Pump It Up - The Joint Birthday Party!

Gavin and his great buddy Will decided months ago that they wanted to have a joint birthday party at our local jumping castle spot, Pump It Up.  Since their birthdays are in March and May, we decided on an April party.  The boys, along with about 25 of their friends, had an absolute blast jumping the afternoon away.  The jumping was followed by yummy birthday cake (they had matching dinosaur cakes!).  It doesn't get much better when you're 5!

Easter 2014

Just before Easter, my great friend Lori and I met for coffee at Woodfield with our youngest boys in tow.  There was no line for the bunny, so we figured we'd get some fun photos! Tyler was all smiles - wish I could say the same for that bunny?!?

It was a lovely Easter!  I always love when spring finally arrives and Easter is always such a nice way to usher it in.  We started off the Easter season by decorating some eggs at home.  We chose to do this during Tyler's nap, as we had a hard time envisioning it going smoothly with our 18-month old in the mix! Next time, Tyler!  But the older two had loads of fun and we enjoyed eating hard boiled eggs for a few days thereafter.  Our church held a basket blessing and Easter egg hunt, which the kids really loved.  Tyler was not too certain of the Easter bunny who walked around the courtyard greeting kids, he kept his distance!  But they had fun running around with friends and the adults got to chat a little too.  On Easter morning, they awoke to 3 hidden baskets, which they quickly found and had fun sifting through the surprises.  We went to a joyful church service and then went out to Grammy and Grandpa Brown's house for the afternoon, and Grammy had her annual Easter egg hunt set up in the yard.  All sorts of goodies were hidden in the eggs!  It was a peaceful day, as it should be, and we are ready now to usher in spring!

                                                  
                                                    Easter Morning!

                                                
                                                   Afternoon at Grammy & Grandpa Brown's!

Gavin's Morning Commentary

This morning on the drive to school, Gavin made the following declarations.  These weren't responses to questions I was asking, he just started this one-sided conversation and went from one topic to another.  The rest of us just sat and listened as he continued on.  He began each statement with "Hey Mom, did you know?"

1. There are real aliens that live on Mars called Hot Fire Aliens.
2. I will never ever get married.  Girls are gross.
3. When I grow up, I'm going to be a ninja with my friends Will and Henry.  We decided.

Oh, to live in the mind of a 5-year old boy!  So funny.  We love him dearly!  (Despite the fact that his daily power struggles are likely earning Erik and I some early gray hairs!)  I can't wait to share the above gems with him when he's older.  :)

2014 Brown Family Spring Break: Baraboo, WI!

For spring break this year, we joined Grammy and Grandpa Brown and the Tieman crew up in Baraboo, WI!  Grammy and Grandpa rented a house and we all bunked together for the week.  We had never been to Baraboo so there was plenty to explore.  We went to the nearby Circus Museum, which had all sorts of old circus train cars on exhibit as well as a magic show.  We toured a home that has extensive model train tracks running throughout the property - all over the yard and even in the basement.  It was impressive - the kids loved it.  The retiree that runs it is very passionate about his trains!  The kids also went on a hike or two with Erik and Aaron leading the way, and we all enjoyed playing outside (when the weather got warm and sunny enough - it was WI in March after all, so not balmy!).  We even had a nice fire going in the pit in the backyard, which is always festive and fun.  Erik and I took the kids over to Kalahari indoor water park, which is part of the Dells, for a quick day trip, and I heard more than once that it was "the best day ever."  The conquered the water slides and could have gone on them 100 times more.  We promised another trip there soon.  We also enjoyed movies in PJs at the cabin, especially Grammy's showing of Mary Poppins, which the kids had never seen.  They loved it and are still talking about it and singing the songs daily now that we're back home.  All in all it was a very fun week, and we enjoyed spending the time with family, especially little Charlie who is only about 6 weeks old!  There is a picture below that made us laugh, Gavin asked to hold Charlie and then after a few minutes asked for a phone to play games.  Newborns are super cute, but they don't make the best conversationalists apparently.  Had us all laughing!