Fashionista

swimmer swimmer slim fast dinner

She can't dress herself but she can swim.  Maddie is off of all of her floats and swimming the length of the pool.  Wednesday she started to learn how to do a "surface dive" to grab toys that sink to the bottom.  She is so proud of herself.  Now, if we could only get over the irrational fear of the grate at the bottom of the pool...



Art

I can't even begin to express how happy finding Maddie's little pictures of our family around the house make me.

Sleeping Baby

Allie loves her Nonna.  She didn't quite make it through dinner.

The Circle

I have very vivid memories of riding my bike around Seward Park while my dad ran his 2.5 mile lap.  Good vivid memories.  Except the one time that I rode my bike off of a high point in the trail down into some blackberry bushes.   Let's all keep our fingers crossed that Maddie is better at driving a bike (and let's face it, cars too) than I am was.

We went for our first seward park bike ride today.  I've been so excited ever since Maddie got her bike for her birthday.  The weather was gorgeous.  And, other than one time where she rode her bike off the trail into a ditch it was great.  Oh wait... this sounds familiar. 

Anyhow, some pics of our picnic

It did not take Maddie long to get to this clothing state.  Nor did it take long to threaten an immediate departure if she failed to put them back on.

Construction Zone + Warm Weather=

Two girls content on sitting on the deck watching roofers next door and sewer people on the street while I am left to my own devices.

Well, for a good solid 60 seconds at least.

Date Night

First stop: Woodmoor Elementary to take pictures for Zaide's big election.  With the promise of an overnight with Zaide and jelly beans being shaken behind the camera we actually got a few smiley pictures.  I took a lot (after many attempts to get a good picture I figured I'd go shotgun and just start snapping) and just randomly grabbed 3 of them to post on the blog.  I think they're cute.  Of course, the subjects are all cute so that doesn't hurt.

Our first baseball game of the year.  Isn't Kip cute?

Happy Sunny Wednesday.  Both girls are PASSED out after a very fun night and morning with Zaide.

(and how hilarious is Megan's head in the last shot? She was very nervous about those girls sitting on that sign)

(And oh-emm-GEE I never realized how much taller Hadley is than Maddie!!!)

The Cabin

Saturday morning Zaide and Baba took both Allie and Maddie up to the cabin for the night.  Kip and I both worked during the day and then had an afternoon and evening, and hey, even the next morning to ourselves.   Can you say date night? Out to a fancy restaurant...or even Taco Time, but a meal that could be eaten in excess of ten minutes.  Divine I tell you.

But we didn't do it.

Wanna know why?

It was one special gal's birthday.  And that gal is really, really special to all of us.

And she loves her cabin.  And she loves people in her cabin.

So we loaded up the car and we spent the night at the cabin.

And it was great.

Puddle Walk

Subtract about five degrees from our recent weather, wake up from a coma, and you'd be convinced it was January.  This was no "spring time" puddle walk.  We made it about 100' before we were both freezing. 

But in a glass is half full kind of world:

Maddie had her umbrella to keep her dry.  She loves her umbrella. 

Our dog is techincally a "water" dog.  He was cool with the rain, puddles and wind.

(that's yogurt on his face.  I let him clean our recycling for us)

With the 18" of rain we've received over the past week the flowers are BLOOMING.  And they are gorgeous. 

And supposedly it's supposed to be nice tomorrow and Friday.

Mother's Day

Should I start to worry that Maddie can now keep secrets from me?  Regardless, she was very proud of this one.  Maddie, Zaide, Hadley and Allie all collaborated on a mother's day project.

After opening the perfect gift, going to the gym, working in the yard (with actual help from Kip on this oh-so-special day) and skipping naps for the day we went to my mom's for some delicious panini sandwiches made by Sonja and Jamie.  I managed to take about 2 pictures while over there.  Too bad.

It was fun though.  My best mother's day to date.

I love days like today

When my only tough decision is, should I run outside or go to the gym?

Maddie had school.  School wears Maddie out.  Maddie is napping.  (Or she quietly found a new pair of scissors because I'm looking at the confiscated ones.)

Weekend Randoms

Practicing wedding hair

Planting springtime color

The neighbors stopped by yesterday to say they were stopped in their tracks when they saw my hippie child.

Learning how to ride a bike

Sometimes takes a little demonstration