Doe, a deer, a female deer.....

Here's Will singing a song from The Sound of Music. He used to sing it SOOO sweetly. Um, not so much anymore. Maybe I was wrong to take the video after he'd eaten two marshmallows. Seems a bit hopped up on sugar.

A visit with the Easter Bunny

The kids and I went to see the Easter Bunny on Monday. And even though I'd been talking all weekend about it with Will, I still didn't think he would go NEAR the bunny. I was right.

We spent about 15-20 minutes sitting 'near' the bunny, watching other kids take their turns, but Will insisted that he not be made to go anywhere near that rodent. Katie, on the other hand, enjoyed it very much and couldn't wait to take her turn with the silent bunny.

In the end, Will got the paper ears which, turns out, was all he needed anyway.

Reason #7,461 I love my husband

John finished up one side of our new wall window.

As you may remember last October we decided to create a peek-a-boo window in our dividing wall between the kitchen and living room. Just this past spring John re-wired the wires that we found in the wall, put new wood in the frame, stained it and put up the trim.

Looks pretty darn good right? It looks so good that I don't even mind that it turned into a 6 month project. He really took his time so that everything was JUST right.....as if he was worried about not getting hired for the next project job. :)


(You'll notice the new paint job too that I completed last week. One room down, 3-4 to go!)

Friday Funny

This one goes out to my husband and mother-in-law....

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Not only do I get to say Happy St. Patrick's Day, but I also get to send out more birthday wishes!

You know....with all these birthday wishes, I should really have some funny pictures to go with the birthdays....oh wait - I do.

Happy Birthday to my sister, Janet. Janet and I have spent the last 6 years being able to talk on the phone during the day...now she has switched shifts at work and it as work all day. No more phone calls. Oh well, I think I will survive.

My sister, Janet....not sure how old...hey, I wasn't even born yet!

More Happy Birthday wishes to my friend Julie Everson. I wish I could give you a great big hug today! Julie lost her daughter last November and I know it's going to be a bittersweet birthday for her. Here's to a better year ahead. :)

Julie having fun in college...this was after an expecially "fun" day.

And because I didn't include a picture with my nephew's birthday...here's how old I will always see Jordan.

Depot - Day 3

On our final day at The Depot, John and I slept in - a bit. Our room package included a free movie so at about 7:30 as the kids were waking, I set them up with a movie. Katie and Will watched The Princess and The Frog and from their reaction they liked it a lot. At least it allowed a few more winks of sleep for us.

After breakfast we packed up our belongings, loaded the car and walked over to the ice rink. This was only my second time ice skating - John had gone a few times, and Katie has gone about 8-9 times. With that kind of experience, we figured we'd lace up Will as well.

As you can see by the following videos it took a while, BUT we came away with no broken bones (although Will clocked his nose...but that occurred off of the ice, out of ice skates.) John is still the "speed skater" among the 4 of us, however I was able to make it once around the rink in about 3 minutes without grabbing onto the side rail. :)

Happy Birthday!!!!

I have to sneak in a Happy Birthday today to my nephew, Jordan, who turns 16 today.

Holy crap. 16. How did that happen???

Happy Birthday!

Depot - Day 2...afternoon

By 1:00, the kids were HOPPING to get into the water. So, after our lunch at the museum, we came back, got changed and took to the waterpark. Oh yeah, kiddie part of the waterpark? A GIANT train. I'm kind of surprised Will's head didn't explode.

As far as Katie and Will go - they are pretty different when it comes to the water. Katie takes a long time to warm up, doesn't like to be splashed or get her face wet unintentionally. Will is pretty much up for anything, and takes things as they come. He is usually the one doing the splashing.



The train had 3 different water slides coming off of it. Will's favorite was the one right in front. He was happy going down on John's or my lap at first. But then he decided that he'd rather just do it himself. :)



Thanks to the life jacket, Katie could swim in the deeper pool so that's where she spent the bulk of her time. John and I would switch off between kids and each took a few turns going down the big waterslide. It was a great waterpark - just the right size for us.

The whole day was just a bit much for some of us. One minute Will was crawling around on the bed...the next, he was asleep.

Depot - Day 2

We woke up Friday morning with some time before the waterpark opened. So after breakfast, we headed out to the Mill City Museum which was just 1 1/2 blocks from the hotel. Built into the ruins of what was once the world’s largest flour mill, Mill City Museum is located on the historic Mississippi Riverfront. They promised to have activities for all ages so we gave it a try and they were right - we all had a good time.

One of the activities was a "Flour Tower" ride. Basically, you ride up 9 stories in this elevator and hear information about the flour mill while watching some film clips and other scenes. Once at the top they have a viewing area of St. Anthony Falls and the Mississippi River.

More trains...but for some reason Will was not in a 'picture' mood, but, like always, Katie was!

Leave it to the farmer boys...they were pretty taken with the steam engine tractor.

We had a nice lunch at the museum before heading back to the hotel to dive into the waterpark for the rest of the day. More on that tomorrow!

Weekend at the Depot

We took a mini vacation Thursday through Saturday and spent some time at The Depot in Minneapolis. The Depot is an old train depot that has been turned into an indoor skating rink. We stayed at the Residence Inn that is attached and we all had a GREAT time. So, the next few days are going to be filled with pictures and videos from our time together and all the fun stuff we got to do!

We arrived Thursday afternoon and the kids were very excited to get inside the hotel. It's so fun to watch them explore the room and see their faces. All week Will had been talking about the "how-tel" and had packed a bag of books and toys to take along. (Which we never really had time to get into!) After dropping off our things in the room, we all went exploring through the hotel halls and history.

The last train left in 1971, but the Depot still stands as a monument of rail days gone by. For nearly seven decades, family members and loved ones stood at the atrium of the Depot and waved to passengers boarding the trains of the Milwaukee Road line.

In 1998, the Minneapolis Community Development Agency approved a land sale to CSM Corporation for the development proposal currently underway at the Depot. The finished complex includes The Depot Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, the Residence Inn Minneapolis Downtown by Marriott, an indoor water park, an interpretive history center about the Depot, The Stone Arch Bar, Charley's Restaurant, banquet space, underground parking for 650 automobiles and an enclosed seasonal ice rink. The entire project was completed in July of 2001. (One of John's jobs was the ice rink a few years back.)

As you can probably guess, there were a lot of train decorations, and yes, Will LOVED them all. Katie was in charge of taking pictures on our tour through the hotel.

A cute little model train...can you see Will trasfixed in the reflection?

A map showing the train routes...interesting because it not only shows Minneapolis, but also our hometown in IA.

The kids quenching their thirst with some water.

For supper we ate at Charley's restaurant in the hotel. We were surprised by how kid-friendly it was. The kids got special kid-cups, crayons and toy animals to keep them occupied. The food was yummy - especially the sorbet we all split for dessert.

Katie slept on the pull-out sofa while Will slept in the pack-n-play the hotel provided. While John and I were in the next room, we could hear whispers and secret conversations among them. They had a great night - eventually falling asleep. We also found out the next morning that they had been sneaking fig newtons.

It's pretty much exactly what I was hoping they would do together. :)

Friday Funny.....on Saturday

Will has a new favorite accessory. For the last 3 days, Will wears this hat and runs around the house yelling "I A LADY! I A LADY!"

That doesn't worry me...although the pose he struck for these pictures DOES....

Congratulations Waukon Girls!

As most of you know, we are originally from Iowa. Last night the girl's basketball team from our hometown made it to state finals. The championship game is Saturday night and thanks to the wonderful Internet, we've been able to listen to the games.

Best of all, our niece, Sarah is on the team! She sent Katie this Waukon basketball shirt, which Katie wore to school today in honor of the team. (Even though it was 'orange' and she made it clear that wasn't her favorite color.)

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria...

This is currently the song circulating throughout the house today.

On Saturday, Katie and I went to The Sound Of Music which our church was putting on. Each winter our church puts on a musical to fund their mission trips for the summer. This year they really outdid themselves and went above and beyond any expectation. It's amazing what 40-50 people can get accomplished in about 6 weeks. And so - Katie has been re-living the songs.

This week, Katie is the "Special K" (K for Kindergartner) in her class. We got to make a poster about Katie filled with pictures and things she likes that hangs in her classroom all week. She also gets to be first in line and leads the activities at circle time each day. We also have a visitor in our home all week. Katie got to bring the class bear home for a week. His name is Little Bear and we've been busy filling in his journal with pictures and stories about what we have done with him.

Whew - that's a bunch about Katie. What's up with Will? Will has been pretty grumpy all week. More so than usual. Here he was at supper time...normally, his favorite time of day.

That's ok. We've got one up, one down...our own yin and yang...pretty much all you can ask for.