I think we have all had enough of winter, so this past weekend we spent as much time outside as we possibly could. We biked over to Vilas Park and let Bryn and Henry do their thing. Bryn's "thing" is to climb up any staircase, ladder or climbing apparatus and then find her way to the nearest (or farthest) slide. She could do it all day, and the static electricity she generates is shocking. Henry's "thing" is to take off in search of ducks, geese or any wild animal. I think he inherited his dad's fear of heights, so he tends to stay off the play structures and keeps himself happy finding something to step off of. Funny little creature, they are!!

Al Gore is right.

How did we go from this .....

...........to this in one week's time? Can't say no to global warming anymore. Last week we were surprised with a good old snow storm. That didn't slow the littles down one bit. They were able to improvise with their sand toys quite quickly and had a jolly good time outside.

Gotta love washable paints

Trampoline fun!

How we spent Easter

We decided that since the weather was horrible, with highs in the 30's, we would take a little road trip to IKEA for our Easter. Our non-traditional Easter continued with a lunch of Swedish meatballs, red potatoes and lingonberry sauce. The car trip down and back made us rethink our idea of driving to Montana this summer. They both love to throw books, sippy cups and toys and see how mommy reacts. Great game........

To our surprise we ran into Pete, Sandra and the kiddos so we couldn't resist documenting with a picture or two as we waited to load our purchases into our cars.

Bryn and Henry love Orville (grandma and grandpa's dog) so when Henry and dad did some male bonding at Sentry Foods, we took the dogs for a walk. As you can see Bryn had to be in control of Orville's leash and she grunted every time he tried to stray off course and had to pull him back on track. We made it pretty far until she found a pine cone which she wanted to carry home instead of the leash.

Easter Egg Hunt

Boy, was it ever a chilly day for our neighborhood's annual Easter egg hunt. As we pulled up with the double baby jogger with seconds to spare until the guy with the mic said "GO", the rest of the older kids were seriously scanning the grass to plan their route. Henry, with Jay's help, did manage to find a few eggs to put in his basket, while Bryn just stood in one spot watching the chaos and trying to stay away from the Easter bunny. Sorry no pics of Bryn. I was holding her, trying to operate the video camera, and attempting to warm up my numb fingers.

"Wata"

Henry has some love affair with water. He jumps at the chance to dump over water dishes, dissemble full sippy cups, and just plain play with it. So, when they received their own watering cans from Grandma and Grandpa they both were pretty pumped, especially Henry. Had to put an end to the fun as the floor became the target instead of the plant.

Walking in the woods with Grandma

Of course this is before we got BOTH Grandpa and Grandma sick with a stomach virus. Sorry Bapa and Mama.

Rainboots and puddles

Squishy fun in the mud with Grandma and Grandpa!!

The lady and the tramp

We were lucky to be able to hang out with our dear friends from Missoula as they passed through Madison on their Spring break. Emi and Ethan gave us some pointers on eating spaghetti as you can see below. We then headed to the Chocolate Shoppe ice cream parlor, and as we adults gorged ourselves on some darn good ice cream, the kids entertained themselves with all the toys. Hope to hang out with you guys again soon!

Splish splash

The biggest hit at the children's museum was by far, the water flowage over stones. Henry was content soaking himself with the splashing and the girls all wanted to have their hand underneath the dripping water at the same time. Taking turns is so so hard at this age.......

Welcome home Henry

Spring at last!

You know it's spring when the plastic comes off the porch at 806.

Coffee anyone?

I still haven't figured out the fascination with coffee filters but it has been a favorite toy for months. Secretly hoping the novelty would have worn off by now. I'm sure you never knew they could serve as hats, cleaning rags, or just another item found lodged in the tiniest of places throughout the kitchen.

Kisses for Aunt Jen

Muskie madness

No, Bryn, all those people are NOT staring at you playing on the rocks.....

Yes, it's that time of year again. The muskie in Wingra Creek are trying their darndest to make it up a mini-waterfall up into Lake Wingra. It was a site to see as some of the muskie were at least 4 feet long and as wide around as the littles. I think Jay could have sat there all day watching them navigate the water and build up their strength to make the jump. Bryn and Henry had more fun running and jumping on the boardwalk then staring into the water at fish. Bryn gave Grandma and Grandpa a workout as they chased them all over the park.

We then had to nourish ourselves with burger baskets from Michaels. Mmmmmm Mmmmm

3 minutes of fun

No natural sunlight makes for not so perfect pics but I had to document a typical 3 minutes in the life of Henry and Bryn. Henry's favorite item lately is his or his sister's bike helmet (sounds like "elmaa" in Henry talk) and he loves to put it on himself, even if it's backwards. He then decided to wear one of Bryn's shoes, so Bryn had to join in too. She put her other shoe(since Henry wasn't wearing it) on the wrong foot and clomped around till she found something special from the kitchen to use as a prop.

Just in case you were wondering why Bryn isn't wearing a bike helmet........here's why