Sweet Chocolat

It's so fun to catch them playing so nicely together.



Is it just me, or does his hair look like Donald Trump's? Scary!



On Wednesday, my friend Liz and I took our kids to tour a local chocolate shop called Sweet Chocolat. They treated the kids to just about anything they wanted to try in the store, taught them some information about chocolate and how it's made, and gave them nice goody bags filled with a variety of treats from the store. Liz and I got to try their truffles and we got a "mommy" goody bag, too.











Our plan was to have a picnic lunch after visiting the chocolate shop, but it was raining out so we went to Como Zoo to look around and eat.



One thing both D and M are so into this spring is picking dandelions, which they think are real flowers. I could seriously have an hour to myself if I brought a book and a chair and plopped down in a field of dandelions. They would completely amuse themselves picking bouquet after bouquet of "flowers".

Fun at Grandma's

The kids and I spent the weekend at my mom's while Steve and my dad were hunting in NE. It was nice outside and the kids spent their time riding scooters and bikes, walking to the bakery for a treat, and swimming (yes, swimming!) in the lake. It started with a toe dip and ended with full-fledged submersion in the water. Bringing their suits didn't even cross my mind as the ice hasn't even been off the lake for a month yet, but the cold water didn't bother them one bit.

Royal Wedding

On Monday, a friend of ours came over to cut down the apple tree in our back yard.





Going...



going...



gone!



D sometimes "naps" here, in the crib she made for her babies. Looks pretty squishy!



D was absolutely enthralled with the Royal Wedding on Friday when she found out a real princess and prince were getting married. She couldn't get enough of watching the replay on the computer. She even got M to join her and was pointing out who everyone was. Perfect timing for a little girl so into princesses.

Easter Time

Making the dye for Easter eggs.



Getting ready to start dying the eggs. Some little boy didn't participate.



D set out all of her Easter animals for the Easter Bunny to see when he came. Apparantly the Barbie head qualified because "her ponies are long and look like bunny ears."



Ready for the Easter egg hunt at church.



Decorating their bags.



Posing with the giant eggs.



Enjoying the fruits of their labor after the egg hunt.



Looking at what the Easter Bunny brought.





The Easter Bunny even hid the eggs the kids colored outside (thankfully there's no more snow on the playset!)





All the cousins outside after Easter brunch.



The usual Easter family picture outside.

Winter Springland

Enjoying the nice weather before...well, you'll see in a couple of pictures.



Why isn't it obvious to a three year old which way to put your pants on?



This is what we woke up to Wednesday morning...ugh! When will the madness end?



Wednesday morning we went to the Bell Museum on the U of M campus with friends. They have large dioramas with stuffed animals. The kids just loved it!



D got to put her head up into this contained garden world.



The Touch and See Room was a big hit. D loved touching all the animals. She was a little tentative about the bear.





M was more into the books than the animals.



He didn't even want to touch the snake! D did, though. (That's not M in the picture).



Giant goose egg. How do they appear so instantaneously? Mr. Smooth Walker ran into a door. Poor guy!

Spring Has Sprung!

The kids spent the weekend at my parents house and Steve and I had a nice weekend to ourselves--thanks Mom and Dad! When we came to pick them up on Sunday, they got to search Grandma and Papa's house for Easter baskets.



The baskets were filled with lots of fun things and with the weather FINALLY turning nice here, we got to go outside and enjoy their new toys. Here they are blowing bubbles.



M tried to catch his bubbles.



It was windy enough out that you just had to wave the wand and bubbles made themselves. D enjoyed hers for quite a while.



This is where the rest of M's bubbles ended up. I figured they'd end up spilled sooner or later.



Next we did the bean bag toss game. M did amazingly well at this. Maybe there is a future for him in sports!



We decided with all the strong winds we've had the past couple of days, we thought it would be a good time to try out the kites. The kids had a blast with them and were begging to fly them all day. They wore themselves out running in the field to keep the kites up high.







We made a snack out of some of the treats the kids got. We made cactus pudding since we are studying the desert. We made the pudding green, then crumbled "desert sand" (peanut butter cookie crumbs) on top. Yum!

Squeak

We got free tickets to see Born to be Wild at the Imax on Saturday. The kids loved it and it was just the right length-45 minutes. D tried to reach out and touch the animals with her 3D glasses on.



D herself transformed into a mouse for her dance pictures on Monday. These costumes are so cute! She is doing her "paw pose", which is part of their dance routine as they scamper about on stage.