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And the safest place where he will never find you is… behind the chair! (Where we have repeatedly asked them not to climb but decided the battle will never be won and have consented to let them do it once a day.) They really do love it… and they are nice to each other back there… hopefully the chair is up for the beating.

I always envision beautiful easter photos taken in our yard… not in Minnesota, I guess. Still snow. (although I can see the tips of some of my daffodils poking up!) But the kids are still cute.. Zach was thrilled to have a real suit like Dad’s and Emma’s dress is “a princess dress I can wear to church!” (unlike the dress-ups she cannot.) We had an easter egg hunt at the neighbors’ on Saturday (thanks also to the snow) – Emma repeated the whole time “I am finding a LOT of eggs, huh!” (She is all about the treats…) So maybe not happy spring, but happy easter anyways!

Zach loves – LOVES – to be just like Dad. He loves to get up early to have breakfast with him; takes extra care to dress exactly like him; wants to read in his medical book just what Dad was learning about today. He was so cute helping Nate carry out his bag to go to a conference this weekend that I couldn’t resist a picture! He’s lucky to have such a good role model. 🙂

The kids have been playing “waterpark” for ages as they slide down the stairs with towels wrapped around their waists to be tubes… and everyone was excited to take Anna to the tiny waterpark here in town. No tube slide… but it didn’t matter… it was a slide, and it was a waterpark, and it almost makes you forget it is winter outside.

Cousins to visit, a snow-free street for biking, and sidewalk chalk… what a great afternoon! You should have seen my kids’ faces when I told them it was ok to get out the bikes! And Emma has been asking for the chalk all winter… hooray that spring is closer than ever. It does us ALL good to get outside for an afternoon!

That was the headline of the local paper yesterday… that’s right, first snow Nov. 30 and it’s still on the ground. The record, however, is 133 days of snow on the ground – and with a current wind chill of -19 it doesn’t feel like the end is in sight. Really I am just griping… the National Weather Service promises a warming trend starting next week. We’d just like to see a little grass before March is over!

… the crayola paints are indeed washable and the scotchguard on the cream colored couch does make clean-up easy. If that wasn’t the case, you would have a picture to go with this!

Emma loves Frosty. Of course he has to face our house so while the neighbors only see his backside, we can smile and wave at him from inside our warm and comfy house. Over the last few sunny days, Frosty got a little tippy – and started to lose his face. On our way back from the mailbox yesterday, Emma tromped out in the snow to fix him… nevermind that his mouth became his buttons and he is still as tippy as ever. At least his face didn’t get buried in today’s new snow!

The temperature gets up to 27* and you say “Hey kids! It’s SO warm outside! Let’s go play in the snow!!!” (I do think these were my actual words!)

As you can see, Zach got right into Presidents’ Day this year. At preschool they talked about George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and George W. Bush… and with all the election stuff going on this year Zach came home from school with quite a scenario. He was Washington (can you tell?) and about to stop being president, so it was time to vote for a new one. He made up the ballots for Emma and I… our options were Abe Lincoln and George W. Bush. Emma wanted to add “Daddy… no, Nathan” to the ballot, so we did… and the votes were cast. One for Lincoln, one for Bush, and one for Nathan. We finally had to page Nate at work to break the tie (after re-voting twice with the same results) – and good ol’ Abe pulled out on top. Wish everyone of voting age was as excited about the democratic process as our preschooler!