Part 2 - Fishing

After our time with Christi and Jim, we headed south to Waterloo. Along the way we met another friend, this time from my Payless days, for brunch. After we all had full bellies, we went to her Payless store to stock up on a few pairs of shoes. It was BOGO afterall!! We finally made it to Wendy's house in time for Doug to go pick up the Maag kids from their afterschool activities.

Then it was off to the little lake in Waterloo for a fishing trip with Uncle Jay and John. The kids had a blast in the boat. I'm not sure Doug did as he was busy keeping Anna IN the boat. Is anyone surprised?!?!?!? Anna had fun casting with just her fishy weight. Gabe had a bobber and a hook on his, but still only enjoyed casting and reeling in. He didn't want to even touch a fishing pole that had a fish on the end. Jay and John each ended up with a fish. Doug managed to catch a fish with Gabe's pole - hopefully you can tell there is a fish in that picture - after Gabriel and Anna decided they had had enough and got out of the boat.

Vacation Part 1 - Visiting friends in Mechanicsburg IL

Here is the first of our 4-Part Vacation Extravaganza. Hold on to the seat of your pants! =)

We began our journey Sun, April 20 about noon. Doug had a meeting at church and I was able to finish loading and packing our snacks for the drive. We drove for about an hour before we stopped at a rest area to picnic and let the kids run. They did more running than eating, but that was fine. It meant a longer nap in the car. We made OK time and the kids did great in the car. We are so truly blessed to have good little travelers. (It helped that we had some NEW activities and a bag of toys packed for each of them.) We made it to my friend's house in Central IL about 10:15p. Which was pretty good considering we stopped for both lunch and a then a quick supper.

Monday we played outside at Christi's house in the morning. We were so excited to meet Isabella for the first time. Isn't she just so cute?? The kids had a blast flying kites. Luke did a great job and was giggling the entire time. He did have a slight mishap when he let go, but we were able to catch it - twice. Unfortunately, the third time Doug couldn't get to it in time and it ended up in the trees.

After lunch Christi and I took the kids to a play date with Christi's mom's group. It was so fun! They had a huge slide, an obstacle course type thing and a bounce house. All three kids had a blast and Christi even got in on the fun. That night at bath time, Doug discovered a tick on Gabe. Glad it was him and not me!! He was able to get it out and we could all stop freaking out!!

Tuesday we did a few errands - got a copy of Gabriel's birth certificate since I didn't have an official one and I need that for Kindergarten. Then we went to the grocery store so I could stock up on this great salad dressing that is made near there. I first found it at the IL State Fair a couple years back and obviously, can't buy it in MN. For lunch we took the kids to McDonalds to play in the play area.

Wednesday we were able to leave the kids at home with the dads and hit the outlet mall in Arcola. I found a few items that I needed yet for the kids and found a few good deals for next winter. While the kids were napping at home, my wonderful husband started laundry so we had some clean clothes to put back in the suitcase for our next stop on the trip.

It was so nice to visit was Christi, Jim, Luke and Bella. It was nice to have time each night to have adult conversation. We thank them so much for putting us up for a few days. Even if we did leave a couple stray socks and took one stray sock home.

Finally Caught Up

After my posts this morning, I am caught up with everything. At least everything on the camera. I now have an empty memory card for our vacation. So, don't expect anything new from me until we get back from IL.

We will be gone from April 20-May 1. We are leaving Sunday after church and we will drive to my friends house near Springfield IL. Springfield is about 2 hour north of St Louis, but it still says it will take 9 hrs to get there. So, we will get there at bedtime. But, we will be there and ready to play Monday morning. We are planning to stay there for a few days, then head to my sister's house. Lots will be going on while we are there and we plan to start back to MN on Thursday May 1. Gabriel has his Kindergarten visit day on May 2, so we have to be back on the 1st. It is a 10 hr drive from my sister's, so if we start early enough, we will be home at a decent hour. Then, we will all finally get to sleep in our own beds again!!!

Another note...it is April 10 today. We are supposed to get rain, then snow tonight and tomorrow. The forecast is for 6-10" of snow!! Why?!?!?!? It is actually starting to snow now, but we have been above freezing for a while, that it is all melting. I am not looking forward to delivering the paper tomorrow morning!!

I may have another update before our vacation...depends on this silly weather!! =)

Dance Class

Some of you know that the kids started Kindermusik this fall. It is a class that the parents attend with the kids. Our teacher is Linda and Anna just loves her. Gabe likes her too, but Anna talks about going to Dance to see Miss Linda. Both kids are involved and it gives them something fun to do. Well, the class has kind of changed format than we were expecting, but it is fun and the kids like it.

We start out the class by running, skipping, hopping, marching, etc, then stretching. We have learned different things like twirling, walking backwards, walking on tippy toes, moving to the side....all gross motor skills that will help if Anna goes on to Dance class when she is old enough. The second part of the class has turned into tumbling. The kids absolutely LOVE that part!! They have learned different kinds of sommersaults and rolls, standing on their head, backbends, and the latest was trying to do a dive roll and cartwheels. Anna actually does pretty darn good with dive rolls. That is where they jump and go straight into a sommersault. Thank goodness for the mats though. Both kids have jumped unto their heads once or twice. Anyway, here are a few pictures that I finally took. Gabe is doing a backwards sommersault in his picture. He has thinks it is funny to go backwards, so he practices that a lot at home!

They did have a recital in March, but that was the weekend that I was out of town, so the little class didn't participate. She is having another recital in April to celebrate being in town 5 yrs, but guess what--we will be in IL, so the little ones won't be participating again. Stay tuned next year though...Anna may be old enough to be in ballet I'm not sure.

Snowmen...Finally!!

After all the snow we have had this winter, we have not been able to build a snowman. We got mainly light, dry snow. Which was excellent for shoveling!! We didn't even pull out the snowblower because we could just push the snow and make a path. Since the temps are slowly getting higher, we got a wet snowfall. We were able to build some snowmen. The first snowman was my attempt when one snowfall was melting....that made it easier to build. But, there wasn't much left and I didn't really want to do it. It was the week after Easter and Doug was still sick, so he couldn't help. The kids got a kick out of it anyway. Gabe was disappointed that we didn't put all the decorations on it though.

Then, we got another decent size snow on 3-31. (Which brings to mind my question of why the heck is it snowing the END of March?!?!?) Doug was healthy and it was a nice day, so he got to go out with the kids. I was inside with the little ones, because it was still too cold for them out. Although little Ellie stayed by the window watching intently because she really wanted to be out with the big kids and have some fun.

Doug decided he was going to build a Snow Family. So, for a few days we had 7 snowmen in the backyard....one for each of us and one for the babysitting kids. Of course, they varied and size and got smaller as the kids got younger. Gabe did make most of his...at least he rolled the balls. They got too heavy for him though. He did take great care in decorating his snowman. He didn't even share with the rest of the family. At least that kept him busy...although I don't think everything got put in the correct place.

We have loved the snow, but we are ready for Spring. The kids have been asking us to get their bikes down, but it is still too cold. We did manage to get to the park last Friday and it was so nice. It is back to yuck now...cold and windy. Gabriel asked when it was going to be Spring that we could ride bikes all the time. I replied, "Probably not until we go to IL." Our family in IL have been having warmer temps, but they have been getting rain constantly.

Happy Easter!!

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!!

For Easter this year, we didn't have any visitors. At first that was kinda sad, but we were able to start our own family traditions. The youth served breakfast at church so that was great. Then we had church service at normal time, but we didn't have Sunday School. We were able to come home and look in our Easter Baskets. The kids loved all the goodies in there. The best were the bouncy balls, but we haven't put air in them until the weather starts to get better out. That bummed the kids out, but we did try some of the bubbles, so they were happy with that!

Then we had to have Easter pictures. I have to say the kids looked so cute in their outfits. Gabriel had an awesome suit that was given to him by a member at church. Then he had bunny suspenders and a bunny tie from cousin John. (I remember John wearing it when he was little, so that was fun.) Anna just had a dress I bought on clearance last year. I love clearance racks!! It was cute and had a neat pettycoat that really came in handy this year. I was thinking last year!!

After pictures we changed clothes to have our Easter Egg Hunt. It was actually pretty cold, so we bundled the kids up in winter coats. About half way through Anna was crying that her hands were cold -- we forgot the gloves! So, we had to take a break and go get gloves so they could pick up the eggs better. It was about 25* out and it did make the eggs cold to touch. Thankfully, we found all the eggs and had a fun time. Gabe was very good about leaving some of the easier ones for Anna to pick up. He did get some help finding the last egg. Silly Easter Bunny Daddy hid an egg in the tire swing!!

After the egg hunt, we loaded up and headed for Dave and Kathy's house. They were gracious enough to invite us to their house for dinner. It was yummy and we had ham -- my favorite!! (If my sister would have come to visit, I wouldn't have been able to have ham since she doesn't like it.) By this time, Doug was starting to feel the effects of my cold and had to have some drugs. Anna was also starting to feel bad and actually ran a slight fever after lunch. She wanted to make a bed on the floor with the couch cushions and took a catnap.

It was a fun day and we were happy to get home to relax on the couch. Well, Doug more than me since he had been so busy the last few days.

Coloring Easter Eggs

We finally got around to coloring Easter Eggs on the Saturday before Easter. I had been sick for about 1 1/2 weeks with the "finale" Good Friday with the stomach flu. So, we were a little late this year. I was feeling OK on Thursday and decided to boil the eggs to get them ready to color on Friday. As I was boiling them, a friend called to check in on us and I forgot about the eggs. So, 45 min later I remembered them -- still boiling with just a little water left in the pot. I could not believe I did that!! And, amazingly enough, the eggs were edible and the yolks didn't "bounce like a rubber ball" like one of my friends predicted.

The kids had fun with the little cups of water. Gabe as real slow and easy and didn't plop any eggs into the dye. Anna on the other hand, let them plop in the dye and it splashed on the newspaper. She was so excited about the entire ordeal that she dropped a few on the kitchen floor also. So, we started our hunt on Sunday with some already cracked -- oh well. We had church that evening, so Anna went with her Easter egg dye stained fingers. She was very good about telling everyone how she colored eggies. Gabe was disappointed that we didn't write as much as usual on the eggs. I did manage to get a Gabe, Anna, Minton and Cross egg, but that was it. The kids were just so eager to get them into the dye I didn't have time between taking pictures.