Lately...

Last night on our drive home from dinner Paul and I were talking about some things we've got planned for this summer. We can't believe it's already the end of May and we keep wondering when our lives got so busy. We started reminiscing about business school days when he had almost every other Friday off. Yeah, the good life. After I put the girls to bed tonight I sat down to go over my calendar for the week. Glancing over the past month, the calendar was full. There was something written to do on every day.  I have 2 kids and one of them isn't even in preschool yet! Some people have 4 or 6, I can't imagine what their calendars look like! That scares me a little bit. Here's where we've been:

We had a stretch of gorgeous, warm Spring weather. Ok, the weather is gorgeous most days. One of  the girls and my favorite things to do is have picnic lunches outside. We don't have room for a proper table in our yard, but we sit around the little girls table and soak up our vitamin D. This particular day the girls were really excited about the bubble guns they got from grandma Easter bunny.

Kate: Is finishing up her first year of preschool and has loved every bit of it. Recently, she's been working on the hundred board at school, learning to count to 100. It's been fun to watch her learn and get so excited about her accomplishments. At home we've been reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder series and she dances around the house pretending she's Laura or Mary. The bonus of that is they are always doing chores in the books, so it motivates Kate to help set the dinner table. :) Another recent favorite of Kate's is the Nature series on PBS. Kate loves watching the grizzly bears.

Gwen is 2. I almost don't need to say anything else about her. She keeps the house messy and me busy, but she's a lot of fun and has a great sense of humor. She's always laughing at herself. She is growing fast and now brings me a new diaper when she needs to be changed. I think that's a sign I need to get more serious about my potty training efforts. Gwen loves going to story time at the library and her favorite book of the moment is Brown Bear, Brown Bear; especially since she's got the words memorized and can read it herself! Gwen likes to help make scrambled eggs. You can imagine how it sounded when I was in the shower and Kate comes running in "Gwen made scrambled eggs all by herself". That was awesome. Gwen asks to go on hikes all the time (random) and still loves to be outside. Her vocabulary has taken off and she's quite the conversationalist.

Paul: Finally caved and bought a new 32" flatscreen TV. I thought our 20" hand me down circa 1988 worked just fine, but the NBA playoffs brought out the spender in him and he finally went for the upgrade. Being the thrifty people we are, we still didn't succumb to cable subscription--the homemade antenna transmits the HD and is hidden in the attic. :) After the disappointing Laker's showing in the playoffs, Paul's been spending his 1 hr of free time a day searching for investment properties. He insists that the property below in the ghetto of Long Beach (remember Snoop dog?) with it's burned wall has a lot of value-add potential. I'm hopeful.

Jill: I made it back to my alma mater and met up with two dear friends from New Haven for Women's Conference. It was inspiring and refreshing and such a nice break. Kristy hosted us at her parent's home in Midway and it was so fun to catch up with her and Becca. I miss those girls!! Hopefully we can make it a tradition and recruit more New Haven friends. You know who you are.  While in Utah I was also able to catch up with family and woke up to snow one morning! It was a treat. 

I've kept busy trying to grow tomatoes (I'm nervous I'm already failing...), reading Real Food and Nourishing Traditions, teaching Hypnobabies, planning trips for this Summer and taking care of my girls. For Mother's Day Paul put on a smile and his Sunday best for an activity he compares with going to the dentist--taking family photos. It's tricky getting the 2 year old to smile on cue, but I'm happy to have photos of us all together. And it's hard to not love my job as a mom when I get this view from my kitchen window. These girls make me laugh every day and I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with them. Here comes Summer!!