We managed to make it through all of our January dates without canceling any of them…a good way to start off the year!

We had our second kid date day a couple of weeks ago – so, it was Ellie’s turn to help mom make cookies (even though technically I could have driven us somewhere by then)…and Evan and dad went to play at the public library, since they are honestly never there for any extended period of time. Obviously, I only have pictures of the date I was on…

We started out making two different kinds of cookies:

pumpkin chocolate chip and rolo cookies (or what we like to call “chocolate surprise” cookies!)

And while we waited for the cookies to come out of the oven…we played a little garbage. We didn’t end up finishing the game…but when we ended, she was leaps and bounds ahead of her mama.

She really liked the pumpkin ones. But…she LOVED the chocolate ones! I wasn’t fast enough to get a picture of that one!.

Another raging success…and now to decide what to do in February!

Superhero themed of course.

We have some amazing friends, that when they heard I was going to Haiti for a week, asked me to send our kids there for a week to stay with them. What a thing to offer!! They have three kids of their own, and she was offering to take my 2 as well. That is one amazing mom!

Well, after making darn sure that she was serious, I left on Friday and Nathan packed them up and drove them to Wisconsin on Saturday morning.

While they were there, they went to the beach, playland at McDonalds, and the Children’s Museum. They picked peas and strawberries. They had the best time. They are still talking about it!

They also got to celebrate Evan’s birthday, which was on Thursday that week. Nathan drove up Thursday morning, and after lunch they had cake and presents.

When I saw these pictures, I told Evan that the cake looked yummy. He said “yeah mommy, and the pieces were really big too!” Oh…kids.

Thank You to our friends Margo and Jason, who not only fed and clothed my kids for a week, but sent them home with a picture book full of the activities they did while they were there. It’s one of our favorite bedtime “stories.” And I feel like I didn’t miss much when I look through it with them.

After the birthday celebration, Nathan and the kids packed up and headed south…stopping in Decorah for the night to go camping. Camping with two kids by yourself…adventurous I’m sure – probably not something i would have ever done…but the hubs is a trooper.

He had practiced setting up the tent by himself while the kids were in Wisconsin, and said he managed just fine. Except that he hadn’t attempted the rain fly by himself. Apparently, this is the hard part. I still get a good chuckle thinking about the kids sitting there watching him struggle with the rain fly for a half an hour.

What is camping without smores? Or at least the marshmallows? I love this picture!

Camping was a huge hit! Sadly, this is the only time the tent got out this summer. We had planned a few other times, but the weather (usually too hot, since it was so dry this summer) or other plans happened and we just never made it. There’s always next summer!

When your kids are 4 and 6, you completely forget how tiny babies are. I work at a daycare, in the infant room, and still don’t see babies this small. We don’t get them there until they’re at least 6 weeks old…so seeing one this new is always a lesson in just how small they begin.

This is Evan’s hand next to baby Jack. What a little guy!

And Ellie…she loves babies.

Both of them did get to hold baby Jack. As you can imagine, Ellie was way more patient and held still a whole lot better than her brother. But I was impressed that Evan even wanted to hold him. And I did catch this part of the one-sided conversation while he was holding him.  “Hi baby Jack, my name is Evan.” Seriously, how adorable is that?

We packed up the van and met mom and dad at Beeds lake in Hampton for the day.

We picked a nice spot under a tree out and got the poles ready. As you can tell by Evan’s face, waiting is hard to do! At this point, he obviously wasn’t aware that most of fishing is waiting…

All ready to catch those fish!

With all the waiting for the fish to bite, Ev got a little restless. I kept trying to convince him to come sit on my lap and wait for the fishies, but he kept wanting to run. This would normally be just fine, but when there is water nearby, I don’t think you can fault me for being a little nervous.

Ellie really got into the spirit though. She loved fishing! I think her favorite part, besides the excitement of actually catching a fish, was catching the minnows to put on the hook. She kept calling them “minerals.”

Ev says “that is where Grandpa and I are taking a rest from fishing.”

We did manage to land a couple good sized fish. This one we caught on Evan’s pole…with assistance from Grandpa who wasn’t sure the kid pole would be able to pull it in! I was trying to reel it in, and make sure Evan didn’t get too close to the water, so the assistance was much appreciated!

After packing it up, we went to check out the dam. What a beautiful little spot!

Free fishing weekend = success. It’s on the calendar already for next summer!