Spring Beauties

This was a bouquet of flowers Cheyenne bought for Grandma Marilyn's birthday. They are probably grown in Ecuador or something, but it was nice to have springy things around anyway we could!

I had fun taking pictures of the blooms!

Then I had to start taking pictures of Marilla next to them.

Squatting beside the flowers, firmly holding her new sippy cup. She loves the cup, even though she doesn't swallow all that she sips-- the front of her shirts are usually pretty milky at the end!

Look at the curve of that cheek!

Then she started making silly faces...

She's good at it!

We were SO happy to go pick up Daddy at the airport last week!

Rilla sure remembered Daddy-- she clung to him like a little burr for a few days!

Elliott drinking his last bottle, not that I'd warned him of this!

The dentist had said he really needed to ditch the bottle, so I waited until after Daddy had been home a day. I thought it would be traumatic, and figured we wouldn't pile the trauma of No Daddy on top of the trauma of No Bottle. He actually has done really well with it, though. He had been down to just a bottle at bedtime, occasionally a bottle in the afternoon at nap time. I thought that one bottle was pretty entrenched, but he's only asked for one a couple times since, and he takes a "no" very calmly. Big kid!

He also got a big boy haircut Friday night.

I hate it, but it will hopefully grow back! It looks adorable from the back, but he has such a high forehead he needs some hair hanging over it. Not to mention the very light color of his hair, and his sticky-out ears. I do love to rub this hairstyle, though! I gave him his haircut, and while I don't like how he looks in it, I'm proud that I got the haircut technically correct. There have been a few haircut trials on my husband and brothers that didn't always pan out so well!

Elliott is still obsessed with cars. I brought this rug, which usually lives in the family room, up to the living room this week. Big mistake. Any time I walked from the living room to kitchen, I'd hear, "Don't step on my rug! You step on gas station, Mommy!" Very indignant little boy.

Happiness is... lots of cars.

Neatly parked cars, no less!

They even go outside with him when the weather is nice.

Rilla loves climbing up on the big kids picnic table.

Cheyenne, in her "clompy" shoes, being a basketball girl. (She's obviously never watched a game, or she'd be wearing sneakers, but she loves the noise those shoes make on the wooden deck.) The Syracuse Orange were in the Sweet Sixteen playoffs, so it was all she heard about in school. When she came home that Friday afternoon, everything was Syracuse!

We are having a rainy Sunday. We have had amazing (and rare) sunshine and warmth lately! It is wonderful for the kids to be able to play outside so much. Today, though, we're enjoying our lazy Sunday, and it doesn't matter what is happening outside!

Wearing O' The Green (Sorry, Dad!)

Growing up, we weren't encouraged to wear green on St. Patrick's Day. In fact, my father always egged us on to wear Orange. Dad is one-hundred-percent NORTHERN Irish-- not into the Catholic Irish holiday of St. Patrick.

And yet, this is what his granddaughter looked like today.

It's his fault, in a way. This dress is from when Cheyenne was a baby, and my two little sisters saw it and had to buy it because it had "clovers" on it, and thus was perfect for Clover's new little baby. So Dad named me Clover, AND he had two generous daughters. (Well, at the age they were when this dress was bought, they were probably being generous with Mom and Dad's money, but still-- they were generous!)

(This is how Rilla has to sit down-- it's quite a circular process.)

Anyway, she doesn't care about centuries-old Irish feuds, she just looks adorable.

Elliott hedged his bets-- he's wearing orange AND green. (And a tractor, so Grandpa has to like him.)

He's also wearing a hat. For some reason, this hat was key today.

And he's wearing a funny little expression.

Cheyenne's one green shirt was a recent hand-me-down that's still a tad too big. Grandpa REALLY has to like this shirt, though, because it says "John Deere." Cheyenne has been quite worried about today. Her class set up a trap to catch a leprechaun, and she was terrified of leprechauns. Imagine her relief today when the trap was empty and there were just little green footprints all over the school and lots of spilled Lucky Charms!

The kids had another beautiful day to play outside. Rilla got to pose in here because Elliott was trapped inside with his physical therapist. And I do mean trapped-- he doesn't enjoy the therapy very much these days. It's not that it's painful or even demanding, it's just that they've been working on the same skills (jumping, alternating legs on the stairs, being able to walk a narrow line) for such a long time now that he's thoroughly bored with all the activities.

Rilla and Cheyenne got to hang out in the car together later that afternoon. (Rilla's cute outfit has been augmented with fleece-lined jeans-- there's still a chill in the air!)

Silly tongue sisters.

What a smile on that big girl!

Don't you always pack all your Brambly Hedge books and a skillet in the back of your car for any trips?

Elliott branched out from the car and was a big boy on the tricycle.

The ever-present windshield washer tongue.

Coloring assiduously...

with Grandma! Elliott is loving having Grandma and Grandpa here. In fact, he quite enjoys all his grandparents. This morning, he was chatting about Grandma Jill and Grandma Marilyn, and he told Marilyn, "So many grandmas!" He sure is a lucky boy! I can't do anything these days-- anything I go to do, he says, "No, Grandma wash me up!" (Or change my diaper, or feed me, or... Marilyn is going to go home exhausted!)

The kids are still loving to play with their Fabulous Red kitchen...

And Little People. Kind of an unorthodox place to play, but she was happy. And see that hair, all aglow in the evening sun? That is the best "gold at the end of the rainbow" I can imagine.

We Love Spring!

Although we try to keep in mind that we can still get lots of snow in the next month, we can't help but be giddy when the snow melts and it gets warm enough to play outside. Today the kids took two walks with Grandma and Grandpa and played on the swings. After supper tonight, Grandpa braved our dilapidated storage shed and hauled out the tricycle, Cheyenne's scooter and Elliott's car. He's been talking about his car incessantly. He still fits it! Marilla is loving the great outdoors. I can see we will be outside a LOT this year!

All the cousins had a great time Saturday, playing in the gorgeous weather.

Swingset fully occupied.

Happiness!

And more happiness!

This red swing is always a favorite. It's the one Cheyenne calls Molly after the (now dearly departed) draft horse at Mom and Dad's farm. She has figured out how to swing on it, even when there's an extra little body on it with her!

The two Puffy Jacket sisters had a go on it.

Then, everyone had to climb the ladder...

(Squinting against the sun...)

So they could steer the car...

Or sit at the top of the slide and make funny faces at their mother!

(He slid DOWN the slide a lot, too, but that was too fast for me to take pictures!)

Cheyenne slid down backwards on her tummy.

Little gimp, Lily, has fun in the blue swing.

Ponytail-blowing-in-the-wind fun!

Bethaney and Lily complemented each other nicely-- lemon shirt and lime cast.

Marilla had been nicely occupied with colorful balls on the deck...

But she wanted to see what everyone else was doing. Grandma gave her a peek.

Pretty soon, she was happily swinging!

QUITE happy!

In fact, happiness seemed to be the theme that afternoon.

And even some hugging!

And more hugging.

Marilyn had a birthday on Saturday! Dana bought her raspberries instead of a cake.

There were lots of kids to help celebrate-- Elliott, Cheyenne...

Marilla... (How cute is she in that little party hat? And why on EARTH didn't her mother think to get the party hats out of the closet for HER birthday?)

Orianna... (singularly enamored of the hats...)

And Lily, unimpressed with birthdays, hats, or anything else. (She got much better Saturday night when Daddy came down!)

Grandma's boy, getting into the "Happy Birthday" song.

Blowing out the candle!

I can't thank my in-laws enough for all the help they've been since Evan left... But I still miss Evan! We are all anxiously awaiting his return on Thursday!