Flower Children

One of my favorite parts of spring are the flowers.  A few years ago I planted daffodils and tulips in the yard.  Daffodils have always been my favorite flower.  There's just something so "sunshiny" about them, I can't help but smile.  Both the kids love to go searching the yard for the first signs of the daffodils.  This year they were a little later than usual because of all the snow.  And then they didn't last very long because we had a really hot week.  C'est la vie.

You can see 4 little tips of daffodils trying to poke out of the snow in February.

Jeffrey hasn't been much into flower pictures this year.  He just doesn't have the patience to sit and wait while mommy takes way too many silly pictures.  He was willing to sit for a few though.  I've tried every year to take at least one or two pictures of the kids sitting in the daffodils.  They're linked here.

2006

2007

2008

Apparently I didn't put up any from last year.  Let's see. . .

And here are some cute shots of the kids enjoying our flowers this year.

Don't you just love this last one?  That's my goofball at his finest. 

Spring Break!!

 

Well, Spring is here!!  And Gone!!  We've skipped spring and jumped right into summer.  Whew.  Given all the snow we had over the winter, I'd say we're due a few gorgeous days.  Here they are!!

That snow also ended up shortening Spring Break for the kids.  We missed so many days of school, the school board decided to take away 3 days of spring break instead of tacking on several days to the end of the school year.  We still made the best our of our break.

The kids are always begging to go out and ride their bikes.  So Friday morning, I loaded their bikes into the van and we headed into town to a park that has a nice paved path that runs by a river.  It's pretty flat and just right for bike riding.  We went on about a 1.5 mile ride/run (mommy ran along).  By the end, Erin was getting really comfortable letting her bike build a little speed down the slopes.  After our ride we hung out at the park, played on the playground and had a picnic by the river.  It was a great morning.  Although I made the fatal mistake of packing one pack of chocolate cookies and one pack of sandies.  Let me tell you, we almost had WWIII over the pack of chocolate cookies.  Sigh.  After our romp by the river we stopped by the gym for a quick swim.    They LOVE swimming, so we take every chance to get a swim in.

Saturday we hit a local candy dash (see previous post) and then the kids came with mommy to her soccer game while daddy had a brew day on the deck.  When we got home we spent more time hanging outside, and even dyed our eggs out back.

Sunday, we spent a relaxed and laid back Easter.  It was great.

Monday morning, we headed up to DC for a few days.  Erin's been studying about national symbols at school so we decided to take a trip into the city.  She had the class "pet" Jonas with her for the weekend.  We introduced Jonas to the Washington Monument.  Erin explained to us why exactly the monument is 2 colors (2 different quarries) and counted 50 flags around the base.  We then decided to wander into a few of the museums.  Erin wanted to see the Star Spangled Banner and Jeffrey wanted to see dinosaurs.  So we hit both those spots.

On the way we actually stumbled across the presidential motorcade taking Obama to the National's game to throw out the first pitch.  Jeffrey liked all the motorcycles.  Erin thought the big limos were cool.

Before heading back to Noni's the kids caught a ride on the National Mall Carousel and splashed in the fountain outside the National Gallery.  If you remember, last year we spent part of Spring Break in DC as well.  And we needed to buy new ski caps.  Let's just say the ski caps were not needed at all this year.  This year we needed to find the fountains to cool off.

Tuesday AM we headed to the National Zoo.  The kids love the zoo, and its one of my favorite places as well.  The animals were all really active, which surprised me since is was so unseasonably hot (close to 90 actually).  The lion was prowling around, the otters were sunning, the panda wandered his environment, the baby gorilla was swinging like crazy, and the orangutan even crossed outside above our heads.  We took our time, wandered through the misters to cool off.  The kids picked out some new sunglasses and ball caps to keep the sun off.

Since school was back in session this morning we had to leave Noni's after dinner last night.  We had a great few days playing tourist and seeing Noni, Oma and Grandpa.

Hoppy Easter!!

Hoppy Easter everyone!!!  We've had a gorgeous few days here in the 'ville.  For the first time in several years, Erin didn't have to wear her spring sweater over her Easter Dress. 

We began the weekend with an egg hunt.  Well it was billed as an egg hunt.  What it really was was a mad dash across a soccer field to grab as much candy as possible.  There weren't even plastic eggs!!!  The kids loaded up and brought home a haul of close to 2 lbs of candy each.  Later in the afternoon the kids came with me to my soccer game.  They had a great time running around the sidelines and cheering mommy on.

Sunday morning we awoke to another beautiful day.  We headed to church to worship as a family.  We had a special treat too as a local farmer had brought a lamb to church to greet the children.  They fell in love with it.  Erin even fed it from her hand.  After service we had another little egg hunt there.

At home I took some pictures of the kids - well Erin really, Jeff wasn't in the mood - while Tom hid the eggs outside.  They had a blast looking for our eggs at home too.  We spent much of the rest of the afternoon relaxing.  Jeffrey took a much needed nap.  Erin sorted her candy again and again.  Tom and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather to sit out on the deck and read. 

It was just a gorgeous day to celebrate our risen Christ.

Update

A quick update on the swimming.  The kids started another session of lessons this week.  They have a new instructor, which was a little surprising.  Jeffrey's been with the same instructor for almost a year.  He doesn't always deal well with change, but took to his new teacher well.  There was one BIG difference in the lesson though.

Jeffrey would ONLY swim on his back.  Something must have clicked last week and he became obsessed with practicing it this week.  He's doing more of a scull stroke (we call it chicken-airplane-soldier) than a traditional backstroke but it's pretty impressive.  Friday when I took the kids swimming in the afternoon, he did a full lap of the pool (about 25 meters) all on his own.  And the look on his face when he got to the end was pure pride.  I had the same look.