may day.

may 1st snuck up on me this year, i think it does every year, but my kids won't let me forget our wonderful tradition....which is delivering may day flowers for our neighbors. when we woke up at 7am, the kids were  frantic to figure out how we were going to get flowers, make baskets, deliver them, and still get to school on time....within a few minutes they had a plan devised, it was simple, but it was so sweet! they picked a few of our daffodils from our backyard, we made simple little hanging bags from our paper collection (one perk of being a crafty mom), and they were ready for the delivery. we had so many secret thank yous from our neighbors....it's a tradition that is loved by everyone!

visitors!

tiera and cohen came to visit us during our spring break for a few days. with two boys and a little girl, and a whole lot of energy, our little house became very small. so, we found plenty to do outside and we got those kids moving (went on a 3 mile run, rode scooters everywhere....they probably rode a total of 7 miles on those things, chilled at some of our fav playgrounds, and played lots of hoops!) our days were packed full of fun outings, giggles, maybe a few time outs, but some of my fondest memories came from our quiet evenings together on our couch reading stories. all 3 kids read stories out loud, all eager to share there amazing ability! and i think our favorite story that we shared was from a book called "the stinky cheese man, and other fairly stupid tales", it was the story of jack and the giant.....oh, we all laughed so hard at that story and read it every night! i love those kind of memories!!! thank you tiera and cohen for coming and staying with us, you are always welcome here!!!

spring break and colorful eggs

the kids were on spring break last week. we just stayed in madison for the week, but found plenty to do and explore. (zoo, mackenzie education center, indoor pool, library, state street, neighbors, cousin came to visit us, bowling, scooting, and a big easter egg hunt)! we had a blast, and i was definitely exhausted when it was finished, but a good exhausted!

monkey see monkey do

our kids have been exposed to art since they were babies, so it's no surprise that they choose this activity whenever they have some free time. what i have noticed though, now that they are getting older, is the choices that they are making for each project. for example, ryder has been collecting references for some drawings he's been working on, quinn loves to set up her color palate before starting her work. they both have their own sketch book that they can bring anywhere we go, well, the list goes on. it's been so fun for me to watch these two grow, under the tender instruction and love from their creative parents;)

winter adventure

we took the kids snow shoeing for the first time this winter. after a little bit of whining and lots of 

awesome encouragement, we managed to get both kids out on a hike through the woods. for some reason we managed to find a trail the went straight up...sorry kids, but we slowly climbed the top (well, jesse pulled quinn in a sled for part of the journey). it was so fun. i love these warm sunny wintery days:)

play-dough

homemade play-dough it like the easiest and most delightful craft around, so i'm not sure why we don't do this more often! quinn asked to make some this weekend, so we did. i asked the kids what 

color we should make and instead of one color they decided to make six (go figure). we started with six white balls, and ended up with a beautiful rainbow of colors! so warm, so fun, and so beautiful.

snowy day

the kids had a few days off of school last week, and because we are so lucky, it snowed around four inches, to give us beautiful fresh snow to play in! we bundled up, grabbed some neighborhood friends, and went to our local hill a few blocks from our house....it's that easy! we were outside sledding for like two hours.....there is something just so calming about being out in nature with a blanket of white snow:)