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| Who needs lighter fluid when you have a propane blow torch!!! Farmer Ryan is full of tricks! |
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| Along with the thaw comes lots of mud! It didn't take long for the kids to get covered in it, and they didn't mind a bit! |
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| "Look at all these sap-suckers" as Farmer Ryan would say! The kids loved running from tree to tree and sucking sap straight from the tap. |
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| Fresh from the tap-literally! |
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| Twins! :) |
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| Lucy getting a rid on Tony the draft horse. A definite high light for her. Later on she even got to ride him by herself and steer! |
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| Even Isaac took Tony for a spin. |
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| The beautiful "sugar shack". |
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| The wood-fired steam bath was busy boiling down the sap into syrup. |
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| Seth and Owen (9 year old twins) were in charge of driving the sap wagon with the other kids on board. The adults tromped around the woods to empty the 150 sap bags into the collection vat. We collected around 80-90 gallons on our trip through. |
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| Next came the task of pumping the sap from the collection vat into the dispensing vat for the boiling process. |
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| Charlie was thrilled to try a fresh spoonful of maple syrup. "Yummmmmmm, that's tasty!" |
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| These kids were still tuckered out from the day at the farm the following day at Grandma and Grandpa Hyland's house. |
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| Charlie was gifted a dump truck from Glory Acres and it didn't leave his hands from Antigo to Point and then again from Point to La Crosse! |
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| Upon arriving home, we started a 5 day dog-sitting stint with Pal. Charlie and Lucy loved having a dog around and faithfully walked him every day. Pal was awesome with the kids and let Lucy walk him on leash and never pulled her once. |
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| Lucy has been specializing in drawing our whole family and rainbows lately. You can always tell which ones are Charlie and Dad. (Isaac always has black spikey hair and Charlie has matching brown spikey hair). |
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| Lucy tries to write who the picture is for and who it's from on the backs of her artwork. She's been working very hard on her letters and has really come a long way in writing her name. |
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| Running around at the track meet. It was chilly out but Lucy insisted her skin needed the fresh air! |
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| We rarely get to see the tiger out, but Charlie (in the red coat) had a front row experience. |
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| Charlie didn't want to ride on an animal but he enjoyed his time with Abbey. |
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| This is the only time Lucy would even look at me. She was being a big kid all by herself who didn't want to acknowledge her annoying mom trying to take pictures. |
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| Cousin Abbey with the kiddos |
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| Lucy wouldn't sit on this bear when she was Charlie's age and this time Charlie wouldn't have it (must be something about the age). |
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| Having giggles and fun at Jason's Deli. The free icecream here is always a big hit. Charlie made his excitement known with shrieks and squeals of delight. |
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| Isaac was very motivated to take the Prius to Madison this weekend. This entailed not packing a stroller and also completely wedging himself between the carseats in the back seat. Next he had to get creative to make our inflatable paddle board fit. But hey, we fit in with the crowd in the REI parking lot as there were at least 2 other Prius' in our row ;). |
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| Marcus Mumford on the big screen; portions of the concert were great! |
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| While we were enjoying an evening out, these 3 were spoiled with park time, tree climbing, Easter egg hunts and shows :) |
