Five months. FIVE! Here are more pictures than you will be able to scroll through in one sitting.

Life has never been so busy over here.  In the last months we bought a house, moved, got the world's sweetest dog, finished the school year, started homeschooling, put up a fence, cleaned red finger paint out of our new basement carpet, hung drywall and spent over 100 hours painting.  Let's see if we can catch you up!

February was gorgeous and treat-filled:

Andy built a huge cabinet for all our homeschooling materials:

We went to the museum with Grandpa and Great-Grandma on a no-school day:

 

We got a piano, which you can see behind Marion if  you can take your focus off her sweet, adorable face:

We made "wave bottles" with water, vegetable oil, food coloring and glitter:

Andy taught the kids how to put together their own Lego sets:

We got a snail (he came unexpectedly in a houseplant), whom the kids named Turbo.  He eats cucumbers and lives in our dining room:

A lot of the time we ended up with a kitchen mess that looked like this:

I need either a maid or a child who can reach the countertops...

March was lots of fun:

The kids were excited that the warmer weather finally allowed them to eat outside and ride their bikes:

 

We went to Lincoln's first birthday party, where Marion decided that she adores balloons:

We met the lovely Rusch family at Organ Piper Pizza for dinner:

Simon ate some blue Play-Doh:

Andy took Charlotte to the Daddy-Daughter Dance at school:

April started to really feel like spring!

Easter was fantastic:

(The confetti is from cascarones.  You crack them over each others' heads for good luck.)

Grandpa took a great group photo on his porch, a yearly tradition since it's rare that everyone is dressed up, clean, smiling and in the same place.  Gotta take advantage of those portrait opportunities!

We went to the Guziewskis annual egg hunt, which never disappoints!  Hunting eggs, flying kites, playing in the most toy-filled, exciting, kid-friendly basement we've ever seen...  What more could one want?  Thanks for including us again, Guziewskis!

We've been having bonfires out back, sometimes with toasted marshmallows:

Here is Simon with his friend Peter before both families moved from Pewaukee:

Simon's 3rd birthday!

 

Simon's birthday party was at our friend Katy's new paint studio in Elm Grove.  It was lots of fun!  I highly recommend booking a party or doing a wine & paint night at Elm Grove Art.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are Andy and Marion fixing a broken pipe in the bathroom:

 

Simon helped me put in a new fairy garden house and stepping stones after a certain little sister damaged the original ones:

 

And this happened.  It's laundry detergent.  I can tell you that story over a serious glass of wine sometime...  $5 to the person who can correctly guess how long it took us to clean up the slippery fallout.

 

 

Thirsty 4th of July kids waiting for Daddy to build a "s'mores fire."

 

Leonard with a magic wand sparkler:

Simon with a (terrifying) sparkler that shot flames and made lots of noise and changed colors:

 

Mmmmm...  S'mores...

 

 

 

Grandpa's tractor:

My baby girl is gorgeous, but this is a really good picture of my husband, too ;)

Leonard and I spent a Saturday out together.  We visited Barnes & Noble, got a treat at Starbucks, ran some errands and went through the car wash. 

The kids say it's very important that I include this picture of the very cool truck that delivered our fence panels: 

 

Beautiful guy relaxing in the shade:

Sleepy boys:

 

 

Guardin' the garden:

Marion and Great-Grandma, both frowning.  I don't remember why, but I thought it was a funny picture.  

Sisters!

Charlotte's new job, whenever we make eggs, is to take this setup onto the kitchen floor and wash all the eggs.  It takes forever to wash 18 eggs, 2 at a time in the sink.  This is a huge help!

 

Brewer's game!

We went to see the Lego Americana Roadshow exhibits at the mall:

Gwennie is still trying hard to catch a chicken:

 

Simon gave me these flowers and told me I was the best mom in the world.  Without prompting.  He is great!

We've now been homeschooling for a month, which is turning out to be lots of fun and sometimes looks like this:

 

and sometimes looks like this:

and often like this:

We've been going on lots of field trips, like this one to the museum:

 

We've had lots of incidents in our new house, like this one where Simon sprayed tons and tons of perfume in his eyes.  He was sleeping in our room at naptime while the boys' room was still under construction, and it would just be totally un-Simonlike for him to NOT get into something:

Another interesting incident was when I took Leonard to his eye exam and immediately locked the car keys inside the van upon unbuckling the boy.  Of course of course of COURSE the optometrist wouldn't see him because my wallet was locked in the van in the same purse as my keys, so the only thing to do was cry wait in the parking structure for 45 minutes for AAA to come unlock the van.  And to try not to think about how Andy was losing half a day's pay to stay home with the rest of the kids while we failed in our noble quest.  *sigh*  Leonard did have fun sitting on the hood of the van, though:

Charlotte learned how to vacuum (YAY!!!!):

I learned how to make delicious scones:

 

Simon helped Grandpa cut the grass at the farm:

We met a new baby goat:

And had frozen fruit bars:

 

Marion got a new big-girl bed,

which she adores,

even though she sometimes gets out of it during the night and can't find it again in the dark.  Then we find her sleeping on the floor and we take pictures.

We hope you're having a great summer!  Come visit us sometime at the new and improved Six-Headed House :)