Theo has resorted to sleeping in his giant fort that he made. He says he's sleeping in here until his bedroom is finished. I guess he's over sharing a room forever. It is the best fort ever.

Our niece Marina was turing 11 and had one request: a weekend in Minneapolis with her favorite cousin, Meadow. Marina made these masks for them. You know this cat lover was excited.  We walked over to Kiniko Kids and they had a Ghibli cookbook.  Meadow wanted this mushroom hat.  Since ice skating season ended early we still wanted to get one last skate in.  Theo tried out his new skates, which needed some adjustments.

For Brooke's actual birthday we got an ice cream pie from Milkjam. Not quite as good as Sebastian Joe's cakes, but still good. Oh, happy birthday, Killer Bee. You know we love a good lenten fish fry. The Ukranian American Community Center in Northeast Minneapolis does one with Pierogis as the side. Or are they main dish? Either way, pretty, pretty good. I had heard about this a couple years ago and had been wanting to try it.  The kids chickened out and got spaghetti.  They even had a band playing Ukranian folk music.

It was Brooke's birthday cabin weekend. We were going to the brand new camper cabins at Soudan Mine-Lake Vermillion State Park, but decided to break up our drive in Duluth. Remnants of Boubville still stand in Blake's backyard. Scott and I wanted to get breakfast at Duluth Grill but the kids won with their request for Superior Waffles . The place is pretty good to be honest. Blake has made progress since we were here last. He said he was trying to get it all done before Easter and was then disappointed to learn we wouldn't be coming for Easter this year. Sorry Blake and Daniel. If we had more room in our Roadsufer campervan rental , we'd bring you along next month. This years birthday cabin brought us to Lake Vermilion State Park . My original plan was to go to Winnipeg, but knowing this mild winter, we didn't think that would work. We even talked about going to Arkansas. With a spring break trip coming up we decided to stay close by. The Minnesota State Park camp...

Last month I asked Theo what he wanted to do for his birthday. He said he wanted to have a birthday party. We let him invite 5 friends from school for a gathering at our house. Well, I told him he could invite more, but he said those 5 were his friends. I guess you can't argue with that. Meadow helped out with most of the planning and decorating. Can't say I did much other than order the pizza and pickup his cake. The anticipation was palpable. And then Theo's first friend arrived. Theo requested Dominos and fruit and veggies. I ordered way too much pizza. Partially because we forgot to mention lunch on the invites.   

And we're back at the cottage. We got a bingo game to play at Theo's birthday party next weekend. We brought it along because it's the kids favorite game. Yay for snow and cold temps this weekend. Winter, we haven't had nearly enough of you.    Someday the kids will ask why there are so many pictures of them on the big swing. Obviously they loved it. G.G. made grandpa put up a new playground, but all the kids want to do is use the old swing set and the aforementioned big swing.