Keeping Busy

Spring has finally sprung!! I can't tell you how excited I am by this. Yes, I appreciate the seasons once again now that we're living in Minnesota. And snow in April (as it did last week) is just NOT fun! And what is even more NOT fun is that there were a couple really nice days before that which led me to believe that the cold yucky weather was behind us. Ha! Well, knock on wood, I hope it really is behind us now. Currently, as I write this, I am sitting on our deck basking in the glow of a nice 70-degree sun while the kiddos take their nap.

It seems we've been crazy busy lately, but it doesn't really seem like I have a lot to report. I'm having deja vu, have I written that before? We pretty much only have to really plan our day on Mondays and Wednesdays now which is nice. We have our Ari/Jody playdate on Tuesdays and Ella's speech appts. on Thursdays and Fridays. The weekends seem to just whip by.

There is a park about a 1/2 mile from our house which is wonderful, we can walk to it! So we've done that a few days. Some of the pictures in this post are from there. I've started getting books from the library for Ella. And she loves it! She has really gotten into having me read to her which is so great. And I have way too much fun picking out books for her. I try to find ones with things that interest her in them: princesses (Disney and generic princesses), dinosaurs, balloons, trains, fairies, etc. And if I can combine any of those into one book, well I've hit the lottery! She has one right now entitled, "Princess Dinosaur". She is on a Curious George kick right now which is fun because they have books that I can incorporate with other things like Curious George goes to the Zoo, or the Aquarium. There is a new firehouse that just opened down the road from us and we pass it pretty much any time we go anywhere. So we got some books for her to learn about what goes on there. The other night she fell asleep in her bed with books all around her! I just can't think of a sweeter picture!

Andrew had to work all weekend because the New York Rangers made the playoffs. They called on Friday and said they wanted all this stuff done by Monday so they could put it up on the electronic billboards in Times Square. All of them, at once! At any rate, it was a looong weekend for everyone. But as a reward we spent some family time together this morning. We visited the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum which is about 7 miles from where we live. We loved it there! So much so that we put today's admission toward a membership so we can go whenever we want. There are fairly easy stroller-friendly walking trails all over. There's one place where there are little houses for kids to play in and a "treehouse". I put that in quotes because there used to be a tree that the treehouse sat in, but the tree was struck by lightning in 2001 and they cut all but part of the trunk down. So now its a trunk with some stairs and a roofed platform. They also have a really nice Visitor Center there and many activities throughout the year. For those familiar with the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, CA, it reminded us quite a bit of that, but with Midwestern landscapes and trees. And not quite so regulated. You can picnic and hike and go pretty much wherever you like. There's also a three-mile road you can drive around if you like. Anyway, a great family place.



I also like to do little projects with the girls every now and then. Here's a picture of one:I picked out these little snap-on things for their shoes. They wear these on when they play on the deck and sometimes around the yard. I picked ones that I thought sort of "represented" them; Lily got Nemo, a frog, and a turtle while Ella got a princess crown, dinosaur, whale, penguin and monkey (for Curious George). The girls had a lot of fun picking out each thing to put on and telling me where to snap them on their shoes. I found the little snap things at Michael's craft store near the checkout.

Hmm...what else. The girls and I have spent a couple Sundays over at my dad's house so Andrew could have some time to himself or work (as was the case this past weekend). Yesterday was so nice, my dad got the sand box out and the tee ball. The girls had a blast playing in the yard. Ella was really hitting the teeball well! She bats left-handed but throws right-handed! She's just so Ella! :-)