Easter at Grandma and Grandpa's

I have no idea why I never finished this post, but here are a few pics of last Easter. I stuffed plastic Easter eggs full of candy, and Stef and I hid them. The kids had a blast searching for them. It was a lot of fun, especially since the Mollhoff family was able to make it. My kids enoy so much the time they get to spend with their Mollhoff cousins. Now that it's almost Easter again, I have no idea what else I was going to say about this! :) Blessed Easter 2010 to you all! HE IS RISEN!!

The Weather Today...

Okay, okay. So, I was a little hasty... Joel P. doesn't have to miss winter for so long, I guess!

It is beautiful, I must say! I guess I'll go get all the winter clothes again.

Unexpected, But I Should Have Known!

Just a quick update - remember how I told you I'd put away all the winter clothing? Well, there are at least 3 inches of brand new fluffy stuff outside. It's been snowing all day. There could be 6 inches by morning. A woman's heart plans her way, but the Lord directs her steps. It's in Proverb's some place, I think. Yep. How true it is...
The kids are having fun, though! I'm glad the winter things had only made it as far as the laundry room! I'm back at square one.

Mud Season

These are old pictures, but some of my favorites of Sam as a little guy. It sure enough is mud season! Until today, I've had 6 pairs of winter boots, 6 pairs of tennis shoes, 6 pairs of mud boots, about 30 odd hats and the same number of mittens, at least 6 winter coats, at least a dozen jackets and sweaters....all this in my 5 x 5 entry way!!! Today I decided enough was enough. No more winter coats, boots, mittens or hats. Hopefully I won't have to take them out of storage until next November. Ahh...5 clutter free months! Is that too much to ask???
Well, maybe...

Learning To Write a Sentence

This is Hattie's "sentence story". She's at the point where she's ready to learn to write sentences. To help her along, I told her that she was going to write a sentence story. That seemed somehow more exciting than writing a sentence. She made up her story and drew the picture. I wrote the sentence, and she is in the process of copying it. I thought her picture was so cute, I had to share it. It's so exciting to see your children learning. I love this stage, when they learn to read and write. Fun fun!

Cardboard Box Fun

I haven't come up with anything stupendous to write about lately, so I thought I'd share a few pictures of the kids playing with cardboard boxes. This kept them busy for half a day, at least! They did all sorts of creative things. Puppet shows, race cars, campers, forts...It was great fun!

Our Vacation

We had a really great vacation, with no trouble at all. Thank you, God! We had a wonderful visit with my Dad and step Mom, and brothers. We stayed at their house, and Jason and Hannah stayed there too. For the most part, it all went really well. The only negative aspect was the 5+ lbs. I gained eating my step Mom's good food! She's from the Philippines, and food plays a very important role in her culture. If you love her, you'll eat!! So, I did, and now I've got 5 more extra, extra pounds to loose. Too bad what took a week to put on will take so much longer to get off! But it was real good, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Sweet rice, fried rice, rice noodle stir fry...Mmm! We enjoyed wonderful warm weather, and a hike in Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge. It was great! We heard frogs singing, crickets chirping and birds singing. We saw beautiful vistas, birds building nests, flowers of all kinds, blooming fruit tees, and GREEN! Ahh, it was a treat!

This is one of the "robot/statue thingy's" that we saw at the Westward Expansion Museum at the base of the St. Louis Arch. We spent a day in St. Louis with the whole family. The museum was fun, and these talking, moving statues are cool, but a little creepy. They seem so real sometimes!
Here's something you'll want to know before you visit the Arch! When you go into the building, you go through security just like you would at the airport. You have to empty pockets, remove jackets and belts, jewelry, etc. and put these things along with any bags, cameras, cell phones...you name it, into a box, then go through the detectors. Wow! That was a little crazy with all 5 of the kids (my little brother Shane, who is 5, was with us).
After all that, if you want to ride the tram up to the top of the Arch, you have to buy tickets and wait until your turn comes. For us, the wait was 2 hours when we got the tickets. Then if the tram doesn't break down before your turn, you take it to the top about 20 minutes after you get into the first line. If it breaks down, though, you will wait so long that at least a couple of kids will be in tears, and you'll all be crabby and hungry. The adults will be trying to act like they're having fun waiting in line, but one look in those wildly dilated eyes will tell the truth!
It was worth it though, to say we've been up in the Arch now. The view is pretty amazing, as well as the structure itself.

This is what the tram car that you ride in looks like. These are the 5 little crazies that were with us.

Here's the Arch. WOW!

Also in St. Louis is the museum of science and technology, which has an omni-theatre. We watched the Grand Canyon Adventure. WOW! I jumped nearly out of my skin a couple of times, and so did Dani! But by the end, she was just to pooped and fell asleep in my arms. That's one of the sweetest experiences of all! I LOVE it when she falls asleep on my lap! It's so rare, since she's been moving as fast as she can ever since she was born.

This is grandpa playing with his grand kids (and his son, Shane).


Here's the fam at a rest stop on the way down to Dad's. We were in central Illinois somewhere, and it was SPRING! It was 65 degrees, and we were all thrilled, and thinking it was hot! There were crocus blooming, and some other flowers we didn't know. Dan thought maybe Trillium. We thought we were in paradise! There was GREEN! And fruit trees blooming in white, pink and purple. Oh! And I won't ever forget the magnolias! They were so beautiful! All in all, we had a wonderful time!

We also stayed at a water park on the way home (in Owanana, MN at the Holiday Inn). I didn't take any pictures (batteries were dead, and I just didn't have the energy to find any more). It was a blast though, so if you're ever traveling through Owatana, check it out! That's about all I can think of for now!

Winter again?

We're back from vacation! I thought I'd share a couple pictures of the weather that greeted us upon our arrival. We came from 60 and 70 degree weather to this! This was totally unexpected since when we left home spring really seemed to be around the corner. I guess it's a little farther around the corner than we thought. The kids are enjoying it though, and I am trying to make the best of it. I put on some Christmas music this morning, and I'm making soup now!