Sunday we thought winter was trying to return. At D'Angelo's request, Rick took the kids out for a wagon ride and to play at the park for an hour in the 35 degree weather. Brrrr! I stayed nice and warm in the house and finally finished painting the kitchen :) Later in the afternoon Adeline & I ventured out together for a playdate with her friend Violet. The girls had fun playing Barbies and such and afterwards Adeline & I stopped at the store to pick up new shades for our kitchen. Upon leaving the store we were greeted by nasty winds whipping sleety snow into our faces. Yuck! Doesn't mother nature know we want Spring weather?

Monday morning we had a super fun playgroup with some friends of ours. The kids listened to the story Mouse Paint, decorated a rainbow with a bunch of fun materials and enjoyed a rainbow snack. The snack was neat and the kids wanted to have more of it later in the day. Each child was given a dollop of Cool Whip into which a couple drops of different colored food coloring was added. The kids mixed it up to see a rainbow on their plate. Then they got to scoop it up with chocolate chip cookies- Yummy! Thanks Melissa for such a fun morning.

Tuesday morning we attended an Easter celebration with some of

D'Angelo's friends from AWANA.

Here they are hunting for eggs

made a craft

Lamby told the kids all about Easter.

How Christ died for our sins, but that He rose again from the dead, and lives forevermore. Today was actually a nice day and the kids spent most of it playing in our yard. Late this afternoon I Finally took Xavier & Oliver for their 2 year pictures and Tia for her 1 year pictures. A month late for the twins but at least they turned out cute. I won't actually have them until next Friday though so I'll have to post them then.

Oh where, oh where have we been?

Xavier and Oliver celebrated their 2nd birthday March 8th

Xavier didn't enjoy the singing, but Oliver thought it was fun.

earlier that day D'Angelo was hard at work decorating X & O's cake presents!

Grampy Bill (Rick's Dad) was here visiting us to attend the opening night of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show with Rick as well as celebrate X & O's birthday.

Little Miss Tia celebrated her First birthday March 21st.

On Monday we went back to Spring Valley Nature Center for Maple Sugaring with our homeschool group. here they are looking into the collection bucket from the tree

tasting the dripping sap

trying out the tools of the tradetapping spouts into a log

HOT boling sapD'Angelo & Adeline looking down into the boiling sap. Inside the cabin the kids had the opportunity to taste both store bought syrup and homemade syrup from the nature center. D'Angelo & Adeline preferred the homemade while Auggie liked the store bought better.

This morning we went to visit the Arlington Heights Fire Station # 2. It was Xavier, Oliver & Tia's first visit to a fire station and the second time for the big three. The kids had a great time and were excited that a few calls came in while we were there.

He was showing them the jaws of life

How many preschoolers can you fit into an ambulance?

Early Settler Life

This past Monday the big kids and I went to Spring Valley Nature Center in Schaumburg with our home school group to participate in a the Early Settlers program. The kids were able to see just how hard the early settlers had to work for their food. They were able to make cornbread, applesauce and butter.

Here is Adeline chopping apples to make applesauce.

There had to be someone churning the cream to make the butter the whole time we were there! All the kids and a few adults took turns.

Use your muscles D'Angelo! Cornbread

They all enjoyed the cornbread. The apples were a bit too chunky for Adeline to enjoy.