South Dakota Spring Break - Part 1

The children and I spent a wonderful week in South Dakota this March. The big kids had spring break on their academic calendar which coincided with my last week of maternity leave so we headed west for vacation. Daniel and Ranger stayed in Wisconsin and spent the week traveling for work/ holding down the fort. I picked everyone up after school on Friday and we hit the road. We made it as far as Roseville on the first night. So grateful that Amelia and Brian live at the half way point of our travels. We arrived in time for pizza, bed time stories, and snuggles. 

We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to play with the cousins.

Amelia made some delicious green muffins in honor of St. Patrick's day - they had spinach in them! You all know that Roman is a connoisseur of all things muffin - this kid could live on bran muffins morning, noon, and night! He loved he festive green muffins and gave them 2 thumbs up.

The kiddos played Candy Land together.

We enjoyed lots of snuggle time.

 We read books. Lucy adores reading to her boys. :)

Leon tried out the Bumbo for the first time. 

We put on our St. Patrick's Day gear and made our way to Sioux Falls.

We stopped in Mankato for a pizza lunch. It is so much easier to nurse the baby and occupy the big kids with books and coloring projects if we go to a sit down restaurant!

Everyone loves pizza! 

We had to pull over at one point to feed the little guy again. Leo is such a good little traveler!

The big two even took a nap so I had about ~45 minutes of silence! It was glorious! Hahahaha!

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and had a joyful reunion with the cousins. Lucy just thinks the world of her cousins Abby and Anna. 

 

Just look at all of these lucky kids celebrating St Patrick’s Day together! There are 10 cousins now ages 12, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 10 months and 3 months. I love this lil pack so much!

Here are the youngest 4 kiddos! 

Mallory brought these festive cookies over for dessert! Fun and delicious!

Leo snuggled with his grandpa Glen.

Meanwhile Dan didn’t have anyone but Ranger to cuddle with! 

We woke up on Sunday morning and had a little play time before heading to church. 

Roman hit the jackpot because a little Leprechaun brought another box of Lucky Charms to grandma and grandpa’s house!

Romy loves to find new treasures and play with all of Grandma’s little toys.

After church we met the entire crew at HuHot. It was actually the perfect set up because there was a little alcove/side dining room where all the cousins ate lunch.

 This crew was wild but contained! Hah!

It was a beautiful and sunny day so we eagerly took some afternoon walks. Grandpa and Austin took Homer and some kiddos to Good Earth park. 

Jules snuggled with Leo while mama and Mallory went on a stroll around the neighborhood with the big girls. Jules kept telling me to, 'Go Away Auntie! I will take care of your baby!' LOL!

By the time this winter season was over in Rhinelander we got over 110 inches of snow so it was a beautiful sight to see a little grass during our walk!

 

We had a picnic supper - the dinner of champions! The kids were big fans. :)

 

Salami - check, Cheese - check, Popcorn - check, Movie - check, Sharing a chair with a cousin - check. Best night ever! :)

 

On Monday we spent the afternoon with Jules! We headed to Scheel's for some fun. :)

 

We pretended to drive monster trucks.

 

We posed with all kinds of statues.

 

We also found a grizzly bear!

 

You can't visit Scheel's without a ride on the Ferris Wheel, right? First up - the August birthday crew. Jules, Grammy Sharon, and Roman climbed aboard. :)

 

Next up, Grammy Sharon and Lucy. Jules, Roman, Leo and I watched from afar.

 

We visited the cafeteria for lunch and the kids got ice cream for dessert.

 

The girls got blue raspberry and I think that Roman got root beer. Can't beat ice cream on a Monday afternoon!

 

We wrapped up our time at Scheel's trip with a little Rollerball.

 

 

 

The kids were so good and we had such a fun afternoon at Scheel's. Before we dropped Jules off again we zipped to the library.

 

This guy enjoyed a little snuggle time outside of his front pack while the big kids played and read.

Whew - if you are still reading this, you made it through the first couple of days of our trip! Be on the look out for Spring Break parts 2, 3, and so on. You guys know me - give me a couple of vacation days and I will somehow make 5 blog posts about it! Haha!  

March Happenings

March was a whirlwind month at the Storm household. Here are some updates from life in late winter!

Roman absolutely loves his big brother status. Here he is holding the little guy - don't you love the faded face paint cat whiskers on Romy's face? Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! ;)

Mama enjoys her cuddle and selfie time too! 

Classic mid-day shot of a sick kiddo watching a movie, never far from the puke bucket. Ugh. This winter has been a doozy on poor Lucy's immune system. 

At least she rallied and was able to build a school for her LOL Surprise dolls. :)

Both of the big kids love their dance moves, here is Roman dabbing while wearing his Dab Cat shirt. 

Thursday night is always swim lesson night for the Storms. 

March meant that my maternity leave was coming to an end. I spent lots of time snuggling with this sweet little man.

I had to throw this picture in as proof that baby Leo is not always so serious! 

Lucy learned about the miracle of germination this spring. She got some lima bean seeds from school and was so very excited to see them sprout!

Lucy has been loving science lately which is great! Here is a Venn Diagram that she created to show that some animals use their bodies to protect themselves from enemies while other animals use behavior sets and some use both!

Roman has been working on art projects in his 4K classroom - he loves to hang his creations above Leo's changing table. Here are Roman's giraffe, snake, and rabbit. Leo is fascinated with this stuff! He especially likes that silly giraffe. 

Our snow days continued well into the month of March. Sigh. We had to be creative in finding fun games to play and new things to learn. On this day Roman made an underwater world of characters for his Mario Brothers to defeat. 

Here are the big kids sporting some of their favorite March outfits - Roman in his wookie shirt and Lucy wearing her St. Patrick's Day ensemble. 

Lucy and Roman love playing with Ranger and their Dad outside. Here they are snowshoeing on a snowy March afternoon.

You guys - it snowed so much this season that the roof on the local Burger King collapsed! Insert wide eyed emoji here!

Here are my three nuggets ready for church one Sunday morning in March. This was actually the morning after the Spring Forward time change. Not to be cocky but we were up and ON TIME for Sunday school on this day! Miracles do happen! Hahahaha!

Can you tell what season it is around our house? Girl Scout cookie time!!

Lucy worked at a cookie sales booth with some of her Girl Scout buddies, she was so pumped to sell at Dunkin Donuts. 

Now that Leo is a little bit bigger, we have taken him on a couple of adventures outside. Just look at this precious baby bear! 

These two love being the first ones down the path no matter which trail we are on!

Dan manages the dog ...

While I manage the babe in the front pack. :)

I mean, who wouldn't want to carry this peanut? 

I think that this is one of my favorite pictures from this winter. We are so lucky to live in an area where trails and outdoor fun are so easily accessible!

Thanks for the sweet outfit Auntie Mallory! Leo is looking so cute - unfortunately we were dressed up for a funeral on this day. One of my former co-workers, Mary, passed away so Leo and I went to her services in March. Just another reminder to give your family and friends hugs and kisses, to travel and make lots of memories while you can!!

Here we are in the waiting room at the dentist office one morning. During this visit Lucy was diagnosed with 1 small cavity and Roman had 4!!! Argh! I guess that they did inherit some Hoekman genes. Hopefully they won't need as much dental work as their mama! 

So lucky to have these two as my big kids! This is what we wore on the last day of school before spring break! Blog posts on our epic spring vacation to South Dakota are coming soon. :)