Happy Birthday Grandma Grace!!!!

3 carloads of Hinsa folk all headed north last weekend to help my grandma celebrate her 94th birthday. Bryn and Henry couldn't wait to get to "Grandma Grace's hotel" since they think she lives in Holiday Inn Express pool area. We did get that straightened out on our long drive to Superior and then waited for everyone to show up.

When Shannon, Bruce and Liam arrived, the fun really started! Shannon and Bruce had been hard at work making dress up clothes for H and B. Recently Henry had asked my sister to make him a witch costume and they came carrying a bag full of colorful clothes!!!

Here each of them is wearing a piece. Henry's got a vest , with red tie, and then his purple witch cape. Bryn has on an Asian inspired red dress and Liam is sporting the purple version!! Thanks guys!

Bryn explaining one of her pictures she drew for Grandma Grace.

Uncle Bruce and kids (copying him) reading some Roger Hargreaves books.

We talked my mom into trying on one of the dresses. She did eventually get her arms in and modeled it for us.

A game of "run from the fox" with Grandpa in the hotel room! They even turned Gandma Hinsa into a human basketball hoop until she decided the backboard shots were getting too much!



Then on to the pool, where we spent hours of our weekend. The kids did not want to get out of the water and loved showing Grandma Grace their tricks!

What bathing beauties....... My cousin Wendy's twins Peri and Neve hanging out in the rocks with Bryn.

Birthday cake with Grandma Grace and the gang.

My cousin Luke's son Dillon. Is he cute or what. Unfortunately my pics of Luke and Katie didn't turn out ;(

Henry was pretty much one big splash in all the pictures I got. The relatively low depth of the water on one end of the pool made it perfect for nonstop jumping and splashing. I do have to say, it was nice for me to get out of the water and warm myself up and just wit and watch them go at it. Then next day Liam (of course he takes after my sister who is part fish) was the first to start jumping off the edge without any help from us adults. Eventually they were all doing it over and over and over.........



Several rounds of "Ring around the Rosie" later and they were still going strong!

Visit to Uncle Greg and Aunt Sheila's house outside of Superior with the kids.







My favorite picture of the weekend!!! We love you Great Grandma Grace.

Good bye, so long, farewell....

Yesterday was our last Music Together class with Miss Eliza at Happy Bambino. We signed up for her class back when H and B had just turned 2 and have been hooked ever since. Miss Eliza is an amazing music teacher and is madly loved by both Henry and Bryn. It's been so much fun to listen to them sing the songs they have learned, even those in other languages, and it's a great way to eat up some time on long car trips. Jay even has some favorites. I recommend her with the highest of praise. It is so hard to leave her since she has become a staple in our week, but I think the kids may be ready for something new. Me, probably not.

Below is a pic of them surrounding Miss Eliza when they were 2 at her Halloween music party.

This winter session they found it a neccessity to dress up to each and every class. Another mother told me how much she looked forward to class just to see what they would be wearing. This was yesterdays outfits. Both had on their special capes, while Bryn was wearing a fire helmet and Henry had on deer antlers. For whatever reason Bryn declared she was a rabbit-babbit-tabbit and Henry was a fox?!? You can't say they didn't make it interesting.

They also got to spend some time with friends and meet new ones as well.

I had to get a picture of their favorite after class activity with Hadley and Aidyn.....racing to the outdoor TYME machine and tapping all the buttons. Sometimes that would be the only time for us moms to catch up and chat as they tried to squeeze their way towards the magic machine.



The last song of every class was the "Good Bye, So Long, Farewell" song. It was ritual for them to cover Miss Eliza in hugs over and over. Below are Bryn and Abbey giving her some love.


Henry came running up to me after his 5th and final hug and said "Miss Eliza said that maybe she would see us on the bike path this summer." That made his day. Thank you Miss Eliza!!

The Eagles (Chickens) Have Landed

Well, while Sarah's away wandering the beaches of south Florida at her conference this weekend, all sorts of stuff has happened back here at the ranch. We got the call this afternoon that our little chicks had officially arrived. They were born on Friday (3/6/09), and mailed from Iowa in a special cardboard box along with about 2 dozen of their little chick friends. Once they arrived at the main Post Office here in Madison, our Craigslist friend Jessica was notified. She called us and off we went.

We had to meet at door 27 at the Post Office. Yes, we can confirm that all sorts of USPS stuff happens even on Sundays. So, on the loading dock floor inside, we sorted out our four little chicks, and Jessica took all of hers. After a quick drink of water, we loaded them into the car to head back across town.

Here's the little chick zone in the corner of the dining room.

This is "Tina Fey", a Silver Laced Wyandotte strutting her stuff shortly after touching down.


The four-pack...Tina Fey is joined by "Lady Lane fairchild" the yellow Buff Orpington, "Lady Marmalade", the Black Australorp, and last but not least "Miss Cucumber", an Auracana who will eventually lay blue-green eggs. The others will lay brown egss.


Keep your fingers crossed that we can keep these little fledglings alive. We'll keep you updated along the way, but feel free to swing by and snuggle 'em.

Taste of spring

Last week, we all got a small yet, sweet smell of the warm months to come. Too bad, it left so quickly and we are back to an ice sheet that won't melt in the back yard.

H and B were thrilled to get outside in something besides their winter jackets and started in by shoveling the puddles in the backyard. That only lasted until Henry got a faceful of the ice cold dirty water. We then decided to walk down to the park and convinced our friends Abbey and Sam to come join us. Of course they managed to fall headfirst and backward into several puddles along the way and once we reached the park, so Miss Kristi was nice enough to bring back them back up jackets so they wouldn't freeze on the way home!

I think they all found the merry go round puddle to be their favorite since they could run along side it and splash and also get a ride when needed.

Henry took the opportunity to show off his singing skills and lead singer stances. He was belting out his own rendition of Jingle Bells which had a sort of Eddie Vedder feel. Abbey was impressed, that's all that mattered.

Once we got home they were stripped down to nothing, since they soaked through to their undies... signs of a successful puddle jumping adventure! Cuter pics can be found on their blog at www.adventuresofthestantons.blogspot.com

Vacation at the cabin

Karyl and Norbert informed us a couple weeks ago that H and B were wondering when they would get to visit the cabin again for a little vacation. Before I knew it, the long weekend was planned and Jay and I were left at home to fend for ourselves.

In a nutshell, they had a blast! Sledding on the hills, hiking on the frozen lake, snuggling in bed with Grandma and Grandpa (who let them watch a little TV), watching a movie, eating out at restaurants and being spoiled:)

Below is Henry's snake made from poker chips.

And who wouldn't want to hang with Grandma and help make homemade ice cream sprinkled with those "N and M" things they don't get to eat at home.

Bryn taking a ride down the hill.

Thanks for giving them these memories that will keep them reminiscing for years.......

Time to try it on their own.....

Spanglish, Henry style.

Both kids are intrigued by hearing people speak Spanish or any language other then English. They are mesmerized whenever one of my Spanish speaking friends comes over which has them making up their own words for days afterward. Henry was on a roll the other day and I had to grab a couple video's of his new found language.

The part about his taste buds just cracks me up! Where does he get this stuff?

Please forgive Bryn's mouth full of trail mix as she garbles a bit.

I keep kicking myself for taking French as my foreign language, what was I thinking?

Happy Valentine's Day

Introducing....... Bowser! We have been eager to meet my parents little puppy, but lately B and H are just a tad timid around dogs that display more energy than our Finny (doesn't take much). Lost track of how many times Henry said "Grandma can Bowser go outside now?" and " Down, Bowser down." He stayed off to the side when the whirling dervish was showing his moves and managed to get closer when little Bowser was chillin.

Bryn warmed up to him and reveled in her job of holding Bowser's leash........

Just not TOO close.....

Getting some lovin from Grandpa.

Valentines day at our house meant we ate a RED lunch and followed that with a Rocky Rococo heart shaped pizza for dinner!

My favorite pictures of the day are below! I snuck into their room to wake them up from their nap and was surprised to find them both in Henry's bed snuggling together. Bryn tries every chance she gets to convince Henry to sleep with her so she won't be lonely(at least that's the excuse she uses). Sometimes he obliges but usually changes his mind right before he climbs in and they go their separate ways.

Not today. I asked Bryn how she managed to talk her brother into it. She told me that "Henry said I could sleep by him for 2 minutes..... But I told Henry that I wanted to sleep with him for LOTS of minutes (with her arms outstretched)"





Wishing you all the warmest of snuggles!!!! If we could all be this peaceful.........

Grillin' 4 Peace gets a little wet

What do you get when the 2nd Annual Grillin' for Peace event coincides with near record temperatures? Well, this picture kinda provides some insight. It's not all that often you find yourself hauling a grill and all your stuff out onto the ice (which was covered with 4 inches of water) to set up shop and cook out with about 150 other people for peace. Needless to say, these bold Wisconsinites weren't fazed. It just added to the story we'll all have to tell.

The nearly submerged Weber wheels give a sense of the wetness.

Here's the whole group starting to get things set up. I think everything we brought started to float away at some point during our adventure.

Our grill team...neighbors Mr. Bruce and Miss Elspeth, Peter, Richgels, H, B, mom and dad. See you out there next year!

Thanks to all the grillin', Savory Sundays will be serving up a feast of grilled goodies for their meal tomorrow!

Bryn's Week

To start of Bryn's special week we hit the ground running. First things first, we needed to make the treat to bring to preschool. "Bugs on logs" mmmmmm.







Next order of business was to glue down the poster pics. It's funny how they seem to fall in love with certain pictures. Bryn's favorite is the pic of her reading the paper on J's lap when she was about 10 months old or so. She just kept talking about how cute she looked reading the paper in her diaper.



Above pic was taken by one of the teachers as Bryn, sitting on Miss April's lap, told her preschool friends about all her pictures. Below is Bryn with Miss Sally.

Bryn asked me to come in on Thursday to read to her class and requested the book "The Bear Snores On." We also took along a couple Todd Parr books since he is the Author of the month and the kids asked me to read those too. Best comment came as I was reading the "Okay Book" and read the page about "It's okay to have freckles." I asked the kids if they knew what freckles were and when most seemed confused I tried describing the spots to them. One little girl said "Oh, I know, freckles turn into zits!" Well, that's all it took for more hands to shoot up hoping to tell their own story about their parents zits and something about how itchy they are.

Making cookies to take to Finn's vet and to a new mommy of twins.

Bryn had a busy week and I managed to forget the camera so no pics. We did make valentines at Miss Kristi's with a houseful of their friends, and delivered them to Sunny Hill nursing home residents on Monday. We also squeezed in a a visit to Memorial to watch their production of "The Sound of Music" and they went to Ella's deli with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday for lunch.

Looking forward to the warm spell that is predicted for the next several days!!

Henry's week

Henry was the "special kid of the week" at preschool. Even though they are only there 2 days a week, he took advantage of his celebrity status. Their teachers ask them to bring in a poster of their favorite pictures. That can be a difficult task when you have parents that have taken tens of thousands of pictures, but he got most of what he wanted squeezed on the board. He made sure we didn't forget the pic of him singing in front of Bruce the Spruce Christmas tree. Above pic is Henry with Miss Sally and the below pic Miss Sally took of him while he was telling his classmates a little something about each picture. Bryn informed us that when Henry forgot what he wanted to say about a couple shots she took over and added her two cents! Not a big surprise here.

He brought his preschool friends blueberry muffins that we made for his special week and on Thursday Jay came to school and read one of their favorite books "Night Driving" to the class.

Bryn is gearing up for her week next week.

To top off the week, Grandma and Grandpa Affeldt took them bowling on Friday!! Now you can understand why Henry asked me if Grandma and Grandpa could come take my place at home on Mondays and Wednesdays. I thought parental rejection was years away........

Showing off their game print outs. Each rolled 3 spares!

Remember lincoln logs? I so loved the old fashioned toys that we used to play with. Aunt Shannon and Uncle Bruce bought them a set of lincoln logs and I recently won a huge load on Ebay. This week I was helping Bryn make a cabin and I looked over to find Henry's "hotel" that he did all by himself.

Complete with a little dude taking a nap on a first floor hotel bed!

Now I need to find them tinker toys.