Nothing fair weather about it

With Jake and Toby's birthday party as motivation to behave, we had a pretty good week and a fun time at the Zembrodt's.  Saturday morning was a big ol' muddy mess, but that's what rubber boots are for, so we had fun playing outside while the weather was tolerably warm enough.  But what these pictures don't show is the Sunday afternoon we had at our house.  The Kellers and the Ingalsbes joined us for homebrew and hollerin'.  It was all blue around these parts (including Emily's fingernails), and it paid off.  We're Super Bowl bound (well, we're not, but the Colts are)!  We're looking forward to a good week ahead, and stay tuned for one or two pictures of David and Aunt Sara next weekend

We figured we needed to take advantage of the near-50 degree weather (even though it was really cloudy) so we went for a hike a Ritchey Woods.  As you can see, it was a little damp
There was a lot of squishing, climbing, and much glee in David's general direction
This particular stick was multi-purpose.  Not only could it hit a bunch of stuff, it was also good at "digging to get the water from this one trench into this other trench."  And leave it to David to find a mud it in the middle of a field
Ypu cannot know how fulfilling it was to hear David get so excited over seeing moss on a tree.  My sweet little tree-hugger...
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More cool moss.  I think we were just excited so excited to see some green after such a  dreary winter
Lots of stuff to climb.  Besides, the top of this stump provided a surface that was not yet covered in mud, so David needed to fix that
Dude, it would be so awesome if a badger or something came barreling out of that hole.  It would have to be a nice badger, of course, but that would still be funny
...and we're done on the stump
Somehow, Chris always ends up covered in kids at parties
Jacob looks riveted by the little puzzle, Ella looks likes she sees something delicious, and David looks like he can barely stay awake
Jacob wanted <i>Star Wars</i>, and Toby wanted <i>Thomas the Train</i>, so thank goodness the bakery at the grocery store obliged and split the cake.  Toby got excited before cake time and smooshed Thomas into the cake, and then Luke and Darth Vadar started to sink, too
They huffed and they puffed, but as much as these kids are filled with hot air, it took Jake and Toby several tries to blow out their candles...all eight of them