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each year over spring break the Minnesota DNR (dept of natural resources) runs a youth hunting event. I covered it once for the paper, a bunch of kids hunt with their parents and a DNR safety person. The groups are given one day hunting liscences and take to the woods in a MN state park. it's actually a very well run thing where kids get to learn about safety, shooting, the woods, habitats for different animals, etc. So today Art and I went. We drove a couple hours to Lake Maria State Park ( click here  for aerial view of the parking area was started from). I certainly had mixed feelings about Art shooting a gun (he calls them shoots). Even the smallest one was still almost too heavy for him. But he managed, and was quite proud of himself. They had earplugs for the kids. In the parking lot they had target practice which was basically a bunch of kids shooting into empty woods. At first Art didn't want to shoot, he just watched everyone else. "I smell the smoke, Papa," ...

Last night Art was taking a bubble bath. His hand was under the water and he looked up as if he made a real discovery. "Papa, there's a ball in my penis!" I tried to contain my laugh. "Yes, it's actually called a testicle. You have two of them." He thought for a bit. Then, delighted, he looked at me hard just to make sure I wasn't kidding. "I have two of them!?"

Art has a sort of fascination with guns (he calls them 'shoots', and we never correct him). Our neighbor Tsundi sees movies where guns are used and often pretends to shoot stuff. Just today I came down in the basement where they were playing and they had each made a 'shoot' out of a marble roll toy and were making shoot-like sounds. This photo is from a restaurant where they have a hunting video game.

Art has been enjoying scaring people lately, or at least trying to. This video captures his technique pretty well. Just jump into someones field of view and scream real loud. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUH7uBNH_0Y&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&w=480&h=385]

Yesterday Josh, Art and I set out to canoe Minnehaha Creek. But the water was too low, so instead headed to Lake Calhoun only to realize it was still frozen! Only in parts, though. There was a enough melted on the edge to provide a little thoroughfare, and it was actually really fun to break the ice (see video below of Art). At one point we canoed north to Lake of the Isles and we had to literally plow through about a 40-foot long sheet of ice which was very satisfying (and impressive to those watching from shore...). [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgCZWjQR1zY&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&w=480&h=385]

We saw this on the road near 42nd street and Nicollet today. A wild turkey! I asked a smaller bird to pose in back for scale...

At Willow, Art's preschool, he came home with three dyed eggs. "They're super beautiful," he said when he showed them to me. We put them in the kitchen up high on a ledge and this morning first thing he climbed a chair to grab one. "Will you fix it if it breaks, Papa?" he said as he carefully admired the thing. He's worried about them breaking. Thanks to Ms. Jen for these lovely photos.

My brother Josh as he returns from an outing with Tula (left) and Jesse.

Lewis has pink eye.

This is second part of a series of investigative videos on Peeps (the original video is posted below). Friends, if you've got any humanity, you will forward, facebook, tweet, fleep, and speep this. Please, for the Peeps. Here's the write-up: "Innocent peeps continue to be cruelly victimized in this newspaper's annual Peeps diorama contest. In the second of a series of investigative videos on mistreatment of these innocent creatures, reporter Jim Ragsdale seeks out a scientist to discuss peep health. Dr. Michael Osterholm, world renowned expert in public health, disease and pandemics, blows the whistle on a major threat to health of the peeps -- and to the entire planet." http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/1870915446?isVid=1&publisherID=1616725016 and, for those who may have missed it, here's the first video that launched this important series: http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/1870915446?isVid=1&publisherID=16167250...

Jess: Someone somewhere said that everyone should have a poem memorized. I don't remember the reasoning, but I thought it was a good idea. So what poems have I committed to memory? Two from Art's Children's 20th Century Poetry Anthology. One is about a woodpecker by Ted Hughes. The other is by Ogden Nash and after reciting it to Ben just now he wanted me to blog it. So here it is, straight from my head (mistakes included). The Centipede I objurgate the centipede, a bug we do not really need. At sleepytime he beats a path straight to the bedroom or the bath. You always wallop where he's not and if he is, he leaves a spot.

While eating banana bread Art popped up out of his chair and said, emphatically, "Do you know who I love the best?" (long pause of silence) "YOU!" and he points to... BEN. We laugh, naturally. And I kid, "What about me?" He explains, "I love Papa and Mama the best out of everybody, but I love Papa the most best, NOT you! [pointing at me]. I love Papa the most best because he wrestles really hard and that's why," and he nods and sits back down. So, don't kid yourselves, all you parents out there. Your children's love is conditional.

These are some projects Art has been making lately. He likes to work with implements - scissors, glue, pom-poms... And one of them is Ben's, which I thought was really great.

Blogger just came out with some fun new ways to tweak layout and colors so please ignore our changing palet.

He was laying on me snuggling after having just woken from a long nap. He eventually sat up and sleepily studied my face. "Eye!" he said. I asked him to count my eyes and, pointing back and forth, he said "One, two, one, one, one ."     But then, out of the blue, he pointed at my nose and said, "Big!"     I laughed and asked him to clarify. "Big?" I said.     "Uh huh, Big." Then, pausing, he pointed to my nose again and said, "Long!"

We spent a lazy long morning at the bird sanctuary near Lake Harriett. Jess had to leave after a walk in the woods but the boys and I stayed for a long time roaming around exploring and wrestling and looking for animals in holes and gathering pine cones. (photos are from my cell phone...)

Since the snow melted it's been nearly impossible to go from the car to the house without Lewis stopping to play in the sandbox.

A photo from Jess's outing with the boys on the lightrail train.

So, after a three hour nap today I feel a whole lot better.   Plus three and a half more bowls of soup (which, of course tasted a million times because it's the second day.   Not to mention the addition of MORE egg noodles and some matza balls).   I have energy again!   But after reading my post from yesterday I realized there were some missing elements in the description being sick with my angelic children.   First of all, they did watch TWO episodes of Dinosaur Train AND an entire nature show.   That's a total of two hours in front of the tube through the day.   So that was obviously easy on the sick mom.   And I haven't put anything away in days.   It was literally getting hard to walk around in my bedroom.   The kids dumped out all the legos in the basement, which you know is a recipe for foot pain and tidying tediousness, but I let them because it meant they were busy and I didn't have to get up and do anything.   So, it's not all peaches and cream around her...

"Train!... Ride!... Tunnel!... Sound!... LOUD!" Pretty accurate, I must say.

I was blessed with some awfully cooperative kids tonight while I suffered with my dragging cold.  I got sick several days ago and thought I was on the tail end, but the last couple nights I've been so beat - and so glad when Ben would get home from work.  Then today I felt crappy and Ben was called away for an overnight assignment.  Man, I wanted to call a babysitter or someone, anyone, to be Mom for the day!  But instead my kids just stayed cool.  Lewis and I took a nap in my bed, which usually guarantees  a nice long snooze.  (When I first asked him if he would go up for nap in my bed he said no, like every good toddler.  Then he said, "Gackoo!  BIG!" for big bed.) Then Art and Lewis played without me while I cooked chicken soup and hung out with my sister in the kitchen.  I was able to hustle the kids to the Y for Art's swim lesson with minimal resistance, get them out  of the Y and back to the car pretty easily and home to the finished soup for several bowls.  No,...

From today's paper: Saving the Peeps: Pioneer Press reporter Jim Ragsdale and photographer Ben Garvin are taking a stand for the Peeps. No longer will they sit idly by as the annual Peeps Diorama contest depicts these harmless peeps as murderers, victims of gruesome beheadings and even as cannibals. In a series of investigative videos that launch today, Ragsdale and Garvin will expose this abuse, speak to peep experts about how to fight it and gain a deeper appreciation of these gentle creatures. I will be posting more videos here next week! http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/1870915446?isVid=1&publisherID=1616725016

The other day Ben made pancakes, some of them with banana in them. Art likes most things plain so when he wanted more I grabbed tried to grab a plain one off the bottom of a banana stack. He ate happily for a bite or two and then, gasp! He noticed a hint of something... "I'm eating banana pancake!? I'm eating banana pancake." He looked down and grabbed his hair with a big sigh and said, "For God's sake!" Well, he has always had an intensity about him, but melodrama is it's new incarnation.

Art's attention span for watching animals is very long. We sat here for more than twenty minutes. Before that he was watching otters for at least ten. We actually had to encourage him to move on for Lewis's sake. As requested by my sister, Emily, I will explain what Lewis is hugging. It is a bear cub statue/toy. I believe this hug was spontaneous. - jess

Today after leaving the Y from swimming Art and Lew got distracted with the nearby garden. They just doddled around in the woodchips and bushes for about 20 minutes. It was really fun to not be in a hurry and to let them explore things at their own pace. Lewis ate snow and watched Art as he made up little games and rules about the berries on the ground. He eventually lined them up on a rock for some reason. And yesterday Art and I stopped at the egret's nest on the way home to doddle. He found rocks and leaves to throw and eventually just wanted to sit and watch the trickling water for a long time.