Springtime = Gardens + Dancing Skirts

It really truly is springtime here finally. Our tulips are big and bright, lilacs and trees are blooming, tricycle and wagon rides are a daily occurrence, and I think Michael has mowed the grass twice in as many days. Unfortunately for Catherine, who is desperate to wear her two new swimsuits, it still isn't swimsuit-warm, but it's definitely better than nothing!

I promised a Mother's Day report. While we were getting ready for church Michael reminded Catherine it was Mother's Day and so she turned to me and said "Happy Brother's Day!" We could have stopped there and I would have been happy! The whole day was bright and sunny and warm, so after churches we went to lunch at our favorite Mexican place where you can sit outside. Catherine really liked it because it is right next to the bike path and there were a lot of bikers out. Mary really liked it because she could sit on the ground and try to eat wood chips for lunch. After lunch we stopped by the garden center to pick up plants for the veggie garden. Catherine helped me plant the green beans, peppers, tomatoes, squash and zucchini while Mary ate several handfuls of dirt (I guess she couldn't wait for the veggies to be ready). We also planted a few herbs and spent a lot of time playing in the grass (after raking up some holly leaves - ouch).

Then Morgan and Tristan and Robert came over to play (with parents in tow). Catherine and Morgan broke out the helmet AND the knee pads AND the elbow pads to take turns riding Catherine's tricycle, and Mary and Tristan and Robert ran along or rode in the wagon. Somewhere between all this and the guitar playing, singing and dancing that always occurs when Catherine and Morgan get together we had dinner as well. We had lots of fun and late bed times all around.

I think by this time Catherine had forgotten about the whole "Mother's Day" idea, but after we read her bed time story she gave me a hug and told me "Everything is so so great." which is really about as good a thing as you can hear from your daughter on Mother's Day, whether she meant to do it or not!

I did completely fail to even get my camera out, so no cute pictures of videos from Mother's Day. But never fear, here are some leftover videos from over the weekend that I haven't put up yet.

Saturday was another rainy morning, so we went to the fabric store and got supplies to make a "dancing skirt" for Catherine. Before we went to the store I asked Catherine what colors she would like and she insisted on yellow. When we actually got to the store I pulled out the yellow tulle and she demanded I put it back. She then pulled the bright pink and dark purple tulle. Here are some pictures of fun with tulle as we were going along, and the finished product:






It was super easy to make - the most time consuming part was cutting the tulle - and requires no sewing. If you know a little girl who needs one you can check out the blog where I found the instructions: Make It and Love It

And a video of Mary plying horsey with Daddy - she loves loves loves playing with Daddy (and Catherine loves taking pictures).

We Love Our Moms!

I had a beautiful and fun Mother's Day with the girls today, the details of which I will be sure to relay tomorrow, but for now they are both sleeping soundly and I therefor am headed to bed!! However the day would not be complete without tipping our hats to our moms. Parenting is clearly a "learn as you go" endeavor, but I believe much of our parenting instincts are instilled in us by our own childhoods and in this case we are very grateful and glad to be blessed with the moms we have! May the love you tirelessly poured out to us be returned to you tenfold.

Sand Pizza

After nearly five straight days of rain (typical Spring on the Cape) Friday broke clear and bright and, a miracle worth mentioning, with only a slight breeze. We actually got out on our morning jog, and Catherine and Mary got to spend quite a bit of time outside. They played one of Catherine's favorite games in the morning: Pull Weeds! This year Catherine can actually be a bit helpful in the weed-pulling area, so everyone in the house likes this game. After lunch Nick and Athena came over with a second lunch in hand. I believe when it was all said and done Catherine managed to eat 8 silver-dollar blueberry pancakes. Yikes. Luckily they all went for a walk after second lunch.

I had a very busy day at work and didn't partake in any of this fun (even one lunch) but after work Catherine helped me plant our herb garden while Mary sat in the grass and squished leaves. I think it's staying warm enough to get some plants in the ground, so hopefully the rest of the veggies will go in this week, or maybe even tomorrow. While Catherine and I were planting herbs Michael pulled more weeds and trimmed some bushes and turned the compost and some more manly landscaping things I'm sure.

Since we were all outside and a bit dirty already, we decided on dinner at the beach. This is a wonderful summertime activity. We pack some dinner or pick up a pizza on the way and head to the beach for an hour or so. By dinnertime the crowds have thinned out, the sun has cooled off, and we have a good reason to not feel obligated to stay for hours upon hours - bedtime can only be pushed off so long. I guess if there is a down side it is that the kids eat and drink as much sand as food, but whatever.

Friday night we picked up a pizza and packed some drinks and although it was a bit windier by the water than at the house, it was still very nice. Mary loved the sand, although she was none too pleased that we didn't offer her any pizza. She kept climbing onto the pizza box, and at one point resorted to licking pizza grease off a paper plate. Yum.

Catherine monopolizing the drinks:


Mary eyeing her pizza...


What happens when you try to make Catherine sit down for a second for a picture:


Typical Mary Face:



Videos! Catherine enjoying her pizza (and Mary trying her best):



Playing with the sand:

Yogurt Beard

Catherine has been focusing a lot lately on fine-tuning her toddler logic. Yesterday she was throwing a hard plastic ball in the house while I was doing dishes, and I said, "Catherine, if you want to throw something in the house go find your soft frisbee." So she spent about five minutes looking for her soft frisbee, then trotted back into the kitchen, soft frisbee in one hand and hard plastic ball in the other hand, and said triumphantly, "Look! I got it!" and immediately threw the hard plastic ball. How did I not see that coming? I told her if she wanted to throw "something" she needed her frisbee. Genius.

Catherine watched Mary's booty dancing video a bunch of times and decided she needed a dancing video of her own. Of course, a 2-year-old should perform something a little more sophisticated - this is her ballerina dancing:



Catherine is also plenty grown up enough to take care of Mary. She loves feeding Mary, although I'm never sure exactly how much food Mary is getting in her mouth when Catherine is in control of the spoon. And of course, a good "yogurt beard" is a natural side-effect of this activity.

First Steps?

For some reason I only have pictures and videos of Mary again. Pretty much every morning when we get dressed Catherine looks at Mary's outfit and says "I wore that when I was a little Catherine." She is usually correct.



Mary is getting pretty good at "cruising" around on all the furniture:



And she may or may not have taken her official "first steps" the other day. I'm going with "not" because it was really just a rash "launch toward Mama and hope for the best" rather than actual steps, but she is definitely making the effort.



This is one of my favorite things Mary does right now. Every time music comes on or Michael starts playing the piano, Mary immediately starts in with her booty dance and it usually doesn't stop until she falls down or the music stops.



You can see we've been inside a lot - it's been intermittent but persistent rain for the last several days. Plus Mary just does not enjoy sleeping at night and Catherine has been waking up super early because she "wants to see the birds" that are waking her up by squawking in the bush right outside her window, so I'm not sure I would have the energy for playing outside even if it was nice. I did get a couple lovely breaks this weekend though. Friday night Catherine stayed with friends for a few hours while Michael and I and Mary and some friends went and bowled a few games for charity. Michael won all three games, candle pin and regular bowling (Hi Erinn). Oh well - it was still fun, and Mary thought it was amazing. Michael also took on bedtime with both girls last night so I could go see our friends in Tripping Lily play a show. Although I don't think it would be Mary's top choice for possible bedtime situations, it sounds like everyone survived. It's impossible to say for sure if today's heightened level of clinginess and whininess is directly related to last night's bedtime, but even if it was it's a decent trade-off.