Signs of Winter (ya, you heard me)

I cant believe this...3 more inches of snow. It would have been pretty if it was November...but no. It is not. I have to be grateful that we were not repetitively hit with snow in March like we were last year.When it is crappy out.....we go bowling!
Beckie-119, Jamison-79, Pat-127 and Peter 49. The most amazing event was Peter's 3 "gutter balls", and that is with the bumpers up. Can you believe it! He was able to roll the ball in between the pin and the end with out hitting any of the 10 pins...not just once, but three times! Poor guy.And Jamison was fascinated with the black lights and what they did to his underware. Perfect form Jamison!We also bunked the boys beds again, this time Peter in top and Jamison on bottom. Both boys are pretty happy with the set up and the added space in their rooms. We can now lounge on the bean bags for story time. I think the boys will have to grow into those bean bags.

Signs of Spring

The boys and I decided to go into the woods to look for signs of spring. There have been a few warmer days then it goes right back to 27° and I just dont believe spring is coming. We discovered the two willow trees have buds, and even the apple tree!. Worms are wiggling under rotton logs and the rhubarb is popping up. We found this awesome cool mushroom (and had a quick reminder that we do not eat anything that we find in the woods unless mom or dad says it is ok) and the most exciting.......(at least for nature geek mom) was a butterfly. We did not get a picture but if an insect can get its wing flapping spring has to be coming. We then went beck down to the boys favorite pile of downed trees...tried out our balancing skills and pretended to be a sloth. The most impt thihg for the boys to do was to get muddy...and they did a really good job at that. Back in the house...we made new crayons by peeling all of out small old ones, sorting them into color families and melting them in the crockpot. (thanks crockpot lady). And at lunch we discovered a note from daddy. Peter and Pat have been having the battle of the hard salami...both feel that salami is natures finest food and both feel they need to eat it before the other one does.
Pat and the boys started to disassemble the deck. We are planning to put a new one very soon...and lets face it, men like to take things apart more then put them together. The boys love to help and have picked up Pat's dropped tools about 20 times and have hauled pieced of old decking. The deck has been declared a "no zone" so hopefully no one will forget and run back there and fall through the holes. hmmmmm I put my money on Jamison being the first one.

(I forgot to load these last week)

I brought the boys some cool, magic t-shirts. The boys have worn these every other day since I came home. Here they are in their normal state. And here they are in the sun light! THEY ARE MAGIC. The weather was really nice last week and the boys spent a lot of time riding their bikes. Here is Jamison trying to keep up with Nathan, the kid that lives next to this parking lot. He is 8. Peter is making great progress...he will be super speedy in no time! This past weekend the boys and I headed up to Green Bay, to give Pat some BFT (boy free time), spend some time with gma and gpa and for me to have dinner at a friends house. We went to the Appleton Childrens Museum...sadly I forgot my camera. Jamison was out of his mind! there were too many fun things to do. Peter spent time in the water area and the craft area making a solar system. The boys had a great weekend and loved grandma's impromtu art project! glue, pipe cleaners, glitter and a toilet paper roll.....amazing! Whew, I caught up...now if it would only stop raining around here....

Pretty Lady cruise

There once were four pretty ladies (PL) that all were stressed out and tired. In a plea for help...one PL talked the others to join her in a cruise to the Bahamas on the Norwegian Sky.
With champagne in hand, we boarded and had a few nice days, adult conversation, fruity drinks and sun that could warm your soul (and fry your chicken parts). We hit the straw market in Nassau, looked at a lot of jewelry that we all wanted to buy but didnt, and ate conch fritters and local bahamian beer. OH, the peace and quiet was very much needed and enjoyed. THANKS PRETTY LADIES!
The most exciting part of the trip (other than being served my meals, not cooking or doing dishes and no one calling for mom) was that we got to see the space shuttle Discovery launch. That little yellow dot is it starting....and you could watch it go up and up and up! I did not have time to play with the camera but these are the best shots I could get. Thanks NASA for delaying the launch 'til Sunday! You can check that off my life list. NOW, if Chicago can get the Olympics..This is one with out a flash...looked more like what was really happening. And that bright white patch is not a cloud...it was condensation blah blah blah from blah blah blah. There was a Cliff Claven standing next to us....very nice guy but very talkative. While momma was drinking fruity drinks and getting sunburned.....the men of the family headed north to visit gma and gpa....ie Pat wanted reinforcements when I was gone. The boys got to ride in gpa's newest toy, a pug. If you look closely you can see the make-shift seat and setbelt. Makes me feel safer....ha! And then they did some ice fishing. No one caught any fish that day. Everyone is glad to be home...esp when it is 70°!

Odds and ends

A beautiful day means a trip to the zoo! I think everyone in the Madison area thought the same thing. Peter did a great job navigating through the use thanks to his useful map! The boys have been dying to get the bikes out....even though there was lots of rain, we got them out. Peter even tried out his new bike! and now he is talking about ramps...dude, you need to know how to stop first then get the training wheels off before you hit a ramp! As mentioned, we got a lot of rain. And then more rain, and then some snow. We decided to capture a few more trolls around town. We captured this one before but I cant find an electronic copy of it. So we captured it again. This one is made out of metal, Peter was pretty proud that he found this one all by himself. I never knew about him!. I think we have a total of 4 left, 2 at Little Norway which does not open until May1st and the other two are believed to be at the troll hospital. I dont think we will get those.

not all that exciting

Our days have not been all that exciting. One morning I woke up feeling like I was in the movie "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray and thought to myself...when the heck is spring coming.! So I said, "boys! are we interested in going to the zoo today?" and Peter replies "No, I would like to go shopping and pick out some comfortable pants and a cool shirt" REALLY? Is this my kid? So, we went to the mall, and let me tell you, Peter is the shopper! He settled on the transformer shirt and some new frog underware (from the Gap no less. He walked past the store front and said "this is a super cool store" and walked right in. Were they wafting kid crack into the mall, man!). Peter then got mad because the shirt sat in the dirty laudry pile for a day. I told him the secret of getting his clothes clean...put it in the laundry basket by the washing maching, the clothes in there get washed faster. Now, every evening he walks his clothes to the laundry room and then asks the next morning if his transformer shirt is clean. Oy vey!Jamison picked out a cool dino shirt but will just look at it saying that he will ware it when he can wear naked arm shirts. Hopefully he wont outgrow it by then.We have been coloring a lot! a new passion for the boys. It is nice...they will do this for hours! but you can now no longer see my refridgerator.To make things exciting I thought we would be crazy and make fun sandwiches...this backfired on me. Jamison flipped out because his dinosaur had to be made out of 2 sandwiches (cookie cutter was too big). He proceeded to reinact the meteor crash of 25million years ago and destroyed any evidence of dinosaurs. Lets just say we are not doing that again unless I find the perfect shape cookie cutters.Today we went on a "troll hunt" We have a few more of these creatures to capture, but we were fortunate to check three off of our list. The one below was located at the kindergarten, the school that the boys will be going to next year. Peter was a little intimidated and would only whisper when we were inside. I think we have a couple things to work on before we go. Jamison was so excited to see some kids walking to lunch and then started planning what he was going to have at lunch while at kindergarten.Well, this is the next item for the boys bribe...i mean good boy sticker charts. Remember, the need 10, 4 sticker days. They both currently have 6. Who knows when they will actually earn these. They both agree that category 2 is the most difficult (good manners at the table). I guess I always make poison for dinner.