Snow Much Fun

Last weekend, the weather was absolutely glorious, especially since we had just emerged from a frigid deep freeze. The kids and I spent most of Saturday in the house cleaning out and organizing the toy boxes, doing laundry...yada, yada, yada...Much like what we did today because we are getting hit with another huge storm (or at least we are supposed to be, but thus far there's only been a little snow and lotsa wind) but that is a whole nother story.
Since we finished all of our chores on Saturday, we deemed Sunday a fun day! It was in the 40's, sunny and the perfect day bundle up and head outside to climb the snowbanks and have a good old fashioned snowball fight!
Well...the kids did all of the snowball throwing and I dodged them while attempting to capture a couple of good action shots!Roxy was even having a blast blazing through the snow drifts and chasing the stray snowballs.This little stinker has a pretty darn good arm, too! Thankfully I was able to dodge all of his bullets :)

It is such a good feeling to watch your children living life, having fun and enjoying the little things in life like playing in the snow on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
♥ It warms my heart to no end. ♥
After all, it is moments like these that they will remember for years to come...or at least I know I will.

Any Given Saturday

On any given Saturday, if you look out of our family room window, you are likely to see one of these...
One of these...
And maybe even one of these...
You see, I am a bit of and old soul at heart and enjoy feeding the birds and then drinking my coffee and watching all of them arrive to feed and frolic on a Saturday morning. Ever since I got my new copper bird feeder back in Nov, all had been going well until this little rascal showed up!
This little feller is the first squirrel I have seen even attempt to reap it's bounty off of my feeder. And he is one lucky little guy because the minute Grant spotted him, he was ready to get out the new BB gun he got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa and blast his biscuits off!
Yes, my little Davey Crockett was all ready to have squirrel for dinner. He even went so far as to ask me how you get a squirrel ready to be eaten and what it tastes like. I explained the process of preparing an animal for consumption (I'll save you the gory details) and of course I my response to what squirrel tastes like was, "It tastes like chicken." Doesn't everything taste like chicken? he he ;)
Mr. Squirrel's attempts at emptying my feeder didn't go unnoticed either...
Mr. Bunny and Mr. Blue Jay were right below gobbling up everything that Mr. Squirrel had dumped out.
They all make quite a team, don't you think!?
Aside from the circus of animals devouring my bird seed, my favorite part is enjoying the beauty of the various birds that come to visit.
I know Blue Jays are very common and are kind of the 'bullies' on the block when it comes to birds, but I think they are absolutely beautiful birds.
But my all time favorite visitors are the Cardinals. Hands down, they are the bird I get most excited about seeing at the feeder. They are so colorful and vibrant and they always remind me of the Grandma's of ours that have passed and are now in Heaven.
Just wanted to share a few little beauties of nature that make you stop and think how blessed we really are. Happy Saturday!

Monsterous Mushrooms!

A little over a month ago the kids and I found this HUGE mushroom in our yard. If you already saw these pics on fb keep reading because there is more!
We were amazed at just how big this crazy mushroom was, and it was right out in the middle of the lawn. As a matter of fact, when Grant spotted it from a distance, he yelled "WHO threw a diaper out in the middle of our yard?!"
My neurotic self made Grant wear gloves to handle the mammoth shroom. Tootie was happy just watching (and making silly faces of course!)
Grant just couldn't wait go SMASH it! I'm telling ya, he's ALL boy!
Well, we thought that mushroom was big until we found this one today...
Don't believe me? Just ask Tootie!!!
This thing was GINORMOUS!!!!
Again, Grant wasn't interested in posing for pictures. He picked out his 'tool' and had visions of mushroom smashing dancing in his head.
I did get this one cute one of him though. And let me tell you that thing was surprisingly heavy!
So the kids loaded it up in the back of the gator to haul it to it's destiny.

Audrey quickly lost interest in destroying the mushroom so I used the opportunity to take a couple of cue-T pictures of her and her baby.
Grant was in his glory poking, prodding and smashing.
There wasn't much left when he was finished but he sure had fun pulverizing it!
I have no idea if that was an edible mushroom or not (my guess is not), but I couldn't help but think of how good it would have tasted all seasoned up and fried in butter.

Munsinger Clemens Gardens

I moved to the St. Cloud area nearly 14 years ago to attend college at St. Cloud State University. The very university that is located directly across the Mississippi River from the beautiful Munsinger Clemens Gardens.

And can you believe that it has taken me nearly 14 years to take the time to actually walk through these gorgeous gardens?
My ulterior motive was to get some frame-able pictures of this little rug-rat...
As well as this little pip squeak...
I'm not completely happy with the pictures that I ended up getting of the kids but I did get a TON of awesome flower pictures.
Another reason I wanted to scope out the gardens is because this is also where I did the photo shoot of these adorable little girls.
My kiddos did enjoy exploring the gardens even though it was nap time and they were a bit grumpy.
They were also surprisingly patient while I snapped picture after picture of all of this brightly colored bliss!
ClematisDuring our exploration, Grant was all about the fountains. I would even go as far as to say he was a bit enamored with them.
Mostly because he was having fun throwing all of my change into them. He even found a lucky penny that he got to make a wish upon and toss into the water.I did NOT get even ONE good picture of the kids together! Either they wouldn't stand or sit by each other or they were making cheesy faces or the sun was too bright and they were squinting (some pics even had all of these things going on!)This one is not bad but Grandma and Grandpa need one that is up an down....argggggggggggg!This here is little Mae Mae's newest 'pose'. Nice, huh?!
We did spot this pretty fella in the tree above us. I think it is a peregrine falcon but not completely sure.
Russian SageOne of the sections of the gardens is the 'White Garden' I am usually one who LOVES color but there was something timeless and classy about this all white flower garden.
Hydrangea
I am also a huge Hollyhock fan...And I L-O-V-E me some lilies!
ClematisI spy...
...a Monarch butterfly!Goodbye!