A Beautiful Easter!

Preparing for Easter... The kids love to color the eggs

Easter morning is always filled with excitement. This year the Easter Bunny hid the baskets around the house. He also left all the eggs filled with a note for Mom and Dad to hide the eggs outside after church. The kids also had a basket from Grandpi and Grandma. They were excited to find a basket filled with new shirts and lots of Peeps.

After church they had a few minutes outside before we went across the street for brunch.

Before everyone changed into their summer clothes we managed to get a quick family photo.

After brunch we went outside to find all the eggs the Easter Bunny had left for the kids. It was so nice that day that we pretty much spent the rest of the day outside, on a walk, at the park and grilling burgers for dinner.

Sequoia Bear Meets the Knights

Meet Sequoia Bear. Sequoia is Olivia's classroom bear at Orchard Park. Each weekend Sequoia picks a student to spend the weekend at their house. He makes his choice based on who did good listening and was kind to their friends. Olivia was so excited when I picked her up on Friday and she was told that Sequoia had selected her!

 Aunt Kate read Corduroy to Olivia and Sequoia on Friday night.

 Sequoia loved snuggling at night with Olivia.

 And he loved having cinnamon dolces with Olivia on Saturday morning. I think Olivia was having fun as well. She spent over an hour sitting in our living room looking at Sequoia's journal and playing "school". I was working at the table and it was so fun to sit and listen to her story/play.

 Sequoia also joined us at Costco on Saturday and let me tell you that bear liked the samples as much as the kids.

 And on Sunday he came with us to church and Byerly's. Olivia wanted to make sure he met our friends Don and Kathy at the grocery store. 

Thanks for a great weekend Sequoia Bear! Until next time...

Harlem Globetrotters

Ben has been really into basketball over the last few weeks. He has been playing in the drive way whenever he has the chance. This made the invite to see the Globetrotter that much more exciting! On Saturday Julie took Ben to see the Harlem Globetrotters at the Target Center. He was so excited to go after watching youtube videos of them all week. They went early to the "meet and greet" and Ben had his picture taken with some of the players.

 He came home in his new fancy Globetrotter jersey with his new ball signed by the team and now he is ready to play!

Thanks Julie for the GREAT day!

No Kids Allowed!

We decided our friends needed a night out without the kids. Trevor and I thought about getting our high school friends together to rent a room at a restaurant somewhere but then decided it would be more fun in the comforts of our own home.  So we sent our kids away for a sleepover at Aunt Kate's.  It was so nice to be able to have good conversation without yelling at the kids or getting up from the table 10 times before we were through with salads. We were all able to sit around the table together and enjoy each other's company. Only a few were unable to make it but they were with us in spirit.

 The Menu:

Appetizers- buffalo chicken dip, cheese and crackers, Greek humus dip

Dinner- Chipotle pork tenderloin, grilled salmon, salad, roasted broccoli and spinach/rice casserole 

Dessert- chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate fondue with goodies

Drinks- YES PLEASE (Trevor made sure we had a whole bar to choose from)

Thank you all for making the night a HUGE success! 

Fun in the Snow

With the warmer weather we finally got outside to play in HUGE snow piles in the yard. It was 50 degrees outside but we still had to bundle up to stay dry. When the kids came inside almost 2 hours later they were soaking wet but had BIG smiles on their faces.

                                           
                               
                               
                               
                               
                               
                               
                               

Good Times Park

A couple weeks ago I got to go with Olivia and her class on a field trip to Good Times Park in Eagan. It was so nice for the kids to have a place to run around for a while since they have had so many days without any outside time.

 Olivia and her friend Allie were having a great time on the giant jumping pillow.

 Mommy even had a few trips down the slide with Olivia.

Man's Best Friend...

...Or in this case Boy's Best Friend! 

 Jameson just loves Scout. He can often times be found just hanging out in some corner of the house with Scout. He just sits and pets Scout or snuggles with him or in the case below uses him as a back rest.

 Sometimes in the evening when Scout has retreated to the bedroom away from all the noise Jameson will ask "Where Scout go". When I tell him Scout is in the bedroom he will turn and walk away and go off to find his friend. 

The best part is Scout just puts up with Jameson sitting or lying all over him. I think he might even like it. This is such a change from the dog that use to run for the hill if Ben got anywhere near him when Ben was little. I think he has just come to accept his place in the pecking order in this family. I think he is realizing his place may not be so bad after all. These two just have the sweetest relationship!