Nerds

We are nerds.... we like museums and have gone to two in the past few weeks.  Our final weekend of spring break was supposed to be our skiing weekend.  Instead, thanks to windy and chilly weather, we decided to go to the St. Paul Children's Museum which is much bigger than our nearby one and they have a cool dinosaur exhibit right now.

 We are pretending to be dinosaur babies that just hatched from this nest.  Scary!

 I am quite thankful that dinosaurs are extinct.  Although they intrigue me, I think it would be horribly frightening to walk amongst these giants!

Cooper and I pretended to be ants in the ant tunnels.  This was fun for us and stressful for our parents.  The tunnels are dark and  confusing.  At least every few minutes a child was lost and crying for their parents. Thankfully, we found our way around!

Cooper plans to be a pilot when he grows up for Sun Country or Delta airlines (can you tell which airlines we fly?!?!)  He loves, loves to dress up in community helper outfits.  Again, our parents were cringing with thoughts of lice and germs.

 I think crutches are cool!  Then again, they wouldn't be cool after 5 minutes.  I had to try them out anyhow.  Let's hope this isn't a curse for things to come.

 Cooper pretending to be a crossing guard... he is bossy so this is a perfect job for him!

 We created our own rock band

 and were shown on their play TV putting on a concert complete with fireworks!

 Cooper became a public transportation bus driver.

 The boys in plaid... we raced boats in their waterworks exhibit

We also begged and begged for our parents to spend $5 (rip-off) so we could pic's in the photo booth.  Since we are spoiled boys, they obliged and out came this treasure

Before we left, we insisted that we had our faces painted (our parents had to pretend to be artists), so we are some sort of wild animals... fitting.

 We stopped at Kids Hair for haircuts and of course, they spiked up our new do's with gel and crazy blue hair paints.  Now we really look wild!.

We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's and celebrated Uncle Jim's 32nd birthday.  It was fun to see our cousins and eat ice cream cake.  Uncle Jim let the littles help him blow out his candles too.

While I was at school, Mommy, Cooper, Jenny (old daycare Mama) and her adorable niece, whom Jenny's family adopted, all went to lunch.  We miss Jenny and talk often about her family.  We hope we continue to stay in touch- hopefully the next time will NOT be on a school day (hint to my Mom!)

My Kindergarten class had an outdoor field trip to a local state park.  We had a full day of nature hiking/scavenger hunt, fun games (predator and prey), parachute games, books/songs and more.  My teacher and class is in the above photo. Both Mom/Dad were able to chaperone the trip!

I was the prey, so here I am trying to listen for the predator and move away from him!  I did eventually get caught, gulp.

 Parachute fun

 Children's Museum Round 2.... we met up with Lucy, Lily and Laurie Jo last week for a morning of playing.  Our favorite exhibit is the waterworks one!  We spent most of our time playing in the water.  Of course, Cooper spent time making grocery deliveries too.

 I figured out how to turn the knobs/valves to make the water flow throughout the pipes.  I was amazed by this.

 Lily and I playing house :)

 We were busy construction workers too!

On Thursday, I was so excited to see almost all the snow melt in our yard.  I took Mom's phone and snapped a picture of my kitty cat snowmobile, which is covered and winterized now.  I also took this picture of the backyard.  Funny how the very next day, my school had to close due to the ice build up and power shortages in the area.  Mommy had a 2 hour late start and ventured on horrible roads that morning.  Thankfully, by the afternoon, the roads were wet and the snow has almost all melted once again.  Hello SPRING?!?!?

Well, it doesn't really matter anyhow what this weather is like, because next time we blog, we will have lots of vacation photos from Captiva!  It is our favorite time of the year; we are heading to the most beautiful place on earth with family that is so special to us.  We are blessed.....

Goodbye Winter?!?!

Today, we welcome spring!  Hard to believe after such a long winter that spring has arrived (technically). We made the most of some finally warmer temps.  Couldn't resist a silly version of a snowman in the yard to brighten our neighborhood!

 We had a fun weekend up at the lake a few weeks ago.  You would think with family close by now, it would be easy to see each other, right?!?!  Well, all winter we have been trying to get a family fun weekend planned but with busy schedules, it was a lot harder than we expected.  The good news is we picked a weekend with sunny weather and above 0 temps!

 The kids and adults spent the weekend ice fishing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling and sun-bathing (Auntie Erin and Mommy enjoyed some lounge chair time, ha!)

 Meet Cooper's pet waxies (meal worms)- gross.

We didn't catch any fish on our jig poles (game fish season was over, so no tip-ups this time, boo).  Mostly, we were just excited to scoop the holes :)

 We even scooped in between snowshoe runs!

A little more tedious than finding a tree in summer, one of many perks of being a guy :)

We loved the HUGE snowpile across from Grammy's house... king of the mountain anyone?!?!

We celebrated Dr. Seuss week... Cooper had to dress up for preschool (note the banged up eye... in 1st photo....snowmobile trailer mishap) and Mommy dressed up for "Wacky Wednesday" with the Kindergarten team.

 I was so excited for the mini-shopping cart additions at our local grocery store.  I insisted that Mom let me put the groceries in my cart, not hers.

 Mom and two of her childhood friends had a weekend getaway at Grand View Lodge.  They had a great time at the day spa, lounging, eating at delicious "adult" restaurants and sleeping in until 8:00 a.m., woo-hoo.  Family update (Meggen is like an unofficial sister of Mommy's)....Meggen just completed law school at WM (Valedictorian) and started working at a well-known firm in MPLS.  She will take a year break in a few weeks as she was selected as law clerk at the MN Supreme Court.  We couldn't be more proud of her!  Holly is a OR nurse at Children's Hospital (RN) and has a new beautiful home in the cities.  Mommy cherishes these friendships.

 Mommy received some text updates during her getaway.... we went to "Chunk's" 40th birthday party.  Chunk is Daddy's cousin, so we were able to play and see the little cousins at a small town bar of course!

Cooper and I are in the middle (me wearing a red coat and Cooper in a black jersey)

 We finished hockey a few weeks ago!  It was a long season, but we learned SO much.  Cooper has also been promoted to Mighty Mites, so we will both be Mighty Mites next year together (we will stay in MM until about age 7).  The Chi-Hi Cardinal joined us on the ice for some family fun skating.  Cooper played chicken with him... little stinker.

 I had my spring music program last week.  It was just my Kindergarten class, so it was about 20 minutes or so.  Short and sweet :)

 I had a small part in "Muffin Man."  My parents just smiled as they recalled when I hardly sang at my 3 year old program.  I knew all the words to every song and had this small part in the program... so cool!

 The audience joined us for a few songs at the end and Grammy came to watch me too.

 St. Patrick's Day was "eh" this year.  It was on Monday, so we didn't really celebrate with anything extra special.  Mommy made these snacks for Cooper's preschool (she said it was tedious and she will never do it again).

 Cooper made this beauty at preschool....

 Ballers

 Cooper refused the ramp this time and wanted to toss the ball down the lanes like the big kids!

We bowled with about 10 of our friends.  Lucy was cheering on Cooper and even gave him a love pat on one of his turns.... LOVE!

Me, I still like the ramp and scored 3 spares or so by using this.  I did bowl a few on my own (tossing it), but quickly chose the ramp because my ball went faster.

 Blow drying my hair....

 It is spring break week!  We didn't travel anywhere warm, but we have stayed busy with a playdates at a pool, bowling alley, playing around home, and we bought the Frozen soundtrack and DVD (we have all been belting out the songs around here!)  Mommy had Happy Hour with some girlfriends (she sent Daddy the above photo while he was in DC).

OK, so big news... Daddy was one of three people selected from his hospital organization (13 hospitals) to become a fellow.  The fellowship will take 18 months (along with a board exam); he ultimately is being groomed for top admin positions (CEO) in a hospital setting.  This will involve lots of studying and 6 trips to Washington DC.  He is there this week for the orientation and has said it is amazing yet intense.  We are so proud of Daddy and his work ethic, drive and passion for his career!  Rock on Daddy!