Spring!

And it feels like summer!  Yesterday and the day before it was in the 80's, and we're expecting more of the same until sometime next week!  I love summer, and I'm thrilled it's starting to feel that way.  We have a lot of fun things coming up, next weekend we're going to Eric Carle to meet Tomie DePaola, and I heard a rumor that a certain Auntie and Uncle are coming up for a couple days to finalize wedding plans.

Today it's warm enough I told Hannah she could wear shorts to school, and boy was she excited about that!  It's like a special treat, but I know they don't have AC there, and I don't want her to be too hot.  The down side is, I had to nix the sleepover at Grampy's tonight.  Hannah's got a cough, and so far each day when she gets up it sounds worse.  I don't like sending her away when she's sick.  So they'll both stay here and we'll drive up to visit tomorrow instead.

Happiest Outside

My girls seem to be happiest outside.  Especially if one of us is free to go out with them, but they could stay outside for hours alone, coming in only to use the bathroom or beg for food/drinks.  They spent the majority of this past weekend outside, and clearly it took it's toll on them, because yesterday morning at 7 they finally came out of their room.  Normally they're half finished with breakfast by then, I've packed Hannah's snack, asked about lunch, and gotten their clothes.  Fortunately none of that takes TOO long, so they made it out the door in plenty of time.

Our garden went in over the weekend as well, so they're excited to see our veggies growing and hopeful that it won't be TOO long before they can eat some of them.  I think Hannah is most excited about the sugar snap peas and the green beans.  Norah love cucumbers and peppers, and our peppers finally sprouted, so we'll probably have some by August!

Planning

Summer is coming, and if this weather doesn't shape up, we won't be doing anything fun.  Either that or we'll spend time planning to do it, then not actually getting to.  Memorial day is the unofficial start of summer, and is a week away.  So far, it's been in the 50's and 60's all week with unending rain.  Not at all weather you would think is leading into the start of summer.

This weekend we have a birthday party, and hopefully planting our garden.  This year instead of buying seedlings, we started most of our plants a couple weeks ago as seeds.  So far everything has shown promise except the peppers.  I read online they need consistent soil temps in the 70's, and obviously that's not happening.  We did buy some seedlings last week and planted them, because the basil was looking pot-bound.  So already in we have cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, zucchini, basil, and celery.  Waiting to go in are Sugar snap peas, green beans, cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli, and marigolds to keep the bugs away.

Another First

For Norah anyways.  Over the weekend, Meema wanted to see the girls.  She's been asking for probably a year now if she could keep the girls for two nights, so finally I agreed.  I missed them, and they might have missed me a little.  But they had a fabulous time.  They ate donuts, and freeze pops, watched a movie, and painted.  There's playdoh and toys and Meema.  They love her so much, more than me I think sometimes.

So Friday afternoon I met her halfway and traded for Gary so he could help move Amanda out of her dorm Saturday.  I made risotto primavera for dinner, and it must have been fabulous because there were no leftovers at all.  Saturday I went shopping alone, and found a dress to wear to the wedding in July, and some cute new shoes.  Then we ran a couple errands and had a nice dinner at Olive Garden, courtesy of a lovely giftcard. 

So it was a very nice weekend for everyone.  I'm surprised that I did so well with leaving my kids for longer than I planned.  I did miss them, but not so much I wouldn't do it again!

Too much going on

I can't seem to make any weeknight plans that I'm ok with.  Hannah wants to spend every afternoon at the park, and everytime there's something going on at school, we should do that too.  Tonight is the Scholastic Book Fair, and while I appreciate reading, and want to instill a love of it in my children... I do NOT love going to her school, cramming ourselves into the tiniest library on earth, and buying overpriced books that I could get at Savers for $.69 each.  Steven's also working late this week doing a motor job, so it's solo for me and the kids.  Last night he took some ASE tests and didn't get home until 10pm.  At least the bonus there for me was that I could watch Black Swan without any ridiculous comments and questions.

Happy Mother's Day

And it was.  Peaceful like no other, with the possible exception of last year, when for some reason I wasn't able to see my own mother.  Everyone came over here and we had spaghetti and meatballs, and oodles of desserts.  Donny came, and stayed most of the day, which was nice since he wasn't feeling at all well in the morning.  All the nieces came over too, so I had a houseful, and everyone spent lots of time being social.

I always feel a little guilty when people come over and my mom is also here.  I so rarely see her, that my time gets monopolized when she's available.  I know I should spend time talking to everyone, but I miss just being able to see her whenever I feel like it.

Otherwise we had a nice bottle of wine, good food, and good company.  My brother got good news about his stint in the National Guard, and after everyone left we ran out to a couple stores and just did our little family thing.

More Sick

Though amazingly enough this time, it's NOT Hannah.  I know, I was surprised too.  Steven's got some killer stomach bug.  He can't keep anything down, and at the moment he's napping.  Of course in a fit of insanity he managed to use the carpet cleaner to wash the carpet and all the living room furniture, so none of that is useable at the moment.  He kept forgetting they were wet and stumbling in to crash on the couch, only to realize he had to head back into the bedroom.  We had plans with some friends for today, but I asked them if we could postpone to another weekend, since who knows how contagious he is.  Fortunately Ellie will be turning 3 this month, and the resulting birthday party is in two weeks.  So we'll plan to be there.

I also had to mention to everyone else that he was sick and that we might have to cancel tomorrow also.  Mother's day with all the Mothers looks like it might have to wait.  They will all understand, should it come down to that.  Because in all honesty, I don't really look forward to cooking and cleaning up after everyone alone on Mother's day, so hopefully he's feeling better, or we'll just do it another day. 

I love weekends!

We had a lovely weekend, and some super weather to go with it.  Friday afternoon at dinner time, Sara and Zach came with their dog, Dylan.  The kids played outside with them for over an hour, and then hung out inside while getting ready for bed.  Saturday brought a trip with them up to Grampy and Mimi's house, a really great walk around the Berlin Reservoir, some mega wedding planning and a wedding dress fashion show.  Yesterday we had more fabulous weather.  We headed over to Forest Park and did the walk for MS in honor of Sam, our neighbor.  The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold.  A long walk for Steven's knee, but he managed.  Then we came home and rearranged some things, played outside, had a great grilled dinner, and just relaxed.  A fabulous weekend all around.  I love it. 

Next weekend we have more wonderful plans, seeing as we have friends we haven't visited in ages, and it's Mother's Day!