Fun spring break!

I need spring break every month!

Emily scored some Minnie Mouse glasses after Jacob got his back from the eye doctor because she kept asking for hers...who could blame the girl every member of her family now wears glasses!

I really got into being more creative, cooking more, and playing more during the week. Here we made pancakes and I had all kinds of fun toppings ready to go.

Jacob didn't want pancakes for lunch so he finished his bagel...but then started adding all the toppings!

I also researched a healthy breakfast muffin recipe. Megan helped me smash bananas, measure applesauce, wheat flour, etc.

So the good news is that the recipe was great and I enjoyed a muffin...the bad news is I left them out to cool while we went to the store and when we got back there were ants all over the muffins...ulgh, in the trash they go!

I decided to take a risk and take all three kids to Bonkers by myself...most people would think it should be a no-brainer to take 3 kids places but sometimes it backfires which makes the next time harder to do! Anyways, all three did wonderful and it makes me look forward to summertime!

It's hard to see but there are giant slides and this is the first time Jacob got over his fear and not only separated from Megan but he played hard the whole time, at least 20 minutes doing the same loop of slide, climb, slide, climb, etc.

Emily would have liked to go with the big kids but I made her stay in the toddler area which she loved!

This is Megan's favorite thing to do, swing back and forth!

Megan finished coloring all of her Shrinky-Dink's so we threw them in the oven. The magic in front of their eyes was amazing, they loved every minute!

This is the first time we've let the kids bathe in our big bathtub...now they're hooked! Emily is by far the most adventurous, she purposely pours cups of water on her head and when she moves and gets a little slippery it's almost like she wants to go under...what are we going to do with this girl!

Although Jacob has his issues, we sure love him and he was loving his bubbles!

Emily was actually squealing with delight here, she'd get bubbles on her arms bring them up squeal, then plop them back down!

Megan really liked being able to float around and "swim"! Fun times, when the jets are on the bubbles get a little crazy so it doesn't last long, next time we are going with no bubbles!

Snow...during Spring Break!!!

Yea for stories to match all of the pictures!!! We are trying to enjoy this last (hopefully but who knows these days!) round of snow. Megan started praying that the snow wouldn't come because she had to miss Palm Sunday at church and she said she knew all the songs her class was singing and she was going to wave a Palm. Plus she is very concerned about the Easter Bunny making its way in the snow (hopefully it will melt...which means a soggy Easter egg hunt!). She is definitely making the best of it though!

So Spring has begun and we are starting to gather summer supplies like swim suits, flip flops, and goggles and while the snow storm was raging outside the kids decided to play dressup with their summer stuff...and then being the great mother that I am, I decided to take a few chilly pictures outside to welcome spring!

Emily was totally getting snowed on and didn't care in the least, Jacob was the first to run back inside, and Megan would have stayed out there if I let her!

Michael, Megan, and Emily managed to shovel the driveway, walkway, and had a blast throwing brooms at the cedar trees to knock off the snow! The next day we took everyone outside and Megan decided to clear off the slide!

Cheese!

Emily enjoyed swinging in the snow! She is another snow bunny who would stay out there all day and night if we let her!

Random fun!

Yea for more stories!

Jacob is loving his giant legos! He started building his "trail" for his cars and made sure each one attached exactly like the one before it.

Wow, Megan has come a long way and is confidently reading now! She continues to struggle with b's d's A/I and words like was/saw reversing the order. However, she has an amazing teacher who has changed Megan this year! We are ecstatic with her effort and her grades as well. She also has the uncanny ability to memorize things (which is great for spelling and memory work!) unlike her mother who has to study and study to memorize something!

Here is a finished shot of the trail! Jacob is in motion jumping over the structure! He is a crazy jumper, he spends more time jumping than walking these days!

And this is what a total crash after spending the day with Grammy looks like! He didn't last 5 minutes in the car before the sleep took over!

Here we are enjoying new birthday legos! All 3 kiddos love to play legos and it's fun to see their play with the building of legos develop!

Different day, more table activities! This day the kids decided to make Easter pictures for their teachers.

Jacob is loving his new clothes thanks to cousins Luke and Adam. He did ask me today why all of his clothes used to be Luke and Adams...luckily he is still young enough not to care and just loves the new stuff and so do I, super thankful for hand-me-downs!

At the pet store they have Disney everything so Megan picked out a new Minnie toy for Shoney...when we gave it to her she was proud as a peacock! Then Emily came into the room and was trying to take it away because her current favorite show is "Mouse." I have to admit, Shoney is a rockstar with all of the stuffed animals/balls/toys in the house, she hasn't ruined anything in months and she has learned that if we give it to her it's hers...now if she would only learn that about toilet paper rolls we would be even better!

Emily is rather finicky about things on her hands...so when the paint got on her hands she starting saying "ewww, off please, help me, help me..."

When I tried to tell her it was okay to be messy, her words turned to cries...hopefully she grows out of this soon!

Here Emily is doing one of her all-time favorite things...watching the popcorn pop. Anytime we mention popcorn she starts chanting "ca-corn, ca-corn, CA-CORN..." louder and louder. She loves it, ahh to be the third kid! Megan didn't have popcorn until at least 4!

Birthday fun!

Jacob's 4th Birthday Party was a big hit. The kids loved coming dressed up in their favorite super hero or character. Grandma Dierking came as Superman and Jacob absolutely loved it! We had the party at 10am which worked out great because breakfast was fun to cook and everyone was gone by nap time so no major meltdowns!

I love this picture! There are several sibling pairs that will be fun for our kids to grow up with and this is one of them. Kambry and Megan are in the same grade and Daven will be a year ahead of Jacob.

Here is most of the crew! A couple of the kids who were there didn't make it in the picture (John and Jessie!) Another fun sibling pair is Hope (on the end) and Parker. Megan and Hope and friends, and Parker and Jacob I would consider destined to be friends because they will be in the same grade and both are rather tall for their age!

Ahhh, the presents!!! We pretty much let Jacob rip through the presents and he loved everything, by the end of the party I think everything was opened and out of the box! 

Here is a picture of him and his superhero cake. I have to admit, my vision for the cake was a little different than how it turned out but overall it's a good cake make to look like buildings with all the superheros and villains (Squinkies).

Time to eat!

More fun!

Stories coming someday! Megan lost her 1st tooth! Family dinner for Jacobs birthday, the hostess offered to take a pic! And free Bon Jovi tickets, Michael was a trooper and came with me the day after him expansion came out! What a guy!

Megan loved dressing up for National Lutheran Schools Week. They paired each day with a Dr. Seuss book and spirit day. For this day she had crazy hair and she said her class picked her to go up front during chapel to represent!

Her first loose tooth is finally gone! She was starting to despair because being the youngest in her grade everyone else has lost many many teeth and now she is finally in the club!

Jacob's birthday dinner at Chili's, the kids piled on top of each other while we waited and the hostess was great and asked if we wanted her to take a picture! Yea for a family pic!

A friend of a friend won free Bon Jovi tickets on the radio and couldn't go to the concert. I jumped and the chance and had planned to take along my sister in law but she ended up getting sick so Michael stepped up and went to the concert with me! It was his first official concert. I loved it of course but I love any kind of performance! By the end everyone was shouting the Living on a Prayer song, it was great fun! We couldn't have went without my mom coming over to stay with the kids which was asked at the last minute and she had to work at 6am the next day! Thanks mom!

We took this picture after the concert. Next time we are debating budgeting for the $10 a mug of beer!

Friends!!

We decided to have a fun weekend of friends over! It's always a fun idea because it breaks up the kids and adding another kiddo changes things around here!

They all played dressup first, then they tried to wrestle which I put a stop to because as much fun as they have it never ends well!

The Iron Pair!

Jacob and John had a blast with the car track pretending to make the cars go.

Then the cars went off roading and went into destruction mode! It was fun to see Jacob have some boy time!

Now the cars are talking!

Settling in for a nice movie with popcorn before bedtime. 

John and Allie came back the next morning to hang out for a little bit! Nicole and I joke that if Jacob and Allie ever get together we are doomed because they are both our "challenge" at home! They called this their first picnic!

Another picture of the whole crew! So much fun!

Allie and Emily are sure to be friends too, they look like they could be related, both with crazy curly hair!

Round 2!!!

More snow...this time it was a ton of snow. We managed to break a snow shovel and the poor cedar trees aren't looking so good!

The pictures don't capture how beautiful the backyard was, it was gorgeous! And when I first woke up and looked outside there was a deer walking by the woods!