Celebrating Six!

Six years ago, in a Las Vegas hospital at about this time of the evening, I finally got to hold my little baby boy and gaze into his sweet eyes.  The day had been long and a bit too eventful.  My water had broke around 7 am, but my body still didn't want to go into labor.  After medical intervention to progress labor followed by an eventual c-section and 4 hours of observation of both Dane and myself, he was in my arms.  Fast forward 6 very quick years...

Dane invited his best buddy from school to spend the night Friday.

The temperature was in the 70's so we spent all evening outside.  Nora decided in the late afternoon that she wanted to wear her nightgown.

 Yesterday, we headed to Minneapolis for the rest of the weekend.  We stayed with Uncle Ben and Auntie Jen and met Grampy, Grammy, Hugh, Melodee, Zachary and Ellie to celebrate!

We spent some time yesterday touring the Mill City museum.  Nora loved the bake lab.

There were so many interactive learning activities for the kids.

I think we all enjoyed them!

 We had to spend some time outside along the river basking in the sun!

Ellie, Zachary, Nora and Dane.

Nora and Ellie were walking along hand in hand.  As I tried to snap a cute picture, Dane (who had been walking ahead of them) had to fix his shoe.  They just kept on walking!

Party time!

I made special cupcakes for my Angry Birds fan!

Dane got a Kindle Fire from Grampy, Grammy, Daddy and Mommy. He hasn't put it down much!

 This afternoon, we took a nice walk around Ben and Jen's neighborhood.  There are some beautiful trees blooming there.  We think these are called star magnolia trees.

I have to share this picture of Nora's beautiful ringlets created like this.

Happy 6th birthday to our loving, spirited growing farm boy.  You amaze us with all you have learned and all you have taught us!

This weekend

Dane came home with this tooth (his first) barely hanging on.  He tried to pull it with bare fingers, but it was too slippery.  I found him a rubber glove, and he pulled it right out!

Gone!

 In the photo above, you'll notice Dane's wet hair.  The weather was so nice that Dane and Mike had an outdoor water fight Friday afternoon.  We all wore green yesterday, but we kept pinching ourselves that it truly was 70+ degrees and sunny!  The snow (see previous post) is long gone, and the grass is starting to turn the slightest shade of green.

We've been letting the chickens out from time to time.  It sure makes the kitties curious!

Cats on three sides!

A tulip popping up.

The kids have had so much fun swinging from ropes in the barn recently.

We went for a nice long walk along the flowing creek, throwing rocks along the way.

I love so many things about this photo.  1.) My nearly 6-year-old boy's great shooting form.  2.) His sister's oblivious sideline play.  3.) My hubby's nice vertical. (And the fact that he jumped without even thinking, just 3 weeks after a minor knee surgery.)   4.) Our loyal dog lounging to the right.  5.) One of the three kitties that was watching us.  6.) Beautiful red barn.  7.) Great shadows.  8.) Blue skies.  I could go on, but you get my point!

This year, the batting cage is set up in our big old barn instead of in Grandpa and Grandma's shed.

Daddy's cute pitching team. (Dane has been smiling somewhat awkwardly in an attempt to make sure his missing tooth shows in photos!)

Have a good week!

Two weeks ago...

Two weeks ago, we finally had more than a skiff of snow to play in.  I took the kids out to play in the drifts one afternoon, and they had so much fun jumping over each other!