Thursday, February 28, 2008

I Love This Place








I know I have t0ld many of you how much I love Wenatchee and all of the fun activities available to our busy little family. Well I discovered the most appropriate place to take the little ones when the weather is just so so and you really don't want to try and keep your toddler out of the knee deep puddles at the park....Drum Roll Please....Sports Gymnastics!!!!! I love it! I love it! I love it! They get a 10 in my book for being the most kid friendly...and I mean 18 months to grown up sized kid...place in town. They turn the gym into a seriously padded/matted room filled to the brim with trampolines (of all sizes), fluffy and firm mats, balance beams, tunnels...Lots of tunnels, balls, toys, rope swings, a big jumpy castle, lots of fun kid music, and super cheap snacks...because the kiddos work up quite an appetite. I did not have to worry much about Ben, except when he realized there was a live in cat in the lobby. He wanted to chase it around, but for the most part he ran and jumped until his little body could go no more. To top it all off...I think it's kind of a secret...There were only about 5 moms there...it felt almost empty. I think I may become a regular.. OHHHH it is only 8 dollars per family! Come visit and we'll take a trip to sports gym...the kids will go crazy!!!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

100th Day of School




Tomorrow is the 100th day of school, which actually blows me away because it seems like fall and the first day of school were just a couple of months ago! The kindergarten and 1st grade classes are designing objects out of 100 things to be on display for the rest of the schools viewing pleasure. Tage decided to make a space ship out of 100 Legos, which is turning out to be quite cool. I'm not sure who is getting more into it...Brant or Tage. I thought my idea was best, but it got poo pooed big time by Tage. I wanted to take the stacks and stacks and stacks of school work that has come home and make a modge podge 100 out of it. I thought it would be super cool to tear up all those papers into 100 pieces and modge podge them to a cardboard number 100. Doesn't that sound like a fantastic idea! Apparently NOT! Tage was appalled that I would ever consider tearing up all his hard work into small bitsy pieces, so he opted for the 100 Lego project...Oh well, I guess I need to figure out another plan to get rid of the stacks of papers brought home from school.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Always Dirty

After everyone was covered in mud from head to toe Simon asks...

"Mom, is it ok to play in the clean mud?"

Because it was so cute, and such a little kid thing to say I thought I would share some of the pictures from our play date at the Devris. They have a wonderful spot in Malaga with lots of area for the kids to run, have adventures, find sticks...oh and get into mud up to their knees! Actually Ben had splashes of mud on his face and in his hair. Yes, Tage and Simon were both in their uniforms! We went and bought Tage new shoes after the play date.










Tuesday, February 19, 2008

What's Your Snack Of Choice?

I am writing this post as a way to show off my new little popcorn bowls! I have six of them, one for each of us. As most of you know The Madson Family's choice snack is a big bowl of warm popcorn...sometimes with M&M's on a special occasion. As the family has grown, rather quickly I might add, I have noticed it is not as easy to sit down with a large bowl of popcorn while 4 toddlers and your hubby all fight for a spot in the popcorn bowl, usually ending up with more popcorn on the floor than in our tummies. Anyhow, I found these, way too cute, and totally useful little metal bowls at an antique store in Leavenworth. I love them, and to make an end to the perfect little popcorn bowl story...I have the LARGE mammoth size bowl that matches them which I also found at another little antique store about a year ago. I love it when things become complete~! Happy Snacking!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

New Camera...It's Here!





Here are some pics of the kids taken with the new camera, it's a Canon PowerShot A560. Notice we are at the park, and it is a nice sunny day...No one is wearing the whole winter coat and boot garb! Ya...spring is on the way!

Monday, February 11, 2008

Snow-Shoeing Again






I hope your not getting sick of all the snow-shoeing pics. Sat we took Tage and Simon out on quite a long hike. It was a blast and both boys did a great job. Enjoy!

Poo Poo The Stomach Flu...and Peanut Butter





Yes, after we got over the nasty goopy cold, flu and ear infection mess we had 2 days of health before we came down with the stomach flu for a week. Ick, Ick, Ick!!! Not only were there piles and piles of laundry from many nights of kids puking, but Tage and Simon started feeling better and got a hold of peanut butter and decided to rub it all over their entire bodies! I am not kidding! They were covered from head to toe with thick creamy (thank you Jiff) peanut butter! Then they realized how foolish they were being and knew they were going to be in serious hot water, so they started looking for any clean cloth they could find to clean themselves. Unfortunately most rags, towels, and bedding were waiting to be washed so they started taking clean clothes out of their closet to wipe themselves down. This also proved to be an ineffective way of getting the sticky mess off themselves so they decided to move the mess from their bedroom to their bathroom and take a shower, which really only made their bodies slimy rather than sticky! It sounds like this would have taken hours, but really it all happened in a matter of minutes. Fortunately for me...and not so much for them, Brant came home about the time I discovered it and took care of the situation! I was still down with the stomach flu at that point and discovering it pretty much put me right over the edge. Brant cleaned, disciplined and cleaned some more while I went to bed. It's funny now, but was quite distressing at the time! Here are a few wrestling pics that we took during the week. This was before the peanut butter fiasco!

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Fun Weekend Retreat

Our church parish had a planned breakfast brunch at one of our elder’s homes in Camas Meadows on Blewett Pass Saturday morning. We were planning to drive up Sat morning with our egg casserole, have brunch and then bundle up in our snow gear for a day of fun in the snow sledding and snowshoeing. While all that did happen and we had a blast, we spontaneously were invited to come up Friday evening to stay in one of their cabins with another family. This turned out to be such a great opportunity! The cabin was amazingly beautiful and was able to accommodate all of us. There were four adults and seven kids and we had no space issues...it was positively delightful! It really felt like a retreat getaway. There were fun games, movies, LOTS of snow and LOTS of time for fellowship and getting to know one another. Our whole family loved it. We hope to experience Camas Meadows in the spring/summer. It was snowing while we were there so we did not get to experience the view, from what I understand the entire meadow is surrounded by lots of mountains.

On a side note, my friend and I were snowshoeing through about 6 ft of snow when we saw Tage following behind us. We were breaking the trail so it was not exactly packed enough for someone without snow shoes to walk on. He was hollering at us to wait so we stopped thinking we would tell him it was too much to be walking in when we noticed he had strapped on a pair of adult sized snowshoes and was trying to catch up with us. Something didn't look right and as he got closer we realized his foot had come out of the snow shoe and he was dragging it behind him. What a trooper!!! We got him all situated and he ended up snowing shoeing with us the entire time! He did a great job; I was super impressed with his stamina, cheerfulness and desire to hang out with good ol' mom and her friend. Here are some pics of the fun in the snow....


This is Tage snow shoeing twards the cabin we stayed in.
Here are Violet and her little buddies Ella and Lilly building a snow cave.

Simon and his buddy Marcus are sledding down the hill at the main house.
Brant is actually standing in snow waste deep!!!!