Being Butenhoff: Totally Random Recap... yes, because it has been THAT long!

It's only been 3+ months since my last update, which was already a month or so late in covering Christmas. So it really is a pretty random & basic update of the past few months & turns out, it has been so long that it will be a 2-part update!

Mike celebrated #43 in January! We had his folks over for dinner & I made some of his favorites... stuffed mushrooms, prime rib & twice baked potatoes. Poor Brandon had the stomach flu so he missed the festivities!

The kids were excited for Pajama Day at school... made for an easier morning getting ready for school! School just seems a lot more fun nowadays... I don't ever remember having pajama day!

Brandon & Mike have had lots of fun with the scouts this year. It is a good group of boys & Mike always finds ways to make it fun & interesting!

Both kids had fun Valentine parties.

In Brandon's class, they got to design a Valentine holder & Brandon won a prize for his Valentine-Bot!

Brandon did basketball through the Y this winter. He had a lot of fun playing & it is always fun that a few school friends are there every week too! Plus the boy just LOVES to run!

We had such a bizarre winter... fairly mild & snowless. Brandon had wanted to do a sledding party like last year... but old Man winter apparently wasn't up for it! So by Feb, I decided we needed to get it done (since his bday was in Dec)... so we threw a science party instead!

They launched little rockets using 35mm film canisters, water & alca-seltzer tabs. They had a blast! (no pun intended!)

Then they blew up balloons using baking soda & vinegar in a water bottle & did some experiments with those balloons & regular balloons just blown up with air. They also made oobleck (quicksand) & lava lamps. We didn't even get to 1/2 the experiments we had planned but they seemed to have a great time!

The party crew!

I found something on the internet about making a volcano cake... what a pain, but it turned out good in the end. Brandon was pleased... but I'm hoping this is the last cake I make!

The kids thought it was pretty cool when the dry ice was added & the volcano "smoked"!

Melanie got a little scrapbook station set up in the guestroom & had a ball working on her scrapbook... she was borderline addicted with it for a few weeks!

March was so warm & nice that we were able to get our bonfire ring set up & broken in! Not too many winters in MN that there would be no snow on the ground & temps decent enough to hang around by the fire with only light jackets on!