The "Far Away" game

This afternoon the kids packed up back packs.  Got a snack and a water bottle. Got cameras and binoculars and walkie talkies.  And headed "far away".  Into the field behind our house that is.  They brought Daddy and Charlie along but once out in the field every one had to split up so they could use the walkie talkies and feel like they really were "far away".

Saturday, around the yard

Yesterday was a little chilly but sunny and nice spring weather.  We had a day time fire, did a little yard cleaning up, hung a new hummingbird feeder and played around.  The neighbors have given us a house for Charlie to help him stay cool in the summer......but it looks as though someone else likes it better!
The Trilliums are blooming!  Every year we have more of them in our woods and it makes me so happy.

A big discovery for Maya

She figured it out. She can swing by herself! She's got the whole leg pumping thing down.

Sunshine and warmth again

Yesterday was quite warm and sunny. Maya and I peeled ourselves off the couch for a while and got some fresh air.

Our guest for the weekend

Meet Slither. Alex's friend has Slither as a pet and was worried he would be lonely while their family was out of town for the weekend. So he spent the weekend with us. My mom was not aware of our arrangements for Slither when she signed up to come help us. :)

The kids have really been enjoying watching him. Yesterday when we had all the doors and windows open he was very active (I think he really wanted out :/)

And things go down hill from there...

I just realized my other previous posts are out of chronological order. Spring break came first then Easter... but the above picture is a sort of explanation that starts somewhere between the two.

In the midst of spring break the cold that Alex had been fighting got worse and not better, including high fevers. A trip to an urgent care in Green Bay confirmed pneumonia :(

By the time we went home despite being on meds for several days he was really not better. A trip to our local doc revealed the medicine he was on was not effective against the #1 cause of bacterial pneumonia in his age group. So, different meds and a whole week off school brought us to Easter weekend.

We were all feeling decent for the weekend but Sunday afternoon I started feeling "off". Fast forward and summarizing.....I got pneumonia as well and within another day or so Maya had it too.

My mom ended up coming over mid week because Ben had been out of town and things were kind of descending into chaos here with me being so sick.

Here we are at the end of another week.

There is still some coughing, still some stuffiness but over all improvement.

Not at all what we had planned for this week.

Spring Break - Discovery World

We went to Green Bay for spring break. Alex was getting over a cold so we didn't plan too much, but did plan one big day in Milwaukee. We went to Discovery World in the morning and the Milwaukee zoo in the afternoon.

Ben's birthday

Kid made cake and the birthday song complete with the "cha, cha, cha's". Doesn't get much better!

Easter morning

March 19th, northern Michigan, playing in the sprinkler

The haircuts

Maya has been asking for short hair for a long time, we've held off because we weren't sure she understood that it wouldn't grow back right away. Once at the haircut place Alex went first and when it was Maya's turn she told them she wanted her hair "just like her brother's" ! ! We compromised with the above!

and a week later..

some spring eh?