A Memorable Memorial Day

This weekend started off to a great start. On Saturday morning, I brought the girls to the Children's Museum. When we reached downtown, I realized that the city's Memorial Day parade was that morning and it ended right in front of the musuem. As soon as I saw the parade start, I took the girls outside and we watched the parade. Later that evening, Brian's sister babysat the girls so we could have dinner with a friend of mine. We sat outside on the patio and enjoyed margaritas. It was so nice not having to rush through dinner. Later that evening a friend came over to watch game one of the Stanley Cup.

On Sunday, we started the day with a trip to the zoo. The past few times I have taken the girls have been on a weekday so Brian hasn't been able to come along. Allison was so excited that Dad came along. I don't know if she remembers that Brian has been to the zoo before, because she was so excited to "show him around" and be his personal tour guide. Brian and I ended the evening sitting on the patio enjoying some wine. I thought to myself, what a perfect, relaxing weekend this has been so far. I really couldn't have asked for anything more.

Monday morning started off rainy and stormy, delaying our plans to go to Meijer Gardens. We decided to spend a lazy morning all snuggled in bed, watching a Dora video. I told Brian "now this is the perfect way to spend a rainy morning." After a few minutes, we heard a crack and a moment later a dull thud. I didn't think too much about it, but figured I better check the driveway since the tree there loses branches and small limbs during storms. I peeked out the bathroom window and noticed a "large" limb next to our neighbor's car and then noticed a bigger limb in our driveway. I thought it was bad, but I didn't realize how bad it was until I went downstairs to look out the kitchen window. When I first walked into the kitchen, all I saw were leaves pressed up against the window. And this is what we found.

Our neighbor's driveway

I fully think we had a guardian angel watching over our house

a) Normally Brian's car would have been in the driveway but my car was at a friends house because her husband did some work on it, thus leaving room in the garage for his car.

b) The 2nd limb that feel just brushed against our neighbor's car.

c) The limb missed our house and roof by inches (if that).

d) We left the gate open and the limb fell mainly through the open gate.

This was our damage:

You can see that the top of the fence bent down about a foot beyond the post. Luckily Brian was able to get it back in place.

Welcome to Summer

This evening we let the girls play with their finger paints. We figured they were going to play in the pool so why not let them get as dirty and covered in paint as they wanted to. Allison took full advantage of this situation and had a ball. She even decided that Amelia was too clean so she put a little paint on her cheek.

Allison thought it was funny when I told her "don't touch me", so she and Amelia chased me around the yard. I'm surprised that they were even able to stand upright because they both were giggling so hard.

So what do you do with kids that are as dirty as this?

Why give them ice cream, of course! What is a little more dirt, right?

No more "Maa"

For as long as Allison has been able to say Mia's name, she has pronounced it as "Maa".  It has always melted our hearts hearing her say Amelia's name that way. We have been working with Allison to use her words more and asked her to say "ME - A" and ever since then she has called Amelia ,"Me-a".   While we are happy to hear her say the name correctly, we are a little sad that "Maa" is no more.

Potty Time

We pulled out the potty chair for Amelia. We are no where ready to start training her yet, however we figured we would let her get used to sitting on it, on her own terms. We will probably do this for a few months before we even try to get her to go potty in the chair.

Of course, big Sister Allison was more than willing to help show Mia what to do. She proudly carried the seat upstairs and showed Amelia how to sit down on it. After a few minutes, though, she figured Amelia had her turn for long enough and tried taking the seat, but Amelia wasn't going to give it up to easily. As you can see Amelia's shirt is soaked. I think she may be cutting another tooth.

A Preview to Summer

A few weeks ago, the girls and I met Brian at the Gardens after work. This summer the Gardens are open on Monday nights, in addition to Tuesday nights due to the Chihuly exhibit. This works out great for us, since I don't work in the office on Mondays. We started our outing with a picnic dinner and headed inside. We toured the Chihuly exhibit and then headed out to the Children's Garden. It was just warm enough to let the girls play in the water. Luckily I brought a change of clothes or otherwise it would have been quite chilly on the way home.

Hopefully we will have the opportunity to spend lots of time there this summer.

Happy's (Belated) Mother's Day

Happy Belated Mother's Day to my Mom and all the Moms I know.

The weekend started off with a special surprise. I walked in the kitchen to be greeted by Allison and Amelia proudly holding cards they made at daycare and some flowers. They were so excited and proud of themselves.  It certainly made my day.

I had to work on Mother's Day, so we celebrated on Saturday. Brian and Allison made me breakfast. During the girls' naps, I snuggled in bed and caught up on season two of Mad Men. Of course, Amelia must have known that I was trying to relax because she woke up screaming an hour later. Brian took over and played with her downstairs so I could relax some more. After the girls' naps we went out to eat, where we enjoyed tasty cupcakes, which Amelia loved. When we headed back home, the girls gave me a present which included season three of Mad Men, a book, bath salts and new bath scrubbies - all to be used in my "free time".

The next day we treated our Moms to brunch where I work. The girls were so excited to visit me at work. They looked so cute dressed up. We received several compliments on how well behaved they acted.

Update on Us

I've been bad about updating the blog. It has been hard to keep motivated when the weather has been so nice out. We have spent a lot of time outdoors, walking up and down the sidwalks with the girls' Cozy Coupe, pink horse, push buggy, stroller, big wheel, etc. Allison's new favorite thing is to pick up sticks and leaves to put in her wagon.

Brian now has been with his current firm for 7 months. In some ways it feels like it has been longer - not in a bad way, it just seems like it has been a long time since he has worked at the old firm. However the stresses of dealing with those few weeks of unemployment still linger in the back of my mind. We are very fortunate that he was able to find a new position so quickly and is something we do not take for granted. I think about the families who have not been so lucky and hope the job market turns around soon.

One good thing about reaching the six month mark is that Brian now qualifies for vacation time. I was going to write a bunch of blog posts today, however I got sidetracked booking our vacation. Whoo hoo! This summer we will be spending a few days in Nashville, IN. I found a condo for a great deal. While in Nashville, we will relax, visit the shops, and explore the state park there. I figured while the kids are young, all we need is to have access to a pool, playground, and a zoo within an hours range and we are good to go.

We will end the trip with two nights in Indianapolis, where we will hit up the Children's Museum and Zoo.

I've been keeping busy with work, taking trips to see the extended family, and hanging out with Brian and the kids. Now that the weather is nice, I'm trying to plan more activities with the girls. We have visited the Gardens, Zoo, and Children's Museum in the last two weeks. It was just two weeks ago that the girls were playing in the water at the Gardens and today it was in the 40s. Gotta love Michigan.

I will try to catch up this weekend on blog entries and add some more pictures.