Do You Know How to Make Maple Syrup?

Last Saturday we had a wonderful morning celebrating at a Maple Harvest Festival.

We enjoyed a yummy pancake brunch, went on a little hike, watched demonstrations on how they tap maple trees & boil it down. It takes 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of maple syrup.
In REAL maple syrup there is only 2% sugar, in processed syrup it's like 60%.

Even though we don't have snow (for now) they did there and it was so beautiful.

I love to read!

(This was taken 2 years ago today- we sure LOVE books!)

I just noticed that I was tagged (thanks Chris) and here goes:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next five sentences.
5. Tag five people.
For Easter B's mom always gifts a book. This year she sent us "God Wants a Powerful People," by Sheri Dew.
Page 123: 5 lines~
"The only way to counteract the confusion of Lucifer is to seek the Lord.
So contentious and confusing were the claims of various ministers and religious to the boy Joseph that he found it impossible 'for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong.'"

I now tag: Katie, Katie, Katie, Andrew, my sisters if they haven't done it, and everyone else who should feel so inclined!
Enjoy!

Happy Birthday DAD!

I love my dad!

He is the smartest man I know.

He is so willing to help others, especially his 8 children, their spouses, and 17 grandchildren.
He is so strong!
He loves my mom.

He is an excellent teacher
(and I really appreciate all those papers he edited for me.)
He's a great cook! (especially while camping)
"He knows how to build things," Jane
He has amazing gardening skills.
He speaks Finnish.
He loves knowledge & reads a lot.
"He makes great elephant sounds," Bruce
...and much much much more!

Here he is with a sleeping Jane

** Last night we had a very wonderful FAMILY evening when some family members surprised us by being in town. We went to Niagara Falls (although it was freezing) and had such a great time seeing them again. **
Baby Kate was too cold to smile- that's cold

Easter Sunday 08

We had a wonderful Easter this year!
The kids woke up and found their Easter baskets.

Bruce was very excited about his chocolate bunny!

Cute girls!
(I love my new skirt, B's basket came courtesy of a Jos. Bank sale this year)
Silly daddy

We went to church (excellent talk Rachel) and then some friends invited us for dinner.
It was all very delicious!

Our Easter feast!

Bruce was having too much fun during the Easter Egg hunt and didn't want to stop for me to take a picture.

Some friends introduced us to a fun game of "crashing Easter Eggs" and B was the winner!

** IF you want to see an absolutely cute play room click on my friends link to the Matthew's Four- way to go!! **

Coloring Eggs and Easter Egg Hunt #2

Yesterday we sure had a fun time coloring eggs. Bruce loved "plopping" them into the different colors. Jane was a little more careful.

Here are some of the finished products
(at least the ones that didn't break or crack during the whole process.)
Baby Cakes didn't get to color eggs, but she did enjoy the day with her daddy not having to work (we love Good Friday.)
This morning we drove to the Botanical Gardens here for another fun Easter Egg Hunt.
There were LOTS of people there. The kids were each allowed to find 2 Easter Eggs and then they traded them in for a prize bag at a table. (Kind of lame, but they had fun)
Then we went inside to the Botanical Gardens afterwards and saw many beautiful plants and flowers.
One part was filled with dinosaur topiarys. Here's Bruce and a pterodactyl.

This one is for Grandma Damstedt

They also had a little section of farm animals out back and Jane loved the little bunnies of course.

Kate is so excited for Easter!

Easter Egg Hunt #1

For our playgroup today we were supposed to have an Easter Egg hunt at a park, but it's raining and there's snow outside so we had it in a friend's basement. Bruce was very happy to find eggs. (Sorry it's a little blurry.)

Kate also is fascinated by Easter Eggs and can spend a long time playing with them.
(This is how she looked in her green.)

For Family Night I copied my sister's list of scriptures/objects to put into these cute Easter

Eggs and talk about why we celebrate Easter. If you want me to email you my list, let me know!

* Easter Egg Hunt # 2 is going to be on Saturday. It's supposed to be low 30's and snow- fun fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here's 2 of my cute St. Patty's Day kids:

Jane was very excited to wear lots of green today and go to preschool.

Last Saturday we went to Rochester and some VERY kind friends of ours watched our kids in the morning while we went to Palmyra and then in the afternoon we went to the Strong Museum of Play. Survivor Man was there!

This picture is for you Stu!

Jane also got to meet Smokey the Bear.
Bruce was a little scared- fire really freaks him out (Thanks B for that great "fire safety FHE") so he didn't want to get in the picture.
Fun weekend!
P.S. Lissa we did watch Martian Child this weekend and Andy we watched Amazing Grace too.

Service Auction

This week I went to a service auction and it was so wonderful!

The idea is that you donate a service and then you later bid on another service. Each person won one and I think what I got was the best!

This doll dress is so adorable!

+ + Plus it came with the promise of a box of perennials,
so as soon as I can see the grass, we'll be planting!

Since it had snowed all Saturday we have had a few days of sunshine!

We went "sledding" out front yesterday.

Bruce loves his new snow tube

We had fun putting our snowshoes and walking around. We even made a sign out of our tracks for someone we love.

Bruce and I also started to make a snow castle- but were interrupted by Kate waking up from her nap. I bundled her up and took her outside and instantly she face planted into the snow and was not happy. So when we finish our castle we'll show you.

Kate does like to sit in the sun and try to touch the shadows.

She's Five!

Thanks to daylight savings her birthday even came one hour sooner!

We love our Jane so much and can't believe that she is 5 already.
She had such a wonderful birthday staying in her pajamas all day
(church was canceled.)
We can't believe that 5 years ago today she looked like this.
She ate breakfast and then opened all her family presents.
Thank you so much everyone for the gifts, phone calls, cards, and emails!
(She got Pet Shop care center from us, "Guess Who" from Bruce, a dress, flip flops, jacket, Dr.Seuss stencils, 3 bears, and tea set from Grandma & Grandpa Damstedt, hair bows from Jo, Barbie Island princess with elephant from Lissa, and a Little Red Riding Hood doll and book from Grandma Miller.
Today was actually a very beautiful, sunny, warm day
- perfect for our sunny little girl.

We love you Jane- Happy Birthday!

Jane's Friend Birthday Party!

Today we had such a fun afternoon!

Thanks Grandma Damstedt for the super cute new dress!
(Bruce had to get in on some pictures.)

Our nice daddy shoveled our driveway twice because we sure got a lot of snow, but the party went on!
This is what the snow looked like on our bench- quite a bit!
Every year on their birthday I hang up lots of pictures of our kids. Here are some of Jane over the years.
When the girls arrived we colored pictures and then played some games (one involved a DVD game where we recorded Jane answering questions about herself- fun!)
We decorated cupcakes and then sang Happy Birthday
She is the luckiest girl to have gotten so many fun things.
(Pet Shops, Princess Dish set, Poly Pocket, Baking set, cookie cutters & hair things, bank, Barbie, Build a Bear, Mariposa, Dora Memory, and CandyLand)
(Wearing a dress up)
Thank you to everyone who braved the weather and came!
These are the little bags she gave, thanks Grandma Miller! It was all so fabulous!

Tomorrow for her real birthday we'll have our "family party."
Church is canceled = more time for Jane to play with her new gifts!