Life at 78 RPM

Yes, the Easter bunny has long since come and gone from our house.
Here are a few pictures…..
Ben and Lily are just chillin’, probably waiting for Alex to finish his turn with the hiding.
He was very particular about where the eggs were hid.

How many baskets does one little girl actually need?

Victory is Lily’s !!

Now what to do with it….

Alex decided it was more fun to both hide and find, but I think he misplaced that yellow one back by the fence.

Ben outsmarts the competition….

I know you all share Alex’s sunny attitude when the pictures are not updated as quickly as you would like.

This year Ben was really convinced he was going to catch his leprechaun.  His trap was simple, yet elegant.  There were no moving parts to jam or fail.  In his mind, it was brilliant - and this was the year we were finally going to get that pet leprechaun.  His brother and sister were equally as convinced, and although they really didn’t know what Ben was talking about, they supported him without reservation!

Unfortunately, those wiley creatures triumphed over human engineering, and our leprechaun traps are 0 for 3 again this year.
Well, maybe not unfortunately.  I don’t really need another mouth to feed.

Lily is fully prepared to greet spring in her new birthday dress, complete with snow boots, jeans, and elephant accessory.
Hopefully spring is ready for her….

It’s Lily !

She doesn’t quite get it though.  Alex is determined to demonstrate how she needs to hold up 2 fingers - 2 (!!!)
But she looks at him like she usually does, and then completely ignores him, like she usually does….

The birthday pictures, in no particular order.
We did have a pretty girly birthday this year.  Her gifts included, among other things, a naked baby that she picked out.  You always read in the parenting books that girls are different, but nothing really rams it home like purchasing a baby doll for your daughter and then wondering if you should also get her a truck to balance it out just because you don’t want her to think that she needs to stay home and take care of the babies.  But then you didn’t get your sons a baby doll to balance out the trucks that you got them, so maybe they think that they can’t stay home and take care of babies and have to go out and drive heavy machinery just to live up to some unstated expectation.

Crap - parenting is hard.

Luckily, we had a sun break in our stormy day, so we went for a walk and ride on the carousel to escape all the unstated expectations.
Thank goodness spring is nearly here.

Just a friendly reminder, or a formal invitation if you missed the first Bloomsday reference last spring.

All are welcome to join Jeff bid farewell to his 39th year by running (or walking) 7.46 miles on May 6th.
That means just 10 weeks left to train.
More information and registration here, or you can just call us and we can talk about it.

One hotel room (with giant swimming pool) is already booked to help entertain the kiddos.

Hopefully the weather improves dramatically.  Here is what it looked like last Saturday…..
That would be a picture of a snowdrop valiantly trying to look cheerful under three inches of wet, sloppy snow.

Do you suppose the porch swing has been rated to bear the weight of  2 grandparents and 3 grandchildren, all dressed up in their Sunday best?

There is this blog I sometimes visit about a woman who cooks and farms in the middle of Missouri, and she posts lots of recipes and pictures of farm-animals being cute.

I decided my version of cute might rival hers this week…..

For instance, is there anything cuter than a little girl in pigtails?

I know this next one isn’t so cute, and who are those proud parents???

If you could read Ben’s certificate you would see that he is a student of the month for Fairness.  As he was standing up there on the stage trying to figure out how to simultaneously shake his principal’s hand and receive the certificate she was handing him, I was struck with an intense feeling of dread.  Some day I am going to have to watch him do the same thing in a cap and gown and then smile through my tears as he drives off to college.  Definitely too much emotion for a grade school assembly!

And not to leave out anyone, I include a picture of our raging three (and a half!) year-old.  Cute is not how I would describe this child lately.  Perhaps impassioned, perfervid, irrational - just to name a few from Websters.  The list does go on and on.
Here he is after being bribed by a sticker chart and cookies.  The lesson was supposed to be that dropping to the floor and wailing at the top of your lungs is not an appropriate way to deal with life’s little setbacks (namely your sister).
But, I think we are going to need more stickers…..

After two months of a mild and relatively snow-free winter, pictures of kids in snowsuits return!

Top of the slide….
Bottom of the slide….

Top of the hill….Bottom of the hill…

Ben hides behind his snow wall, and prepares an arsenal.

Alex does still more excavating

and bonds with his snowman, which he named “Frosty Alex Snowman”.

Now I hate to complain about kids in snowsuits, especially when they are so cute, but I would be just as happy to post pictures of kids romping around in springtime sunshine. The days are just starting to feel brighter in the evenings, and we aren’t getting home in the dark any more. The rain has come and melted away most of the snow now. I know it is too early to start dreaming of spring, but I have to admit that I did check the flowerbed for the early bulbs this morning.

And no - you guessed it - not even a hint of green.