Easter Eggs

Dying Easter Eggs is one of our favorite things to do to celebrate Easter. My family gets together every year to dye and decorate the hard boiled eggs, and to stuff the one hundred or so plastic eggs for our annual hunt. The kids absolutely love partaking in both activites and they were hopping around the house waiting for everyone to arrive.






Avery's Favorite decorating technique was the roller dye.


















Cousin Halley handing Bria an egg.














My three little chick's decorating to their hearts content.















The "Kids" perfecting the Tye Dye method.













Bennett loved using the rollers too




















We have ears and headbands for almost everyone. Bria enjoyed this sun flower













Avery and her Bunny Ears





















The Family stuffing the plastic eggs.














Easter will be here shortly and these baskets will be filled with goodies brought by the Easter Bunny. The kids couldn't be more excited!

Dare Devil

Before
















During














After!






We went to the Mall of America because Avery wanted to take her bear precious on a ride. She had mentioned going on the kiddie roller coaster so we were headed that way. We had to pass by the Blast-O-Rama(Nickelodian Universes' version of the Power Tower)where screams from riders stopped Avery in her tracks. Her eyes lit up and she stated that THIS is the ride she has decided to go on. After telling her that she probably wasn't tall enough, we went to check. You have to be 42 inches to ride and sure enough...she is just 42 inches tall! The ride attendant gave us some flak but he eventually let her ride....much to my horror! I am TERRIFIED of this ride. I have gone on the similar ride at ValleyFair a few times and I vow to never go on it again. I always think that the harness will fail and I will fly out of my seat and splat on the ground. So, as she is climbing in to the much too large seat, my heart was racing and I started to get short of breath. She of course was all smiles and had a little helper sitting next to her that said she would hold her hand. I took one picture of it going up and only one because I of course was panicking and needed to put the camera down in case she flew out so I could "catch" her. All we could see were her little feet. Note how her feet stick straight out compared with the bigger girls next to her. I took comfort in the fact that there was a mechanical seatbelt holding the harness down as well...so if the hydraulics failed, at least there was a backup measure of safety holding my precious cargo in that seat. As the ride bounced up and down I kept thinking when will this be over? As it dropped its final time and came to a rest again on the platform, my darling child was all smiles, had her thumbs up and exclaimed "I want to go again!"



I am proud to say that I have a daredevil on my hands. She has always been a little go getter and despite my fears, nothing is going to stop this child. I had better get used to it. I always remember my mom freaking out when we went on rides, did tricks around the house, or did anything remotely risky...now, I know why.

candid shots on a sunny day

The weather has simply been fabulous lately in Minnesota. The snow has melted, the sun is shining and the smell of spring is most definitely in the air. There is nothing that we love doing more in the spring than being outside. Riding bikes, taking walks, talking with neighors and hitting up every park that we know of.

Recently, we stopped at an old favorite of ours "The Red Park" by our old house in Shakopee. The kids really love this park and all three of them voted to go there over any other park in the area. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, I had packed snacks in the car and everyone had a jacket and a beverage.

It was right after school let out, so the park was filled with kids. It was neat to run into our old neighbor girl there.

Avery loves to play tag on the equipment with all of the older kids. Bria enjoy's climbing the wall and "driving" the play car. Bennett loves being a daredevil and scaling the retaining wall that borders the park.

All three kids love to be pushed in the giant red swing. It almost resembles a ride at Valley Fair, and usually with me pushing them to the limits of the swing set it simulates one as well.

The tire swing is also a favorite, although Bennett only likes swinging on it...he does NOT like doing "Dizzy" as the girls do. The girls would have me spin them around and around on the swing until they both fell off. I do not share their enthusiasm and would ride with Benny if I had to choose.

As the Spring unveils the beauty that the winter has hidden we will be sure to catch every moment of it running wild outside and breathing in the fresh air.

Watch out world! They are motorized!

This past weekend, my girlfriend Holly gave us her daughter Allie's Barbie Jeep. She had one request: Take pictures when you give it to the kids. So, I did. My kids saw this Jeep and were thrilled. Their facial expressions were as if it were Christmas morning. They were pumped to get in and start cruising around the cul-de-sac.

Avery was in charge of "Precious" this week. It is her school mascot bear that each child gets to take home for a week. Precious had some fun times riding in the good old Barbie Jeep.


Bria driving around with her brother. These two thought that the Jeep was simply the coolest even though neither one of them is truly strong enough to steer it without either going in circles or crashing into something(or in Bennett's case someone).

We are still learning all about the jeep and how to make it work the best. Safety is my number one concern and I have found it is kind of difficult to explain to a three year old why they cannot push the pedal to the metal when there is a 1 year old standing in front of it.




For now, this one is allowed to drive only when there are no small animals or children around.











Cruising at dusk in this gorgeous spring like weather has really gotten us all into great moods. It is amazing how much sunshine and warmer weather can affect your spirit.

We are looking forward to many more days of sunshine, warm weather and cruising in the Jeep!

Getting Wired

I have been slacking in my blog posting lately, not for lack of trying but for technological reasons who's solutions inevitably were ellusive to me. I needed help from the Master of all things wired(and wireless) in our house. We have many computers that need to talk to one another and if one tiny thing is off, well then, 0's and 1's no longer lead to something recognizable. My laptop was failing to pick up our home computer which houses all of our pictures so I could not upload any pictures for the blog. Needless to say, we are offically back in action!

Chadd has been fervently working on our house to get it wired. This house was not wired for internet in every room. Nor was it wired for speakers, surround sound and every other technological advance that Chadd had previously installed in our old house. It is obviously more difficult to wire a finished home, not to mention a finished home that has insulation in every wall on every level throughout it. He has been busy cutting holes in random spots and fishing wires through the walls. I am grateful that we no longer have wires snaking across our floor in order to reap the benefits of being fully wired.

Avery really wanted to help Chadd out. The idea of climbing a ladder into the attic was so enticing that she sat and watched him for a good long time in hopes that he would allow her to help out. All of her waiting definitely paid off and he took her up to the attic to scope it out.

I,of course, had to take a picture. She thought that the attic was super neat and really cold! She wanted to run around up there, but he explained to her why she could not. She helped him hand tools down the ladder to me and I think that she got a huge kick out of being a good helper. Chadd also got a kick out of showing his kids his passion.

The Wrecker

"Who's my boy? Bennett! Who's my crazy man? Bennett! Who's my big boy? Bennett!"

This is one of my favorite things to do with him. I say a line and he screams his name. He will have a big grin and change the tone of his response based upon how exciting I ask the question.

He is just an absolute joy...when it is only him! If

there is anything or anyone else around, all bets are off. I truly enjoy spending one on one time with him. He loves to read, he loves to wrestle, and he has a laugh that is contagious. I tickle him often just to hear that amazing belly laugh. Sometimes, he will be watching us and just start laughing...and he will laugh hysterically until we are all laughing hysterically. He is very polite and has the cutest little boy voice. He will randomly say, "I love you Mommy!" and it will just melt my heart. In these moments, I adore my boy so very much.

He is also a wrecker. If you add even one of the girls to the situation(as most days are in our house)it is pretty chaotic. This sweet little man becomes a Lion with a roar that is sure to set the girls off in a massive scream fest which Chadd and I oh so...... DESPISE! He needs attention, and he will strive for it no matter what(negative attention being at the forefront of these occasions). We try to work with him and teach him and help him learn and grow, but I have learned that boys don't work that way. He simply needs more attention than the girls. So, I have been working on the mommy guilt factor and trying to make sure that the girls are taken care of so that I can focus on Benny who would love to sit and read with me or watch Alvin and the "Chick munks". It is a learning process that I am trying to improve upon every day.

When life takes over, and there are so many other things to get done...my focus is lacking and sooner or later one of the girls is running towards me saying, "Come and see what Bennett did!" Oh man! So, it is our goal to witness the sweet, loving, adorably thoughtful little boy that I know he is instead of having the exchange that we are all too familiar with: "Where is Bennett? Uh Oh!"