Saturday
decorated flip flops and door knob hangers
ate pizza, chips and fresh fruit
opened gifts
and of course enjoyed cake!
two hours of pure, loud, chaos courtesy of 5-6 year old girls.

6

Sassy, spunky, a stinker at times.
Strong, determined, with a whole lot of attitude.
Sweet, honest, and a smile that will melt your heart.
She has filled my life with wonder, laughter and love.
How blessed I am to be her mom.
Happy 6th Birthday Yahaira!
I can't wait to see what this year brings!

playing catch

with grandpa...
I remember well countless summer nights spent at different ball parks in the area, sometimes watching my dad play baseball. Often spent running with the rest of the kids exploring under the bleachers, or cornfields. A trip or two to the concession stand or popcorn wagon depending on which town we were in. All those memories came flooding back as I glanced across the street to see my dad tossing a ball with two of my little ones.

Josh's Birthday

Tuesday was Josh's birthday. He had the day off from work so we cooked dinner on the grill
and celebrated with grandpa and grandma Betty. Normally we don't have multiple cakes for a birthday
but if you look closely the one on the leftt is the ugly cake before (it's ugly cuz' I had to pay extra to get the words on it and that is what we got, bother I could have done that) (and yes I think I may have complained a time or two or three about the cake) now the picture in the middle is that cake after I dropped it on the floor, not intentionally of course, if you look close you can see the now smashed writing and if you look really close you can most likely see all the darn dog hair. sigh. the picture on the right is the cake I went back to the dairy queen to purchase so the kid would have a darn cake for his birthday.

a new roof

what has been happening around our house these past few days,
the removal of three layers of shingles and soon the replacement of new.
All this equipment and work in progress has been a source of constant entertainment for my little ones.
They are going to be bored with me when the work is done.

Rhubarb

is ready! we have picked our first bunch and muffins and a pie have been baked and enjoyed.
The girls think it's pretty cool that they can just wander to the back yard and pick some and in a short while we are enjoying fresh
from the oven muffins. My dad seems to have radar and knows when it's time for the rhubarb to be picked his request for a pie is always timed perfectly...he seems to know when the raspberries are ready to be picked too :)

colors of spring

decorating my yard.
loving the tiny and big bursts of color that are showing up almost daily.
Happy to see that all that planting last fall actually produced something this spring.

sisters

another favorite from Saturday...
just so them.

spring pictures

Saturday we had pictures done at the The Swanson's
we just did the girls this time, Anthony was at a BoyScout Expo.
He doesn't get to worked up over photos, now the girls they were pretty excited to be
visiting Katie and having their pictures taken.
Here are a few of my favorites.
That last one of Rosie is just so her at 4. Love it!

fire pit

with the warmer days this weekend we spent much of our time outdoors. We even moved
our meals outside, grilling one night and the next cooking right over the the open fire. There is just something about
eating outdoors that makes the food taste better. The fresh air, the open space, the sounds of spring...I have missed this most over
these long, long winter months.

gardening....

it's that time of year....time to get the garden ready
time to decide what to plant
time to play in the dirt.
This weekend was successful in all of those endeavors,
little people were busy digging and raking, seeding and playing.

The amazing castle...

a children's museum exhibit sponsored by the southern Minnesota children's museum.
Beckie sent the link to me so on Saturday while in Mankato we stopped in to check it out. We spent a couple of hours just exploring this wonderful hands on exhibit. Yahaira gave a try walking on stilts, so did Kevin and Beckie. Rosie loved waking the dragon and Anthony found building a chair pretty cool.

Butterfly house...

yesterday we went to Home Depot for their monthly childrens workshop.
It is held the first Saturday of each month and the kids are give a kit which they get to assemble using real tools. Rosie certainly embraced this! This month's project was a butterfly house which required hammer and using a screwdriver. My thumb sustained a few injuries but for the most part no major injuries occured. They also recieved the aprons and a pin depicting the project they completed each time they attend a workshop they will recieve a new pin. (sorry about the photo quality, my camera was at home so my camera phone had to step in)

Easter Afternoon

just a snapshot into our afternoon, spent outdoors with family.
Can't think of a better way to spend a holiday.

Egg Hunt...

yes big and small participate in the egg hunt...
some of those eggs hold money...
we did it outdoors this year, which let us enjoy the beautiful weather.

Easter

Baskets...

of course the photos don't tell you the time of day that they were searching for those baskets...
well perhaps the sleep look in their eyes gives you a clue. They dressed super fast just so they could search before sunrise service
and all three found them before we had to head out the door.