Happy Birthday to my oldest son -- he came in with a bang and has been livening up our days ever since. I am so happy with the person he has become -- he is smart, has interesting opinions about everything, is a wonderful big brother, and is hi-lar-i-ous!!!

spring saturday

The weather has been so beautiful so we spent some time cleaning up the yard and then headed out to the soccer fields for a great, albeit quite windy, game.

"Mommy, is me being nice? I'll go to bed nice tonight, too." Oh, okay, I'll take it! A thank you to the hydrangeas for being a glimmer of loveliness through the long winter.

And another tooth down -- love that smile!

loose tooth

He lost first top tooth and the second front one soon to follow!

we're all together again

Hail, hail! The gang's all here! But only all together for three days.frown emoticonElla is off on Friday and Charles on Monday.  We had time for a little family photo shoot, so that was nice.

lovely lovely spring

Gah! What a gorgeous morning! Early thunderstorms followed by a burst of sunshine illuminating the green green grass, the dogwoods, forsythia, magnolias, tulips, daffodils. Spring is so pretty in Illinois! It almost makes the winter bearable... debatable.  To celebrate we decided to have lunch en plein aire

NATURE rarer uses yellow
Than another hue;
Saves she all of that for sunsets,—
Prodigal of blue,
Spending scarlet like a woman,	5
Yellow she affords
Only scantly and selectly,
Like a lover’s words. - Emily Dickinson

happy birthday to Ella Bella

Happy Birthday to my oldest -- she's 21! My oh my! She is such a wonderful big sister to all of the youngers and has been nothing but a delight from day one -- a gray and snowy afternoon 4:06 pm on 4/6/94.

We are so glad that she was actually with us to celebrate!

birthday and spring break

A happy happy birthday to my sweet and earnest seven year old! I am so happy that I get to be his mommy!

His birthday always falls during the week of Spring Break so we're often visiting other places on his day.  This year was no different.  I grabbed the kids and ran over to Indianapolis for a couple of days and we had a good time.  For years we had heard rave reviews about the children's museum there so we checked that out and ate some yummy Greek food for dinner.  Then the next morning we went shopping at the mall and found a wonderful inside only path all the way to the Spaghetti Factory!  Thank goodness we found a sneaky purple way because it was freezing freezing out!