Long Update!

Time for a little update! We were up north for Easter this year and we had beautiful weather in Duluth. It made for some interesting pictures- sleeveless dresses in the snow! The girls had been counting down the days until Easter for so long, hoping the Easter bunny would bring them new stuffed animals. The bunny must have understood that our house has enough for now. ;)  They got candy, books, a couple toys, and new clothes, though! Not too bad!

My beautiful girls Josie, Madeline, and Sofia

The girls looking at little presents from Grandma and Grandpa

Ready for Easter brunch!

The cousins- Dane and Will, Madeline, Peter, Sofia, and Josie

Another cute one

Our little  big family

We also made it up north for Mother's Day this year to spend time with Dan's side of the family. We enjoyed nice weather at Island Lake (which is lucky since it rained most of the days leading up to the weekend and now after!) The girls had a blast with their cousins and we might have gotten an hour and change fishing (with no luck).

The girls looking like serious fisherwomen!

The cousins minus Will. They just love each other so much!

Will and Grandpa... he's pretty serious about driving the boat!

Even though there were still ice chunks in the lake, they got near-naked to splash in the water and run around!

Uncle Pete taxied the kids to the other side of the cove. (Shallow water, FYI)

There they are!

Happy Mother's Day! At Brighton beach- it was/felt about 20 degrees colder than up the hill. BRRRRRR! Great picture though!

We also had some good quality time (minus Dan, unfortunately) with my family this past Monday. My brother Andy and his wife Aimee are in town so the kids are having quality time together. They like to ride on shoulders and get chased around the house!

Me with Sofia, Will, Josie, and Madeline. YES, my arms are full. ;)

Mother/Grandmother picture (courtesy of Andy)

Cute pic of Aimee and the girls. (courtesy of Andy)

Mr. Will! (courtesy of Andy)

Grandpa and Will

Playing chase monster (courtesy of Andy)

At Uncle Ben's putting together their legos from Grandma Klopp. Will is cute in the background TRYING to get in on the action! (courtesy of Andy)

I have been training for the Gary Bjorklund Half-Marathon coming up in June, so extra time I get I like to escape for a run. A friend from high school, Leah Pustovar, and I ran a 5k a couple weeks ago and took first and second! (Leah won.) 

The girls are taking swimming lessons for the last several weeks, and they have been enjoying riding bikes. On a relatively nice spring day- around 60 degrees- they pleaded and pleaded with me to get out the kiddie pool so they could swim! They have been looking forward to summer for so long!

Practicing the bikes!

The day Josie didn't want to bike, she had so much fun with Will, who apparently wanted to wear a helmet.

Hi Josie!

First Teddy Bear Park excursion of the year! (S, J, M)

Josie, Sofia, Madeline

Will!

Sadly, the girls have been taking on a new attitude with me. If they want something- usually a new stuffed animal or a treat- they try to make demands, like "Either we have candy or we watch a show!" This does not work on me, sorry girls! 4 going on 13, huh?  Another less-than-desirable attitude is this mean-girl thing coming out. They will say things to each other like "You can't live with us because you don't have a pony-tail!"

Sofia just had her first tick of the season- Oh no!! Otherwise, she's doing well. She is the fish of the group but still gets nervous practicing floating on her back (with help). The feeling of water covering the ears is something new! Sofia is also taking off with biking. She got the hang of it the quickest. I'm sure we'll be using training wheels this whole summer, but you never know! One more thing to mention is at Preschool she tends to be without her sisters the most. I suspect it's not necessarily her choice, but she seems happy to be separate. At home, she is slightly more likely to be excluded, but some of the time she is the one excluding. Three is a hard number!

Miss 'Fia

Madeline got the hang of biking too. She and Sofia will go in circles on the sport court and almost make it a game of bumper cars. I keep reminding them this won't be possible when the training wheels come off! Madeline is the most tentative at swimming lessons. She wants to wrap her arms around my neck the whole time, but I try to stop that. I'm not sure if this stems from the two times she fell of the dock as a smaller toddler. 

Miss Madeline

Josie is doing well at swimming! She loves jumping off the side of the pool and blowing bubbles. Josie took a while to warm up to the new bikes. She watched her sisters a couple weekends ago, but decided to give it another try the next day. She seems to get really frustrated or scared with new things. At conferences last week, all three girls got good remarks. They have a ways to go with writing letters and knowing numbers, but they are progressing! The teachers said they are always sweet to everyone. They still try to wrestle or be physical with kids but it's never out of ill-intention, more just fun play. We're on the homestretch of the school year- our last two days are next week! In fall they go 3 days a week instead of 2. I don't know how moms and dads get their kids up and ready for school 5 days a week- 2 days a week seemed busy.

Miss Josephine

Will is turning more "toddler" each day. When I say that, it doesn't necessarily have a negative or a positive connotation. In some ways it is harder- he is keeping me on my toes. When we're out in public, he wants to be down and walking around, but he'll go wherever he wants without a care in the world! At home, he knows the snacks he wants and puts up fights a lot. He is even saying "mine" already- no doubt he learned that from his sisters! He also thinks he can take swats at me when he doesn't like what I'm doing- or at his sisters when they have the nerve to sit with me at the same time as him. HMMM. On the other hand, his comprehension is improving and he practices saying a lot of words. It is fun to watch his development- the first couple years it changes so quickly.

Will- Mr. Cutie Pie...maybe it's why it's OK he acts like a toddler, haha!

I  am ditching the fam this weekend for my good friend, Anna's wedding in Charlotte. I'm not going to lie, I am pumped to have absolutely no dependents and just to do my own thing. I plan to do a long run and walk around the cute areas of the city when I'm at the wedding. Debbie, Dan's mom, is helping out on Friday to make this possible, so a big thank you to her!