The Busy Month of March, Part I

Between birthdays, sugaring time, and traveling, March has been very busy! Actually, the whole winter has been busy. I figured out yesterday was the first Saturday since January that we did not go away or have company. Mind you, I'm not complaining about getting to go places or have people visit us, it's just been BUSY! Which is my semi-lame usual excuse about why I haven't posted pictures in so long.

Rilla turned three the beginning of the month. We started out the day unwrapping presents while still in jammies.

Lots of interested spectators-- and not just because they wanted to play with her loot. Early that morning, Cheyenne had gone downstairs for her usual half hour of snuggling on Daddy's chair reading books before the rest of us wake up. I soon heard her tip-toe back upstairs that morning, and she came into our bedroom to whisper to me, "Mom, would it be okay to give Marilla some of my dollars for her birthday?" No. No, I hate you being generous and sweet. So, while I laid in bed feeding Lincoln and sniffling emotional I-love-my-Cheyenne tears, Cheyenne came downstairs and made a beautiful card for Marilla and put three dollars in it for Marilla's birthday.

Of course, as Marilla saw this present, she wanted to start playing with it right away, but we moved her on to the next present. I don't know why we ever give little kids more than one present, they're usually content to play with the first one for hours.

Marilla's face when she saw her new Loving Family Dollhouse!

It's pink! And huge! And comes with two babies! Daddy is a genius for buying this.

Helping unpack it.

The rest of the morning was taken care of.

That evening, we were at the farm, so we got lots of help singing "Happy Birthday" over her cake. Note that Aunt Bet dressed up my usual boring vinegar cake with a "3" made out of sprinkles.

Enjoying singing.


Lots of people to sing...

So a little embarrassment at the end!

Blowing out the Yankee Candle sampler because I was, once again, too lame to remember to bring birthday candles.


Lincoln in his barnacle position.

My pony-tailed niece, and her red-headed cousin.

Uncle Owen.

Elliott, and another pony-tail girl. (Now I'm having doubts about whether it's pony-tail or ponytail. Hmm.)

This is less about Rilla not liking the pink feather boa Aunt Lindsey sent her and more a pout that someone didn't let her put it on "all by mySELF!!"

Decked out! Feather boa, purple tiara, purple flower skirt-- all over the already colorful Aunt Bet skirt!

That is a LOT of boa!

Olivia took this picture of me showing Marilla herself in the mirror. I like the effect.

Gilbert, the dashingly handsome Overall Dude.

Helping unpack the wings to complete Marilla's outfit. As Lindsey told me when she called to ask Marilla's clothes size, "I'm going for the Greatest Aunt Award, not the Greatest Sister Award." Lots of frivolous clothing to delight a little girl heart!

Sunglasses from Grandma and Grandpa!

Sunglasses, wings, cousins, and chocolate cake. How delightful!

Elliott letting the spoon have a break by using his fingers.

I'm not sure if the exaggerated hand motion here is me trying to adapt the pinkie-curled-tea-drinker move, or what. But it's quite interesting.

Justin with his newest obsession-- remote- controlled helicopter.

And Mom, apparently wanting to ruin my life, bought one for Evan for his birthday. They are entirely too much like large bees wanting to dive bomb your head for my comfort. Evan and Justin sure had fun terrorizing me with them. Sometime on purpose and sometimes not.

I'm glad she still has fat baby cheeks.

Miss Lily is round-ish, too.

Brown-eyed girl.

Elliott in the position he's in about 90% of the time-- either in a handstand on a piece of furniture, or about to go into a handstand.

Orianna, in impromptu sleepwear-- a tank top from Livie or Tori.

Mommy snuggles.

Lily checking out Ashley's camera.

I feel old that I can remember when you had to wait for film to get processed before you saw the picture! I had a lot of fun learning to develop film in photography class, but I have to say it's lovely to take lots of pictures without worrying about the cost!

Lily toes. Always a worthy photographic subject.

What is it with these cheeks?? Edible.

A high-stakes PR game.

Lily and Ashley are in the cheering section.

The Evil Twins, looking un-evil-ish.

Lots of reading! If you click on this picture, you can see the copious chest hair Papa Bear is sporting on the front of Lily's pajamas. It's a little disturbing.

Reading to Rilla-Roo, while Lincoln imbibes literature-- literally.

Elliott Crazy-Pants and some normal girls.

Evan takes this game so seriously he wears crisp dress shirts to play.

Evan and his true love-- Great Value Mountain Trail Mix. You don't want to know what happens when/if he runs out.

Toothy baby! He's added a seventh tooth to the repertoire since then, and judging by his sleep habits the last couple of nights, #8 is on its way!

Livie must have been practicing her mad photography skills on this ladybug.

Elliott, pulling on his lip. He does this incessantly, to the point where he has a huge callous there.

This is a really funny face Lincoln is making.

Gilbert getting Tori snuggles. I don't think I'll be brave enough to emulate them, but it was rather nice of Mom and Dad to have their "second family" so that our kids can grow up with cool young aunties.

Justin. He may look innocent, but he probably isn't.

Muzzy the Beautiful.

And then, this is kind of pathetic, I apparently don't have any pictures of the 27 inches of snow that fell Sunday night and Monday that caused us to stay a few extra nights. Not that we minded. Cheyenne had a snow day Monday, so she didn't even miss much school. It felt like Christmas vacation, we (meaning the lazy saps who didn't have to go feed animals) sat around snug and warm in the house and played games. Mom even got a snow day!

Here we are, back home again. The mud all over the porch is because our porch and our entryway flooded while we were gone. Thankfully, the entryway was pretty tidy, so the only thing that was ruined was a package of napkins. There was a LOT of washing of rugs and such, though, in addition to all the laundry I had brought back from our long weekend at Vaughans'. But there is a silver lining-- Rilla got to wear all her cool rain gear. She's wearing the skirt Aunt Lisa made Cheyenne years ago, the frog boots I bought her last year, a frog coat from Aunt Bet, and an umbrella from Grandma Jill. I am insanely jealous of how cool her rain apparel is.

This kid is so gorgeous it hurts me.

Her tiny little feet look adorable in these boots.

Mountain climbing all the piles of snow.

We still, on March 28th, have piles of our original snow. I'm kinda ready for spring. (Although this picture was taken earlier in March. It just made me think of it.)

Lincoln, biting a fuzzy green apple.

Twinkly eyes!

More contemplative.

Laughing.

Peering into the house.

Then, Evan Joe's birthday! He wanted a Dairy Queen ice cream cake-- only to find out that Dairy Queen apparently hates Central New York. The closest Dairy Queen is in Ontario. So he had to make do with an Oreo ice cream cake from Wal-Mart, which he took graciously.

Okay, I'm not even halfway through writing about the pictures, and my house is a mess and my wrists hurt. So I am going to break it off here. Hopefully, I'll get to the rest of March soonish! I've already uploaded the pictures, so it shouldn't take long. Except I apparently like to prattle a lot about all the pictures, so it probably will.