Sweet Music

Monday Morning

I might be an awful mom for doing this, but I couldn't resist. I just went upstairs to straighten up and get some laundry done and walked down the hall and first saw Austin's room, which just deflated my optimistic thought of getting the upstairs nice and clean. Remember, the kids have been home on spring break all week, however, we did have one day where their rooms were clean and spotless...not to last. Then I turned and saw Nicole's room, which wasn't AS bad, but not good. Pretty standard actually....so is Austin's (good thing he's cute). Then I turned the other direction and saw Casey's. I did not touch a thing in any of the rooms; I went right downstairs to get my camera and texted Nicole for permission to post a picture of her room on the blog (didn't want to deal with that later!). She thinks I'm crazy. So anyway, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!





Austin...

Nicole....

Casey...

Krazy Kitty

We have so many pictures of this krazy kitty, I thought I'd post some. The kids are constantly saying "take a picture of Stormy" in some silly predicament.




Her very favorite spot, the kitchen window. Yes, she's spoiled because she walks across the kitchen counter to get there.

What a Difference

What a difference a week makes in Minnesota! Not even a week ago, we were buried in snow and everyday it warmed up more, then today we were 65 with sunshine. It was a great spring day and the birds were out and the kids were in shorts! We've survived another tundra winter and there is such an excitement in the neighborhood. Everybody is out blowing the sand off their yards and driveways (for you southerners, it comes from the salt & sand trucks) and getting out their summer toys like motorcycles, boats and bikes.

Gymnastics

I finally took my camera to gymnastics - I always forget! Austin tagged along to Casey's lesson with Adam this week and they had such a great time. Adam has been giving Casey her private lessons for about 2 years now and he has become very special to us. He knows Casey so well and not only teaches her gymnastics, but many life lessons, such as patience, hard work, persevering and having great fun!

More Kitchen Stuff

Here are some pics of the new stools in the kitchen - I love them! (And the kids love the boxes they came in).



We also redid the main floor bathroom counter - the counter is actually more black than the picture shows.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Fun Times at Chuck E Cheese yesterday!

Counting out the treasured coins

But All They Really Need....

We bought some new barstools for the kitchen counter, but the best part was the boxes they came in. Seriously, all kids really need is a box. Casey & Austin watched TV together in one, set up all their webkins on it, then decided that they would sleep in them. They had reading time in them and then really slept all night in them! I was worried about their air supply, so I had to check on them in the night (safety man has rubbed off on me!) and they slept until almost 10 am. That might be the secret to a great weekend morning!

Spring Break Fun

Casey & Austin are off school this week - Nicole was off a few weeks ago, so unfortunately, their breaks didn't match up. We are just hanging around at home and actually really enjoying just sleeping in late and not rushing off anywhere. They've played with friends alot and yesterday we got a snow storm but the temp is in the 40s so it's perfect playing-in-the-snow weather.

Casey, Kari & Taylor

Casey beading today with Mom

Best Buds! Austin & Grant had a great two days together

Grant hiding from Cary in a snowball fight!

A Little Renovating

We did a little renovating in our kitchen over the last week, replacing our old countertops with granite. Cary met a Northwest pilot who has a granite business and we just had a great experience with Neil - not only is he an excellent craftsman, but became a great friend over the last few weeks. One of my favorite parts of this was going to a granite warehouse with Casey & Austin. After choosing our stone, we wandered for 2 hours in there looking at rock from all over the world - it was a great geography lesson because each slab was marked with the name of the country and a map; ours came from Brazil. One of the most beautiful pieces we saw came from Pakistan.
Out with the old....

A little plumbing lesson from Daddy....

This piece of granite on the peninsula weighs 650 lbs. Yes, that's right - it was so heavy!