A Walk in the Stream

These are a few of our pictures from a walk upstream at Esofea County Park.  Just one of those days where "there's never a bad day on the river". 

At the very end, Lucy insisted she wanted to be barefoot.  The water was very cold, but she didn't mind.  Charlie was excited to join too, but quickly stated "too cold, too cold, too cold".

April 23rd

Lucy's First Mountain Bike Ride

Covid 19 Pandemic Week 6

Saturday April 18th:
Today Isaac did some driving around the state to make some drop offs and pick ups.  It was a beautiful day for a drive but an even better day to just be outside with the kids!
Lucy chose today's adventure and her surprising pick was the UW-L campus.  (An old favorite but not what I would classify as an "adventure".  We spent 2 hours running around campus and doing funny poses and games.  The kids readily scarfed down mac n cheese when we got home.  After quiet time they were excited to play with the trucks that Grandpa Pischke modified.  Now the drivers fit a little more snugly and all the trucks have a fuel connection.  The weather was so "warm" that they decided clothes were just too much.  A new game with the soccer net was also invented.
The kids had a very hard time going to bed tonight.  So once again they made plenty of appearances on the Zoom hangout we were having with friends.  Tonight was the 1 year anniversary of our Joshua Tree Adventure with several couples.  We enjoyed reminiscing.

The clock tower is always the first stop for a game of tag.  

Yoga at the gazebo.

Acrobatics at the "snakey" statue.

Fueling up the trucks.

Playing a game with the "drivers" of the trucks.  

Joshua Tree reunion.

Sunday April 19th:
Luckily since Lucy chose to explore campus yesterday, we got to do the "Crown Trail" with Isaac today.  There is only one trail (I think) we haven't explored within La Crosse; so today was the day!  The trail was rustic compared to most but that also means there aren't people!  The lookout offered a beautiful view of the river and of course was a great snack location.  We are saving the 2nd lookout for another day.

Looking for Blue Jays and "Phoebe".

Monday April 20th:
The kids received an exciting package from Aunt Molly yesterday (water beads).  The beads needed to soak for several hours, so today they were able to play with the beads.  They did this in multiple sessions throughout the day!  Today was a strange weather day and quite blustery.  We did get a fun walk in though.

This evening's walk included Ellie and Mr. Moo.  Charlie kept Mr. Moo tucked safely in his coat the whole time.  

Tuesday April 21st:
Today we got an early start on school and we were able to accomplish 2 lessons in one morning!  Last night we watched Mrs. Olsen's story about the ocean and did a virtual field trip to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.  Lucy liked the sting rays and Charlie enjoyed the "grumpy fish".  Today we did the Jelly Fish and clam art project from the ocean lesson as well as learned about the life cycle of a frog.  Lucy nailed her life cycle worksheet while we did FaceTime with Grandpa and Grandma Hyland.

Charlie's version of painting his jellyfish turned into face painting.  Luckily it was just water!  

Jellyfish and clam are complete with a picture sent to Mrs. Olsen.

Wednesday April 22nd:
Today Lucy and Charlie learned a bit more about ocean habitats and ocean animals.  Interestingly, Lucy has been pushing back against any school related activities lately.  She gratified watching the story time but won't do her lessons afterwards.  Instead, we got outside and went to one of her favorite spots again: the clock tower.
Before dinner we got outside again, this time to Upper Hixon.  We met Isaac after he was done mountain biking.  We explored one of the newer designed trails called Twister.  Although it was very windy, the 70 degree weather and sun felt amazing.

Taking a look at another new trail (that you'll never catch Kerry on).

Thursday April 23rd:
We never know what type of day the kids will have upon getting up in the morning.  Today was one of the great mornings where they did independent self play together for several hours!  (Other mornings they require constant facilitation and behavior guidance...aka time outs).  They played house together where luckily Charlie goes along with whatever Lucy says.  It's quite funny to hear Lucy use our own phrases-which sound pretty horrible.  "Charlie for pete's sakes I said I just need one more minute to finish your lunch".  

The very elaborate "house" set up.  This took forever to to get the kids to assist with clean up.

Lucy was helping out with quiet time.  Unfortunately no one ended up being "quiet" today.  

Some fun, cooperative play.

Friday April 24th:

We decided that yesterday's bed time and nap time did not go well due to the lack of outdoor adventure time.  So today I forced the kids out in the morning, even though they were having a blast playing in the blanket fort.  We did FaceTime with Grandpa and Grandma Hyland to show them our hike while having a snack.  After outdoors time we cut out fish and constructed a fishing pole to work on numbers.  Lucy is mostly able to write her 1-10 numbers and she started teaching Charlie his numbers.  After quiet time, the weather really warmed up!  Lucy convinced Dad to take her mountain biking at the Human Powered Trails.  They spent almost 2 hours on the trails!  She is starting to ride the pump track and did some single track as well!  Lucy was adamant she bike home from on top of the bluff.  Dad had to do a lot of convincing to help her understand she isn't allowed to bike down the bluff.  Dad drove them down the bluff and parked the van by her school and they biked home from there.  Then Dad biked back to get the van.  Meanwhile Charlie asked to do his swimming pool but was appeased by playing with the water table.

Blanket for fun.

Racing sticks down the creek.

Going fishing for numbers!

Lucy thinking she's ready to switch bikes with Isaac.  

Covid-19 Pandemic Week 5

Saturday April 11th:  Happy 3rd Birthday Charlie! We have chosen to observe Charlie's birthday today in order to spread out the amount of fun and celebration this weekend.  Charlie was more than happy to oblige an early gift opening session.  After getting in some birthday gift play time, we capitalized on the beautiful weather with a hike off of Easter Rd (how appropriate!).  This is the trail previously dubbed "Tippy Top Mountain" and the kids were excited to share the hike with Isaac this time around.  We enjoyed soaking in the sunshine and multiple snack stops.

A stop at Paula's house to open a new semi truck!  Charlie calls his cars his "honey's" and now his honey's can ride in the semi truck!  

A neat bridge crossing on the hike.

Where Lucy insisted on eating snack #1.

Quite the excitement when opening the beautiful new trucks made by Grandpa Pischke.  Charlie's words were "this is amazing".

One of our best family selfies thus far!

Added a new component to a previous gift!

Ending a fun day with birthday cake and a short virtual party.

Sunday April 12th:
Happy Easter (and Charlie's official Happy Birthday)!
Isaac got up early enough to intercept Lucy when she came out of bed.  Kerry entertained her until Charlie got up to do the egg/basket hunt.  Charlie was on his game as he spotted an egg or two on his way out of the bedroom.  The kids had very different egg hunting techniques.  Charlie preferred to eat the contents of his eggs as he found them, while Lucy preferred finding all the possible eggs first.  We learned that Charlie is officially a Jelly Bean "monster".  Both kids were quite excited about the Legos in their baskets.  (Way to think ahead Easter Bunny; a good project for a rainy day).  Since it was supposed to rain/snow most of the day, we made it a priority to get outside right away.  Lucy and Isaac rode bikes to campus while Charlie got pushed in the jogging stroller.  We didn't quite escape the rain; and got a bit wet.
After some fresh air, the kids worked on legos, watched movies and intermittently did a lot of FaceTime.  Today was a virtual hangout record as Charlie got to see his cousins (Abbey, Johnny and Maddie), the Ironsides, John and Molly, friend Finn, and Grandparents!  Both kids even napped; offering Mom and Dad some rare downtime.  Nothing beats a lazy day once in awhile.

He's barely awake, but is laser focused on eating all the Jelly Beans from his first egg of the hunt.

Lucy is methodically finding more eggs.

Lucy has found her Easter Basket!

With a little help and encouragement, Charlie found his basket!

Some fancy new Frozen sunglasses for the season :)

Monday April 13th:

Today we awoke to some additional snow that fell through the night (although far less than we thought might come).  Kerry headed to work in Caledonia while Isaac and the kids were able to get out for the last sledding adventure of the season.  (At least I think the last).  

A morning of beautiful sunshine melted most of the snow by afternoon.  The kids were able to enjoy playing with Charlie's new soccer net.  

Their first time watching the Lion King!  Overall a hit but Charlie was not a fan when Mufasa died.  

Tuesday April 14th:

The official spring break ended today and Lucy's homeschool session has resumed.  She will now have a daily video from her teacher to look forward to.

Kerry is now wearing additional protective gear at work and will spend the majority of the work day tomorrow fabricating additional face shields.

This is Kerry's new uniform when performing patient care.

Wednesday April 15th:
Kerry worked today and Isaac did his best to teach and parent at the same time (not an easy feat!)  Lately the kids have been making instant pudding with Dad at  the end of the day for dessert.  Today they tried pistachio...Charlie was a fan and Lucy definitely was not.  At first Charlie pretended not to like it because he just goes along with ringleader Lucy.  But then he realized he actually does like it.

Thursday April 16th:

Lucy has been receiving emails from Mrs. Olsen this week with her lessons.  She gets to watch Mrs. Olsen read a book and then she learns an art project as well as a lesson.  Sometimes there are other links or suggestion provided as well.  Today Lucy was very protective of her lesson and would not let Charlie watch.  He did get to join in with the art project luckily.  Dad was able to join us for a lunch time hike.  We were hoping to ride on the pump track but it was too muddy from the recent snow.  Our hike got rather muddy too and we ended up bailing by finding a short cut.  We did, however, find a good snack spot.  (I'm in deep trouble if I ever forget to pack the snack).

Lucy is doing "school"; today's lesson was a book about outer space and then a fun space art project.

Using a straw to create space alien blobs!

Charlie got just as much spit as paint on his aliens!

A nice view for our snack.

Snack bench at the hike lookout point.  (I believe this is called birch lookout?).

Friday April 17th:

Lucy was very excited about her school session this morning.  Now that school is officially "virtual" for the rest of the year, we needed to pick up all her projects and supplies for the rest of the year.  The preschool made this a drive through where the kids could see and talk to all the teachers from our cars.  Charlie even got to meet his teacher for next year, Mrs. Stingl.  Lucy was excited to dress up for school and Charlie treated her like a queen (a position which she regally accepted).

"Her Majesty" the queen Lucy is ready to go to the school pick up.  

Lucy with her 4k teacher Mrs. Olsen.

Even the statues have masks on in La Crosse.

Our daily outing; this time it's back to the floating docks at the marsh.  We played a game called "sink or float" with sticks.  

Kerry got to end the day with a fun Zoom session with her college roommates.  The first picture was a year ago when we saw each other last.  It feels weird to see how close we could all stand to each other!

Zoom session with Jen, Traci, Tina and Abby.  :)