the weekend that was

March has been absolutely cray! So, a relatively quiet weekend was just what we all needed before we kick everything back up a notch for April.

We rediscovered our old downtown haunt and had a great breakfast at The Coffee Emporium. 

We hit the Aquarium right as it opened. 

We started our seeds and worked more in the greenhouse!!

Josie & I joined friends for The Ballet Toybox.

We relaxed. We walked. We cuddled. We colored. We cooked.  

We enjoyed.  A lot. 

Bea's Birthday Part One

There's a flood of Little Bea's Big Birthday coming. Brace yourself for epic amounts of cuteness from her party this weekend. Until then, here's a little post on the actual big day and our quiet Four Schneiders celebration at home together.

Here's a video of Bea singing happy birthday to herself:



Her actual birthday on Friday the 8th wasn't exactly perfect. She was SOO sick with the flu and the poor little thing just didn't have the energy to get excited about much of anything. She couldn't even eat her cake.

We were also all recovering from me being out of town all week, which always takes a few days to get back in the swing of things. THANK GOODNESS we decided to push Bea's birthday party back a week, because she was still quite sick on what would've been her birthday party on the 10th.

We did manage to squeeze a little ceremonial "actual birthday" celebration on Friday evening that included cake, presents and blowing out candles.

When asked what she wanted for her birthday, she asked for an airplane and popcorn. So an airplane and popcorn is what she got. :)

Her favorite present though was actually two boxes of Annie's Fruit Snacks - that she calls "Baby Gum." She was over the moon happy about this special surprise!

Josie spent a solid hour making this card/poster all by herself. It really is so special. 

Won't be long

There are little sneak peeks of spring everywhere. We are all so eager to get back outside! We've had a couple of warm days to whet our appetites (with one random snow in between). Here's some evidence that our favorite time of year is approaching...

Mother Daughter Book Club Month: 100 Dresses

Last month we were the hosts of our "Blueberry Girls" Book Club.  We were really, really excited to have the families over to our house because we only just recently started feeling settled enough to have guests at our new house.

This month's book was the classic - The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Este. Each month we choose a chapter book to read with our daughters and then meet at a rotating house to have a potluck dinner, discuss the book and do related crafts. We chose books from the A Mighty Girl website and discuss themes related to growing up as a girl.

Here's the scene before our guests arrived:

After an interesting book talk about bullying and accepting each other's differences based on the actions of the girls in the story, we moved on to everyone's favorite part of book club - the crafts.

While we were reading the book together, Josie noticed the beautiful and unique illustrations and asked if one of our crafts could be to make illustrations like the ones in the book.  We set up a colored pencil and watercolor station for the girls to create their own illustrations in the style of  Louis Slobodkin.

Next, we made paper dolls with fabric scrap dresses. Our friend Julie (and former teacher of Josie's) who now owns Sewn Studio here in Cincinnati donated two bags of beautiful fabric to inspire the girls to make their own dresses. (Please go check out this beautiful shop if you haven't already & they have really cool classes.)

 Here are the girls' dresses. Isn't it fascinating how different they all are?

Josie's Doll

Our next bookclub meets this weekend. Many of you have asked for more info about how the club works, and it's exciting to hear other moms are considering family bookclubs. I highly recommend it!

Here's the link to Neil Gaiman reading "Blueberry Girl" on youtube. If you have a daughter and don't have this book, change that quickly.

Time for Swim Lessons

In anticipation of joining a swimclub in our neighborhood this summer, we signed the girls up for swim lessons this spring at UC's Aquatic Center. (Oh my goodness I can't tell you how excited joining the pool makes my little Pinecrest-nostalgic heart but more on that another day!)

It's Josie's first time in a no-parent class and Bea's time taking lessons. Although the water is pretty brrrr-inspiring, we are really proud of both girls.  By the end of the first class Josie was dunking herself underwater to grab beanbags from chest-deep water. Bea wasn't as enthusiastic about putting her face anywhere near the water, but she was pleased as punch about jumping in and climbing back out a zillion times.

As an added bonus, one of our favorite families showed up in our girls' classes. The same favorite family is showing up in our school next year.  And that's just WAY too exciting to put into words. 

Short month, Long post

February may be the shortest month, but we sure packed a lot into it. I'm heading back there for a moment - in my valiant and ongoing blog catch-up efforts.

We kicked it off with my 36th birthday Extraordinare! We had snowy day fun! We spent a glorious long weekend enjoying our city and each other! We hosted book club! (EEEK, haven't done that post yet. Oopsy!)

And there were plenty of other moments not associated with anything in particular that are right here.

A text conversation worth sharing:

Snowy afternoons in the warm greenhouse:

Naughty little nuggets on the quest for "lip dip":

An impressive slate of montessori kindergarten work:

Lots of Schneider cuddling:

An inside joke between Lou & I, but I'll leave it at this. We watched Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. And I bought a Breville. And Lou may or may not have won a bet about corporate sponsorship of the film:

Our snowy lane:

The omnipresent nudey booty:

And equally omnipresent giggle & grin:

A trip to the Museum Center, where our old condo downtown is immortalized on the train display. This is looking down 4th Street & our building is in the middle on the left:

The girls' first Omnimax movie - The Last Reef. It was hysterical. Josie was yelling details like, "Oh, that's a nudibranch!" And Bea was like "whoa! weeee! hi fishy!" then fell asleep.

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A silly, silly couple of girls pretending to drive to go shopping:

A fun shadowy walk one evening:

 Epic homemade cinnamon rolls for Sunday brunch with friends:

 Celebrating Chinese new year (with sushi, ha):

 Our Miami merger Valentine's day card:

Josie's new favorite nori snack:

More cuddling:

 Our first experience with bad growing pains (and Tia's heat wrap saved the day!):

Our favorite school valentine:

And three bouquets from our favorite Valentine:

 Volunteering at Josie's wool felting class at school:

The insanity that is my conversion from PC to Mac:

More cuddling. It's how we do:

A rainbow carrot discovery:

Who knew?!?

My favorite view:

Our goofy gal in an Amazon box:

 One morning at the Cincinnati Family Enrichment Center:

My sweet girl waiting for me to finish my work one afternoon in my office:

Josie feeling the freezing rain one night before bed (my little scientist insisted on a proper observation):

Josie took a photo of me in her Hugglepod:

Bea's contribution to my camera roll (see her tiny toes):

Bea in the bathroom (aka the best light in our house!):

Looking up to super blue skies but bare trees. I can't wait for SPRING:

A dinner date with the Mr:

Gearing up for seed starting:

Our mama deer resting in the yard:

A sunny surprise from Grandma & DD's trip to AZ:

A sunny surprise from a little ballerina who showed up in my office on afternoon:

Our sweet, sweet girls:

 Sneaking up on the counter for...broccoli (okay, we'll let this one slide):

The other climber in the family:

Juicy Juice (every day for a month now!):

Baby in the Laundry Basket:

Oh man, this almost deserves it's own post! Bea snuck out. I had to chase her through the frozen mushy  yard with bare feet and Bea in socks. She got all the way to the backyard. The best part is that as soon as I got her inside I was trying to figure out how she unlocked the door! She totally ratted out her older sister, saying "Josie helped." Hilarious.

A retired pair of favorite purple boots:

 Continued piano practice:

The Valentine assembly line:

Whew!