Happy St. Patrick's Day 2022

We busted out the Green for St. Patrick's Day! My sweet boys were twinning in their Sham-ROCK t-shirts. 

No worries - Lucy had a festive shirt as well. She carried on our St. Pat's tradition of green pancakes for supper.

After dinner the big kids worked on a Leprechaun trap. They had a lot of fun pulling together all things green and gold.

They even made a sign out of blocks - very clever!

I popped online to grab something for the kids online for St. Patrick's Day - I thought that I bought lil bags of candy, Lucky Charms-sized dehydrated marshmallows. I got 3 bags for 99 cents each. It turns out that they were big bags of Lucky Charms jet puffed marshmallows! Ai yi yi - Roman was over the moon! 

 

So the Leprechaun was not captured but he did leave an epic treat! ;)

It's March!

 You guys know that March 1st means that Storm kids get their annual box of Lucky Charms! It is a very happy day! Haha.

Leo found an old calculator and was pretending it was a phone, he was frantically dialing numbers, saying hello, and trying to text me. Sweet boy!

Leo got into the St. Patrick's Day spirit with his shamrock jammies.

We had a special delivery at the Storm household. At long last our new couch arrived! We ordered this baby before Christmas and were told that, due to supply chain issues / foam shortages, etc it would be a 14 week wait. Well the couch finally showed up on our doorstep and she's a beaut! :)

Lucy was gearing up for another swim meet and we were prepared this time - Heat & lane number info in permanent marker for the win! Lucy, Roman, and Dan headed to Sturgeon Bay right after school on Friday for some early morning swim meet action on Saturday. Look at these great Personal Best ribbons that she got. It was a good meet for our mermaid.

 

Roman's best bud in the neighborhood, Isaac, moved to his family's new house in the country this March. Roman was pretty devastated to say goodbye! These boys had an epic jam session before Isaac packed up and moved out. I was able to take one smiling photo and one 'serious' rock-n-roll pic of these two.

Lucy had a good swim meet on Saturday but by Sunday morning she was starting to feel pretty yucky. She had a headache, a cough, was tired and threw up a couple of times. I was pretty sure that she had strep throat since she said that her throat was scratchy on top of the headache and pukes. Poor Lucy always seems to get strep! I gave her an at-home COVID test to be sure that the Rona hadn't caught up with us {It came back negative}. I ended up taking her to Urgent Care on Sunday evening. The provider was a nice enough guy - he checked her over and told me that he thought it was viral since 'Strep does not present with a cough'. Well, based on my mama instinct and PTSD around strep diagnoses I pressed him to please just test her. The doc agreed to test Lucy for the whole gamut - flu, COVID, strep, and RSV. We stopped by the lab went home with nothing but advice to drink liquids, rest, etc.

You better believe that I felt vindicated when I had this pop up in our online portal during the night! Haha. Everything else came back negative which was a relief!

An antibiotic order was called in so I zipped through the Walgreens drive thru during Roman's basketball practice. Now that Lucy is over 10 she gets these big old pills instead of the liquid. She was not pleased! 

After a few days of meds, Lucy was back to her usual self! Good enough to goof around with old Jojo Siwa bows.

Lucy had Girl Scouts on Thursday night and they made the most festive/cutest treats!

In March we decided that it was time for Leo to get his first haircut. Goodbye wispy baby hairs!

He climbed right in the chair like a big boy!

Here we are mid-cut. :)

Handsome guy!

Dan took Lucy and Harper to a maple syrup event at Beaver Creek. The girls {and Daniel} had a fun morning! :)

 Dan treated the big kids to a fun night out in early March - they visited the arcade at Action City {Best night Ever!}

They even went to Cancun for dinner. Lucky kids! These photos capture the kids' favorite menu items. Lucy = Enchilada with Rice + Beans / Roman = Cheese Quesadilla and fries

In other early March happenings - the big kids sang at church. Don't let the smiles fool you, it was spring forward on this morning and my children were gnarly critters. A friend of ours snapped this pic - we don't sit that close to the front! LOL!

Goodbye Isaac and Jonah! Here are our neighborhood bros - Isaac & Jonah, Wyatt & Owen, and Roman & Leo. Isaac and Jonah will definitely be missed around here!

Finally, our Girl Scouts cookies arrived in March. This is proof that my boys will work for Thin Mints. 

Happy Spring!

Winter Trip to South Dakota

As soon as our brakes were fixed we headed to South Dakota for a long weekend. The kiddos had conferences on Thursday morning so they had some time off of school - it was perfect timing to celebrate Peter's birthday and hang out with the cousins.

It is always nice to do a puzzle and snuggle in Grandpa's chair.

We spent Friday morning at the Washington Pavillion - always a fave.

Leo loves the outer space and water play areas.

Lucy completed quizzes on South Dakota geography.

Roman enjoyed dinosaurs and the tornado simulator.

Great Goofy Faces, Great Places...

We explored the Sanford medical area and I have to admit it is kind of annoying that no one ever acknowledges careers in Health Care IT.

After some museum fun we ate lunch at MacKenzie River - nothing better than some street tacos!

After lunch we received bad news from Wisconsin ... Daniel tested positive for the Rona and sent a pic of his results. Ugh. The kids and I burned through a bunch of tests and continued to be negative. So tired of COVID!

Back at the Hoekman Residence, Lucy and Anna got the LAA Spa up and running.

I mean look at this elaborate set up!

First and Best Customer? Grandma Sharon. :)

One perk of visiting grandparents ... Vacation cereal! 

On Saturday morning we went to watch some 5th grade girls basketball. So fun to see cousin Abby on the bball court! Another highlight for me was running into my childhood friend, Rocky who had a kiddo in the tournament too. When I told Roman that I was in the same Kinder Class as Rocky 37 years earlier, his mind was blown!

Abby and Lucy left with Austin and Mallory for an afternoon of fun so Roman, Jules, Leo, Mom and I headed to Scheels for some lunch and playtime. It was a sunny February afternoon so Roman threw off his winter coat right away.

Leo was pumped to hop on the monster truck.

The August Birthday crew took a turn on the Ferris Wheel. 

We waved at Grammy, Jules, and Roman a few times and then Leo was off to the races running between statues and taxidermy critters.

Once the Ferris wheel was done we all headed to the monster truck for a photo op. It was a great afternoon!

Back at the ranch, Daniel rested and snuggled with Ranger. Thankfully he didn't get very sick but he did agree to temporarily move over the Storm Shelter Hunting Cabin so that the rest of us would stay healthy.

On Saturday night we gathered at the Hoekman Chateau to celebrate Peter's 9th birthday.

The cousin crew always has a good time together.

Roman begged for a photo of 'just the boys' and then he didn't even look at me! Goofball!

Here are the 'little girls' - not really so little anymore!

The little guys played together so nicely - they were in Elijah's room hanging out, surrounded by toys pretty much all evening! Hah!

Here is the whole pack of kids with Peter & cupcakes front and center!

Someone was very excited for his ice cream treat! 

Finishing the evening by reading with Grandma is the best ever!

After a packed weekend we zipped back to Wisconsin - we did stop for some donuts along the way! Snack of champions :)

Thanks for the fun weekend, Hoekman family!