Love, Love, Love

It has been a beautiful week with sunny days and cool nights. I asked the kids what they wanted to do for dinner and Peter came up with a picnic at Farmer's Park. That's exactly what we did.

FP3 from garrick holey on Vimeo.

We are SO blessed.

Winona County Fair

When Peter and Emi came back from their school trip and I asked Emelia what her favorite part was, she answered "The MONKEY!" I looked at Peter and he said that yeah that was his favorite part too. The random animal petting zoo was back again complete with said monkeys, camels, fainting goats etc... When they went with their classes, they got to ride on a bus to get there, go on a ride of their choice (Emi "said" that she got to do two), and see many of the animals and have a snack!

We went back that evening as a family and pretty much did the same thing over again. But added in a long visit to the row of tractors AND saw the llamas attempting the obstacle course. Llamas can be pretty stubborn animals so when a few of the young girls we trying to jerk their llamas over the steps or under the hoops Peter would start giggling and I had to bite my cheeks so I didn't laugh as well! You could see the kids glaring at their animals and thinking "You did this yesterday!! Come ON"

 After we went to the fair, we went to our friend Susan's house to play on her trampoline and tree fort, have dessert and hang out. That night when we went to bed, I asked Emi what her favorite part of the day was... her answer: "Petting Susan's cat Nali". Sometimes I just don't know what to say!

Strawberry delivery

Over my birthday weekend, Garrick was up north doing the bike race that he does each year, so we of course went south to the beach.

We also went strawberry picking, which I thought it seemed late in the year to pick, but there were lots of berries ready to pick, and then picked out some chocolate covered strawberries to bring to GQ in her new home.

 Lainey was our main concern, but she managed just fine. She plopped her booty down in a row and found plenty of berries to eat, and eat and eat.

 The big kids worked  hard, picking as many for the basket as they ate themselves.

The girls, still eating.

 And then we had a nice visit with Grandma in her new home and shared our treats that we brought. Everyone had a good laugh over Lainey and her stained face and shirt!

BK1K for the kids!

We had racing fever in our house for a few weekends- and it was Peter that was the racer! The week after Trinona, there is the BK5K for adults and then a 1 kilometer run for the kids to do. We drove down to check it out and both Peter and Emelia were up for the challenge! Emi needed a little more assistance and lined up with Shana (who was going to run with Claire) and Claire, but Peter had no issues with getting up there with the other 5/6 year olds and giving it his best shot.

After the run, Peter did tell me, "It was fun, but I still like biking more... you know??"

First Egg Delivery!

When we sell eggs, all of the money goes into a fund for the kid's college. I just wait until I have enough to buy savings bonds with and then cash them in for each kid. Now that they are older, they are doing some of the work of organizing the eggs, finding the people to buy them and making labels for the cartons. Here Peter is delivering his first dozen eggs to our friend Gregg.

Trinona- Kids. Year 2.

Peter competed with his friend Finn in Trinona for the second year.

When we were talking about if he was going to do it, he asked about what it means to race and if he would be allowed to pass people. When I said of course- he told me that he was going to pass them two at a time on the bike and then one at a time while running.

He did a great job of swimming in the pool. Last year, he didn't start until 30 seconds after they said go, but this year, he started to paddle and kick right off the bat. He swam the whole time and didn't use the lane lines for any help. When he started to bike, he put his head down, elbows out and peddaled as fast as he could. The part that I was the most surprised at was the run. He actually passed another kid running in front of him, and when the kid passed him back, Peter kept working hard and caught up to him again. The other kid did outsprint him to the finish line, but he did a great job of working hard from start to finish.

Peter said he had a great time- especially while biking- and I think that his smile speaks for itself.

The Rock

At Saint Mary's there is a large rock outcropping up on top of the bluff that students climb up to and it is known as 'The Rock.'  In normal circumstances it is a little tricky to get up there, it is straight up, lots of roots to climb over and a very steep narrow path to follow. When we decided to go, I'm not sure what we were thinking!

Peter was so excited to go up- he took off running right out of the car. We saw some friends at the bottom of the sledding hill and stopped to talk, when we were done, he was already at the top of the hill! Emi worked really hard to climb as well and made it quite a way on her own and then when it was steep Garrick put her up on his shoulders.                                           

We sat everyone down in the middle of the rock, told them not to move at all, took a picture and then got down! I was more than a little nervous that I was going to lose someone over the edge. Of course, on the way back down, Peter was also a mile ahead of me. We joke frequently about when the kids are going to start beating us at running, biking, skiing... etc... but I have a feeling that the day is closer that I might think. It has become a lot of fun to share these special places with the kids this spring!

Emi running down the sledding hill. So green and lush!

Mama's Day

This year we took some time to go hiking at Great River Bluff State Park with the kids and then went with a lunch to a new park - to us- in Homer. Peter especially loved the hiking and kept asking if we could go sliding all of the way down the bluff into the river. He also loved looking down on the river valley and seeing the barges and trains running on the tracks. He said it looked just like a model railroad.

Lainey had the best time at the park playing. There was a small slide that she must have gone up and down 20 times on her own, usually head first.

Homer park. from garrick holey on Vimeo.

After dinner, we took a bike ride around town, went to see how high the river was and Peter rode in and out of the water for a while and then we came home and made brownies before bed time.

Biking and Running

A lot of time this spring has been spent out running with the kids. Peter is much faster than I am this year and aside from a few days with a bad attitude (and days early in the spring that were super windy), he has had a lot of fun riding ahead of me this year. Our deal is that if we go fast enough that there is time to stop and play at the park of his choice both while I load up the bike and stroller and after that.

Lainey and Emi still love to go for stroller rides. Thankfully. I did upgrade to a double BOB jogging stroller this year to give them a little more room, I felt they were getting pretty cramped inside of the Chariot, and to be honest, was looking forward to a new toy!

Emi's thing this spring that she has started to do is go down all of the slides at any park. Even the big red ones at the Lake Park. She also loves to swing and go on the merry go rounds at the park. Additionally, there are a lot of questions while we run, "who is that? why are they walking? who is that kid? why are the ducks there? where are the baby ducks? why is there a bridge? WHAT IF THE BRIDGE FELL DOWN?" and so on. Sometimes, I put in my headphones... not always though!

Lainey loves the stroller, sees it and climbs up into it. She and Emi giggle in the stroller for most of the time and I can't think of a single time that she has cried running this year. At the park, she runs for the swings and the slides.

Earth Day

We love Winona's Earth Day! This year was no different. We biked to the lake- Peter rode and I convinced Emelia to sit in the bike trailer with Lainey. This year, there were a few things at the Levy Park and the rest were around town via bus.

We waited for the bus and a few of Peter's friends from school joined us on the bus trip up to Holzinger. We got to play bingo on the bus- Peter and Starker took it VERY seriously!

 Emelia... not so much. 

 When we got there, we listened to a naturalist talk about snakes that we see around the area. When we were biking home, I asked Peter what he remembered about the snakes and he could tell me the species names (Fox, Garter and Rattle) and that one of them was poisonous- but he couldn't remember for sure which it was. He is a good listener!!

Owl Festival

The arts and crafts at the owl festival were the big hits this year. Last year, I know the flying owls were the best part since they are still talked about. This year, we just saw the owls sitting on the arm of the handler, so while Peter liked seeing them, they enjoyed the crafting the most. We also decided to skip the hooting contest since it is so late in the day and it would have been a struggle to hang out with Lainey there all day.

We also celebrated Lainey's birthday this weekend. I couldn't bring myself to put all of these pictures of Emelia on her birthday post, but they just capture who she is so well.

Children's Museum

We go on spurts of visiting the Children's Museum in LaCrosse a lot and then taking some time off. The kids still get excited each time that we go and our time is spent doing different things as they grow up.

This winter their favorite things to do were:

Lainey: Climb. On Everything. And anything. She also loved driving the boats and cars. 

Emi: Play in the Kwik Trip and make pretend pizzas. She loves pumping gas into the cars and taking "orders" and putting them in the ovens. 

Peter: The train tables and he was also up for the challenge of the rock wall this year. He consistently made it up to the ledge in that picture which is even with the first floor of the building. The wall starts in the basement. 

Happy 5 to Peter!

Peter turned FIVE this month. It was a busy week as always of many celebrations. He celebrated at the Ida's house on their own- when the kids came back they told me that Pete's birthday was over- we didn't need another party.

We didn't heed that warning. We spent the day with the Holey grandparents at LARK toys and then he and Garrick went skiing with Chris and Oscar. When they came home, there were many of his "adult" friends at our house to have cake and celebrate- the later in the week, he had his friends from school over! Big days for a big kid!

This year Peter has learned to write all of the letters and his name and words as you spell them out. He also has become some type of expert on different types of trains and has grown to love to play with his electric trains in addition to the wooden trains that he and Emelia play together with. Peter still loves to read all types of books and is learning to read and works hard on reading his BOB books. He also can complete complicated mazes and likes to color in coloring books. Peter completed the cross country ski program this winter, has become a great downhill skier going down any bunny hill with no help and has been in swimming lessons and can almost float on his back. He still loves owls, the color green, pickles and salami.
 

All of these boys have gotten BIG. Check them out five years ago...

First Birthday