Feeling Blessed

Today I am feeling blessed by the unexpected sunshine, the joy that Carter and Jackson bring to my kids, and the knowledge that it's almost vacation time!!

making english muffin pizzas for lunch

spinning each other on the swing

feeding the geese

SO excited!!

Post-Madness

This past weekend we made our annual trip to celebrate March Madness with our college friends.  We had a fabulous time with great weather, yummy food, and happy kids.  (I did not take one single picture, though.  Oops.)
Monday morning after a long weekend was a little rough.  There was a lot of screaming (mostly Hannah) and a lot of me refereeing.   They finally settled back into routine, though.  Jackson and Hannah played kitchen together.  (I took several pictures, hoping to get one good one to post.  I have to post several, though, because the variety of poses and expressions make me smile.)

Hannah is saying "cheese".

She's actually not screaming in this picture; it just looks like it.

Jackson is thinking "save me from this crazy girl!".

"Mmm...delicious frying pan..."

"Yes, my ground cloves are also tasty."

We love it when it's warm enough to eat outside!

playing grocery store

SUNday

Yesterday was so beautiful, we had to go to the park!  (And we may have had to get ice cream on the way home, even though it was dinner time.)

I Declare "Spring"

Official spring is almost two weeks away, but I decided that I've had enough of this weird not-really-winter weather.  (I'm not complaining.  It's pretty awesome that I barely had to shovel this winter.  I'm just saying: I'm ready to move on.)  So I took down all my winter decorations..

...and brightened the place up a little bit.

Like my tulips?  My husband got them for my birthday.  And he got them on sale at Aldi, which is truly the way to my heart.

Today it rained all day, which confirms for me that spring is here.  Speaking of the rain, here's reason #47 why I love my van.  I could stand inside the (dry) building while unlocking and opening the sliding doors.  Then I made a mad dash with a toddler under each arm, threw them both in the van, jumped in behind them, and closed the door while I buckled everyone into their seats.

Now let's talk about buckling kids into their seats.  Just for fun, I thought I'd count how many times I buckled or unbuckled a car seat (so far) today:
leaving the house - 3 in
arriving at walmart - 3 out
leaving walmart - 3 in
arriving at school - 1 out
arriving at doctor's office - 2 out
leaving doctor's office - 2 in
arriving at rec center - 2 out
leaving rec center - 2 in
arriving at school - 2 out
leaving school - 3 in
arriving at home - 3 out
...and the total is - 26 times!  Woo hoo!  Do I get a prize?

Pictures

Micah - 4 years and Hannah - (almost) 18 months
By the way, Micah had his well-visit last week.  He is average height and weight and has great vision.  But more importantly, he passed his hearing test, and his ears look good!
All right, here's my adorable children:

Jump!

Hannah's version of jumping: