Johnson visit!

Our good friends from Michigan, the Johnson family, came to visit us. Their visit was postponed a few times because they had been sick so we were excited when it worked out for them to come! We didn't tell Miles they were coming so he would be surprised when his buddies Zach and Grant pulled up. As you can see, he was pretty excited!

Just eating dinner together:

We tried letting the kids sleep together (minus the two babies). It didn't work out that well, but they had fun giving it a try!

Watching some TV together:

Reading books with Angela:

We went to our zoo:

And to our favorite Ice Cream place -Ella's Deli:

Playing Pirates:

I got to take some pictures of sweet Baby Bennett:
and I had to get a picture of Angela and I, but forgot until the morning they left when I hadn't showered or gotten ready. But oh, well. Better then no picture at all! Angela and I got to go to the thrift store together on Saturday (which is our favorite thing to do) and had fun doing some shopping.

We were so excited that they wanted to come and stay with us! We really miss living by them and seeing them every day. Angela is the sweetest person in the world and makes me feel like Betty Crocker and Martha Stewart all in one :) If you know Angela I am sure she makes you feel the same way. In fact after they left Brian said, "I don't feel like I need to give you any compliments for the next year or so since Angela has been giving you so many!" Haha!! So true. And Timmy and their three cute boys are so fun to have around. My girls think Timmy is the expert on anything gardening related (he's a soil scientist phD student) and Miles thinks Timmy knows how to fix anything in our house that is broken (he is Tim the tool man Johnson to us). Zach and Grant and Miles are the three Musketeers and chubby Bennett was so adorable. Thanks for coming Johnson family. Please come again!

Just some fun stuff.

Last Saturday Brian spent a lot of time cleaning up our yard and throwing all the leaves/grass in the garbage. I walked around the side of the house and saw this. Hmmm.....looks suspicious.

Oh, hello children. Apparently, playing in the garbage can is lots of fun! Luckily it only had the leaves and grass in it.

Nora's class held a big Dinosaur event in her classroom (it was actually on Miles' birthday but I just got the pictures off of our small camera). Nora had a lot of fun building her dinosaur diorama on the Euplocephalus. She acted as our tour guide in her classroom and taught us all about dinosaurs. Brian taught class until 530 that night so he met us at the end of it.

Someone else in our house likes Wesley's binkies just as much as he does, possibly more - any guesses who that could be? It is a hairy someone with very sharp teeth:)

Miles recently discovered real video games at our friends house. They only play on the weekend and we were there one Saturday while they were playing Kirby. Miles thought it was pretty cool! One day he was super bored and I needed to get some things done so I turned on a youtube video of Kirby and Miles used the controller to his remote control car and had a grand 15

minutes thinking he was actually playing Kirby!! Haha! I bet someday we'll get a real video game system (maybe) but for now I am glad he is happy to "play" like this.

The three "boys" just hanging out in the morning! Cute.

St. Patty's Day

St. Patricks Day was 80 degrees here in Wisconsin!!! Crazy. But awesome. We went to the local parade that was pretty fun.

The kids in the car ready to go to the parade.

We had a great spot in the shade right across from the Capital. Wesley slept through most of the parade and was pretty happy eating a sucker after he woke up. Side note: kids at parades drive me bonkers. The crowding and running right in front of other kids and grabbing all the candy. Grrrr. I make sure my kids stay in our spot and don't take all the candy! If I were in charge I would have lines spray painted all along the parade route and everyone had to stay in their designated square or be kicked out :)

Some Irish step dancers.

Nora brought some of her lemonade stand money to buy some cotton candy.

Bag pipers

She even bought Miles his own stick (Sophie doesn't like it)

What parade is complete without an Elvis impersonator?

We had forgotten our packed lunch so we went back home to get it and then walked/roller skated to a nearby park. Well, kind of nearby. It ended up being a bit further away than Brian remembered it being.... about a mile and a half there. But we had a great time. I was on roller blades pushing the boys in the double jogging stroller and Nora was on roller skates and Brian and Sophie were walking with Scooter.
Sophie brought her fishing pole and lost the line out of it somewhere along the way (I hope no one stepped on it!) She was pretty upset for a while. Nora took a few spills on her skates and once was right in front of me on a small downhill part and I ran over her with the stroller. Oopsy Daisy. She was okay after a minute, and I felt really bad. Then I giggled and wished it had been recorded.

Here is Wesley on the "beach". Sadly, the lakes in Wisonsin are not nearly as beautiful and "beachy" as the lakes in Michigan. Oh, and there's my foot.

The water was SO cold! These two boys were there and they were making it a competition with Nora to see who could go out in the water the deepest and who could dip their body in the farthest. Nora proved she has a competitive streak in her and beat those boys good. She went out further than both of them and ended up going completely under the water. Which is saying something considering Brian and I had a competition to see who could stand in it the longest and I think we lasted 30 seconds. Brrrr!

On the way home Sophie said to me "Mom, everyone we pass is laughing at me. I think they can tell I lost my fishing line." I said, "Honey, have you seen Nora? Do you really think people are laughing at you? They think she's cute though, they aren't laughing to make fun of her."

It was a great day.

A dirt pile,a lemonade stand and other fun stuff.

We have a nice big section in front of our house that has nothing growing in it. It has turned in to a popular, although very dirty, place for the boys to dig and play! I wish it was sand, and am considering taking out the dirt and filling it with sand because it's a shady area and we'd get more use out of it as a sand pile than a flower garden. We'll see. The boys require a bath after they are done playing, and since Wesley hates bathing right now I try to only let them in it once a day. Scooter also enjoys digging in it with them.

Miles and Scooter taking a little mid morning rest on the couch together.

Sophie playing with Scooter outside. He's a fast little guy!

Nora wanted to do a Lemonade Stand and I finally let her this week (since it was 80 degrees out!) I made cookies for it and she made a sign and set it all up. I tried to prepare her for the fact that possibly not many people would stop... and an hour and a half later she had $35.00!! Sophie was pretty upset because she didn't feel like helping much and spent most of her time reading Calvin and Hobbes. She cried on the couch for an hour and said, "Nothing I do ever makes that kind of money!" Oh, the drama.

This is Nora's face all lit up when I told her how much she'd made. After setting her tithing aside and giving Sophie and Miles 5.00 for helping she immediately wanted to go to the store and buy a mini tea set she saw at Hobby Lobby. It is kind of worrisome how fast money burns a hole in her pocket. (Brian says we'll have to warn her fiance about this when the time comes)

It has been so fun to go on family walks again. We took a walk to a park that is about 5 blocks away from our house and Sophie packed up her backpack with lots of things so she would be prepared for anything. This included: books, toys, a roll of toilet paper, an umbrella, snacks, water and extra undies. Right when we got to the park Sophie stepped in a swampy mud area covered with leaves. It soaked one of her feet and she was MAD. She has always hated getting wet and she was doubly upset since this was probably the only thing she wasn't prepared for! She sat on the bench for a while and I tried to get her to laugh at the situation but she just didn't think it was too funny at the moment. So I gave her my socks and dried off the inside of her shoe with a washcloth we had in the stroller and she cheered up and we had a fun time.

We've had amazing weather the last week or so and have taken full advantage by spending lots of time outside. Hooray for Spring!!!

... and a nice Sunday nap on the couch.

Wesley

Wesley has had a rough fall/winter of being sick off and on with various illnesses of puking, fevers, colds, diarrhea, etc. Because of this he's turned from our happy, sweet little man to a certified grump pants. It's also made it so he is up more in the night and is up around 4/5 wanting to be held just the right way which varies every morning. Then it's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse at about 6. He is now better and not up as much - but still wanting up at 4/5. We tried letting him cry it out for a few mornings but he literally SCREAMED for 45 minutes before I couldn't handle it anymore.... and I'm afraid he's going to wake up the puppy, too.

He was pretty good at pulling grumpy faces and making mean sounds at anyone and everyone who looked at him.

Oh, how I missed this sweet smile and happy boy! Anyway, we're glad he's mainly back to normal and he's been so fun the past few days.

Welcome back sweet Wesley boy.... let's hope you are here to stay for a while.