Too much fun!

I knew this would happen...life is moving too fast.  I haven't posted in a while.  Our date of departure is looming.  Spring is starting to really happen here.  We just returned from Paris (pictures soon).  In the past month or so, we've just been enjoying Copenhagen and our friends here.  The kids are loving school immensely, and they don't want to go back to their old school.  I am loving city living in all its aspects.  

 The lakes on a beautiful day.

 In the courtyard at one of the yoga studios I attend.

 The tree in Frederiksberg Garden where children leave their pacifiers to show that they are grown up now.  Sniff.

 A wild goblet in the Danish crown jewel collection.

 The leaders in the world championship half-marathon race.  (And some of CPH's unending construction in the background.)

 Charlottelund Beach.

 I have been teaching yoga to Max's class at school.  Here are the girls in savasana.

 Amazing pizza at Mother.

 The changing of the guard.

Spring in the botanical gardens!

Spring...

Some little photographer in the house must have used my camera, because I found these:

Eeeples and Beneenees

M4's spring concert was a couple weeks ago...here is one of his moments of glory:

Happy Easter!

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures during the egg hunt! I always take pictures during the egg hunt! Bah. Well, here is the actual egg coloring:
And some sidewalk fun with the 3D chalk the Easter Bunny brought.
It was a quiet Easter this year. Usually Nana and Boppa are here, but they couldn't make it this year. They're coming soon though!

Now spring has truly sprung, and with it spring activities: M3 has Japanese again and a track clinic. Both kids are still taking gymnastics. There is a rash of birthday parties and spring singing concerts and banquets coming up. I'll try to get some video of the singing up next! Plus there is an exciting new structure starting to take shape behind the garage. I'll get some pics of that up, too. Happy Spring everyone!

April comes in like a lion...wait...

Last night we had a serious storm! I was at a school meeting, and you can imagine the sound of this hail on a school gym roof. We were lucky in that we didn't sustain any major damage (I don't think, although we haven't done a roof inspection yet since it's been raining ever since!). Other folks had broken windows, dented cars, roofs caved in by trees, and so on.

This is no one in our family! But it is a college cross-country runner who was caught in the hail. Fortunately, the group of runners was generally OK. Couldn't blame him for not wearing a shirt...it was in the 80s before the storm!

Spring break!

Oh my, I have been lax here! Well, it was spring break for the kids last week, so I didn't have my usual leisure blog time. Ha!

The first weekend of spring break we took a mini-vacation at the Honey Creek Resort, a new place south of here on Lake Rathbun. It's a state DNR facility, but it's a swanky one! Of course I forgot the camera, so there aren't any pics of the kids cavorting in the water park. Oh well...we stayed two nights and had a great time! It was cold out, so the fact that the park-ier aspects of the place aren't finished was OK. The water park is a great size for smaller kids. Mark and I could sit and read while the kids played but could easily see them no matter where they were, and the water wasn't deeper than about three feet anywhere. The rooms were nice, but I really want to stay in one of the fancy cottages! When the park trails are finished and the lake is more accessible, it will really be fun to vacation there: hiking, biking, boating, water-parking.

For the rest of spring break, the kids and I did some of their favorite things:

Fossil Gorge at the Coralville Dam:
The spillway was pretty violent and scary (at least to Mom, who didn't trust the perfectly stable fence).
Taking scientific notes.
Looking for fossils.The Children's Museum in Iowa City, which has a new aviation exhibit. M4 took great joy in continually crashing during his flight simulation run.

We also went to the zoo on an 85 degree day! And can you believe that Dairy Barn opened the SAME DAY??!! The gods were smiling down on us!

Spring!

Spring is springing as usual around here, going from this:

To this in the course of a couple days. But that's OK! We'll take it!!
That's a fine-lookin' snow cat, dontcha think?

I had my second weekend of yoga teacher training last weekend, which was again so enjoyable and rejuvenating for me. I need to set aside some scheduled study time, though. Let's just say I'm not good at getting it done at home. I'm enjoying getting to know some of my classmates a bit. It will take time, but it will be fun uncovering their stories over the next months! I'm looking forward to being connected to a wider community of yogi-minded folks around here. And again it is so nice to be able decompress and discuss with Jenn. We see eye to eye on so many areas.

Unfortunately, the yoga weekend was book-ended by barfing children: M4 (starting early) last Friday morning and M3 last night. Poor things! We haven't had any barfing flus for so long around here...literally years...so they were both miserable. They both stopped the upchucking in about 8 or 9 hours, though. M3 had the lucky break of missing school, but for M4 there was no school anyway last Friday. Life is so unfair!

Redonkulous!

Our favorite new word around here is "redonkulous," courtesy of the movie Bolt (which I think was one of the higher quality kids' movies, despite the presence of Miley Cyrus...at least we didn't have to see her!). Usage: There are so many toys on your bedroom floor that I can't walk without tripping! It's redonkulous!!

We went to the Devonian Fossil Gorge (near Iowa City) on Memorial Day for a family outing. We saw some water snakes eating a fish (ewwww!) and caught some of the hundred of tadpoles that were wiggling around in the puddles. At least, M3 did. M4 was not keen on that idea. Afterwards we had some outrageously overpriced Indian food. Oh well, the kids chose the lamb, which I thought was pretty adventurous of them!

More spring break pics...

All aboard!!

Peekaboo! Hello, 80 degrees at Loose Park!

Signs of spring...hallelujah!

On top of the Liberty Memorial on a beautiful, clear day.

I've already seen this look too many times in my life.

Poor genes

Well, it finally happened. I refer to M3's visit to the eye doctor this morning...yup, she's getting her first pair of glasses!! And they are really cute: purple and green, small lenses. It made me think about the Coke-bottle-bottoms they called glasses when I was little. I wore a lovely series of those throughout my childhood. I'll post a picture of M3 in her cute new ones next week, and maybe I can find an old picture of me for comparison. I'm sure the kids will laugh their heads off!

Spring break has been pretty dreary thus far, exacerbated by the fact that I am teaching extra classes for people who have gone away (not that I am begrudging them their break...they definitely deserve and need it!) but mostly because it has been horribly cloudy and grey. Today the sun is finally out...hooray!

My parents lent us Season One of The Wire of which I watched two episode last night. Um, I could have watched all night, but thought better of it.

Nana and Boppa will arrive later today for an Easter visit. The Easter Bunny is on his way!