April 21

Easter Monday… well the Monday after Easter was the perfect day for our family to head to the Como Zoo… it is a donations only entrance so way more affordable for our small budget than the state zoo. It may not have ALL the animals but there are more than enough to make for a fun and fulfilling day.

We started out with the seals and penguins where we picked up our second plastic mold creature – a seal (last time it was the gorilla). The kids want to collect all of the ones available at the zoo. One animal at a time.

We got some spectacular pictures of the polar bear.

We had a snack in front of the lions who were napping in the sun.

And other cats as well

There was the newly renovated gorilla enclosure to check out as well.

Don’t forget about the monkeys!

We had a quick stop off at the gift shop to look around and get a postcard to send to Cousin Jimmie back home. And then it was out the door and into the sunshine.

Time to head home for the OTHER big activity! Gammie sent the kids a box full of Easter Egg Hunt fun! Pre filled eggs and peeps for all!! I had Ken set it all up –  the pretty eggs in the front yard in pretty plain sight for the girls and the backyard full of  the others in harder to find places. The girls were so excited to have easy to find and the boys totally loved the challenge.

Ready to hunt

After we ran and hunted and laughed it was time to take all the booty up to the sun room to hang out in the sunshine as we painstakingly opened each and every egg and pile up the treats… jelly beans and rockets (US Smarties). Each egg was carefully emptied, closed back up and put into the bag to be saved as I am told we MUST repeat this procedure next year!

Throw some more fun outside with a tiny bit of school and I think we made it an Easter Monday to remember!!!

April 17-19

And… back to snow for one last hurrah… we hope! The bigger kids have really stepped up and now love having Echo out there with just them. They are growing up so quickly.

Spot the bunny

We squeezed in a Wild Kratts…

Black Footed Ferret

And Artistic Endeavors (that really do need capitalization! We are one with our creativity lately!!)

And then Easter Eggs! The girls did the traditional dye.

But the boys and Ken tried out this new way of doing it using shaving cream and dye… though if you plan on eating the eggs after it is highly suggested you switch the shaving cream with whipped cream. You can find instructions HERE.

Our Friday was a bit more quiet with a  half day to allow us to deal more with getting ready for the weekend and EASTER SUNDAY! We worked more on England through our Little Passports.

And got packages in the mail from Gammie.

On Saturday morning I dressed the girls up in LAST year’s Easter dresses. My cousin’s little girls said that they looked like the princesses off Frozen.

We paired those with the shirts Holly sent us from Canada and Voila perfect pic op!

We downsized Echo from super fluffy to a purple piece that was Trinity’s ages ago.

So we started our Easter with dress up and pictures. Easter 2014 is off to a great start! Enjoy the overflow!

April 14-16

Is there a better way to start a week of school than with a series of drawings thanks to Art for Kids (link on right)? I know I am repetitive but CHECK THEM OUT. Their instructions are wonderful!

They really do work for all ages!

We also had an Easter story to enjoy.

With out basic school day out of the way the sunshine called us outside. Time to break out the Big Wheel and bikes and the funky skateboards.

Ken and his dad tried the recipe I found off Facebook for an adult popsicle called a Dirty Pirate. You can find the recipe HERE thanks to Jackie Fo and Tablespoon.

Tuesday marked our second trip back to the Minnesota History Center (MHC). This time we had a longer span of time to enjoy and a plan to go to all the places we had not seen on our previous visit. All on our new family pass to the historical places in Minnesota.

There was lots to see and we were able to time our travels around the areas away from the school groups that were also there. I took the twins in for the Tornado demonstration. It was louder and a bit scarier than I thought it would be but they now REALLY know what to do in case of a tornado.

We spent the most time in the house that is set up so you can walk through and get a taste of each family that lived in that house from when it was built until more recent time when it was put up in the center.

Creepy eyes on these ones!

The kids especially enjoyed the “backyard”.

The afternoon was quiet but Gavin did sneak out to work on his skateboarding skills while Echo worked with some flashcards.

With a wonderful field trip under out belt I think everyone was upset to see that winter had snuck back in with more snow!

From this…

To this in the night!

With a day indoors we once again attempted our yarn wrapped eggs craft… there HAS to be a trick we don’t know about… our results simply are not right!

With Nana and Baba back I was able to join Ken and see all 3 boys in their swimming lessons! So much fun!!! This is Emanuel’s first lessons and the twins’ second. It is so exciting to see them work on this milestone all on their own.