Favorite Faces and Sunny Days

It has started warming up here in the last few days. Normally when spring comes people start looking forward to summer and all the fond memories of summers past. Here when it starts to warm up I think most people have this sense of aprehension. Instead of saying, "Wow, isn't this weather (high 70's, low 80's) beautiful? I love summer!" People here say, "Wow, I can't believe how warm it is already" as they think, "Am I really ready for 4 straight months of the air conditioning running day and night, scorching heat no matter what time of day, an average high in the three digits?!?". That's what I think, anyhow!

We took these pictures today in beautiful spring weather (I'm trying hard to enjoy it). We take bike rides pretty regularly. Leah can hold her own pretty well biking on that little 'Pearls and Jewels' as the kids call it. It has that name on the handlebar. Anna's, btw, is Starburst and Jack's is The Rocket. Luke rides in the pull-along cart behind one of our bikes or if we go during the day I usually push him in the stroller while the kids bike.

Biking has been fun but it cost Leah a piece of her front tooth a couple of weeks ago. She went head first off the sidewalk onto the street. We left a little chunk of that cute pearly white there on the street somewhere. She is so tough and handled it bravely but she was a bleeding mess! I loved her cute little perfect-square-tooth grin... now it is a cute little jagged-tooth grin. Jack also has a piece of his front tooth chipped out. He lost it well over 2 years ago although I'm not sure how. Hopefully this didn't hit the nerve and we won't have to do anything about it until it falls out on its own.

Speaking of loose teeth... Anna has one. I didn't believe her at first-- she seems too young to have a loose tooth. Especially as my kid. I got my 16 year molars around age 21... my teeth are slow and hers were coming in, too. Maybe this is late to have a loose tooth-- I don't even know!


Cute Leah

Handsome Luke

Our fastest biker.

The rest of the crew.

Rainy Day

It is a cool, rainy day here so we're not doing much since our zoo plans got cancelled. Here are some shots from around the house this morning:


Luke loves to have his picture taken... or I should more accurately say, he loves to see the flash go off. When you point a camera at him he'll sit and wait until the flash goes off with some sort of goofy grin or look.

We picked up these clip on earings for dress up at a yard sale. Leah wore them most of the morning (this was acutally a couple of days ago).

Anna has really taken off in reading and enjoys it. She'll often go off with a book to read. This morning it was Lassie Come-Home.

Jack is doing some of his great silly dancing for us. He has some moves!

At The Zoo Again

We have a pass for the year now so we're going to try to go regularly. The kids enjoy it and planning where we'll go on the map! We went a couple of weeks ago and had been planning to go with some friends, but they were sick so we went alone. We rescheduled for today, but it was raining and they were sick (again!). It has been cool and wet here for the most part the last couple of months. Earlier this week we got up into the mid-upper 70's-- it felt perfect! Sadly, it just reminds me of the 100+ days to come, but we're enjoying as much outside as we can now.

Luke doesn't seem to be afraid of the petting zoo animals, he just follows the lead of the others. They realized last time we were there that the zoo had bins of brushes you could use to brush the animals and they were excited to get to use them this time. I took a picture of Leah with that pink hood on because everywhere we go she wears that sweatshirt with the hood up... inside, outside, hot, cold, whatever. I don't mind except that when you take it down, her curls look like a birds nest!