Water Fun!

Last week my kids were on spring break.  Unfortunately, we didn't have any fun vacations planned so we spent most of the week at home...did some shopping at the Mall of America but also had a few days of winter storms that we were basically stuck inside so it was a LONG week for this mama bear!  I was happy to send them all back to school on Monday!

One thing we did do was rent a hotel suite for a night and met my sister and her family(she also had 5 children) there.  The kids had a great time in the water and just hanging out with their cousins.  The adults had a great time visiting with each other too!  We even were able to sneak away for a nice relaxing dinner without the 10 kids!  The pool area was nothing fancy but the kids LOVED just being in the water.  It made me realize that I will never again miss a warm-weather vacation in the middle of winter...it's just too long to survive in the cold here in Minnesota without a break!!!  Next year we are already thinking Disney or Nickolodeon Cruise....

Pictures

I am FINALLY getting Peter's 3-year old pictures back.  He will be 4 next month!  I did try another photographer that came to our house last summer and took OVER 1000 photos of him and every one was awful!  She just could not get him to do a natural smile and by the end of the session, he was so wiped out and crabby...so was I!  I paid a fortune for that sitting fee and never even bought a single photo from it...they truly were terrible!  Anyway, I went back to my old stand-by photography studio and they did a fantastic job capturing his sweet personality and sly smile!  My handsome PILOT PETE!!  When we ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he says he will be a pilot "just like Daddy" or a farmer...really!!??  I actually can picture him as a very awesome farmer!! (growing organic produce for his mommy!!)

Welcome to Spring!

Yesterday there was NO SNOW left in our yard.  Today we woke up to 6+ inches and it's still coming down.  Under all that snow is a nice thick layer of ice too!  I know this is Minnesota but seriously...this has been one of the longest worst winters that I can remember!  Many Minnesota schools are cancelled today and we are ON SPRING BREAK!!! Bummer...we were hoping to do some fun OUTDOOR stuff during break...I didn't think shoveling out our driveway would be one of those FUN items!!!

We usually take at least one warm-weather vacation during the winter and this year it didn't happen as we still had our little foster baby and didn't want to leave her with another foster family while we left!  When you do get away somewhere warm, it helps to endure the rest of the winter.  On a positive note, my boys are loving the snow again!!

Ricky

Today is World Down Syndrome Day!  We are so blessed to have Ricky in our lives.  Through him, we have met so many amazing people!!  Ricky has taught us patience, acceptance of those who may be different than us and more than anything, he has taught us about unconditional love.

We just picked up Ricky's new glasses.  Isn't he so adorable??!!  We never even realized that he wasn't seeing well until the school nurse did an annual check of his eyes and discovered that one eye had very poor vision.  It's going to take him a little while to get used to wearing them, but in the end, I think he will realize how much better he can see with them!

Our little foster baby was here with us for over 5 months and just returned to her mommy and daddy last month.  We are happy for them but miss her like crazy!  I have to say, foster care is a wonderful blessing for my family but the pain is very real when they leave us.

Our kids are on spring break this week!!  Although the weather has been in the low 50's the past few days and the snow if melting, it sounds like more 30 degree temps are in our forecast for the rest of the week. We need to plan some fun outings to keep these kids busy!!!

Oh, one more thing...in addition to lots of other fun new items, I have added these three AWARENESS hair bows in my etsy shop!