Week 13

The kids sang at church this week for Palm Sunday.  Do you recognize the tune?

Week 12

On Saturday, Derek had planned a Family Fun Day for us.  We left the house by 9 am and drove south two hours to the National Eagle Center.  There was a special event that day with a variety of birds. 

We saw owls, hawks, a buzzard and an eagle.  Two or three birds were trained to fly directly over the heads of the audience.  The first time, we all ducked pretty bad.  But the buzzard was probably only a good 6 inches above our heads!  The birds probably flew over our heads a good three or four times.  I wish I would've thought to video it with my phone!  It was crazy close. 

Here he comes!

After the show, we ate lunch and checked out the Eagle Center.  There were lots of cool exhibits that the kids enjoyed.  We were there on a good day because there were crafts for the kids too.  There was a traveling reptile exhibit and the kids got to pet an albino Burmese Python.

There are five resident eagles at the center.  Of course, the kids wouldn't pose together in front of the bald eagles.  (Which according to Punky, is the national bird of the entire state!)  But I did get a photo of them separately by the golden eagle.  Ugh.

There was also a reptile and amphibian show with this crazy guy from Wisconsin.  The kids got to see and touch turtles, tortoises, snakes and frogs.  This guy was coo-coo but the kids were very entertained!

We spent the majority of the day at the Eagle Center, but stopped by a giant toy store on our way home.  There was something for everyone here- a dress-up room, arts and crafts room, book room, etc.  There were even two rooms filled with Schleich toys.  One for animals and one for dinosaurs.  Buddy went up and down the shelves repeating:  This for Christmas, this pretend for Christmas, this for Christmas, this pretend for Christmas...  which is his weird little ritual he's had the last few months anytime he sees an animal on TV, in a book, etc.  It's a little OCD/weird because he has to do it every single time, but we are starting to live with it.  

On our way home, we were miles away from the Olson's house, so I quick texted to see if we could pop over and say Hi.  We did, ended up staying for supper and leaving close to 9pm.  I am thankful we have such good friends who we feel comfortable enough with to stop by with 20 minutes notice!  It was a long day, but a much needed day together as a family!

Week 11

Well, I didn't break out my camera as much as I had hoped to last week.  But it was because it was just too nice that even though I did bring my camera to the park, I quickly packed it away so that I could enjoy playing with the kids and not worry about a soccer ball smashing my lens.

We signed Punky up for a free two week soccer class with the local soccer league.  It was a great experience and she had tons of fun.  Most likely because her BFFs also signed up, but I really do think soccer might be the one sport Punky has a chance at being any good at.  Our plan is to continue soccer through park and rec this summer and then join the soccer league again this fall.  

After practice, we headed to the neighborhood park with Punky's BFFs to play some more soccer!  The game was kids vs. adults.  As we were playing, other kids began joining in.  It turned out to be a huge game!  We ended up at the park for over two hours.  The weather was so beautiful, we couldn't not be outdoors!

Week 10

Well, I've hit another lull in the blogging and photo-taking tasks I promised myself I would keep up with in the New Year.  But, I will trudge through and complete my weekly post (even if I took this photo a few weeks ago...)

This week Lauren won the read-a-thon contest at her school!  We were so proud of her!  At the beginning of the month, when she learned about the contest, she immediately declared she wanted to win and claim the $10 Barnes and Noble gift card.  She worked so hard through the entire month.  The very first day (Super Bowl Sunday) she read from 1 o'clock until 5.  We forgot to keep track but the last week alone she reached 380 minutes (and was sick one of those days).  We guess she probably read (or was read to) over 1000 minutes in February.  We were so proud of her hard-work and persistence!  And that she reached her goal and got that gift card!  She picked out a Frozen diary and an Amelia Bedilia Chapter Book.  

Well, next week is supposed to be really nice.  Hopefully that will motivate me to snap some more photos of the kids!

Week 9

Each week when we are at Target grocery shopping, Buddy asks to look at the toy aisles.  I update my Cartwheel while he looks at toys and It is totally a win-win situation.  Until Buddy actually started asking for me to buy these toys!  I don't remember how it started, but we started taking photos of all the toys he wants, so that we can remember what he wants when his birthday rolls around.  My phone is full of toy photos, luckily I am able to sneak Buddy's cute face in too!