Spring Things

April was pretty wonderful around here. Settling into May, we still have the spring in our collective step from our four-part spring break roadtrip. The first spring on our quiet little lane in the city has been blissful. It's been such a fun process to watch the surrounding trees transform from pale, woody and full of promise to this techni-color green wonderland that is so bright after a rain that it's truly "verdant," defined.

Before we know it these spring rains will give way to the hazy days of summer. We have big summer dreams of long days at the pool, bonfires in the backyard, day camps, playdates, dinner on the porch, fireflies, sprinklers and annual camping trips.  

But, before we get too ahead of ourselves, here's a look at spring so far...

the sunrises

and sidewalk chalk masterpieces

greenhouse sprouts

and the way the sun shines through the swingset at just the right spot every evening

hand-me-down spring wardrobes

pedaling practice

picking grass

and pulling weeds

swim lessons

new neighborhood discoveries

wildflower bouquets

giant bubbles

bare legs

backyard hide-and-seek

returning wildlife

singing with the windows down

and spring things - blooming all around

Quick Quote & Quick Pics

Bea mimics Josie
this morning after breakfast

The other night Josie was having trouble sleeping so she hopped up on top of me and laid tummy-to-tummy like she's been doing since her earliest days.  Assuming this position is of course getting less and less frequent now that her toes hit my shins instead of my waist as she lies there.  I had this flash of baby Josie and me together like that and pointed out to her the space that her little infant body used to occupy compared to her big girl body now (which totally fascinated her). As she's always done when she sprawls out that way with her ear to my chest, she instantly relaxed.  Then, she let out this sweet sigh and whispered "Ahhh, I could lay like this forever."  Without realizing it, I said out loud, "I hope you do."  She answered back, maybe not realizing it either, "I know what you mean."

Oh our sweet, sweet girls...

Josephine's First Piano Recital

Josie started piano lessons back in January.  We are so impressed by how much she has learned in such a short amount of time. Her first recital was Sunday at The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Hyde Park.

We are so proud of her! She played two pieces from memory - "Old Pig Donald" and "Jungle Wedding."  Great work Sweet Josie Marie!

Special thanks to Grandma & DD for coming to the big show (although, let's be honest, they wouldn't have missed it for the world). Looks like Josie got your skills on the ivories DD!

What an amazing little girl you are, Josephine!

The week that was

At the start of what promises to be a pretty awesome week - (Temps in the 80s! Josie's first piano recital! The annual Schneider family Kentucky Derby party!) - it seemed like a good idea to drop in a little overview of the awesomeness that was last week.

The girls discovered how to use the ipad to take crazy photos of themselves:

Bea's Hide & Seek skills showed signs of improvement:

The seeds that we started in the greenhouse were ready for transplanting & everything is thriving:

Our new cactus from my trip to Arizona found a new home with the "real sand from a gecko's hole in the Deem Hills" thanks to my awesome co-workers:

The girls made me a beautiful dandelion bouquet:

We have become professional juicers:

We cranked out a pretty incredible batch of zucchini muffins:

And while they were baking we discovered something that hit us right in the heart:

And then we feasted:

All of our travel mugs and juice jars found their way back home from Lou's office:

The girls ran into the backyard just in time to see a deer hop the fence behind their swing set:

We spent lots of time in the back yard:

And the front yard:

Picking Josie up from school on Friday turned into big fun on the playground for the whole family:

We kicked off the weekend with our usual Friday Night Cuddle Fest:

We headed to the Museum Center Saturday morning for Butterfly Fest and the "Flight of the Butterflies" imax movie (sooo cool btw):

There was a lot of rain but just enough sunshine to spend some quality time in the yard. Bea with her bestie:

And Josie with hers:

In other news, I spent the weekend reorganizing my office, but there's more to come on that once I have "after" pics to accompany the "before" mess. 

Blog Layout Poll

Hi all,
Like usual this time of year, I start to get bored with things. I want to totally reorganize my office! I'm ready to purge, purge, purge from my closet! And, I'm totally bored with the way the blog was looking. So, blogger has these new-ish dynamic views, so I thought I'd give that a whirl. I'm not completely sold yet, but it is kinda cool. So...head to the dropdown menu up in the top left where it says "Classic," Switch it to "Magazine" and see what happens - ooh la la! Now you can see loads of content all their on one page. Or want the full shebang, scroll to "Flipcard." There's every post! Hover over it to see the date and title, then click on it to read the blog. All the normal pages are in the other dropdown menu up above and all the other links and goodies are over there in a panel along the side.
I haven't totally committed yet, so let me know what you think!
Thanks.
C

Quick Quotes: Bea-isms

Bea getting her slide on at Eden Park

Bea cracks us up with her little sayings (even the ones delivered with an evil grin).  Here's a list of some classic Bea-isms that I've been building. Enjoy!

"Hey Now!" 

 As in "Hey Now" don't touch that, or "Hey Now" that's mine, or "Hey Now" I was using that.

"So Funny."

Commonly delivered immediately after something super naughty that is so naughty it is funny but we shouldn't be laughing because that just encourages her. Translation: "I'm so funny."

"Where Daddy Be?"

This is one is generally used anytime she wants to know where something or someone is. "Where JoJo be?  Where airplane be?"

"Oh-Tay!"

Yup, OK = Oh-Tay all day, day everyday around here.

"So Sorry."

We hear this one A LOT.  I'll give it to Bea. She can be naughty, but her little violations are always quickly followed by a "So Sorry" without being prompted.  Usually, the last two are combined. "Bea, please don't draw on the wall."  "Oh-Tay. So Sorry."

"Beep, Beep Coming Through"

...any time "excuse me" would typically be used.

"Bye, Bye, See you Later!"

...pretty much any and every time she is leaving a room.

"BOO-YA-YA!"

For whatever reason, this became Bea's version of "Peek-a-boo" when she was teeny tiny, and it stuck. She's been known to jump out of hiding spaces, yelling BOO-YA-YA!

"Alrighty-Roo!"

She picked this one up during one of her days with Grandma, and we hear it quite a bit!

"Foofa, Muno, Brobee, Toodee, Plex" (and any combination of the 5)

Bea loves all things YoGabbaGabba, even though she doesn't actually watch the show much. She loves her stuffed versions of these guys and just generally refers to them as "the friends." She always wants to know where they are "Where Big Foofa be?" and is known to just generally talk about them all day long in different contexts.  It's adorbs!

"Beba-Triss"

This is how Beatrice refers to herself. For a long time she referred to herself as "Baby" but that's starting to change (although still pops up time to time). The hilarious thing is that she thinks "Triss" is the end of everyone's name, so she refers to us as "JoJo-Triss, Mama-Triss, and Papa-Triss." How cute is that?

"Chetchy!"

Bea's obsession with kefir continues. There is no doubt that she replaced breastmilk with kefir when she weaned back in the fall. She has kefir every night before bed and wants it first thing in the morning.    Unless you know her, you'd have no idea that "chectchy" = kefir.  Since she can't articulate the "k" sound well, she's called it "chechter" for a long time, but decided to personalize it a bit and start calling it "chetchy." And, yeah, it's true, we all call it "chetchy" now, too.