Spring Break

I loved that spring break brought spring like weather to us. Now that it is over I wish the weather would stay, but it sure hasn't.
We started out the week with a haircut for Nate.

Monday night the kids set up their leprechaun trap. They were sure hoping to catch him this year because they both have some pretty big things on their want lists and if they had a whole pot of gold Alyssa could get her American Girl doll and McKell could get a new bike and helmet. They were a little disappointed they didn't catch him when they got up in the morning. All of the mushrooms and marshmallows (McKell's idea) were gone that they had put out to lead him to the trap. They were pretty pumped that there were $10 golden dollars there that the leprechaun had dropped. I found these super cute socks for the kids, but it was actually too warm for socks on St. Patrick's Day.

We had a little lunch and get together with friends at the ped mall for lunch. The weather was wonderful!

These are the treats we made for McKell and Alyssa's classes before spring break for St Patricks Day. They were little bags filled with gold wrapped chocolate and green wrapped mints.
While we were playing at the ped mall, Phil called and said he was able to get off of work early. So we rushed home and got the car packed and headed out for our trip. We drove all afternoon and night and arrived in Denver around 1:30am. We were so excited to see our friends from Med school, the Boyds and Chesleys. We transferred the kids to bed and stayed up till 4 am talking.

The rest of the week we were able to experience the same wonderful weather. It was SO nice. We went to the zoo one day, the girls went shopping for part of one day (well we planned on it being part of one day and it ended up being a whole day)! So fun to have great stores again. We played rock band, sat in the hot tub, ate super yummy food, took the kids to the park, the boys went on a man date, and played lots and lots of games. We stayed up till 4am a few nights, 6 am one night, and on the last night had to get some sleep to drive home so we crashed around 2am. Just like old times!

The kids were so cute together. They loved each other, even though they haven't seen each other for so long.

We really had it good in Milwaukee, there were so many wonderful people we were able to meet. It would be so fun to have a giant reunion sometime.

Teek, Brains, and our little helper

We felt so bad getting Teek's hair cut when the weather was so frigid cold, but finally got the ok from the vet. Here he is, you can actually see him. It is so good we didn't name him blackie, like the girls wanted because he has changed color.

On Saturday we went to the University of Iowa for a fun little workshop. It was called brain discovery. The university students had different booths set up and taught the kids all about the brain. They threw raw eggs (importance of wearing a helmet), learned about taste sensors with jelly beans, and a bunch of other fun things. The biggest hit was when they were able to put on gloves and touch a real human brain. Morgan, McKell's friend was staying with us for the weekend so that is her with the girls. Nate tried to touch it with his bare hands.
Nate is such a good little helper. He is always the first to want to help set the table and clean up, he is great at making baskets by throwing the toys into their place, and loves to help unload the dishwasher. He isn't always welcome by me to help but that doesn't stop him. He will scream and yell and stay focused until the job is done, or until you can get him into something else or give him candy.