Marcus is now wanting to join the big kids coloring and crafting at the table. He can climb up on the chairs on his own, he can move chairs, and he can take lids off markers meaning we’re all having to learn to keep anything we don’t want him touching OFF the table.  I’m thankful I only buy waterproof markers. But, this is still a work in progress (my now-broken sunglasses were the latest victim today to his exploring.)

He’s also eating more with a spoon or fork, just like the big kids (and just a tiny bit messier! )

This is our new TV cabinet. The goal is to have the TV out but anything that has buttons stashed away to keep Marcus (and in the future, probably David) out.  The door that looks a bit crooked has been fixed.

The boys are still enjoying swimming, they were doing that a bunch today. I had to make them go inside because their shoulders were looking a bit red.

Here’s part of our garden! You can see the peas, cabbage and broccoli in the back ground (they’ve been doing quite well).

Here’s Alex using a pea as a smiley face.

From the other angle, you can see some of the bean, tomatoes and squash plants (they need more space for future growth so it looks rather spaced out and empty right now.

Warm enough weather to play outside, wear shorts, go barefoot and be silly!

A wonderful husband who works hard, loves his boys and is great with babies.

The beautiful smell and sight of my favorite flowers of spring. I have this bouquet next to me while I type this and it smells heavenly.

I’m so thankful its warming up and we’re seeing more and more spring!

Saturday and Tuesday the older two boys got to ride their bikes while I (and on Saturday James, Heidi and Mom) walked and pushed the younger two boys in the stroller. James helped Alex riding his two wheeler (with no training wheels) on Saturday, yesterday Alex did a great job starting each time all by himself. He’s now a proficient bike rider! This will make walks MUCH easier this year (last summer I had Will way ahead on his bike and Alex dragging behind on his Big Wheel).  I was impressed with how quickly he got it down–I guess the winter break was what he needed to get it to “stick”.

We also had lots of fun just playing out back. Marcus loves being able to go outside anytime and just wander around the back yard. (I LOVED the fenced in yard!)  He’s discovered mud and dried plants and sticks and the little slide are all great fun.

I took advantage of the warmth and good light to try to get some pictures of David for the birth announcements. (Still working on those, I hope to get them done in the next week or so.)  Marcus enjoyed stopping by and saying “Hi” to the baby during that time.

Inspired by a weekend of basketball, the boys have been outside working on their game.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end and we’re going back to winter for the next week or so, starting tomorrow. Which reminds me I need to go pick some of my daffodils to bring some of the spring indoors and remind me eventually, it’ll be here to stay!

Mom came down to watch the boys for various appointments. They enjoyed reading stories together.  It was a nice sunny day so they later went for a good walk (I just love the good lighting in these pictures. I’m SO ready for more sunny days!)

On Sunday, February 27th I saw our FIRST crocus.  By March 1st, more clumps had come up. These aren’t the ones I photographed the last few years but some newer, smaller ones that come up earlier. The ones I usually count as my “first flowers of spring” are not blooming yet, but they’re peeking up and I have some tulips with buds showing!  We were blessed with several warm days and we’re seeing more and more flowers SLOWLY coming up. Of course its only March, and it got cooler out (snow flurries today–boo!), so those flowers have “paused”.

During that warmer time, the boys have had fun playing outside!

Alex is showing off his volcano he made.

Will loves to swing still, Marcus just loves being able to wander around. He got spoiled being able to go out several days in a row and still tries to go out, not understanding that its rainy and cold again. He’s ALMOST tall enough to reach the door knob–thankfully he’s not quite there yet!

And with the days getting loner, there’s even time to get Daddy to push you on the swings!

Here’s are some highlights of the week/weekend of yard work:

This is one of two shrubs we got last summer for the fall colors–but I’ve been LOVING the fun flowers they have this spring! Fun surprise…it’s called a fothergilla shrub if you’re interested.

The boys played/raced down the drive way while I weeded and weeded and weeded. (And after 4 days in the 80s and more rain, I have MORE saplings to weed. We’ve had SO many of tiny maple trees sprouting up, last year must have been a bumper crop of helicopter seeds!)

This Flowering Almond is a start I got from my dad, who started his from my Great Grandmother (and that start went from Indiana down to Texas with us, and then he brought another start back to Indiana when we moved up here 15 years ago). I’m VERY excited it’s doing well, for the family heritage as well as the  beautiful pink flowers it produces.

This tulip with the pink rim was a surprise–I thought it’d be just white.

Saturday, one of the baby bunnies we have living in our yard (or the neighbor’s, we’re not quite sure) appeared. Alex is feeding it some grass.

James picked it up and the boys got to pet it. It was shaking so bad! He let it go, it hopped over a bit and then made an odd noise. We checked a bit later and it had died. When Alex asked me later “Mommy, why did the baby bunny die?” I told him it was because they have tiny hearts and if they get too scared it can cause their hearts to stop working. Alex then said “The bunny died because Daddy picked it up?”  Well, yeah, but I wasn’t going to say that!  The neighbor killed another, but the boys have seen another one hopping around. They were eating my plants so I wasn’t TOO upset to lose the two we’ve already lost, we’ll see how this third one does.

James also borrowed a device to make getting dandelions out of the grass easier. He’d pick them up and the boys had a great time picking them up and throwing them on the driveway (that was to make getting rid of them easier).  That roped off area is where we have grass seed growing.

Here are the new bear cubs our zoo is promoting…they were pretty cute.

Cute boys in the flowers!

FINALLY, for Alex, the elephants. This one kept waving at us and doing fun things with his trunk. Alex didn’t care, he was ready for lunch.

 

After lunch we went over to the butterfly exhibit and the gardens.

I LOVED the wonderful smell, and I have to have these next year.

And I loved these color combinations, so this is for me to remember for next year as well.

Today the boys helped James put compost in the front flower beds.

They had fun taking the compost and putting it in the wagon with their shovels.

And they helped with spreading it around the flowers.

While they did that, I weeded. We have a bumper crop of wild garlic I’m trying to get rid of.  And I took pictures.   Here’s a close up of some of the flowers (the tulips are new, not what I expected when I bought them, but I really like them…seriously, I bought a pack on clearance that was a mix of  3 types of bulbs, purple, white and another color. I think these are them…or maybe we’ve had them and I just forgot? Possible too! There are still some comeing  up, so we’ll see.).

 

They open wide in the warmth of the day and are all yellow on the inside.  And we have my spring favorites below.

I tried to go look in the archives to find the previous years, but I don’t really have the time and I wasn’t as clear with my titles as I was this year.  (Hint for me–use obvious titles, not cute ones, if you want to find things for the future!) (EDITED TO ADD: Last year I posted pictures of them on March 20th. Now I want to go look and see if we’re just early this year or last last year.)  Last fall we put lots of daffodils and tulips in the yard…this fall I’m going to get LOTS of crocuses, so next year I can have a few new pictures–since you can bet I’ll keep up the tradition of putting up my first flowers of spring pictures.

The yellow flowers were first sited last Friday. They’ve been curled up tight since then (we’ve had cold weather and 3 full days of rain!). Today they opened up again, and even though they’re a bit ragged looking, I felt they deserved to be put up here as our “First Flowers Blooming of Spring” honors.  Our faithful purple crocouses opened up again today as well.  Will kept trying to tell me we needed to water the flowers or the small trees we have growing. Did he not see the 3 days of rain? 

In celebration of the first day of spring, we were able to enjoy a 50 degree day with sunshine. And enjoy it we did, since we’re looking at lots more rain and clouds in the next few weeks.