April SNOW Showers
For those of you who didn't know, my birthday is on April 18th. I always remember by birthday as a bright green time, with flowers sprouting and warm breezes blowing. My sweet husband greeted me in the morning with this birthday message.
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| Yes, folks, those are q-tips. |
But as I looked outside, this is what greeted me...on my birthday....which is April 18th....SPRINGTIME!!
As you can see, the snow continued all throughout the day and evening and into the next day as well. Sigh. But just 11 days later, this is what our yard looked like.
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| What was left of our awesome qhinzee. |
Spring finally did come and now we're into summer even though that has been colder than expected as well. But we did manage to finally hit 90 degrees yesterday. It was heavenly!
Gymnastics
Cate and Clare were able to showcase the skills they've been learning in gymnastics this year at the Spring Fun Meet. They both did great and had a lot of fun.
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| Cate and Clare waiting to perform |
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| Clare on the bars |
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| Cate on the bars |
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| Clare receiving her medal. |
By May all the snow was gone and we had a purchase agreement in place. We had started packing but took the day off to celebrate Mother's Day. And how do you celebrate Mother's Day in the Northwoods, you may ask? Why you go to lunch and then watch some fish being squeezed, of course! My family treated me to a wonderful lunch at Florio's. Note the northwoods decor. You can't get away from it up here but it's cozy and nice. Here I am with all my monkeys.
Then we went to the Cut Foot Sioux spawning sight to watch the MN DNR collect walleye eggs to promote healthy fish populations in MN lakes. You can read more about that operation HERE.
The ice wasn't even all the way out on the lakes but the fish were ready to go! They have quite a system.
They net as many walley as they can then separate out the males and the females...don't ask me how they know.
Then they grab a male and squeeze his sperm into the bucket then swirl the concoction to promote fertilization. They throw the males back into the net. There aren't as many males as females and they can use the males for several more days (the operation runs about 10 days).
After a minute or two, they pour the fertilized eggs into a sieve system and gently clean the fertilized eggs before depositing them in a cooler of lake water.
Next year maybe you can be lucky enough to watch the fish squeezers for your Mother's Day Celebration! In all seriousness, it was a beautiful day to be outside, it was an interesting operation for this biologist to watch, the kids thought it was cool and we played at a park afterwards. It was a very nice way to spend the day.
Packing
After that, it was time to get serious about packing. We worked into the night many times but got everything boxed and loaded on time and had a day to clean out the house before we left.
Our New House
And then we were off to our new house across town. Here are some pictures of our new place. We have a lot of plans for the place which will take some time, but for now we're pretty content.
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| Front of house |
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| A workshop for Scotty! |
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| Our side yard...nice big yard! |
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| Our big backyard and garden...soon to be a much bigger garden! |
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| The new pool we just bought the kids to keep them occupied while mommy unpacks. |
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| This is the view out our front windows. Very park-like but it's someone's yard! We have no houses in front of us or behind us. |
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| Clare at the kitchen island with the breakfast mess. |
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| Our kitchen |
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| Our living room/entertainment center |
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| Our Deck |
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| Our basement family room |
We did manage to go camping one weekend near the twin cities at William O'Brien State park to attend my cousin's wedding reception. And we managed to make it to our lake property for a day, too. But I couldn't find the camera at that time so no pictures.
We are getting to know our neighbors and so far we like everyone. The kids have found another little girl who lives down the block and it looks like they will all become good friends.
The kids have been keeping busy with camps...basketball and volleyball for Catie and College For Kids for all of them. Cooper will start up T-ball in July and then they will all go to VBS at the end of July. Why oh why doesn't anyone have any camps in August!!?? That's when mammas are really going nuts and need the break! Oh well. We'll probably camp a lot in August. We should be mostly unpacked by then and have a few projects under our belts.
We would love it if anyone wants to come visit us this summer! We are just one block away from Pokegama Lake boat landing so bring your boat. We may try to invest in a pontoon for ourselves this year. When you're so close, why not!?
Enjoy the warm weather. We definitely are!!
