Spring Time

So happy that spring is here! The flowers are blooming and the girls have been able to spend more time playing outside. Yay! Tony just finished up his Spring Break from school last week. It was a short break but we packed it full of fun to make up for it. We went to the Cider Mill, the Olympia and the Tacoma Children's Museums, (by the way the new Tacoma Museum is AMAZING. Ava has asked a million times already to go back. Makes me super excited for the new one in Olympia to open up this fall), Chuck E Cheese (late on a weeknight so we had it to ourselves. The only way to go), Cabela's (also in the evening before close, so the kids ran free looking at the animals and riding the escalator and glass elevator over and over again) and played at the park, etc.

Riding their Jeep in the backyard. Best garage sale find ever!

Tacoma Children's Museum

Lattin's Cider Mill

Olympia Children's Museum

Tony and I even got a night away, staying at a hotel in Bellevue after my friend Jaime's wedding. Tony was their photographer and I had fun being his assistant. Check out the sneak peek of the pictures on his Tony Rizzo Photography Facebook page !

Last month we found out that Ava has both mild peanut and egg white allergies. Thankfully the Dr said the likelihood of her having a serious reaction from the peanut allergy is very small but we still have to avoid anything with peanuts or processed with peanuts. The egg allergy is less worrisome and it's likely just the cause of her eczema, but it rules out pretty much all baked goods and desserts especially if you add the peanuts to that. But she's handling it like a trooper. Eggs, scrambled, boiled, fried or in any shape or form, are one of her favorite things to eat but she hasn't even asked for them once. She does ask me often, "Mom, does this have any egg or peanuts in it?" when I give her something to eat. And when I tell her she can't have something because of the allergy, no tears or tantrums. Hopefully she'll outgrow both in a few years.

Her imagination has really taken off. Lot's of imaginary friends and animals are played with every day. A few weeks ago at bedtime she told me, "the man told me we could stay in this house. He said it was warm and dry and there would be blankets on every bed." (freaked me out a bit at first) And yesterday and today she keeps talking about her Grandma and Grandpa who live up on the mountain and read books. These grandparents apparently buy her lots of things (namely a snowman costume, among other things) and tell Madelyn not to get her toys.

One of the most precious things she's done lately was to bring me this breakfast in bed a few weeks ago when I was sick. She told me, ""I think you didn't eat any breakfast yet and that's why you feel bad." I loved that is was actual breakfast foods.


But that moment probably takes second place to what I overheard her telling Madelyn last night. They were at the table eating their snack before bed and Ava said, "Madelyn Jesus cares for us. That's why He died for us. He hugs, hugs, hugs us. He died for us so we wouldn't die. He loves us and the whole world. He loves all the children." Jesus Loves Me and Jesus Loves the Little Children are her favorite songs right now.

She has started taking a gymnastics class and is enjoying that quite a bit. Not quite as much as her ballet class though, so we might go back to that. She recently took up learning to read again (we had started about 6 months ago but she started to get kind of stressed during reading time so we quit) and sat down and read three Bob Books in a row. She's working in her preschool book and doing some writing exercises to prep her for learning her letters. She also has learned her first 6 memory verses and can recite them all. They are, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (only she inserts planets for 'earth', which is still true so we let it slide), "Be kind to everyone," "Children obey your parents in all things," "Trust in the Lord with all your heart," "The Lord is good to all," and just this week, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Madelyn is learning the verses with her too and actually has about 4 of the 6 down. She her's like this, "Trust in Lord with all your HEART," "Children obey mama in all THINGS," "Be kind to all," and "The Lord is good to all." She made the paraphrases up herself. She's talking more and more and more. She can say nearly the whole alphabet, count to 10 and is working on counting up to 20, she can sing most or all of the words to, Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, I Love You, You Love Me, and another one that's slipped my mind. She's also learning her colors.

Madelyn in Time Out

She is full of laughs, loves to make others laugh, she's silly and sweet and stubborn and shy and rambunctious and ornery and rascally and loving and sweet and cuddly and naughty just for fun and adventurous and clingy and pretty much every adjective you can think of describes Madelyn at one point or another. I love her!

And of course she's said some things that have cracked me up. Last week I was changing her diaper and she was giggling. Ava asked her why she was laughing and she said, "Because the wipes are cold on my buns!" A couple days ago she walked up to me and said, "I too funny Mama!" She loves to hide under blankets and wait for us to come find her and to tickle and be tickled. She loves roughhousing with Dada and also like to do a lot of cuddling. She copies all of Ava's dance moves and is even learning some secondhand gymnastic moves from her big sister.








And now for the blast from the past while I try and catch up on my blog . . . I believe I'm up to June and July of '11 so I'm only a year behind. We spent those months moving across country and settling into life here in Olympia. And celebrated Ava's 3rd Birthday and Madelyn's 1st. I don't recall much or even posted much on FB of those couple of months, I think we were pretty maxed out. But I know that I did already post Ava's birthday pictures, but Madelyn's were posted on too Tony Rizzo Photography. And so, for posterity's sake, I'm going to repost them here. . . she's only 21 months now . . .

The beautiful birthday girl.

It was a circus themed party, with hats and cotton candy, caramel popcorn, corn dogs and cupcakes that looked like hamburgers with sugar cookie "french fries." It was a beautiful sunny day for a party outside and we had lots of fun.