One More Park Day Before the Trip

 Before we were going to be in the car for two days, we took one more trip up to our school's park to enjoy the nice day!  The little girls just loved picking flowers, Christian eventually got over whatever was bugging him, Emily loved jumping and swinging, and Britta, well, Britta just loves being outside so she had fun too.

A bouquet from my loves.
Even sweeter than long-stemmed roses in my opinion!

 And a picture of all five where they're actually looking at the camera and smiling!

A rare moment, indeed.

Our Sandbox

I love sandboxes.  Much to Cubby's chagrin, I love them.  Yes, they're messy, but creativity abounds and ours allows the kids build, cook, and create to their heart's content.

Big kid or small, there's something for everyone in the sand!

Warm March Days

March brought some fantastic weather and boy, were we excited to get back outside!!

 We had to break out the sunhats for Miss B after her sweet puffy cheeks got a little sunburned after just 15 min on one 60 degree afternoon!  Christian was happy to be playing soccer outside again after a tough indoor season.

 Kari was super happy to get her toes beautified again!

 We even got to bust out the sidewalk chalk and popsicles one afternoon!

Britta loves her bouncy chair in the fresh air!

 For my birthday, we all got together on an 80 degree afternoon (yes, I said 80 degrees in mid-March!) to hang out and have some root-beer floats (yummers!).  I have such thoughtful friends who were cool with putting this together with all of the kiddos since it was tough for me to get out in the evenings.

The girls

The boys

All of the kids on our big playset

Britta also made a new friend!  My friend, Bridget, was holding Britta and they just started smiling at each other!

Britta and Avery--class of 2032 (I think!)

Sledding!!!

The first big snow of the season was awesome.  Not only did they cancel school, but it landed on the day before Christmas break (giving the kids an early start to vacation), AND Cubby had the day off!  (This, of course, is the real reason why it was awesome.)  It was pretty cold, but we got all bundled up and joined our friends up at the school for some sledding!  (Cubby had been out shoveling in the a.m, so he elected to stay home with Juliana while I got to take the big kids up!)

It was so.much.fun!  It had been a few years since I'd been sledding (either been preggers or nursing a small baby) and so I'd kind of forgotten how much fun racing down a hill can be!  It was also Kari's first time sledding and she loved it too!

 Emily also had a great time!

 Of course, once you get to the bottom of the hill, you have to make the trek back up to the top!

 Three little girls, piled on a sled!

 And, here they are at the bottom!  (Christian and Henry are also just beyond them.  Those boys were fast and fearless!)

 Ready to brave it herself!

 And here are those crazy boys!  Ready for more!

Afterward, we were all pretty frozen and so we all just piled into Mandi's van for the short ride home down the hill.  It was like a clown car!

Such a fun time!  Hopefully it'll "warm up" enough for us all to go out again soon!

Backyard Adventures

We've had some fabulously warm weather as of late (as in, we had to turn the air on...in April). This makes for some great times, though, in our own backyard! I busted out our camera (along with the sunscreen!) Saturday morning and caught some of our fun little moments. (Not the most "meaty" post, I realize, but the pictures turned out cute and I wanted to include them in a future blog book!) Emily told me,"Mommy, I smell summer!" (She definitely knows the smell of sunscreen!) Christian was so excited to wear his "short pants" as he likes to call them.

Cubby was mowing the lawn and Kari wanted to help.

Grassy, green feet! Ah, Spring! "Look at my muscles!!!" Fun Timers!

It's SNOWWWWW Fun!

Emily and Christian have been enjoying the snow!

A "little" blizzard didn't deter them from going outside and helping Daddy shovel the driveway! (Actually, he shovelled and they played, but hey, they were good company, right?)

Yesterday, was so nice outside! The sun was shining and after lunch it was the perfect time to play outside. (It totally wore them out and they both ended up taking good naps--a rarity for Emily these days!)

If you look closely, you can see our versions of the trail markers that you see while hiking down in Moab and the like. I can't get down and bend over to help roll out a snowman these days, so this seemed to be the best substitute :-).

We were really hoping for some more sun today (Saturday) so Cubby could take the kiddos sledding, but it wasn't meant to be. Maybe Santa will bring us another sunny day when Daddy's at home so they can go! My belly is just huge and my snow gear (jacket included!) doesn't zip anymore! ***Maybe we'll have little Miss Kari before the year is out??? (Wishful thinking on my part!) I'll be sure to take some belly shots in the next week or two and you can let me know what day you think she'll arrive....