You know you're in Wisconsin...

Well, it was that kind of weekend. We kicked it off by pumping a couple inches of water out of our basement. I guess the frozen/saturated/record snow-ridden soil finally met it's match, and let the overflow into our basement. Saturday was still wet and rainy, so the kids opted to pull on their swim caps, yank all their clothes off and dance. Go figure...I guess that's what we get when they're two and half. Sunday was bright and sunny, so we headed off to the annual Breakfast on the Farm over at the UW Stock Pavilion to support the Women of Agriculture. It was a blast...Bucky Badger, UW Band, pancakes, sausage..the works. Of course we ate outside, even though it was about 30 degrees and gusty. After breakfast, we headed into the barns for some big time farm animal cuddling, etc... We closed the deal by watching the Prairie Thunder Cloggers clog to Rocky Top. A classic Wisco weekend.

That's the Pickhardt fam at the North end of the table.

This is how you eat pancakes when your (bright red) hands are frozen.

Note the instructions on the sign.

Their first baby chicken.

Maya and Eliot holding bunnies.

And a picture with the WHA (that's Wisconsin Holstein Assoc.) princess, no less.

The whole bunch of kiddos hanging out curbside with their pudding cups.

The Prairie Thunder Cloggers

Backyard projects

Now that we got some trees cut down in the backyard, we have a sunny half - yard ready for a vegetable garden and compost. We basically spent last weekend in the yard, moving their swingset and helping Jay build us an awesome compost bin system. We were able to empty out our plastic compost tumbler that we have been filling up for the last couple years and it was pretty cool to see beautful black soil pour out. We are definitely not experts yet in the compost business since we had our share of whole corn on the cobs that didn't get broken down one bit. B and H had to be involved with the projects too and helped shovel leaves, climb the piles, and be Daddy's little helpers. Next project....... raised vegetable beds.

Bean Bag training camp at the cabin

Jay and his dad also began the process of introducing the next generation to this yard game tradition. The little guy is actually pretty good...and the "end zone dance" isn't bad either.

Kites on Ice, cabin style.

While I was busy working at the Mothers of Multiples Resale all day, Jay, Norb, Karyl and kiddos were all having some fun outside at the lake. They loved flying the kites and I heard all about their adventures when they returned on Sunday morning.

The resale was a success and I managed to pick up most of their summer clothes at next to nothing prices but there was one problem...... Henry had one request that I completely forgot about during my one hour mad scramble. He wanted a pair of tights like Bryn's and the the first thing he asked me on the phone was whether I found some for him. I felt horrible, and tried to get him excited about the Curious George T-shirt I found but it didn't quite make up for those tights.

Here are some pics of their Kites on Ice with Grandpa and Grandma Affeldt.

Good riddance to walnuts! (at least in the front yard)

In between keeping an eye on the "man in the bucket" at home, we also headed to a park to play with their friends Abbey and Sam. After watching them cut down our huge walnut out front I can't believe I was trying to talk Jay into doing it ourselves. With all their fancy equipment it took them most of the day to get it down while carefully dropping all the branches and keeping the trunk intact to mill some lumber for us for new projects!

Don't remember who out of the bunch decided we needed to feed the green dinosaur but they all chipped in to toss him sticks, stones and snow.

Sam and Abbey got reacquainted with their favorite park toys after a much too long winter. Ahh, the days of hanging out at a park without all the layers is hopefully coming soon.

Happy Easter!

Well, we started getting ready for the Easter Bunny's visit last weekend with the coloring of the eggs. Check out the look on Bryn's face as her blue/green? egg emerges from the dye.

Other random faces during the egg project.

Despite the snow storm and true to Wisconsinite form, the annual Egg Hunt on the Capital lawn went on as usual. The foot of snow made the eggs kinda hard to find in some cases. Consequently, the kiddos ended up with a pretty light haul. Luckily they were able to trade in their eggs for a goodie bag full of fun stuff.

Then all of a sudden they got super klingy. We were touched that in the midst of all the chaos they wanted to give us hugs, but we realized their burst of affection was actually complete and total fear of...the Easter Bunny. They still have not found a way to be ok with people in costumes, including Bucky, Bruce the Spartan, or in this case Peter Cottontail. They did, however, make it clear to us that it was still cool for him to come to our house while they were sleeping, as long as it was a "little Easter bunny".

And the celebration culminated with a good old-fashioned egg hunt Easter morning. It was so much fun we might do it every weekend!

Ugh...it's official.

Well, we finally made it. Sometime last night, Madison set a new snowfall record that is more than double the normal annual snowfall...100.4 inches. The warmer temps last week had us actually feeling kinda springy, but we should've known better. The picture below was taken on the first full day of spring, as yet another winter storm dumped on us.

Lake Superior Spring Break

We joined forces with other members of the Hinsa clan (Shannon, Liam and Grandma Georgia) and headed north to Superior to visit my Grandma. Happy to say that they are now at the age that 6 hour car trips can actually be enjoyable. They are no longer dropping things on the floor and screaming every few minutes for someone to pick it up only to watch it fall again.

Now, they sing, color, read books and just chat with each other and us. Of course stuff still falls and they quickly ask for help picking it up, but it isn't the near catastrophe (at least not all the time) that it used to be.

As we pulled up to the hotel, Bryn swore that she saw her "Gramma Grace" sitting in the pool. She didn't get the memo that her great gramma has never gone swimming. But, soon after we arrived my mom brought great gramma to the pool to watch as Henry and Bryn jumped off the pool edge over and over and over and over. Thanks for the bathing beauties pic Shannon!

It was so much fun to hang out with my grandma and watch my kids interact with her. At one point Henry just stood by her side, with his sweet little hand on her leg, looking at his great gramma Grace. Wish I got a pic of that. What made the trip even better was hanging out with Liam, Shannon and Grandma, exchanging Easter goodies and loading up on free food at the continental breakfast!

They had to give Gramma Grace a tutorial in their water painting class. Serious business, as you can see.

Trading Easter stickers with Gramma Grace.

Hold on Liam, Grandma Georgia is at the wheel!!! For some reason we all had to hop aboard my grandma's scooter and fly down the hallways of her apartment building. That thing's got some power!!

We got to hang out with my Uncle Greg and Aunt Sheila later that day after he stopped over at Gramma's house on his lunch break. Henry was a huge fan of Greg's since he played catch with Henry non stop. My uncle is a very talented artist and we were able to see some of his new abstract art that has done. Henry was gazing up at one piece and announced "That looks just like my artwork!" Someday Henry, someday.

Nothing like Springtime on the shores of Lake Superior. The weather was actually in the 40's this day but that darn cold wind off the lake made it rather nippy. This is the only pic I got of my cousin Wendy with one of her twins, Peri. Neve was at home taking a nap.

We didn't deprive our kids of sun and sand on their Spring Break, we've got a little of both, see?

I love this pic of Bryn and Henry waiting to catch their cousin Liam on the slide.

Gramma Grace and her Easter bunnies!!

Henry getting some last loving with Gramma Grace.

It's melting!

It's puddle season again! Henry asked us yesterday if it was Spring yet and I lied and said it was. Close enough, the snow is finally melting and 40 degrees honestly feels like 60. Bryn's new clothing item is a purple vest that we found stuffed in a bin that she wears over anything and everything, even inside the house. Henry loves to pick out a fleece jacket that "matches" something else he is wearing for the day, even if it's a stripe on his pants!

We have been walking over to the duck pond several times this week so we can get rid of our dry bread and Henry and Bryn can practice their aim. There have been plenty of puddles that we get "stuck" in along our route. Another essential is the backpacks which are needed to hold each of their bags of duck food.

Here's what happens if you don't keep your eye on the hummus....

Remember when?

Each time I pass our computer and the screen saver is randomly picking pics to display sometimes it just stops me cold and I sit and stare at the little people they were. Here are two that were taken 2 years ago when they were 8 months old. Bryn was on the move and crawling while Henry was still relatively immobile (if you don't count the rolling) and a drool machine. It's crazy now to see these photos that were taken so long ago that bear identical expressions to what we see today.

No more corners

Way back when the kids were 6 months old a friend told me to get rid of the pacifiers, and since I trusted this well- read and researched pal, we did just that. Neither one was really hooked at that point and they didn't seem to mind. We then moved on to other worries. Apparently Bryn had other ideas, and months later when she found her own special blankie, the corners always seemed to end up in her mouth. Since blankies were only for their crib or a long car ride, they were eyed up and grabbed as soon as we would enter their room. Henry is a blankie snuggler while his sis would invariably have a corner soaking in her mouth within seconds. What evolved was that we would find her sleeping with those nasty wet corners hanging from her mouth. I think I do laundry just to wash that blankie. The corners actually turned a different color over all this time.

We have been talking about how we were either going to have to send their blankies on to Mia and Allison or try to figure out a way to get her blankie out of her mouth. I really hated to take their soft comfy blankies away. I just got so disgusted with the look and smell (sorry) of Bryn's, so here is what we (she) did.....

Our first night with the de-cornered blankie was a rough one. I would like to blame part of it on this year's super early Daylight Savings time but I think she really misses those corners. As I type this poor B girl is crying so Jay peeked in to find her trying to suck on a non-corner. Wish us luck!!