fun friday, 4.19.13...

(that date is not incorrect, unfortunately!)

:: blizzard on Thursday left us with 12 inches of snow Friday morning

(so thankful for traveling mercies Thursday)

:: SNOW DAY for the kids and DAY OFF - not due to weather, previously scheduled - for S 

(all being home made the April snow a little easier to handle...just a little though)

:: hopefully the last snowman of the year

(although I think I said that in March)

:: church fellowship dinners!  flip-flopped dinner night and kid watching with J&C for Friday and Saturday evenings

(both nights so very enjoyable and no cousin got spit on =)

fun friday, 4.12.13...

a bit of pick-up time to get ready for huisbezoek that evening...

iPad time with a new Wild Kratts game (they love it)...

and family smoothies to end the evening...=)

sprinter...

a sigh from the momma and dadda today...

(having to shlep on the winter stuff again, shoveling, bad roads to drive on, and seriously, 7 inches of snow on April 11? sigh...)

sheer joy from the kiddos today (and Aahma R in SW MN who got a snow day)...

 

(squeals of delight when looking out the window first thing this morning, "look how pretty everything looks!!!", excitement to put on snow pants for a bonus play in the snow day, a wonderful teacher who embraced her 2nd graders' wiggles and excitement and took a break this morning to play and email sighing parents the joyous smiles, "seriously momma?  we get to have 7 more inches of snow in April?  AWESOME!")

...not the first time I have had to learn a lesson from my children!

Thank you Lord for the beauty, the safe travels, and the kids' joy today...

fun friday, 4.5.13...

(yes I will post about our trip soon!  But being that Friday is coming up soon again I thought I would keep up with these so I don't get behind for them as well =)

Well, being that we just spent a whole week going out to eat and staying in hotels and swimming and doing all SORTS of fun things, we told the kids that "fun friday" deserved a spring break too.  Which they envisioned another day of crazy fun and were rather disappointed when we told them that meant we were just going to do normal things (which we needed to after the trip - hello, laundry?!  grocery shopping?!).  They did find their own fun in playing in their own spaces and toys we hadn't seen in a week.  And I did bring them over to our friend A's in the afternoon so the big girls could play a bit (they miss out if I stop by during the school day) and when I came home these were sitting on the table:

 S had done the Costco shopping and thought the momma could use a "fun friday" treat especially since outside it still looks like this:

Love him.  And it was a really good day doing get back to normal things and NOT eating out (seriously the best tacos ever!).  Maybe a little more fun for the momma and dadda than the kids, but that's so ok...

fun friday, 3.29.13...

Good Friday.  Important Friday.  But being it was the first day of spring break and we left on our first big family vacation anywhere besides Edgerton/Willmar in 3 years it was a little hard to focus on the Good Friday aspect of the day.  We made sure that we talked with the kids about it and read the story out of the Bible, but most of the day was spent trying to get out the door and on the road for us, with of couse all the fun that road-tips entail:

 Stops for ice cream!  And of course at Culver's in Wisconsin.  This stop was made extra special and fun and photo worthy because G earned going out to ice cream for passing her Mad Minute level at school.  She had been struggling for most of the year with it and was getting close and the incentive for ice cream pushed her to work hard and pass!!!  So proud of her and we of course enjoyed the ice cream right along with her.

Books on CD!  These seriously get us through a lot of time in the van.  We don't listen to them at home very much so it is a special treat.  Here we were listening to Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina (which happens to have a mini opera along with the read aloud which we are still singing in our heads...), and the kids were trying to balance "caps."

H had to get in on it too. =)

Taking photos with giant statue of Bessie the Cow in Janesville, WI!  What could be more fun than that!!  Can you tell that we were trying to keep the kids excited about sitting for hours on end in the van and not ask how much longer any more times?!!! 

Playing iPad in the hotel bed while dadda and momma set everything else up!  (they did ask if they could all sleep in the same bed. =)  Ahhhhhhh, made it through the first leg of the trip.  And it was a very smooth trip to the Chicago suburbs - we were blessed that the kids traveled so well and that we were able to have a good night of rest (even in a hotel!  oddly enough sometimes our crew sleeps better when we are all in one room together...) before heading for Michigan the next day.

fun (fine arts) friday, 3.22.13...

fine art of baking...

and packaging for GEMS bake sale...

and eating the leftovers!

cousin fine art show

fine art of peeling potatoes and cooking supper with Boppa and Aahma R

and finally fine arts night at school!  W performed the poem Spaghetti, by Shel Silverstein...

and G performed the poem One Inch Tall, by Shel Silverstein.

they did fabulous as well as ALL of their classmates, and this is one place where ribbons for everyone were definitely deserved for all the hard work they put into it.

the whole family had fun and it was extra special that Boppa and Aahma R could join us too!

happy birthday cousin E!...

We are sad that the miles are too many between us to go and celebrate E's 2nd birthday with her in person, but we had fun celebrating iPad style:

we sang Happy Birthday, E blew out 2 candles, and we shared cupcakes and party hats (thanks to E having leftover cupcakes from her party, and us having leftover cupcakes and party hats from a school birthday party I helped plan)...

and E totally tried to share her cupcake with H, who really wanted it!  Happy 2nd Birthday E!  We love you!

fun friday, 3.15.13...

After a busy week of a lot of activities and a fun Aahma and Papa B mid-week-visit (turkey convention!), and after a week of DST-induced sleepiness and crabbiness, the only thing to do for this fun friday is climb into jammies, grab your favorite blanket and fuzzy friend, and settle in for a Wild Kratts marathon (thanks for the new discs, Uncle J!!!)...

pi day, 3.14.1...

We talked a little about what pi was and how it is important to circles, and then we celebrated pi day (3.14) the tasty way...

by making...

pi-napple pizza pi's for an afterschool snack...

cheeseburger pi (on the right) for supper...

and of course apple pi for dessert!

(and we only broke 1 glass, set off the fire alarm once, ate supper at 7:45 due to some pi issues, and had to eat the apple pi for breakfast the next morning)

Happy Pi Day!!!

snowman update...

not even the umbrella could save it from the rain that fell yesterday. so goes the life of a snowman in March...bring on spring!