Got Rock?

J.R. is a rock climber and decided that Nora was now old enough to join him.  Last weekend he took Nora to R.E.I to get a harness and her own "chalk bag," and of course rock climb.  As J.R. states "she's a natural."  I may soon be a professional belayer when Clara is old enough, as my love for the ground gets in the way of those heights.  The catch is that I already warned J.R. that we are skiing this winter, which is my love.  Here are pictures of Nora at R.E.I.

gone canoeing...

Nora got a kid size canoe paddle for her Birthday this year.  A couple of weeks ago she finally got to try it out when J.R.'s uncle came for a little fishing trip.  The three of them set off to do some canoeing and fishing one afternoon while Clara took a nap.  The weather was not as bad as it indicates here. I love in the third picture how she is paddling away.

Strawba ba baba ba ba berry

We have a strawberry patch in our yard.  And we love it!  I recommend to everyone, if you are thinking of putting in a bush or a plant in your landscaping--make it edible.  The last two days have been our first days of picking strawberries...and we have many more days ahead of us.  They are so good and fun to pick with the girls.  We go out to the yard before dinner or a snack, then bring them in to eat.  Only someone who has grown their own food understands how something so simple could be so much fun and rewarding.  (cheesy, I know, but its true).  We have a retaining wall in our landscaping and the owners put in strawberries and I am thankful.  I always thought along the line of hostas or lilies, but no more, berries are the ticket.

Rest Stop

This past weekend we went to Muncie to see the grandparents because I took a class at Michigan State University on Friday (3 hours from Muncie).  It was great because we were already 3/4 of the way, so what is a few more hours to hang out with Grandma and Papa Cunningham for the weekend.  JR and the girls got to fish with Uncle John (and were very successful, to say the least--40 fish)!!  The girls loved riding in Papa's jeep.  Here they are just playing in it before we put car seats in it.

On the way home we stopped for a potty break about an hour from home.  Here are pictures from the rest stop!  By the way, despite the warm weather, the water was about 50 degrees....brrrr.  All these pictures (the best ones of the last month) were taken in about 5 minutes time.  So here is a glimpse of the famous sugar sand beaches of Lake Michigan.

May

As the weather has turned nice we have spent all our spare time outside...JR cut a tree down, the girls have played in the woods and scouted for turkeys, and JR and I have been watching the sunsets on a nightly basis.  Here are some pics from the last three weeks.

We have a duck with her 13(!) ducklings swimming by our place daily.  They are so darn cute.  When they are in their little line it seems to go on forever and when they are off swimming around, they look like little pond skaters darting around.  I have never watched little ducklings learn to swim before and I love it.

More nightly pics...

"just like a minivan"

I laughed so hard (inside, of course) when Nora was telling me about her day.  She rides the "transit bus" everyday the two blocks to the daycare lady.  The transit bus is basically a senior citizen bus, you know the kind, short bus either gray or white (gray in our case), cost $1, usually filled with 80+ years olds getting rides to the grocery store.  Well, Nora was on the bus today with three other little girls she knows (2 from preschool and one an older sister in about 2nd grade), and they decided to sit in the back.  Nora has mentioned before sitting up next to the bus driver, so today they really ventured far.  Her eyes were as wide as they could get and she was talking in full drama about how big the back seat was, "it was from one side of the seat all the way to the other seats.  It was huge just like a minivan."
Bless her little heart.

Potty Update

Today Clara had 1 accident and 4 successes.  Yesterday she had 1 and a half   :)  accidents and 4 successes.  We are on our way...

Potty Training at its finest

Clara has had all the signs of being ready for the potty in the last few months.  Today was the big day, I took the day off to really put the time into it.  Clara WANTS to sit on the potty to watch all her movies and she WANTS the jelly beans and she WANTS to us to clap for her and she WANTS to use toilet paper and she WANTS to wear Cinderella underwear....but she just doesn't know how, yet.  Today she spent 90% of the day on the potty watching movies and she was 100% at peeing in her pants during the 10% of the time she was off the potty.  Let the journey begin.  I have been warming up to do the potty dance...hopefully soon.

Spring has finally sprung in the north

Spring is now in bloom where we are, we are now consistently in the 50's-60's.  I am thrilled.  I know everywhere else in the world (so it seems) has been sporting shorts and T's for weeks, but I must admit I am enjoying the slow warm up.  One can actually appreciate the spring weather, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't pass up 70 either, but it does give you pause when you can enjoy the stages of the blooms.  

We were informed of all the treats in our yard last weekend and we are thrilled.  Take a gander...

Asparagus (tomorrow night will be our second serving of the week and last Friday we didn't know we had any edibles in the yard...what a pleasant surprise)  yum, yum.

Raspberries

Strawberries (approximately 30 quarts worth)

Front yard flowers

Do you think she is ready for tour? Strike a pose...Madonna

I just had to post this one.  She was wondering around like this and then it hit us all at once what she really looked like.  Oh, Clara you are so precious.

Easter morning

It is a little late getting to the web, but I love this picture of JR and the girls taken Easter morning.

Birthday weekend

This past weekend we celebrated Nora's birthday with all her grandparents, as well as Abbey and Stella (who just turned 4).  The three girls played so well together.  Saturday was cold and snowy, that was ok because we were busy inside baking Nora's cake and making cookies before the afternoon party.  

Has it been 5 years already?

Brrrr.....

I looked at the weather in MN today and realized that we live in the NORTH.  Word on the street is that those in MN are warm.  Today Nora wore her winter jacket, and Clara is still wearing her hat and freezing her fingers.  For adults, it is fleece weather.  All week is pushing upper 40's and some 50's, nothing compared to our friends though.  Enjoy the warm weather.

It is the perfect weather for swinging according to Clara, everyday is perfect weather for swinging to her.  I have no fun pictures for the blog because our lives consist of swinging....and more swinging...do you think I can teach her to pump at 2 years old?