Spring Break in Florida

Our reward for surviving the eternal winter was a spring break trip to Florida!  We drove down and stayed with my parents.  Karen and Juan were there too and we had lots of fun family time.  We swam in the pool, went to the beach, played board games, went for bike rides, ate ice cream, and went to Mote Aquarium in Sarasota.  It was a wonderful week and we're so thankful to my parents for having us!

Our first time eating at Chick-fil-A!
We stopped at one on the way home too.
Yum!!



My parents have been watching these sandhill crane
parents and their baby all winter.  They got to see the
baby grow up over the last few months!

Hooray for flowers and green things growing!



Peter had lots of fun with his rip stick

We spent a lot of time at the pool.
The weather was beautiful with only 1 day of rain!

Ice cream at Big Olaf's

Lunch at Myakka River Oyster Bar

Beach time!

We spent much of our beach time looking for shells and shark teeth...

and also some time digging and making sand castles!

Annual family picture!

We went to Mote Aquarium in Sarasota.
They had a lot of neat displays of a wide
variety of sea life.  This is a seahorse that
looks like a plant.

Waiting to watch the sharks get fed

Manatee

Sea turtle

We had fun watching this dolphin

SHARKS!!

Souvenirs from Grandpa and Grandma--stuffed shark and dolphins

One night my parents stayed with the kids so that we could go
out for dinner with Juan and Karen.  We went to Sharky's on the Pier.
It was a beautiful night so we walked on the pier and ate outside!

Peter lost a tooth while we were there!

These 9 square puzzles are so much harder than they look!

Grandma promised $5 to the first person to complete it.

Miriam won!

Triplets

Mexican dinner

More pool time!

Peter and Esther learned how to play Carcassonne.

The weather was perfect for bike riding.

Grandma's pancakes in the shape of the kids' initials.

Another day at the beach!

Dairy Queen on our last night before heading home.

Our awesome neighbors welcomed us home!

This happened a couple days after we got home.
Seriously?  On April 14?

February and March Update

The months keep slipping by so quickly!  February and March were pretty much just cold and snowy, with an eternal winter (yes, that's a reference to Frozen which was also a big part of our lives from February and March).

Here are a few things we did:

Played on the huge snow piles

Peter played another season of basketball at school

 

 

Miriam wrote One Hundred 100s for the 100th day of school

Peter and I had a fun mother-son night at Cadets at church

More huge snow piles at the bus stop

January...

January was snow, snow and more snow.  It was also COLD, COLD and more COLD!!  We had a snow day the day right before Christmas break, and 2 more right after break.  We have had 2 more since then.  Combined with a planned records day, the kids have only had 1 full week of school since mid-December!  It's been crazy, but also really fun and kind of nice to have some days off to relax and break out of our normal busy routine.  This week looks relatively calm, so we're hoping for a full week.

We have been playing outside, sledding, and doing our normal activities.  Both girls are currently taking gymnastics and loving it.  Peter is playing basketball on Saturdays through school.

Last week we needed something fun to do on Friday night, so we thought, "Hey, we should pull out Miriam's loose tooth with Peter's remote controlled helicopter!"  Ok, here's what really happened... at dinner Miriam was frustrated because her tooth was super loose, but wouldn't come out.  Casey joked about pulling it out with Peter's remote controlled ATV or helicopter, and Miriam jumped on the idea.  We kept asking if she really wanted to do it, and she said she did.  Here is the result:

On a side note, she has lost 6 teeth since the end of October!  She is now missing her top 2 and her bottom 4.  Peter has only lost 5 so far, so she has now surpassed him.  We can't believe how fast she is losing them--she lost 3 in the last 9 days.  Other than the helicopter one, they seem to fall out very easily.  The tooth fairy is keeping very busy at our house.

Here's what Miriam's mouth looks
like right now.  Don't mind the crazy
post-shower hair!