In honor of today's snow...

... I offer up pictures of playing outside yesterday with no snow.

Bikes and scooters outside. It wasn't exactly hot, but it was a heck of a lot nicer than it is right now.

I think Kelson looks a bit big on this bike. We definitely need to upgrade Eli, so Kelson can move up to Eli's old bike.



The race is on!



Why is grandpa always trailing behind the kids?



Mr. Smooth on his scooter.

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!

Charley_009
Originally uploaded by Willy Wonka SPACT

Another test post. Let's see if this one stays on the page.

Charlie Found the Golden Ticket!

Charley_006, originally uploaded by Willy Wonka SPACT.

He did! He really did! He found the Golden Ticket!

(Just testing doing a blog post from flickr. Enjoy the photo and ignore the man behind the curtain.)

Doggies!

Here you can see how Bella and Stevie guard the house. They make sure to warn us if the dogs next door come out, or if a squirrel is climbing in a tree, or if there are birds.

We are very safe.



And this is for my Mom - Bella very frequently naps with a duck (or what is left of a duck) between her paws. It's her special friend.

Yippee!

The snow is gone! It's summer now! Do you see Bella by the nice summer tree?

Finally!

After the insanely long winter of my disconnect, spring is here. We can officially say "Good bye" and "Fare well" and "Get lost" to winter. As you can see, almost all the snow in my yard is gone. By this time tomorrow, I predict that there won't be any of the dreaded white stuff in my yard.



Take that winter, you old hag!

American Idol - Lincoln Log Style

At Grandma and Grandpa Lund's house, Koleman used Lincoln Logs to recreate the American Idol studio. Here is the bird's eye view, which shows the main stage, benches for the audience, the judges' table, and the Red Room.



Here is David Archuletta singing. I forgot to ask which song.



And here's a close-up of the judges. Note how he properly color-coded Randy, Paula and Simon. Clever boy.

Spring, Lovely Spring!

You know, we had about 95% of our snow gone from our yard. It was starting to be so nice. And then we got more snow. The only good news is that it came on a day the kids were home from school, and it was really good snowball and snowman weather.

Koleman combines the two here:



Personally, I have never used a wheelbarrow to shovel the sidewalk. But then, I'm not a six year old boy.



Even the dogs got into the act. Stevie is in the lead!



Milena takes an interesting approach to clearing the driveway.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

As most of you already know, last weekend was the performance of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Koleman was Charlie, and I was Willy Wonka. So, we were busy! My camera isn't exactly the best at auditorium photography, so I was hoping to get some better pictures from other sources. Those sources are slow, so I'll post the best of what I have.

Here is Charlie and Grandpa Joe, looking at the Golden Ticket one more time before they go into the factory.



The Oompa-Loompas were awesome. I loved their costumes. And for a bunch of 3rd through 5th graders, they weren't completely annoying!



In the Chocolate room I frighten the children with a terrible tale about the horrors of Loompaland. From the description, I'm pretty sure it's in North Dakota.



Violet gets ready to turn into a blueberry. The rest of us look on. As you can see, I was particularly stylish. I'll try to get a good close-up of me in my costume, because it is truly a sight to behold.

More Leprechauns!

Another thing we noticed is that the leprechauns played our Wii!



One of them made a Mii of himself and did his fitness test. Hey, 27 is a pretty darn good score!



Yippee! They brought us Lucky Charms! What kind, generous little green buggers.



It's a healthy, nutritious breakfast of Lucky Charms and green milk. Yum.

Oh no! Leprechauns!

Well, it's a St. Patrick's Day tradition in our house - the leprechauns come and cause chaos. Due to an exhausting weekend, the little buggers didn't come until St. Patty's Day evening this year. As usual, things were altered. Here the morning bowls and cups were stacked in an interesting manner.



The little buggers tossed my clean laundry around, and made a strange creature out of clothes, towels, dog toys and Bingo, Milena's stuffed dog.



They made a message out of the kids collection of Cars cars.



They put stools on top of tables! Oh, the humanity! (Note that one child was merely playing along, having realized that there is something fishy with all of these holidays and special visitors)

Cat in the Hat Day

Eli made a hat for Cat in the Hat Day (Dr. Seuss' birthday).