it's really spring!

The last two days have been just beautiful-I just want to bottle it up and have some of it every day! It's almost 70 today (it may actually be 70..I haven't checked recently) and sunny and gorgeous. You'd better believe we spent almost the whole weekend outside. Saturday we did yard work. Okay, let me rephrase that.... Saturday I took our little one outside, got the rake out, and attempted to rake, but she saw her bike in the garage and wanted that, so I stopped raking and got that out. Started raking again....she wanted a ride. I stopped raking (oh, I probably should mention that we have a pin oak tree in our front yard, which apparently doesn't lose its leaves in the fall like every other tree in the world, but in the spring, which means we have to rake leaves not only in the fall but also in the spring....lucky us, huh? Remind me to never buy another house with a pin oak tree!). I pushed her on her bike for a bit and Daddy came out. He took the rake and started raking while I gave the bike ride. This officially passed the torch on to him to do the yard work--I spent the rest of the time playing with our little one and keeping her out of Daddy's way. "I thought you were doing the raking?" he asked once. I said, "But you're the one who took the rake from me, so now you're in charge!"

After he finished we went to Home Depot to get grass seed (last fall they redid our sidewalks and messed up our yard in the process, so we have lots of grass to replace) and paint for her birthday project, which is almost finished (more on that in a few days when it's actually finished and I can post a picture....until then you'll just have to wonder!). Came home in time for lunch and naptime, and during her nap he and I painted the project. We spent the afternoon outside and inaugurated our grill for the season by grilling steaks for dinner. After dinner we went to the best ice cream place in the whole world (I won't say the name because it's fairly local, and I don't like to give hints about where I live, but those of you who live around here will know where I'm talking about when I say it is "graet"). Online it said their Strawberry Chip ice cream was in season--that's my all time favorite ice cream and I was THRILLED to go get it. But when I got there, they didn't have it yet! I was very dissapointed....though having ice cream there is never a disappointment for me, so I got over it quickly and enjoyed my Peanut Butter Chip instead. The whole way there our little one was saying over and over again, "I Dee! I Dee! I Dee!" because we had told her we were going bye bye to get ice cream. She had a great time.

Then we went to a nearby park I'd only been to once before. It had a very tall tunnel slide that our little one decided she wanted to try. We were the only ones there, or I wouldn't have let her because it was very big and I'm generally not a fan of tunnely things for little kids because I'm afraid she'll get stuck and then I'd have to climb up in there to get her, but since we were alone, I decided to let her try. Daddy was with her at the top and I waited at the bottom and I could see up into the tunnel so she could see me and had a huge smile on her face. Daddy let go and down she came toward me VERY fast, but she was grinning from ear to ear with her hands up in the air. As soon as I got her she scrambled to the ground and ran to the steps to do it again. She loved it, and I've never seen her so excited about a slide. She did it over and over and over, running back up to the top each time. We finally had to tell her it was time to go, because it was almost her bedtime, but she would've stayed forever!

Yesterday after church, lunch, and naptime, we set off for another new park. We found out when we got there that there wasn't much to this park, but we went for a walk in the woods with our little one in the backpack on Daddy's back. She loved it, and I don't think she remembered it from last year, because she acted like it was a totally new experience, and said "pack pack" over and over again, so excited. She also got to play on the playground there and loved the big tall slide. It had really high sides so we let her go on it, with Daddy at the top and me at the bottom again. She kept running back for more. But there were a lot of big kids there playing and she came close to getting trampled a few times, so we didn't stay very long.

We came home and broke out the bubbles. She spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the yard "blowing" bubbles (this consisted of putting the wand in her mouth, mostly). This was the first time it had been dry enough to play in the backyard for any length of time, and it was so nice to just sit and watch her play and not have to worry about any "no nos." Anywhere else she plays it seems like there's so much I have to watch that she doesn't do, but in the backyard, since it's fenced in, she pretty much has the run of the yard, and it was really nice to not have to play policeman for the afternoon! She had a great time, and so did I, just watching her.

We grilled out again (hamburgers this time--we've gotten our red meat fix for awhile!!) and even ate outside on the deck, which was so nice.

This morning we ran errands and were going to come home and play outside, but I decided to take her to the park instead. We have a nice metropark very close to our house and we hadn't been yet this spring, so we went there. Before too long a friend of mine from church showed up unexpectedly with her little boy, who is just a couple of months younger than my little one, so we had an impromptu playdate, which was lots of fun. They really enjoyed chasing each other and swinging together and I enjoyed talking to my friend, who I hadn't seen in quite awhile. My little one fell in the mud toward the end of the morning, though, and her jacket and bottom were caked with mud. I hadn't brought the diaper bag so I didnt have a change for her....I just had to let the mud dry a little, take her jacket off, and let her ride home in muddy pants. It was dry by then, though, so it didn't dirty the car seat. Figures that I had just washed her clothes this morning, so I couldn't add these to the wash....doing a separate load now of random things of the same color.

I'm sure this afternoon we'll be back outside after she wakes up. We've got to soak in all of this springiness that we can because it's going to rain the rest of the week. Yuck. Wednesday is her birthday and I was hoping to go to the zoo, but it looks like that probably won't happen. We'll have to do an indoor activity instead that day to stay out of the rain.

It's going to be a busy week for the birthday girl.... Grandma's coming to visit, she has her two year check up, birthday portraits (that is, if the huge welt under her eye heals that she managed to get on Saturday due to a fall--if not I'll have to reschedule the pictures!), and her big party (well, not really so big....both sets of grandparents, my brother and his family, and maybe one of Daddy's sisters). So it's a busy week for me, too, with lots of cleaning and cooking and preparing to do. I'd better go get busy. I've been taking a break while the freshly mopped floor dries, but I think it's dry by now, so it's back to work.

Happy Spring!