Grandma and Grandpa Koski come to town!!

My parents gave up some amazing AZ spring weather for our cold and rainy days! But oh, how we loved having them!!! In a nutshell, here's what we did!

Abby called Grandma before the trip and asked for some help with a "museum" project she had to do on a chosen area. She chose the desert...this was a nice combination. Grandma taught us about plants and cool nature finds in her yard, and Abby passed the new knowledge on to her class!

We spent a day at the Milwaukee Public Museum--or if you don't believe us we were in the African Savannah.

A little goofy crafting--we made 8-10 of these guys, but here are just a couple--

Story time with Grandma
Abby loves making her snuggly place to sleep while she lends her bed to her grandparents.
Grandpa teaches Andrew how to view a Diamondbacks game online--it's pretty slick!
On our best chance at a sunny day we went to Kohler Andrae State Park. The kids loved this place last summer and were really excited to come back.
I love the mid-air shots--

Eliza gave us one iddybiddy jump, but it still looks impressive.
I remember doing this when I was little...
We had a scout fundraiser auction and bought this cake! Is it adorable or what. Girly cake was good cause for a girl picture. Then it was devoured by everyone in not such a girly fashion.
We also went out to a delicious dinner at a cool restaurant nestled in the woods, toured Germantown, played at a couple fun playgrounds, played "fishing" and got kazoos and fun games from Grandma, had a movie night, played old maid, and all that good stuff!

We love you Mom and Dad!!! We loved having you here at our home!

Firsts

Today I ran 7 miles for the first time ever. Though I feel accomplished, I did say an audible "ow ow" as I traversed down my stairs today. I ran 6 miles outside last week, first time in many years. Anne...get out your calendar. :)

I also finished listening to a book on CD today. Kind of fun to try. Nice to "read" while I put a binder of memorabilia together. Otherwise, a bit tricky to find quiet "alone" time to listen to my story aloud. (No decent headphones around.) Sometimes a quiet book would have been preferred. Fun story--Goose Girl. I've been enjoying the fairytales retold lately.

Any firsts for any of you?

Thank you, Charles Schulz...

...for driving us crazy!

Daniel picked up this puzzle a while back--it is a mosaic of millions (pretty much) of Peanuts cartoon pictures. It definitely took a different sort of puzzle-doing-strategy. The kids tried to like it (and were occasionally happily successful), but it was just hard for them. They did, however, get into it at the end when it was easier to grab a piece and pop it in. We've been in a puzzle groove lately. Last Friday night we went on a family date to a cool puzzle shop and picked up a few more. (And a bit kid friendlier.) And now that ol' Joe Cool is completed, bring 'em on!

April Showers a month early

What else can you do when it's raining cats and dogs and occasionally hailing gerbils?

Andrew the MANdrew

This kid has been busy. First he had a mega-sick week. Poor kid was down. We BARELY nursed him back to health in time for him to receive an award in a school assembly! This was a good citizen award--for Andrew being an all around great student. That's right!He actually stayed home and we took him just to the assembly. Then we took him to a rehearsal for the play (during school hours) and then back home to rest. Crazy. That night was his play, "Compose Yourself." He played one of many composers who were statues in a museum (as you see here) that came to life. They did such a good job! Andrew had lots of group lines and his own solo in the "Composer Rap." If I can figure out how to edit the video's length I will post it. :)
He's so handsome.
This week Andrew had his last basketball game. He had a lot of fun with his buddies this season.

Foiled Again!

Monday night. Family Night. Foil sculptures for our activity. We have big nose masquerade man:

Bitty spectacles:
Han Solo trapped in that box, frozen...do you get it...it's hard to see the dimension in the foil there:
Ma in big frames:
Eliza modeling Ma's new frames:
The kids created lots of other little treasures--it was a fun, funny, quick little creative experiment.

Wimpleton Graduation

Only my family knows that a wimpleton is a kid whose age is one digit. Andrew just happened to turn 10, and now that he is double-digits he is no longer a wimpleton. Happy graduation, bud.

Andrew's birthday came shortly after the news of Liza's death. I decided we really needed to have the party. Andrew had come up with this AWESOME idea and EVERY one of the 9 kids he invited was coming. But how could you not when your invitation says, "Nerf WWI!"

Having the heaviness of heart that I did, I put Daniel in charge of the party. He did such a great job keeping those boys going! I kept to the background and watched, played photographer, and helped serve pizza. :) I also bought my first birthday cake EVER. I've always made them, like my mother did, and put a lot of time, creativity, and love into it. But I just didn't have it in me. Fortunately there's an awesome bakery close by and the artist did an amazing job.

So, here's the party! They started with some cross between capture the gold and capture the flag, in the snow. This was Abby's favorite part--she got two (of five) flags!! Guess the boys weren't watching the girl too closely. :)

Lunch. I love this--every boy is in there.
The boys did target shooting and Dad shooting (Daniel had two Dad friends stay for the party and help out) and a weapons show in the basement. Each kid brought their own nerf guns and got to show them off. Which they loved.

Here they are opening presents
Andrew got so many things right up his alley--lego, star wars, and nerf. No wonder the smile.
For the last 45 minutes the boys made teams, built barricades/forts (in the basement) and ran around shooting each other. Does it get any better that that? There were no cracked heads, bloody noses, or broken lamps. Success!!

Here's the boy and the cake! Love that kid!