Rainy day fun and a chance to procrastinate

Packing is overrated, especially on rainy days. Here is what we did instead.


Geocaching in the rain.....NO WAY!!


Our trusty sidekick doesn't mind getting wet.


Avery loved his new rain suit.


Balloon animals rule! That is a monkey on my shoulder if you were wondering.


A pirate hat for my boy and a bonnet for the dog.

North Carolina

Scott, Avery, Mom, Joe, and I headed to Wilmington South Carolina to visit our family. It was a great trip of many firsts for my parents and we had a great time watching their excitement.


Here is my aunt, uncle, and cousins. I haven't seen some of them since they moved 8 years ago.


Mom was trying out the trampoline.


Debbie took us on a hillbilly hayride around her neighborhood.


Avery loved playing in the sand, but is still leary of the waves so he didn't go in the ocean.




Scott, Joe, and Todd boogie- boarding.




The condo we rented was right on the beach so we enjoyed many mornings outside on the deck.


We enjoyed quite a few games on bowling on the Wii.


Avery used his ninja skills and accidentally scratched Joe's eye. We had to take him to the emergency room the second day we were there and he had to wear the patch most of the time.


Avery learned how to ride a power wheels by himself.


Of course we had to go geo caching. Avery and I are holding the travel bug E.T. we found in one of the caches. This was a great find because once we put the tracking numbers in we found out that E.T. has been traveling around the US for 2 1/2 years and he started in Duluth Mn! We took him from North Carolina and we are going to bring him back to Duluth this summer.

Finally, a chance to rock climb outside.

Today Laurie, Scott, Avery and I enjoyed a day of rock climbing at Devil's Lake. Avery had a great time being able to play outside all day.

First Cone

With summer coming, I had to teach Avery the skill of eating a cone. He did a great job the first time and you can tell he's pretty proud of it by the look on his face.

Look, a ribbit- ribbit!

Avery and I discovered a ribbit- ribbit in Grandpa Wunderlin's yard; at least that's what Avery calls a frog. Grandpa showed Avery how to make it jump and he loved chasing it. He kept saying he scared the frog and made it jump.




I'm trying to get him to hold the frog.


Every time I handed him the frog, he would throw it. I think he was trying to make it jump. Don't worry, the frog wasn't hurt.


Avery enjoyed riding the tractor with Patrick and Trevor.

Many Firsts

Being a mom gives one many "firsts". There are so many moments in my life with Avery that I find myself smiling from ear to ear. There were two sweet moments this week that I would like to share. The first one is....

the first flowers Avery picked for me. He came running up and handed them to me and said, "Here you go, flowers." If you are looking for the flower, it's a dandelion and it hasn't opened up yet.

During the second sweet moment this week, Avery and I were driving home from playgroup and I had the Christian station on the radio like I often do. One part of the song kept repeating a few words. All of the sudden I hear a sweet voice from the back seat singing, "fly to Jesus." It was such a sweet moment and it brought tears to my eyes.

Tub fun

Here are two ideas I found from other blogs for inexpensive tub fun. Avery enjoyed both activities and they can both be recreated night after night. The first one is a recipe for homemade paint for the tub.

1 T cornstarch (I used more)
1/3 cup dish detergent (you may want to use something that won’t make your children break out if they decide to paint their bodies. I used an eco friendly brand)
Food coloring

Mix it all together and continue to add cornstarch until desired consistency. Seperate into smaller containers or ice cube trays and mix food coloring in.

For the other activity, you take different toys and freeze them in a container and then let your child watch as the water melts and the toys break free. It's a great lesson on ice melting. The first time I did this, I just froze all of the objects together. This works but melts way too fast. The second time, I froze different layers of toys in different stages and used food coloring in some of the layers.

Kentucky

This last weekend Scott, Avery, and I and Amanda's family took a road trip to Kentucky to visit our siblings. It was a little over an 8 hour drive that we broke up into 2 days. Avery did a fantastic job in the car. I think I was a little more impatient at times than he was.

We started out the weekend geocaching because we had to drop off the jeep bug we picked up in WI.


We all played a great game of kickball.


Avery loves his aunt Amy and aunt Nicki. He hung out with them the whole time. I don't think I spent much time with him!

The gang- Daniel age 19, Nicki age 17, and Amy age 15.


The little boy in the picture is their brother Jacob.


Trying to get all of us on this statute took quite awhile.




We all enjoyed a bonfire on Saturday night.

Happy 29th Scott!

To an amazing husband and daddy- we love you. To honor you on your birthday: things we love about you.
1. Hardworking- worked on our current home, remodeling the whole thing it in only 2 weekends so Avery and I could move into a nice home.
2. Fantastic woodworker- makes beautiful furniture out of fallen down logs.
3. Makes AMAZING homemade food- my favorite are his desserts and made up recipes like his artichoke dip.
4. Has a great sense of humor and can always make us laugh.
5. Creative- came up with a restaurant with sign and all to take me out to a nice restaurant.
6. Loves trying out new things- decided to buy rock climbing equipment when we were married even though neither of us had tried it. We both love it now!
7. Loves an adventure- will jump at the chance to go on a fun hike or backpacking trip.
8. Loves Avery and I and spoils us- always putting us before himself.
9. Is smart and loves learning- currently in school to learn another profession.
10. Willing to help out anyone in need.
11. Gives a great foot massage.
12. Cuts my hair- He learned to do this by watching the hairstylist on our honeymoon.
13. Loves to exercise and stay healthy- can do more pull-ups than I can, but I'm catching up!
14. Makes up fun games- my favorite so far was the spit wad contest!
15. It great with our finances and loves helping others to do theirs so they spend their money wisely.
16. Is trustworthy.
17. Plans fun surprises for Avery and I. This year he made me a scavenger hunt and had prizes hid at each clue.
18. He's so much fun to be around.
19. He's forgiving- some days he's forgiven me several times in a day!
20. Takes time out to enjoy the little things in life.

Along came a ferret....

It's finally Geocaching Season

We spent a great weekend finding some fantastic cache's. If you don't remember what geocaching is, look here.On one adventure we went to Token Creek and found a travel bug. The hike there was beautiful. We saw a really big tree in the woods that we never would have seen had we not been looking for this cache. The travel bug we found ended up being a jeep. It was a bug that was actually sponsored by Jeep. If we had found it last year, we could have entered a contest to win a real one! The second geocache adventure was at Devil's Lake. Avery loved this cache because he got to take a ball that lights up when you throw it. We also found a geo-coin that had originated in Switzerland, went to the UK and then to WI. We are hoping to take it to North Carolina when we go and leave it in a cache there. We are going to leave the jeep in a cache in Kentucky when we go to visit my siblings in a few weeks.

Painting, toddler style

Painting with marbles


Painting by blowing through straws

Naptime Ritual

For days Avery would wake up from nap crying, so to help with that I started climbing into his crib with him when he woke up. We would snuggle and laugh, a much better alternative to the crying. One of the days I got in, he asked for Venus so she joined us too!

Music Class

Today Avery, Scott, and I enjoyed a toddler music class. Our parks and rec department offers the class every few months for 4 weeks. Avery loves going because he can play with instruments, bubbles, a parachute, sing songs, and play with balls. He also loves running after the other children and giving them hugs. I was proud of him today because he actually sat in the middle of the parachute while we carried it around in circles. He was afraid to try this other weeks even though all of the other children were in the middle. He's doing great following the teacher's directions and her lead.

Painting Eggs

Avery hasn't been that interested in art, he would rather figure out how things work. So when I handed him an egg I wasn't surprised that he would rather figure out how to get inside than paint it.

This was the only egg painting he did. He loved the egg holder way more than he did painting the egg.


Once he figured out he could smash and pull the eggs apart, that's all he wanted to do.


He did enjoy the paint rollers because the paint didn't touch his fingers. He doesn't like getting his hands dirty.


Last weekend we celebrated Palm Sunday with the Wunderlin side and attended a mass in honor of my Grandma. After mass, we went to Grandpa Wunderlin's. Avery really loves his Great Grandpa. He kept taking him by the hand and asking him to play. This picture is a special one for me. Grandpa and I have always had a great relationship and it means so much to me that Avery has gotten to know him. I was impressed that Grandpa was on the floor since he had a stroke over a month ago and is slowly regaining the use of his left arm and hand.

And if you ever wondered where all of those Easter Traditions came from, there is a great history channel link HERE

Little Chef

Avery has really become the little chef around here. Whenever he sees either Scott or I cooking, he insists on helping. He drags over a very heavy stool and asks to see what we're doing.

The perfect cheerio utensil

The other day Avery and I were sitting on the couch each reading our own books. I had given him a bowl of cheerios to snack on while he read. He left for a brief moment and came back with what he thought was the perfect utensil to use while eating those cheerios. I watched him as he would stab the screwdriver into the middle of the cheerio and then eat them, one by one. What impressed me most was that he clearly had the thought and then executed it. When he proudly walked into the room with the screw driver I asked what he was doing and he walked over to his bowl and began eating again as if that's what the screwdriver was meant for.

Sometimes I feel like a tiger

For a fun surprise perfect for this blog, click Here.

A good night for a dip...

Laura came over tonight and the four of us enjoyed a fondue party. We had a pizza fondue with bread, peppers, and cheese and a chocolate fondue with fruit and cake. It's fun to have fondue but because you're eating little chunks of food, one at a time, you don't feel like you're eating much until you're really full!