Moments

Ballerina Emily in my well loved costume.

Sisters dancing together.

I set up an atlas in a recipe stand and I love how time the kids spend looking at without any word from me.

Laura made a cozy spot for herself on the couch and was tickled to be reading a book under a blanket.

Laura is also one to just stop moving when she is tired.  I am always surprised to see a busy toddler lying on the ground and I find it completely adorable.

On the way to pick Andrew up from the airport after his conference, the kids and I stopped at the Stepping Stones Museum for a few hours.  Laura loved the child sized stairs and would have been content spending the entire time there.  The older kids loved exploring everything from the small town to the water play to the construction exhibit to the larger-than-life games.  We spend some time in a reading nook reading books together.  The biggest surprise was that a black and white named Boo-Zoo was EVERYWHERE – the stepping stones museum mascot. It was the same dog Emily had been given in the hospital at Christmas.  You think we took her to Disney World with her excitement over seeing her dog as a surprise celebrity!

For playgroup we met some moms at the off season lighthouse beach.  There was a playground that the kids played at for a bit, but most of their time was spent collecting sea shells.  They were in heaven.  I was in heaven.  We had so much fun and it was a soul-filling day.  When we got home the kids spent hours cleaning and sorting the shells.  They have since been painted with fingernail polish and been part of so much play.

On a Saturday morning I got an email that there was a maple sugar festival at the common ground high school a few miles away.  I hopped on the Madsen and Andrew hooked up the bike trailer to his bike. We distributed the kids by weight and went on a long, hilly ride.  The school included a working farm and lots of time in nature.  We enjoyed tasting sap and seeing their set up for turning it into maple syrup.  It was FREEZING so we didn’t stay long, but we felt so victorious on our bike ride home.

A fancy bow.