Finally.... Outside Time!

It's hard to guess who has been happier this week... me or the kids. We were in desperate need of getting outside and being able to run around! The past two afternoons we've been out front and the kids have just run and run and run. If all of yours are sleeping as good as mine I won't be surprised! My sidewalks and driveway are completely chalk covered, there have been countless games of tag, robot, follow-the-leader, conga lines and races, and everyone just seems a little happier. This burst of spring was just what we all needed.



Emmy had a little extra fun when her friend, Caitlyn, came over for a playdate after school yesterday too. They had a great time playing together and Caitlyn enjoyed getting to see her little brother here as well!



With rain forecast for tomorrow, we will probably be in the house all day, but being able to get outside for the first part of the week has saved everyone's sanity. Just a reminder for daycare families that I am closed on Friday, April 2nd and Monday, April 5th. I will also be closed for a paid day off on Wednesday, April 7th. Thanks everyone!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend! Emmy & Caitlyn

Playing Follow-the-Leader
Alexander, Emma, Emmy & Reed

Conga line

Sophie

Alexander

Knight For A Princess Dance

The girls and Jon had a great time dancing Saturday night at the "Knight For A Princess" dance put on by the city. Everyone got all dressed up, Bria wanted me to curl her hair, and they had a great time dancing the night away. (although Emmy was ready for the night to be finished up about 8:00..... they managed to convince her to stay a little later). Here is my dashing knight with his princesses.....

Sock Bunnies

This morning the kids worked on a fun activity while Ethan took his nap. They made sock bunnies. Totally easy and totally fun. We'll have to do this activity again next week when Reed and Sophie are here too.

Flooded Red River

Again, thankful that we don't live in Fargo! But they are doing a great job of fighting the rising waters down there. The colder temperatures coming this weekend may be helpful in slowing down the rate of snow melt, but will present new challenges if the temperature gets low enough to freeze the sandbags. They have great plans in place and hopefully will be well protected.

Grand Forks flood protection provides a great peace of mind for this girl whose only hesitation in moving up here was the risk of flooding after what happened in 1997! We really are well protected. It's not impossible that there could be a massive flood that would even overwhelm the protection in place, but it would have to be much higher water than in 97.

With the waters rapidly rising, 2 of the bridges between Grand Forks and East Grand Forks are closing today. That will leave the 1 bridge on the north end of town open to get back and forth. Jon will probably start making sure he has work brought home with him just in case the 3rd bridge would need to close too.

Here is a link to updated info about bridge closings and other information relevant to Grand Forks. There are a few photos on that site too.

If you would like to keep an eye on the live view and maybe watch them closing down the Sorlie Bridge today, click here. You can see the flood walls are already partially up.

It's kind of crazy to think that 3 weeks ago the girls and I were walking across the frozen river and now it's flooding all over the place. Girls on the river 3 weeks ago....

Keeping Everyone Busy Inside

With the backyard swamp days beginning, we'll be seeing a little more inside time the next couple of weeks. The kids have been keeping busy though. Reed and Talasia are enjoying working on their notebooks 2 or 3 mornings a week. They also had fun decorating sunglasses to wear last week. Sophie thought she was pretty big stuff strutting around the playroom with her sunglasses on.

The only other daycare news for this week is that there is no school on Friday, so we'll have a fuller than normal house around here. I'm brainstorming for a fun activity to do that day with the kids. Also, you all know, I had to be closed today because Emmy has a stomach virus that's going around. Nasty stuff and it lasts several days. This is day 3 for her and she was actually feeling better yesterday - today is the worst yet. I've heard a lot of people say this is going around and it's one of those that kind see-saws up and down with how your kids feel. Just a reminder that if anyone gets sick, they need to stay out of dayare for a full 24 hours after they are all done throwing up, fever is gone for 24 hours, no diarrhea for 24 hours, etc. Hopefully Emmy will be on the upswing of things after this morning. I will keep everyone posted.

Re-Decorated Dollhouse

We had a great weekend with my parents here. It was nice to just kind of hang out, play games, watch some movies, and get spoiled a little! We gave ice skating a try on Saturday, but the ice is deteriorating quickly so it was not as much fun to skate as last weekend. The girls got a couple of houses for their zhu-zhu pets and played with those a lot this weekend too.

We also tackled a project this weekend with Gramasaurus's help. The dollhouse in the playroom was very drab and dull looking, so we gave it an Extreme Holthe Makeover! The girls had a blast painting, adding "carpets", and creating theme rooms. Mom and I did some painting too as well as a lot of cutting out of paper and modge podging. (I discovered that Modge Podge fumes plus benadryl equals a very sleepy, loopy Kelli!)

So, I dug up a before picture of the dollhouse from when I brought it home last summer and then here are the after pictures.

Old dollhouse (above), New dollhouse (below).... maybe not quite as elegant, but the new decorating job is much more fun! Bria's arctic room Emmy's Fire Disney Room Bria's Garden Room Emmy's Jungle Room Floor of the Jungle Room The Ladybug Room

(above) the Princess Room by Bria (just to be clear - Bria DOES NOT like Princesses, but she thought the daycare kids would like a Princess room).

Ethan's First Day

Welcome to daycare, Ethan!

Ethan's first day here was a huge success! He was happy, he napped well, he ate well..... one of those very easy, according-to-plan, kind of starts. All the other kids were excited about the addition of a baby to the house. Sophie was the most interested though! She was a bit mesmerized and fascinated by this little guy who moved, made noise and is smaller than she is! She spent quite a bit of time climbing up onto my lap to investigate and see what this "baby" thing is all about.

So after a successful morning, a busy lunch (school let out early today), and getting everyone situated..... we're enjoying some quiet down time for a movie and naps. Now if only I could get the house clean before my parents show up around 3:00! and maybe make some apple crisp and cupcakes? we'll see....

(and Reed isn't really crying in this video.... it's fake, part of a game.....!)

Dog Sleds

Saturday night sled dogs came through Grand Forks. They were originally expected to arrive around 4:30, so the girls and I headed down to the river to watch them come in. By 5:15 we realized it was going to be at least 6:30 before the first teams got here and the girls were hungry and cold and just worn out (since we'd been ice skating for over 2 hours earlier in the day). So we didn't actually get to see the sled dogs. I pouted a little bit, but I have to share the picture that was in the newspaper Sunday - wouldn't this have been cool to see?!?!!!

I also had to share the picture of the girls exploring around the river when we were originally waiting for the teams to arrive.

Here is a link to the article in the newspaper if you are curious.

Daycare Snowplay

Last week on Thursday and Friday our daycare crew was a bit of a different combo. A couple of you were on vacation and there was no school, so I ended up with just Bria, Emmy, Talasia and Emma. We were able to spend a lot of time outside both days. Thursday we played over at Kelly school on all the giant snow piles and the girls tried out ice skating (without skates). Friday morning we headed to Lincoln Park to go sledding. The sledding hills are solid packed ice so it's definitely not a soft landing, but they had fun in spite of a few bumps and wipeouts.

Ice Skating

Saturday afternoon we went ice skating for a couple of hours and it was so much fun! They can't wait to go back and do it again next Saturday! I'll have to get another video of Bria next Saturday - she really got it figured out by the end of the time we were there. It was so much fun for everyone. I even got a chance to try it out and didn't fall even once. :)