Memorial Day Parade

I love living in a small town. I was reminded of that yesterday when we took the kids to our little memorial day parade.  This year, Lizzie was old enough to ride on the fire truck with Uncle John. She was very excited to be part of the parade!  Maeve and Martin were pretty excited for the parade from the sidelines as well.

 Uncle John, throwing out candy. I figured I bought enough candy - I bought what I thought was plenty, then added two more bags. Turns out I could have doubled it! Luckily, Lizzie saved some for herself at the end.

 Lizzie was so excited about this day. She wanted to go to bed early the night before, to be sure she was well rested for it. She asked me if it might be the best day of her life. That morning, she called it a miracle. This girls knows how to express excitement and appreciation for these things!  She had a great time, thanks so much to Uncle John.

 Uncle Dan was home this weekend too - the guys got the dock partially in at camp, worked around burning brush and I worked on emptying camp of the last of our belongings (while we are mostly "moved out" of camp, it would be a stretch to say we are "moved in" at the new house - there are still boxes all around - we are making progress slowly, but surely).

Here are the "littles" enjoying their candy.

Spring

 Helping Daddy in the garden:

Easter

Another great Easter - the annual Easter Egg hunt at Mimi and Timber's was again a great success!

balloons

When we were setting up for Lizzie's birthday party, the kids learned the joy of the static electricity and balloons on the ceiling. There was great joy in jumping to the ceiling to try to reach them.  These kids love to jump!

Happy birthday Lizzie!

I love having 2 birthdays to celebrate this month. So many parties!  Lizzie wanted a Frozen themed cake, I think it looked great!

 She loves her little brother.

 Frozen the movie. She was very excited to get it!

 Pinata time.

I can't believe my girl is 6!

3!

Look who turned 3!

 Happy Birthday, my sweet baby boy!

Here is sweet Maeve, newly without her cast:

 Ryan gets into the swing of things:

 One of the highlights for me, was Lizzie giving Martin her present.  She decided about a month ago that she wanted to buy Martin his own sliced cheese for his birthday.  They usually get all the cheese they want, though we are known to get local, raw milk cheese whenever we can. She wanted to get him the store brand sliced american cheese.  She was so excited to give this to him.

 He was so excited to get it from her!  He feeds off her energy and has just realized his present is cheese.  What a cute couple of kids!

 After the cake and the gifts, cam the pinata.  The kids all at fun trying to bring it down:

 Rosa got the hang of it.

 Lizzie finally broke it down.  The kids were very interested in the noise makers (and clearly had already eaten cake as they couldn't have cared less about the lolly pops).

Thanks to everyone who was able to come! Thanks to Mom and Dad for hosting - camp road is practically impassible without all wheel drive this time of year.

Tractor

This winter weather has held on extra long this year.  We are all ready for summer weather and are bundling up to spend time outside whenever we can. After we visited the new piglets a few days ago, we took a side trip to the barn and visited the tractors. Marty has always loved tractors and he has learned the names of the tractors at the farm (here he is on the big 3020. I have already forgotten the names and numbers for the others, so he is far ahead of me. I remember them as "the one I use when I help tedder" or "the one with the bucket on it". Good enough for me!).

 He is pretty high up there!

 This reminds me of my dad.  If he is using this tractor, it usually means he is haying, and if he is haying, that means he is turning around, looking behind the tractor to make sure the baler is working as it should. When I think of this tractor, I think of dad with one eye in front and one eye behind. Marty seems to have figured it out pretty quickly!

 Lizzie also loves a good tractor. I heard her race up the stairs yesterday with her brother yelling "let's use our John Deere speed!".  Are John Deere tractors known for speed? I have no idea, but clearly kids learn tractor loyalties early.