Birthday and Easter Weekend

This past weekend my mom came to Madison!  In the car was my nephew Cade and niece Lucy to celebrate Easter and a few Birthdays this past weekend with us.  Drew and Claire were in heaven!

Cade's Birthday was last week and my mom's is this week.  A cake and candles were in order:)

We also tied in a few Easter activities.  The kiddos are at SUCH fun ages for holidays and their excitement!  We planted a few jelly beans outside to see what would happen...

After watering them, the craziest thing happened and they grew into suckers!

Drew and his cousin Cade

Based on everyone's eyes, the sun must have been hitting just right...

After going on a walk we came home to a trail of carrots..

And the Easter Bunny had arrived!!

Happy Easter

Spring Break In Minneapolis

Drew, Claire, and Andy all had the same spring break so we hit the road for Minneapolis for a few days.  The weather was great and it was nice to spend time with family.

Claire is in LOVE with uncle Matt!

The spring festival was going on at Como Park.  The park was full of activities for children and it actually felt like spring with the flowers in bloom.

Drew and Claire loved looking at this little guy!  It was so crazy he was so content in the pool and would just stare at the kiddos!!

Drew is doing amazing with his reading and has moved up several levels!!  To reward him we told him we would take him rock climbing!!  We were in good hands with uncle Aric who is a pro!

Drew and Claire blew us away with their skills!!!  

Drew had NO fear at all and went straight to the top!!

Above he is repelling down with uncle Aric.

We were at the gym for over FIVE hours!!  The kiddos could have stayed longer, however the adults were done!  A fun new hobby the entire family can enjoy!

After School Fun

After school this is our standard activity snow boarding and sledding!!  The sledding hill is right on the school playground!  Not only do the kiddos love it, the adults love it as we get an opportunity to visit.  Standard daily there are thirty kiddos having a ball!

Claire making a train with her friends (she is in the pink coat)

Drew has blown Andy and I away with his snow boarding skills!  He wanted a snow board sooooo bad and had never tried one before.  Luckily they were on sale and we bought one for him.  Drew strapped in his feet and he was a PRO!!!  

Devils Lake Winter Hike

This weekend we took advantage of the warmer temps and the sun being out and went for a winter hike through Devils Lake State park.  The park is amazing full of trails and a huge lake.  It was so nice to be able to be outside and not be freezing and enjoy the fresh air!

Where we parked our car it was about a quarter mile of a walk to where the trail began.  Claire I think took three steps and asked to be on Andy's shoulders....

Drew luckily found a hiking stick that someone left in the parking lot.  However, he made it about twenty steps and needed to rest.... Andy and I both agreed... we didn't even know if we would be able to make it out of the parking lot.

At last we made it to the trails!  Both kiddos magically had tons of energy and we were off!

Claire also found a hiking stick and loved it

We hiked for over an hour (which was actually hard as the snow was deep!)  The views were beautiful of the lake and the kiddos did amazing.

Girls Weekend

This past weekend I had a weekend away with amazing college girlfriends.  We met up in our old stomping ground Cedar Falls for one night.  It was so much fun to catch up and to sleep in past 6am!!  Love these gals!

Badger Basketball

On Sunday afternoon we took the kiddos to their first Badger basketball game (as well as our first time!)  Our house is right outside a bus stop that will take us straight to the stadium.  The kiddos love riding the bus and it's a win-win as we don't have to deal with parking or traffic.

We had a wonderful time and look forward to our next game!

Claire and her baby waiting for the bus

Enjoying the relaxing bus ride

Outside the Kohl Center 

Drew and Claire did and amazing job at the game and actually watched it!!!  We were even on the 

jumbo tron!!

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The kiddos loved running into Bucky Badger

Ice Skating

This past week we took advantage of the nice weather and took the kiddos ice skating for the first time.  We went with some friends of ours and brought all the hockey gear!  

This was Drew and Claire first time ice skating and we were telling them that they might have to use the "walkers"  to learn how to skate when they first get onto the ice.  Well.... they proved us wrong and did not need them AT ALL!!!  They went off like they've bee doing this their entire life and we were amazed!!

We had a great time with great friends

Drew and his buddy Rowe enjoyed passing the puck 

Fearless Claire jumped right in and was ready for home hockey as well!