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.

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!

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!!

BRR

This winter has been one of the coldest... EVER. We have reinvested in warm boots for the kids and hope that they last for next year as well. Warm feet are HAPPY feet!
On the coldest day of the year, my ONLINE school even closed- the governor shut all schools down. So we went out and tried a few science experiments in -45* and let babies nap. It was a great day.

We did have a few warmer days and this was how we spent them!

Christmas Card

After quite a bit of thinking and planning I think we came up with the perfect Christmas card this year. We "waited" for the perfect snow-y day (meaning that we procrastinated and got lucky with a snowy day) and got a friend lined up and went to the lake path for some pictures. Of course, when we were done, all the kids wanted to do was play in the snow and on the swings!!

Fall Biking

We spent a lot of fall biking- to the fountain park, at holzingers and all over town. Emi has gotten to be so fast on her scoot bike and Peter is just a whiz on his pedal bike of course. Peter at one point this fall biked 7 miles with me while I ran around the lakes. Lainey loves riding in the backpack with us as well.

Happy Halloween!

 As usual, we had all sorts of Halloween Fun in Winona. Including, but not limited to:

 Halloween party with friends! Pinatas, bobbing for apple and Emi eating as many Cuties as possible were the highlights of that night.

 "Real Halloween"
This was the best I'm sure for Peter since he got to wear his train costume. He wasn't able to walk very quickly in it, so for the first time in Emi's life- she was able to outrun him. He was so sad that she was getting to all of the doorbells first... but the extra treats put into his smoke stack made up for it. I also wasn't going to dress up or dress Lainey up, but saw the Cinderella/Gus costume and I just couldn't resist!

 Emi was obviously so so so happy to be a cat. She just loved it.

 We decorated Mike and Julie's driveway with a Halloween train.

 Halloween at the library and the haunted stacks!

 Trick or treating with friends at SMU. These are the best two pictures I have of the group... Our entire group was friends of ours. This was the best thing ever! So fun for the kids to know everyone and for the parents to have friends to talk to. We love our "tribe" here in Winona.

Little Biker Gang

Now that school has started and the kids are going to more daycare this year than in the past, we haven't had as much time to play with friends- especially during the day- but we did sneak in a picnic over MEA with Julia, Claire and Evan- oh and Shana - at the fountain park. It was a rainy cold morning and I was sure we were going to have to eat at our house- but then the sun came out and we were set to go!

This was what Peter spent the entire time doing- riding his bike on the ledge around the planter.

Always time for some snuggles!

Look out Winona!