These Days, March

The first spring flowers picked by the girls on our first evening walk home from school

March was pretty fantastic and, despite being a long month, went by ridiculously quickly. It was a month full with work travel for Lou and for me, Bea’s birthday month, birthday celebrations of other friends, some late nights making big decisions, school events, spring sunshine, first bike rides of the season, first morning walks to school, annual green traditions, new tricks, new adventures and all that early Spring in Cincinnati has to offer. Here are the highlights. 

Parent/child work day at the girls' Montessori school - 

An afternoon playdate at the zoo - 

The third annual trip to SxSWedu in Austin for Mama -

Reports from home while I was away -

Back home with the Sx swag to prove it -

Sunshiny sisters -

A visit from our favorite neighborhood cat, Button (who had a sleepover in our garage one night this winter and had the whole neighborhood worried when he was missing) -

Sweet Bea, just being Bea -

These girls, they crack me up -

First morning walk to school of the spring (Boy, have we been waiting for this day!!) -

And when we walk home, I get to rock two backpacks (and it takes an hour, instead of the 20 mins it takes in the morning which works out okay because we usually wander home to find dinner on the table) -

Josie moved up to the big kid bike size. Go Josie!  (Someone has her mama's long legs.) 

Shamrock Shakes on St. Patrick's Day, a gooey green tradition, several years running -

Bea is very into the idea of doing homework while her big sister does hers. And we LOVE our new kitchen island!

Cousin hand-me-downs for the win!

Josie and I have both been working on our bridge pose!

A fun night out with friends while Papa Lou was out of town -

A bike ride turned nature hike in our neighborhood nature preserve one sunshiny afternoon -

Our first front yard picnic of the spring -

A fun night out with friends for our school fundraiser and auction -

A long-held tradition, the Cincinnati Ballet Toybox -

The freckles are here! The freckles are here! :)

Sharing a snack and some art work -

Our fairybirds - 

A favorite landmark that we were happy to still see intact -

A little sister play date while the big sisters were having a sleepover.

A little break to cheer for baseball on the way home from school -

A BIG backyard discovery, a full deer skull, that had these adventurous girls going wild over their cool find!

Wordless Wednesday

Bea's (4th) Birthday Month!

As luck would have it, sweet Beatrice's birthday spread out across the entire month of March. Does it get any better than that?

On Bea's actual birthday, we started off with the traditional Schneider family "Birthday in Bed" celebration of opening a couple of gifts before your feet even hit the floor. I have no idea how this actually started, but it's sort of sealed in our family tradition now so we'll go with it ha. In what was a super sweet moment between sisters, Josie woke Bea up by quietly rubbing her hand and singing Happy Birthday to her.

That led to reading new books and cuddling new friends in bed. Good stuff.

Then, there was work to be done! The combination of the "no pinata" policy at Bea's birthday party and the fact that some good buddies would be out of town on the day of the big event led to our own little pinata celebration at home. 

Bea LOVED her unicorn pinata. (So much in fact that the headless pinata was taped back together and is still the focus of much imaginative play - a month later.)

Bea had SO much fun reading birthday wishes that people left for her on Facebook. She insisted on a little family selfie to mark the event.

Then, in keeping with the tradition started when both girls turned one, we busted out the birthday crown! Bea, of course, busted out some of her best poses.

Later that afternoon, it was time to celebrate with Grandma & DD and present sent with love from Chicago. Bea ADORED her pink birthday cake made just for her by Grandma. And, her "big girl bike birthday wish" came true! 

The next round of Bea's birthday came the following weekend, with a party with little school friends at Pogo Play. Bea spends a lot of time with older kids, so it was really fun to just let her be a four year old and have a party that really let her do that. She wanted an Octonauts theme, so we made little goody bags with ocean stamps and stickers.

We had her party at PogoPlay! Truthfully, it was a bit of a gamble because that place can get bananas on days with bad weather. But lucky for us it was a beautiful early spring sunny afternoon so we seriously had the place to ourselves. It was awesome! Here are the highlights - including Bea's AMAZING, SUPER FANTASTIC cake made my our AMAZING, SUPER FANTASTIC friend Tess who never ceases to amaze us with her talent and generosity.

After the party, we hit up Bea's choice of Noodles for dinner, then headed home to open gifts. It was such a fun day! 

Bea's final birthday celebration was a big deal for all of us. Since she was a baby, she's been participating in Josie's "circle around the sun" celebrations at school - four times in total. Needless to say, she's been waiting waiting waiting until she'd have her first birthday walk at school. Last week was the big day!

(Thanks to her teacher Donna - who was with Josie when Beatrice was born - for taking these great photos!)

Happy 4th birthday, dear sweet Beatrice. May every single wish you ever close your eyes and make come true! 

Here's the link to Bea's birth story from four years ago. She truly is a miracle, this one. 

Wordless Wednesday

Quick Quote

Beatrice to Josie and I at dinner, interrupting our conversation with an enthuastic, "Hey, fun fact: I do not actually like blueberries on sandwiches. And I actually only like rice on the cob." 

Wordless Wednesday