Dandelions

Leah and James like to play outside while Amelie has her piano lesson. Dandelions were in full seed in the yard, and too appealing to resist.

Here's a picture of this pair from last year - it looks like James is even wearing the same shirt! Ha!

Matching Easter Dresses

I fell prey to a targeted facebook ad and bought the girls (and me) matching Easter dresses this year.

Leah is not sold on the idea, clearly. 

These were the best ones of us at church. The flowers on Amelie's dress are a different shade and she was miffed that they weren't matching exactly. (They were enthusiastic about this idea, I swear.

Sam and James:

We didn't get a whole family photo, unfortunately!

Swimming

We met some friends to go swimming at the ARC on a day off of school. Here's Amelie rocking the socks-with-swimsuit look.

And Leah in her finally-about-to-be-too-small 12mo swim top:

James declined a photo.

Stephen's Lake

James likes the big rock at Stephen's Lake Park.

And Leah can climb up the climbing wall. (2 seems pretty early, but James did it even earlier - around 20 months!)

Edited to add a video of her climbing:

Leah likes to slide. "Dada Wook! Wook!" she says.

And just a couple of goofballs (they took off their shoes to play in the sand pit / make a village with sticks and plants.)

We went right before bedtime so the light was low and the pictures are a little blurry.

Ice Cream

Every year, they do a free cone day at Dairy Queen so I let these goofballs get some ice cream at the drive-thru.

Happy Birthday

Well, we had Leah’s 2nd birthday party a month late - which is a bit of a trend. We were all sick with the flu on her actual birthday and then half the guest list was in Australia and then we went down to the bootheel (more on that later).

Leah did share a birthday cake with her great-grandma while we were in Bernie (since Leah’s birthday was in the 11th and Grandma’s was on the 15th). My cousin Darri was scandalized that she hadn’t had a party/any cake yet and bought it for us - and then we proceeded to eat an entire cake over the few days we were visiting!

This cake had a baby shark!

Amelie and I baked a cake on Thursday and then she and James and I decorated it on Friday before the party. They made the seaweed and marine creatures out of airheads (and supplemented with Swedish fish). There was some bickering about the placement of the baby shark decorations on this cake.

The kids (mostly the cousins) dyed Easter eggs for an activity.

Leah is two!

Opening presents with Grandma Mary and Aunt Holly. Leah got a book, a new swimsuit, a baby doll, and a stuffed puppy dog - plus new sand for the sandbox.

Aunt Lana gave her this sweet outfit.

There was one outfit change after cake and ice cream.

James and Leah at the Park

Sam's on swing duty (from Sunday). 

And then James was supposedly sick so we stayed home from school yesterday. He was acting perfectly fine so we went to the park again. It was warmer, as you can tell from the outfits :)

Voting

Municipal election selfie with Leah (who doesn't look thrilled with the whole process). 

Springtime

It’s all coming up roses.

Leah calls the backyard “outside” and the front yard “our yard” - I guess from hearing us tell the big kids to “stay in our yard.”

Bubble Gum

While we were in the bootheel for part of Spring Break, the kids (finally) learned how to blow a bubble with chewing gum.

I have photographic and video evidence!

You'll notice that I pulled Amelie's hair back immediately after the video. Ha!

James was a little trickier to catch: