Our bracket is broken.

This is what our wall looks like right now.  It's broken, we have no one left.  Sad, so very sad.  (not really, we actually had a lot of fun with it)


Here's a something to make you laugh...maybe. Our Sunday School director sent a little envelope last week to L, T and J with these in it. Tyler had been sick and she was sending her get well wishes along with a little something fun for all 3 of them. Thank you, Mrs. Burke!


Have I mentioned before that I LOVE my job! I just so happened to be outside today getting some photos of something else and Mia's class was outside for PE so I stuck around to grab some fun photos of them learning Lacrosse. (Kudos to Mrs. Westra!)

Sunday we were invited to celebrate Lisey's 3rd birthday. Happy birthday, Lisey!



Books Holly's currently working her way through. Speaking of books, does anyone have any good suggestions for me?


Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TV
And if you haven't seen the live streaming of the Decorah Eagles you must take a minute (or hours) to watch these eagles.  It's amazing and has been so fun to watch.  I have been keeping it on in the background of my desktop and keep checking in on them.  They are thinking the eggs should hatch around April 1.  (Thanks, Mrs. Ellens, for the link!)

Happy St. Patty's Day

Every once in a (great) while I do a surprise lunch for the kids. Usually it's because I have nothing great in the house and I don't want them to find out until they get to school. :) But today it was a St. Patrick's Day surprise with lots o'green including the green bread found in the photo above. Are you wondering how one makes green bread? While you're mixing your dough just add a little (or a lot!) of green food coloring.

I think it went over well for the most part.

Eric and Mia put together this creative idea of making a larger than life NCAA bracket on our chalkboard wall.  We spent the evening filling it out as a family.

Choosing names pretty much based on how cool the team name was or because of the state it was located in. Any MI or WA team was a strong pick.

We'll see how we do!

Teeth are falling out like crazy! Holly and Joey each lost one on Monday, Lucas lost one last night. The tooth fairy is having a hard time keeping up.

Spring is here!

We love our neighbor boys and watching them play basketball. They're even so sweet that they let the littlest ones in the game once in a while.

It feels so good to be outside, getting fresh air and running around!

A little surprise

With a long weekend Eric and I decided it would be a perfect chance for a little get-a-way with the kids. What would make it even more fun would be to surprise them with it. What would make it even BETTER would be to invite some friends along. So that's just what we did!

Friday started like any other day for our kids, however, it wasn't going to be just like any other day. The night before, after they were fast asleep, we had packed their suitcases and had everything in the car ready to go. About 8:30 Eric came home after a quick trip into the shop, told everyone to get dressed and grab a few things to do in the car because we were going for a little drive.

To Krispy Kreme! We watched them making the doughnuts and finally made our way to the counter to order some.

Then looked who showed up! What a coincidence...or was it? :)

Hurray!

We decided that since we both happened to be at the same place at the same time we should just continue on this little trip together.

We never really told the kids where we were going. They did guess the right destination a couple times but we just kept throwing out other ideas so they weren't 100% sure. This was their reaction when they realized that we really were going to be going to the Great Wolf Lodge.


And so they played...

and played...

and played...

and played some more

Until they didn't think they could play anymore.

Loved the wolf ears that came with their dinner. After dinner they mustered up the energy to play a little longer.
These next several photos are hilarious. I was hoping to get a sequence of shots of the bucket dumping on Ellie and Mia but instead I caught this poor unsuspecting guy walking into a downpour he wasn't expecting. He ruined my shots but they're quite funny, none the less.


In the morning, this was the message I found. They were ready to hit it hard again!





So much to do, so much fun, we'll just remember not to wait to take a group picture until the end next time.  Good times!!  Today is definitely a recovery day.


(sorry for the random watermarking going on)

I think time really does fly.

Gotta love him. Lucas finished up his paper during centers early and was taking it easy before moving on.

Everyone headed to school to help Dad with a project. They thought it was pretty fun exploring the old middle school building.


Mia came with me to a shoot last weekend and then we went exploring afterwards.


It was a beautiful afternoon.



These 3 were working on separate drawings. It was fun to compare the way they each tackled what they were doing.

Holly's "super strict" :) piano teacher "threatened" to take away her beloved hymn book if she continued to only practice her hymns and didn't start practicing her other songs. What a dilema!

Can you tell what unit they are on in P.E.?


Holly's team went out with a bang. Todays game was a barn burner. An 8-8 tie but they still took home some hardware. Great job to the Green Turfy's.