Pretzel Time

We made pretzels!

Naptime

Boat Races in the Brook

April Vacation

We went to the circus on Tuesday. The kids took a couple trips to Smiling Hill Farm with Daddy while Mommy was at work, and played hard in the yard. They were filthy and tired every night. And of course we hit the playground. It must really be spring!

Kaden's latest trick, he hangs from this bar then drops- and usually lands on his feet!

Hen on the see-saw

Peek a boo Nug

Tigers!

Kaden and Daddy talk to a Pirate at intermission. He's pretty into pirates lately.

Kaden talked to all the clowns and even posed for this picture. His sister watched from afar.

Mackinna & Daddy at the circus!

Movement, Music & Play

It was observation week for the final week of Kaden's Movement workshop. He is such an old pro now- it was his third session. Its like he owns the place. Of all the pictures I took that day though, the one of Mackinna is my favorite. Her dance class got over midway thru Kaden's class, so she just walked down the hall and came to watch him with us. She borrowed Mark's phone to take some pictures of her little brother in his class. It was so stinking cute, I couldn't stand it.

Easter photos

I did try to post these once already but they never loaded. Here are the kids doing an Easter Egg Hunt at Auntie's on Sat, then Easter Morning at our house and Easter afternoon at the beach. It was a really glorious day.

Friday

Before we leave the house, I'll usually ask Kaden if he needs to go potty. Almost every time he replies, "No!" Which prompts me to ask, "When did you go last Nuggie?" Then he ALWAYS replies, "Friday!" I laugh every time.

Thinking...

Yesterday morning as we were getting ready to go downstairs, Kaden looks at me and say, "Thinking about mice Mommy." "Oh yeah, Nug?" I say. "Yeah, thinking about mice...hmm, hmm" he replies as he rubs his thumb and fore finger on his chin. I think he might get a little more weird every day.

Dylan turns 2

Dylan had a motor party last weekend, so we loaded up the power wheels into the back of the truck and hit the road. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast. Remarkably, everyone walked away in one piece. Kaden did fall out of the back of the truck once, a little pine tree took a beating, and Toby's (Dylan's grandfather on the Callan side) avoided being slammed into pretty hard, by the birthday boy, with quick reflexes. Considering the number of toddlers and power wheels, I think things went pretty well!

Mackinna "helps" Dylan

Birthday boy on his wheeler

Uncle Shawn goes for a spin. In the background you can see Uncle Robby trying to car jack Mackinna's truck. She gave it up and he did some racing.

Its scary when Mackinna is the best driver of the group...

Cousins eating ice cream cake

Could this kid be any cuter?

The President comes to Portland!

President Obama came to Portland on April 1st. A couple days prior I signed up on Chellie Pingree's website to get more info when the details were available, which I mentioned to Mackinna. That was all it took for the girl to have her heart set on going. It didn't matter that she'd have to miss her dance class, or someone would have to wait in line to get tickets the day before- she needed to go. I would have liked for it to work, but gave up pretty quickly when I learned all the details. I could justify missing dance to hear the president, but just didn't see how I could wait in line to get her tickets, when I'd have to bring her to school and pick up from school and wait with at least one kid for hours in the rain and cold, but her Daddy was not deterred.

He took the morning off from work and got in line for tickets at 7:15- four hours later he had two tickets in hand. Then the next day he got in line at 11:30 for a 3:30 speech so they'd get decent seats. I brought Mackinna to him at 1:30- which is when the doors were supposed to open. Mackinna decided it'd be best if she wore a dress to hear the President speak, so we put her in a new dress from Grandma Campbell and put a bow in her hair. We talked a bit about health care- the topic of the President's speech, Mark loaded some new games on his phone to entertain her while they waited, and she brought her own little camera to take pictures. She had a blast from start to finish and Mark said he'd wait in line again in a heart beat- it was worth every minute.

The President!

Once they got inside, Hen sat on the floor at Daddy's feet and watched a movie on his phone.

The line behind them

Waiting in line to get into the expo- two hours still the speech starts!

The tickets! She later brought them to show & tell.

Seagulls in the basement part 2

We were out in the yard earlier this week and Mark pointed out some seagulls flying by over head. Kaden yelled, "Hey Seagulls! Want come live in our basement?" They kept flying, but when I asked him about this later he told me they didn't want to because there are spiders in our basement. I still laugh when I think about this ridiculous sea gull in the basement kick he's on.

She loves Obama!

Mackinna cheering for President Obama!