Spring is Here!!

Yippee!!! The snow is finally gone! It's been in the 50's (and maybe 60's soon)! Whoo hoo! And to celebrate, the girls rode their bikes to the Anderson's for a playdate this week!

We had a lot of fun over there. We've been trying to play with Hope (4 years--her birthday is the DAY before Ella's!), Isabelle (almost 7 years), and Claire (15 months) almost every week. And this time, we met some more neighbors with a great play set in their backyard. They have 3 kids as well. The oldest girl will be in Ella's same kindergarten year. The kids all had a great time playing outside and the moms had fun chatting.

The girls and I also met up with Jody and Arie this week at an indoor play area we haven't been before called Playworks. It's a lot like Edinborough's Adventure Peak but BIGGER! And it has more than just the climbing structure! It has an arts and crafts area, a tree house with video games, puzzles, and more. We spent over 3 hours playing and would have been there longer if the girls hadn't tired themselves out so much. :-)



We attend story time almost every Thursday at our local Barnes and Noble. They usually read 2-3 books and then there is a coloring sheet to work on. This week they had a special guest! Madeline from the children's books. Lily took one look at the character and started crying. She stayed all the way on the other side of the room from Madeline. Ella was excited but nervous too. She was going to give her hug, and then didn't. Then she wanted me to be right next to her holding her hand. Finally, Ella did give her a high five and I quickly let go of her hand to snap a picture. Luckily for those leary of her, Madeline only stayed for a few minutes to say hi and left.I don't know if any of you have noticed, but Ella (and sometimes Lily because she does EVERYTHING that Ella does) has her own sense of fashion style. Ella likes to wear a short sleeve t-shirt over a long-sleeved one for a layered look. Then, she likes to wear a skirt (or skort) over a pair of leggings to further the layered look. Seriously, she developed this style all on her own and has become known for it! Her gym teachers look for her to come into class every week so they can see what combination she has come up with. This started I think because we got colder weather and I had a hard time convincing Ella that we no longer wore summer clothes. So she started wearing a long sleeve shirt under her t-shirt as a compromise. And it evolved from there. Here are a couple pictures of the girls that show their style in all its glory (I might have had a hand in coordinating these particular get-ups though). Of course, now that its getting warmer, we don't have to do the long sleeve shirts anymore. ;-)




I have added Feb, March, and April photo albums to the Shutterfly site. There are some pictures of the girls driving the jeep around at Bubba's house in Wisconsin as well as Cedar Rapids pictures. And I edited the Cedar Rapids post to add pictures (scroll down).

Enjoy the nicer weather! FINALLY!!