Amazing April! (Part I)

I am having a hard time remembering everything back from the end of March to the beginning of April, but things are slowly coming back!  We normally don't have a spring break, or if we do, it is every other year.  Due to the construction this year, we did have a spring break so they could finish up some work at the high school. 

My mom came up for a day or two at the start of our spring break, and then the four of us drove down to Eau Claire, leaving Nick here to work (Northland wasn't on spring break, so he still had to teach) and drive down on Friday (to then go to UWEC and run samples all day . . . ).

First a few miscellaneous photos:

They wanted a goofy photo.  What is funnier than
the bathroom?

Now to Eau Claire.  Whenever we visit my parents, we walk to Boyd Park.  They have a park, an ice rink in winter, and a footbridge where we always play Pooh Sticks.

The girls found the dress up bin of clothes.  Man, they are terrifying (and terrifyingly cute).

Nana always has projects, and since Easter was coming, might as well color eggs.

We also drove to Menomonie to visit my brother, sister-in-law and meet the newest in the family, little Finian, my nephew born in February.

As always, scoping out the model train at my brother's house.

So precious!

Books.  

Reading Disney Princess stories.  I am sure my dad was thrilled.

The obligatory family photo!

Back to Boyd Park, this time to ride bikes.

Lilly and my mom - Lilly was zooming!

As I mentioned earlier, my mom always has projects.  This one didn't really turn out, trying to make batik patterns using glue and paint on little bags.  So rocks were painted instead.

I love our little Ashland Public Library.  They have so many fun programs and the staff are so friendly and know all the kids' names and talk to them like they are real human beings.  The book selection is fantastic and there are puzzles and other ways for kids to have fun at the library.  But the Eau Claire Public Library, which serves a community 10 times the size of Ashland, is remarkable.  Lots of imaginative play stations, lots of books, and other awesome things.  We spent quite a bit of time there and actually ran into my best friend from elementary and early middle school and her two daughters.  No real time to catch up, but still great to see her (she too is a high school teacher, social studies).

This is how I wait to leave places too :)

My parents have a friend, Laurel, who has a sheep farm.  She also has some donkeys and other animals (a ridiculous number of cats, all of whom have names).  We went to visit her farm.  Lilly eventually got brave and helped feed the lambs but was pretty nervous and didn't do it for long.  She did jump right in and help Laurel out with all the chores.  Lilly (at this point in time in her life) wanted to be a vet, but is afraid of dogs and probably allergic to cats so, it may not be the greatest option.  After this visit to the farm though, perhaps large animal veterinary is her calling.

Filling the bucket with feed - a bit loud for Lilly.

While Lilly jumped right in and was eager to help, Greta was much more reserved and kept to herself, observing from the sidelines.  One might say she was quite nervous and scared of the sheep.

Also notice the stylish shorts on top of pants look.

Back at Nana and Grandpa's house, hanging out.

Saturday morning my mom and I were going to bring the girls to an Easter Egg hunt at their church.  When we got to the church, it didn't look like many people were there, so before getting the girls out from their car seats to just rebuckle them minutes later, my mom went to make sure it was still happening.  Well, it was, and in the time it took my mom to check it out and us to get back, it was over.  Luckily there were some very friendly kids who shared some of their loot with Lilly and Greta.

Since the hunt was a bust, we texted my dad, who set up a hunt for the girls while we dawdled our way back to the house. 

We left Eau Claire on Saturday (maybe Sunday, who knows at this point) to have a relaxing day at home on Sunday.  The Easter Bunny came and hid goodies (Lilly found hers way to fast for Nick's liking).

We made soft pretzels, because yum.

We went to Prentice Park and played.

 More imaginative play - jumping into piles of snow.  They also were hammering something, so of course needed safety eye ware!

Earlier, I mentioned the awesomeness of our city library. One change they recently made is they renovated the story time room and have it available whenever the library is open.  Certainly a nice thing to have in cold, long winters.  The girls and I checked out the new space and of course became superheroes.

One of the places we like to go to run around is the elementary school playground.  There is lots of room to ride bikes, lots of grass to run around on, and three different playgrounds to play on. 

Our trunk: bikes, skis, and paddling equipment!

Okay, this has become a long post.  We'll wrap up here and go on to Greta's birthday.