Nature Girls

Remember when you were a kid and even if your were in some sort of organized club, whether it was 4-H, Girl Scouts or Boys Scouts, we all made up one of our own. Mine, along with Tanya, Ginger, Liana & others, back in the days of Roche-A-Cri was .....drum roll please.....the"Lemur Club." I, to this day have no idea why it was Lemurs....I may have to ask one of the other club members to enlighten me.

So anyway. Kacy, Hope and Madi have started their own club....It is called Nature Girls. I think Hope started it, she was just nice enough to let the little girls join in! As a member of this club you pick up trash, collect items from the ground & river, plan trips and do projects.........oh yeah, you must also irritate your brother to no end by not allowing him to join....poor Trey!

The following are some pictures of the nature girls with the gorgeous crab apple trees in the Anderson's yard. The girls are all dressed in part of Hope's wardrobe, which Hope tailored in some way or another to fit. That girl is a born leader.

Cheese!!!!

Miss Hop-A-Lopa!!

Miss Kacy Lou!!!!

And finally....

Miss Madi Moo!!!

These girls play so well together, it is going to be a tough day for the Johnson girls when Hope heads her own direction. She is already such a busy girl, but Kacy loves every moment she is able to spend with Hope. (On most days!!!)

Ice Jam

All day at work anyone who came down 87 to us at the bank was talking about the huge ice jam at the Lions park. They said we really must go see it if we had time....

So when I got home Mark, the girls, and I jumped in the van and headed down by the river. Bret was at confirmation so he missed it.

A little background for those of you who are not familiar with SCF. We live right along the St Croix River, St Croix also has a hydro dam. The lions park is along the St Croix. This is a narrow part of the river so of course all of the melting ice and chunks from farther up north were getting all bunched up at this point. It was awesome to see!!!

Then Thursday the girls and I thought we would go drive by again in the morning ......

to our surprise it was all gone!!!

So we headed down to the overlook to see the water heading over the dam...

We were able the watch the chunks and debris going over

and the cool rainbow that was over seeing it all.

The Timberwolves!!!

Tonight we had the chance to go to a Wolves game at the Target Center. They are Minnesota's professional basketball team. Todd had bought 20 tickets at a benefit and invited 20 of his closest friends to come along......I am thinking we may not be very good friends, because the seat were high!!!!! It was great though for our kids, they had the section to themselves. Which is great idea when you have 8 kids with you. It was hard to relax though because if one started rolling I am not sure what would break their fall.

Thanks TA, we had a great time.

Kacy adn Hope....

Becke adn Trey were not able to come because Trey was sick.

Arica and Madison

Doesn't this one look so excited!!

Bret and Dad

Two times the fun!

Kacy has been asking me for weeks if she could have a play date with Ry. Well we finally set one up for Sunday afternoon. Those girls have so much fun together....it is actually really funny to watch them play. I am very hopeful they will always be good friends!

They had a blast playing out in the water....what kid doesn't. They did stay pretty dry if my memory serves me right.

We did go to the pool later and that is were she had a chance to get really wet!!!

Madi Moo is Turning Two!!!!

It absolutely blows my mind that our baby is two years old! Really, where does the time go?

And let me tell you this is one independent, stubborn, passionate, adorable little girl.

God help us when she turns 13!!!

Sunday we had a party for Madi...it was a farm birthday theme. I found some adorable stuff for a second birthday at Birthday Express. I was very happy with them...I did however order noise makers......note to self.....I will never get them again!!!!

I also ordered a cake from Marketplace.....I was so happy when I picked it up. The cake was adorable!! And Madi loved it. If you ask her about it she will tell you it had a pig in the mud on it! She is right, that was one of the animals.

Madi was so excited about the day and very happy to have her family and friends there to celebrate and if you ask her how old she is she will tell you 4!

How can this face ever be anything but adorable........

Well if you know Madi, you know she is not always this way!

This is one of my favorite pictures of her though!!! You can tell she is just loving the day.

Bennet is into the birthday festivities too. He is a cheeseball and

no doubt will be super excited on his birthday as well March 27th.

Our cake....see it does have a pig in the mud!

Cheese!!!! After this picture she stuck her finger in the cake!

This is good frosting!!!!

At least this year she did not cry when the cake came out and the candles were lit like last year. She really enjoyed it!

Family picture!

Doesn't this look like a group that is looking for trouble?

I am not sure if she likes what Grandma is telling her here or not?

Finally present time!

Madi had gotten many card leading up to the big day, and she was lucky enough to get a gift of money in all them as well....so every time she opened a card with her gifts she thought they should have money too. Yes she is a tad greedy!

Just like at Christmas all she wanted is candy for her birthday. Well

Grandma Ruthie came through for her. This is one of four bags of candy.

Check out Mom's really excited face!

So these are the shoe she got from Nene. When Rene asked me what she needed I told her shoes...well Rene said that was not a fun gift.....

Just look a Madi's face though.....She loved them!!!!!

Beads from Great Grandma G were a hit too!

and Madi also got a bike....now her and her sister will have to learn how to ride this summer.

At the end of the day Madi curled up with Papa to read one of her new books. We thought this may be the end of her...but of course not. She was only down for moment!

Happy 2nd Birthday my Madi Moo!!