Jack and I had a fantastic birthday weekend.  We had planned to go camping to High Cliff State Park, but got a call late on Friday afternoon that the road was flooded and the park was closing for the weekend.  Potawatomi had sites open so as soon as Justin and Jack got home we left.  We picked up Pizza Hut along the way and after we got the camper set up, we ate dinner.  Jack blew out the candles on his birthday cupcakes and then opened his gifts.  He built legos by the light of the lantern and said what a great birthday he had.

We woke up on Saturday morning to a steady rain.  We enjoyed breakfast in the camper and did some more lego building until the rain let up.

We went down to the beach to throw some rocks and then took a hike on the nature trail.

The sun poked out for the afternoon, so we headed back to the water.  The kids had a lot of fun doing “experiments” with rocks, water, and sand toys.

We finished up the afternoon with some more legos, snacks, and Jacey made a lovely weed stew.

Sunday morning Nana called us to tell us more rain was on the way.  We packed up early and took off just before the rain hit.  Everyone helped unpack and we all needed a nice warm shower.  After we got into our comfy clothes, we decided to celebrate my birthday.  We spent the rest of the afternoon building legos, watching movies, and drinking cocoa.

June is now 18 months old!  She is our tiny tornado, rushing about from one room to the next causing destruction wherever she goes.   She loves to give hugs and kisses, especially to Jack and Jacey.  In the morning when June sees Jack getting his shoes and coat on to go to the bus, she sits down and tries to put her own shoes on.  She holds on to Jack’s hand while walking down the driveway.  She gives him a kiss and waves when the bus drives away.  June can climb down from the tower in the kitchen, but not up.  Instead she walks over to it and says “UP!”  She loves to read “Good night Moon” and “Red Shirt, Blue Shirt” before naps.  June watches the birds at the feeder and will sign “bird” when she sees one.  She likes to have all three of the baby dolls in her crib at nap time.  She covers them up and kisses them all and lays down so I can cover her and kiss her.  June climbs on the couch in the sunroom to watch Sloppy the guinea pig.  We always know when she’s petting him from her squeals of happiness.  When she wants a drink, she walks to the fridge and signs “more milk” and when we ask her if she wants a drink of milk, she’ll clap.  She is very smiley and cuddly and always wants to be in on the action.

Jack earned a new belt in karate.  He was so excited we were all going to watch his class and see him get his new belt.  He kept looking over at us the entire class to make sure we were watching when it was his turn to kick or punch.  Even June and Jacey enjoyed watching all the action!

Easter weekend we spent at Nana and Papa’s.  We spent Saturday in the woods listening to woodpeckers and chainsaws.  Hauled logs and played in sawdust.

Easter morning after Church we found our Easter baskets.  Had a family lego build at the kitchen table.  Played with playdoh.  Had an egg hunt.  Unfortunately it was a WINDY day and many eggs had blown out of their spots.  Diezel helped by finding seven eggs and eating their contents as fast as he could.

Our spring break week was a blast and we were all a bit sad when Jack had to go back to school.  We started out the week doing lots of indoor activities because of the chilly damp weather.  Jack wanted to spend one day just building with Legos all day.  While he was busy with that, Jacey got out the Fisher Price record from my youth.  Nana had sent it with us with a whole pile of old records like Smurfs and Strawberry Shortcake. Jacey spent the whole morning at the kitchen table cutting, coloring, and listening to records.  They kept so busy!  Jack even took breaks from his Legos to help June build with her blocks.  With the Legos and blocks we made spaceships and puppy houses and houses for horses and an Imperial Walker that Jacey said looked like a big dog.

Another day we spent in the basement, with the kids playing “animal rescuer” for the ENTIRE MORNING.  They had an elaborate “rescue center” made and they would go on adventures saving baby tigers with bungee cords and backpacks and binoculars and all the rocking/riding toys in the basement.  Jack rode the rocking horse to save a baby monkey with Jacey swimming along behind him in the ball pit.

One day we met Nana, Aunt Mary, my cousin Jen and her kids Pierce and Rhys at the zoo.  It turned out to be the warmest day of the week, so it was a really nice time to be wandering the zoo.  The animals were very active and June squealed when she spotted an animal moving around. I think June’s favorites were the pygmy monkeys, she watched them through the glass for along time jumping and hopping and swinging on all their toys.  All the kids got to feed the giraffes with special giraffe “crackers.”  I gave June a cracker to give to the giraffe and the first thing she did was try to take a bite of it.  So I held her arm out so the giraffe could stick out his long tongue and eat the cracker… and June started crying!  She was so upset that the giraffe ate *her* cracker!  Jack’s favorite thing was feeding the goats, although he said their tongues left a lot of slime on his hands.

Some other projects we worked on were bunny purses for the girls for Easter.  Jack didn’t want a bunny purse, he requested an engine purse.  He drew up a pattern for me one day during rest time and then chose fabric out of my scrap bin to make it.  He chose some buttons to sew on for switches/buttons for the engine.  I taught him how to sew them on, so after I made the first few stitches to hold the button in place, he was in charge of sewing a few more stitches through.  He did a great job and didn’t even poke his finger.  Jacey’s project was to draw a pattern for a pair of slippers for herself which she cut out of an old cereal box.

We finished up the week doing a few chores… like Jacey and June “helping” fold laundry.

And no week would be complete without a roasted hot dog over the fire.  Of course we had to ride to the mini-mart first because we had no chips to go with said hot dogs, but that was a good excuse for a family bike ride.  To get chips.

See this girl?  Don’t let that smile fool you, she is trouble.

Yesterday we woke up to a very chilly house.  Unusually chilly.  After Justin went to work, I started to investigate.  The thermostat read 54 degrees, but after testing it, I determined the thermostat was not the problem.  So I took June downstairs with me to look at the furnace to see if anything looked unusual.  I set June down and started looking for any sort of instructions or lights and in the two seconds it took me to kneel down in front of the furnace, June toddled over to the power switch on the side and flipped it like nobody’s business.  She continued on her way around the basement while the furnace kicked on, fan started up, lights a blazing.  It was like she had SWITCHED THAT SWITCH BEFORE.

I guess we shouldn’t have taught her how to flip off the lights.

Jacey was lucky enough to have three birthday celebrations this year, the year she turned FOUR YEARS OLD.  Granny and Grumps came for a weekend and celebrated both Jacey and Grumps’ birthdays.  A day was spent at 1000 Islands tramping the trails, looking for ducks, and trying not to fall off the walkways into the chilly river.  There was also cake and presents, of course.  One of Jacey’s favorite gifts was the pom-pom monster making kit which has already made its appearance earlier on the blog.

On Jacey’s actual birthday, we ate dinner at home and then rode our bike to the local ice cream shop for a celebration ice cream cone.  We came home, got all ready for bed and then she opened her presents.  I have a picture of the before, but not of the after actually using the presents.  We got Jacey a puzzle, a book “Madaline” and a tub of legos, which included pink, orange, and light blue legos.  We spent the rest of the night building houses and pony stables since the set also came with a lady and horse.

There was also a birthday fish fry dinner with Nana, Papa, and Uncles/Aunt.  Another cake was made, a blue tractor cake that Jacey helped make and lick the spoon frost.

The kids spent the rest of the weekend with Nana and Papa while Justin and I worked on some projects at home.  The kids got every plastic vehicle out of the shed to drive and were so excited to show us how they learned to hula-hoop!

Saturday was a gorgeous day and we spent it at the Barkhausen Waterfowl Preserve making bird houses.  We signed the kids up for a workshop awhile ago and it turned out to be a beautiful weekend.  Nana and Papa met us there to help out with the building and the corralling of June.  Nana and June checked out the nature center and then took a long walk while the rest of us learned about blue birds and then built some bird houses.  The kids listened to the little program really well and then were excited to pound nails.  After the bird houses were built, we stayed for awhile to enjoy a picnic lunch.  We followed that up with a shamrock shake since it was St Patrick’s day.

Jacey received a pom-pom monster making kit from Granny and Grumps for her birthday.   Here is monster number one!  I helped Jacey make the pom-pom, and she picked out all the accessories.  We used the hot glue gun and poof!  A fun new monster craft!

Two more finished!

Justin and the kids spent the past weekend hanging out with Granny and Grumps.  I was away scrap-booking with a bunch of lovely ladies, so they took pictures so I could see what fun stuff they did.  Like take another trek to 1000 Islands which is a pretty fun place to spend a nice day.  Jacey said they saw ducks again and the talking parrot said “Hello” to them and why do parrots talk like people?