Spring Break!

This week is our staycation Spring Break. I remember all those years I went somewhere for Spring Break (Panama City Beach, anyone!)...but my how times have changed! ;-)

Now I'm watching butterflies in the yard, and organizing playdates and running after little kids all day. So wild! Haha.



We have had people over about every day this week. Yesterday we had one of Paprika's friends from school over. They had a great time...well, until the other little girl picked one of Paprika's sunflower sprouts.



Then, there were tears and we almost had to end the little get-together. Paprika calmed down when I told her we could plant more sunflowers, and she said that was okay as long as we didn't tell her friend where we were planting them!


Thankfully, a little distraction in the way of some drawing and crafts did a lot to brighten the mood!



I should probably work on getting Ginger some of her own friends. I know she thinks she's four years old already...but sometimes she gets a little left behind when the big kids are playing. All things considered, she does a pretty decent job of keeping up!



But when these two are alone? They are the best of friends...true equals and the best playmates...



I guess you're always on vacation when you're hanging out with your best friend.



It's the middle of our "weekend" now- since Mr. Mustard is off from DWTS today and tomorrow. Yay! This past week was particularly rough for him (they had a big power outage the night before the Tuesday show...and needless to say, it caused a lot of drama for him). So glad he can spend this weekend relaxing. :-)

California Gurls!

Devon and her girls came down to visit us today. We spent most of the day hanging out around our backyard, but with weather this beautiful, we couldn't stay home all day.



Days like this call for a trip to the beach!



What is more fun than making Sand Angels? Yes, these are California girls. When you don't have snow to make Snow Angels, you improvise! ;-)



Sweet P was a trooper, even though we were way exceeding her nap time!



The two big girls were having the best time dancing in the sand...



And Ginger was right there, wanting to be a big girl, too!



These two little ones are going to be best friends, I just know it!



I am so grateful for Devon's friendship...whenever we are together, it is just so easy. It is one of the blessings to have come from the loss of our twins. Although I know she would rather have her Blake and Ethan back in a second, and I would rather have my Vivian and Annemarie...it is so wonderful that we found each other during such unbearably hard circumstances. Love her and her sweet family!!!

Miss Personality!

Ginger is 21 months now...well, closer to 22 months but I'm not quite as on the ball with these milestone posts as I was a year ago! ;-)

She makes me laugh every day with her huge personality and her megawatt smile.



She will taste pretty much anything. And if it's Play-Doh? Who cares!



All the more reason to laugh!



She loves being outside. And doing anything and everything her big sister does, including play soccer!



She is very helpful around the house. Without asking, she will unload the dishwasher even when the dishes inside are still dirty! ;-) She loves to help with the laundry, and throw things away for me. She helps clean up and is really excited to sweep the floors. I could get used to this!



She is still picky as ever about her clothes and shoes. She points to what she wants to wear in her closet and says, "Pretty dress, please! Pretty shoes!" And if you don't pick the right thing, she will let you know!

Her language skills are exploding. All of a sudden, she is talking in sentences and telling us what she wants and what she doesn't want. If you ask her, "Are you a good baby or a naughty baby?" She will look at you with a twinkle in her eye, and say, "Naughty baby!" And then laugh herself silly.

I can't believe in 3 months (less than), she will turn 2! Where is the time going?!

So Last Week!

We have been keeping so busy, I have hardly had a chance to get my head around what we've been up to.

Here was our week, in rewind mode:

Friday, I took Paprika to her piano class...but no one else showed up! So, it ended up being a private lesson which was fine by me!



Ginger had a fun time running through the hallways again during Piano...I caught her for a second to snap this picture.



Thursday:

We hit the beach while Paprika was at preschool.



Ginger was having a great time feeling like an only child for a couple of hours.



And the weather was pretty awesome, to boot!



After our little beach visit, I went back to Paprika's school to help with the Easter Egg hunt...



and see that look of joy when she met the Easter Bunny:



On Wednesday, I took my littlest beach baby to the little Aquarium and the Pier while Paprika was at preschool with Mr. Mustard. We work Wednesdays at the school, and it's always great when he can be there!

I stayed for awhile and hoped to help them dye Easter Eggs. But after an hour or so, it was pretty obvious Ginger was going to break all the Easter Eggs if we stuck around, so, I grabbed her and we headed out for some sunshine.



This is Ginger's face that says, "I will not be moved." When she doesn't want to do what she's asked, she crouches down like this and gives her big pouty face. She is very serious about it, obviously! ;-)



Eventually, she relented.



Tuesday was the day that our car would not start. Someone (not naming names...ahem, Paprika) left her door ajar when she got out of the car and the overhead light was on overnight. Of course, I discovered this 10 minutes before she had to be at school. After the AAA guy came and helped us out, I dropped her off at school and then drove around for an hour to charge the battery.

Ginger was a great sport, so I took her to the park for the rest of the time Paprika was at school. With her napping so late, she really gets so much more one on one time with me while Paprika is at school. I think she is eating it up!







Those are the highlights of last week. We're on Spring Break now (well, technically, since we're not going anywhere but home sweet home). I have some fun adventures planned for the girls and we're already off to a great start!

Broken Wings

Paprika brought home a caterpillar from preschool, and we have been watching it change from a caterpillar into a butterfly. Yesterday it emerged out of its crysallis, and when it did, we found that its wings had formed a little differently...so it could not fly.



I explained to Paprika how this sometimes happens, and she was sad for the butterfly...but said she wanted to take care of her and show her the world anyway and hopefully the butterfly would be happy.



So for nine hours yesterday, Paprika carried the butterfly around and showed her everything. She fed her, and whispered to her, and showed her all the flowers in the garden.



She wanted Ginger to hold her...even though I told Paprika that was a bad idea. ;-) But thankfully, Ginger was really gentle with the butterfly and everything turned out okay.



Paprika even watched Tangled for the first time with her butterfly. She put her on her shoulder, and sat through the movie twice with the butterfly watching, too. We missed seeing the movie in the theater, and had such a great time watching it together last night. Now everything is all about Rapunzel around here...but that is a story for another day!



The butterfly is still alive and well here in our house. Paprika took her out today and played with her for a few hours, and once again, took her outside to let the sun warm her wings.

Paprika has a way with animals. Her gentle soul has a way of connecting with all creatures great and small. I remember back to times like when she petted and talked to the chicken for hours at the country fair (age 1), or when we spent six hours at the zoo just petting the goats (age 2).

Last week, when she was picking up her art work at school, she noticed a bee had landed on her painting. So, without hesitation, she picked the bee up and moved him to the fence. I said, "Sweetie, did you know that bees sting?" And she said, "Oh mama, I know. I just knew he wasn't going to sting me."




There are so many examples of this...I just can't even count them all. For example, when we were planting the sunflowers a few days ago, we were digging in the dirt and found all sorts of worms and bugs and critters. And she just reached in and moved them with her hands over to the next little patch of dirt. Like she was picking up a pencil.



Something in her quiet soul longs for that connection with wildlife. Honestly, I think she probably should have been born on a farm - somewhere in the great wide open. Instead, she was born in Beverly Hills...of all places. The only wildlife there is human! ;-)

I guess I just have to do the best I can to foster her gentle spirit and let her be the animal lover, dreamer, and butterfly whisperer that she is!