Pictures

Will - 3 yrs old

Maddie - 3 yrs old

Alex - 5 yrs old

Enjoying a Spring Day!

We were teased with great weather last week. The kids were able to play outside a lot and that included their snack time...

Our 5 year old!!

Alex turned 5 yesterday!! She has been so excited for the past 2 weeks. Her birthday finally arrived and she was able to enjoy it at preschool with her friends and then at Grammy & Grandad's with family last night.

Showing me what it looks like to be 5!

Wearing her birthday Tiara!

Her Tinkerbelle cake/cookie

Blowing out candles (with help from Judah & Will)

Her new Smurfette Mushroom House

Alex & Robyn (with doggy "Fluffy")

Giving Willy a pinwheel for Barb

Bowling a 300!!

We are now being swept into the world of birthday parties...that goes with the kids being in school, right?! Katie went to her first "all class" birthday party today. It was at a local bowling alley. She has been so excited all week (good blackmail material to keep her on task all week!). On the way home from the party, she was telling us that she beat the girls AND the boys in bowling. That is amazing in & of itself considering this is the first time she has EVER bowled. Of course, they had the bumpers set up, but still...

A bit later, when Matt got home from work, I told Katie to share the exciting news about the bowling party. After she did, I asked her if she remembered her score. Without missing a beat, she says "390". I started laughing and told her that the highest a person can score in bowling is a 300. Her response was a QUICK "oh yeah...I got that...a 300". Simply amazing!! Now I am wondering if she really did beat all the other kids...

Becoming Quite the Young Lady...

We have noticed that Maddie is turning into quite the young lady. She loves to walk around with a purse and phone...often times wearing sun glasses and wearing dress up shoes. Sunday was no different. As we were leaving church, Maddie asked if she could carry my purse. She carried it all the way to the van and I told her that she could hold it while we drove home. She loves to play with my cell phone and look at the pictures in the wallet. While driving through Wendy's (just before Matt started to order)...we heard Will's voice...a very soft, slow set of words..."uh....oh...."

I looked back at Maddie and couldn't focus on what I was seeing. At first I thought a pen had exploded on her...and then the realization came to me....

Once again, she was trying to be a young lady...

Notice my purse. She was nice enough to throw the evidence...er...the lipstick, into the cupholder rather than the floor. Needless to say, Matt laughed through the entire order and we did quick cleanup after we got our food!

Enjoying a Beautiful Day

Due to work schedules & babysitter schedules, we decided to do an anniversary date a month early. Boy oh boy did we get lucky with our beautiful weather! The past 2 years have been either cold or rainy (or both Rockford)!

We got a late start but headed to Princeton, IL to find 3 new boxes: Bureau County Bear & The Unicorn by Pitties and Noah's Ark by Agnes (we needed to get the latest additions to the Ark).

Yes, I HATE it when he does this...I imagine every possible animal that could live in this tree... eating his hand for lunch!


We were successful with all 3 boxes and soon headed to a local bar & grill in Princeton (thanks for the suggestion Pitties) for lunch.

Our next stop was in Durant, IA to pick up a new toy for the kids. This is something that we normally can't afford...but we came across a great deal and couldn't pass it up! The kids were shocked (and sad that it was way past bedtime when they got home and saw it). They did get to enjoy it lots on Sunday though. Here's Matt & I after putting the house together, Alex ready to eat her lunch on Sunday and Maddie washing dishes.

We would have loved to have more time to letterbox, hopefully our weather is breaking and we can start up with the family day trips again soon. We are ready to travel!!!

Silly Willy Billy

Yes, he continues to love dressing up and being silly. Unfortunately, we don't have many boy dress up clothes for him to use! He got into Katie's school bag and found her gloves, hat and boa. This picture is mid-clap. He was pretty proud of himself!

Picnic Lunch

We took Katie on a special date last weekend to talk with her about school and enjoy some one on one time with her. We put together a quick lunch for the kids including Katie...it would be a few more hours before we would eat again. They asked for a picnic...this is the best we could do on short notice and very limited time. Cute picture of them either way.

School

After much prayer...and more after that...we have decided to place Katie (and all 4 kids eventually) into school. I have enjoyed homeschooling Katie, but was finding it harder and harder to keep up with life! I am a type A person and felt like I was struggling to keep up with everything. We decided that the best thing for the family would be to place them into a school. It has been a wonderful week for Katie - she got in the van after the first day of school and before saying anything else, said "Mommy, school is GREAT!!". She loves her class and teacher. She loves gym, art, recess, lunch, computer time and her many new friends. God has answered our prayers with a new "best friend" in Zoe. She has taken Katie under her wings and shown her all around.

Katie walking into the playground at Roosevelt Elementary.

Discovery Center

I wanted to add some pictures from the past few weeks. We really haven't done much because of the weather. It seems like we get decent weather during the week and rain and cold on the weekend. Even Alex has told us that she would like to take a trip and do letterboxing. We are ready to get out!! We headed to Clinton, IA last weekend to play at their Discovery Center.

We saw a handful of Eagles between here and Clinton...they are so beautiful!

Maddie playing with a doll and stroller

Will playing with the trains...surprise!

Maddie & Will watching the electric train.

Alex played in the grocery store most of the time. Katie joined her to purchase some food.

SuperGirl!!!


Maddie putting on a puppet show for Matt, Will & Maddie "eating" FrootLoops, Will making some music.

Milk

This morning Maddie was asking me for milk. Her "M" isn't quite an "MMMM" sound though. I tried to get her to say the "m" by having her say "mmmmmm...ilk". I did that a few times and she kept say "mmmm...filk". So, I tried one last time. "Maddie can you say mmmmilk". She looked at me and "Yeah Mommy, good job!"