Sleepy Gus

Some days preschool just takes a lot out of him.

Wisconsin

Our spring break usually falls on Holy Week.  It's nice that Hans can see the kids a bit in the day during his busiest week of the year, but it also means that the boys and I can never go anywhere too far or too long.  I was actually given two days off in a row in the middle of week and Debbie and Pam decided that was a great time to take a quick trip to Wisconsin.  The best part about this was that this time I could actually join them.

Early one morning Debbie, Pam, John, Gus, Anders, Sophie and I piled into a car and hit the road.  Sophie talked up the Osthoff because she had been coming here with Debbie and Pam since she was a baby.  She loves the Osthoff.  As soon as we got to the hotel the kids traded their clothes for bathing suits and were begging to go to the pool.

 John is being a total goofball.

 He learns from the best.

 Gus continues his phase of dancing when you ask him to pose for a picture.

 And Anders, he is just ready to go.  No time for all of this nonsense.

Ready to hit the pool!

 When we got to the pool John jumped right in.

 Anders and Sophie jumped right in.

 Gus stuck his toe in.  Even that took a 5 minute coaxing.

At this point I jumped, well walked, in and pulled him the rest of the way into the pool.  He clung to me as if he would drown if any part of his body was not some how connected to mine.

 After a while he got over his fear and decided that playing with Sophie was better than being scared.  Sophie makes everything better.

 The boys had a great time squirting Sophie.

 They spent hours hunting her down.

 While Gus had to be coaxed into the pool, Anders was ready to jump in. 

 Anders thought this handstand thing was interesting.

He felt he needed to try that too.

I find this picture too cute not to add.

 When we were finally able to get the kids out of the pool we took our little raisins to an Irish Pub.

 Sophie was still awake and going strong.

 John was down for the count.

 Gus was fading fast.

But Anders...he was still eating.

He had actually fallen asleep on the way to the restaurant.  I thought he was awake when I put him in his chair, but then we all started to see him fall.  That was a rude awakening.  But pizza makes everything better.

 The next day we woke up, went for another swim and then packed up to go home.  The boys loved using the luggage cart.  Our "luggage" was carted all the way out to the car.  There goes Gus with his dance moves.

 I couldn't get these guys to sit still long enough to take a picture.  Between the climbing and the dancing this is as good as it gets.

We had a wonderful time.  It was great to have a whole day and a half of nothing.  Sophie and the boys have plans to return to the Osthoff this summer.

Easter Morning

The boys were very excited to wear their coordinating tie and vest outfits on Sunday morning.  They still like to match and I'm going to take advantage of that for as long as possible.

 Before church I tried to get a few pictures.

 And somehow, out of nowhere, they all decided to sing a song.  Sometimes I feel like they have their own language using only eye contact.

 Gus said he wanted to line up in "small, medium and large".  I thought, Great! This will be easy!  It probably would have been if Gus had thought of himself as a medium and not a large.  I was able to capture this one where Gus isn't arguing with me about being the biggest.

 After church, Jim drew the boys wonderful pictures of Spider-man, Mario Brothers and Woody.  Jim is very talented and the boys were happy to take the pictures home.

After we got home from church I tried to take a few pictures of the boys outside. 

 Anders didn't want to sit, John is laughing about something that is probably not funny, and Gus is perturbed.  Just a normal Sunday around here.

 Anders finally decided to sit, but John wanted to stand and Gus is still perturbed.

 Gus finally got out of his funk and decided to dance.

I attempted to take a picture one more time inside.  Fritz was feeling very left out and parked himself in the picture.  I'd like to say that some days it just isn't meant to be, but the truth is that everyday is like this in our house.  Sometimes I find it comical and other times I don't.  Either way I'm going gray.

Sledding in Late March

While we were in Zionsville there was a great snow storm.  Schools in the area were actually cancelled so we were able to spend more time with Solveig.  That makes up for the fact that it was snowing in LATE MARCH.

 I knew there might be snow so I was actually prepared with hats, gloves and snow boots.  The boys were very excited to go sledding with Grandpa.  Grandpa sure got a workout pulling those three boys around.

 Anders kept saying, "I'm coming. I'm coming, guys."  But he wasn't actually moving.  The snow came up past his ankles and, as strong as this little boy is, he was having a hard time picking up his heavy, booted feet high enough to actually walk.  Regardless, he was determined to do it on his own.

 John was the first one down the hill.

 Gus actually went down on his own.  That is actually a terrified look of joy on his face.  Once was enough though.  I couldn't get this kid to go down again.

 Anders would have willingly gone down on his own.  But the hill was pretty steep and we thought it was best that John join him.

Not to be outdone or ignored, Fritz had a turn too.  Although Hans actually tried to take Fritz down with him on the sled, but Fritz would have no part of that.  He wanted to do it his way.  Boy, Fritz just fits right in with the rest of the boys.

 While Fritz would not join Hans on the sled, he gladly ran along side Hans all the way down the hill.

Everyone had a ton of fun all packed into about 15 minutes.  Then the boys said they were cold and asked for hot chocolate.  Such wimps.

A Birthday Celebration in Indiana

The day after Gus's birthday we drove to Zionsville, IN to see Hans' parents and his grandma.  Solveig was ready with the party supplies.

 Gus was excited about the Batman cake.

Each boy had a party hat.

 Cake, party hats, and presents.  A perfect party.

 Gus is so cool he needs two pairs of sunglasses.

 I had to grab a picture of Gus sharing, willingly.

 Buy a present for one boy and three boys will be happy.

 The boys were happy Great Grandma Fiene was in town for the party.

Time to blow out the candles.  A wonderful end to a great day.