Brecken's Big Boy Bed

I love the house bed Shawn built Brecken last summer. I even bought stain and brackets to do the final finish this spring. But...our little guy is getting so big that he's outgrowing toddler the sized mattress. He rolls off within hours of falling asleep. We're also hoping to set a new routine (no sneaking into mom & dads room in the middle of the night). High hopes for this little platform bed...

Already wants to sleep in it :)

Step 1: Platform complete!

Logan is 6

 Logan - for your sixth birthday, we did a few special things....

We had a football birthday party with family on a hot, sunny day, exactly 1 week after we received 22" of snow...

On your actual birthday, I got to come read a book to your class...

And have lunch with your class...

Since you're getting so BIG, you had a BIG card and BIG gift from mom and dad...

And you got to pick where our family went to dinner to celebrate! Happened to be the first patio night of the year :)

(Not super happy about another photo, but we really did all enjoy the dinner outside! Ha!)

As shown, you are a silly, sweet, smart, athletic kid who keeps us on our toes and gives me the best big hugs at the end of every single day. Hope you had a great birthday, buddy! We love you!!

Hotel Stay

Due to a little mishap with our dishwasher, we had to spend this past week out of our house while our floors were refinished. Hotel rooms and dinners out are not the easiest with three little kids, but we did our best to make the most of the situation.

The kids thought we were on vacation - ha. As parents, we felt a little bit like nomads, having to figure out where we were eating and sleeping each night!

It was perfect that both our hotels had pools and Logan just started swim class a couple weeks ago. With all this time in the water, Logan has done a great job developing his swim stroke! He was able to swim in the shallow section without his life jacket.

Little swimmers...

Brecken started to 'swim' on his own this week, too :) He floated around the hot tub and pools scooping his hands and kicking his feet, giggling the whole time :)

When they needed an extra day to complete the work, we had to switch hotels because our other room wasn't available over the weekend. So we came a little closer to home and booked a room in Maple Grove. Bedtime at hotels can be tricky, but it's a little easier when they have bunk beds :)

Silly kids...playing with their suction cup toy from dinner...and leaving big red marks on their foreheads...

The hotel's pool had a few water features for the kids. We played lots of basketball (P-I-G, P-O-O-L, H-O-T-E-L...) and burned as much energy as we could to make bedtime easier :)

I love this photo. You had to be 48" tall to ride the big water slides. Logan is shy of that by a solid 6", but he wanted to ride them sooo bad!! So this photo is him after he'd ridden down the slide. We talked to the lifeguard and she'd let him do the slide if he passed a swim test first. With all the swimming this past week, he was able to crush the test and ride on the slides :)

Side note - Shawn and I rode them also. They were super dark, super long, and made us super dizzy! Ha! Were they always this way or do they just feel different now that we're 'old'?!

It was so nice that our room had this little kids' cubby where they could chill out after a week of being away from home, their rooms, and all their things.

And finally, a quick before and after of our floors! Before is on top, after on bottom. I was unsure how the new finish we selected would turn out, but I love it! <Whew!> Bright, beautiful, natural maple :) 

They have a few odds and ends to wrap up, but we are so happy to be back in our house! 

Fridays Are The Best Days

Project time with Brecken...

This smile...

These chubby little fingers....

Building a train track...

Love spending Fridays with this boy.

The rest of the crew was sure to start my day with smiles, too. They showed up in my bathroom wearing these hats and shades while doing their dance moves. I'm lucky to be surrounded by such carefree silliness :)

April Snow Showers

And just like that, playground season is on hold. We hit 9.5 - 10" in our backyard by the end of yesterday's storm. 

Since we can't make this stuff go away, I figured we should get out and enjoy it. Brecken didn't like that it was still spitting snow from the sky, so he covered up and stayed snuggled into mom and dad most of the time, but the other boys (Shawn included) were loving it :)

We stayed off the roads and explored the neighborhood forest...hopefully this is the last storm before spring arrives for good!!

Sk8ter Boy

Between Saturday's snow and Sunday's holiday, Logan had the skatepark all to himself (which is the only time he can actually skate). The 18 degree windchill didn't phase him, so I stuck it out for a good half hour before reigning him in to warm up!

It is so fun to see how each kid develops their own interests. Ryder clearly has a passion for football (stats and playing) and today Logan reminded me how much he likes skateboarding. He handled his board so well and has always had great balance. He's the kid I have to sternly remind not to do flips off furniture and not to drop in on the quarterpipes just yet!