dancing with the Bunny!!

The morning before Easter we went to a "breakfast with the Easter bunny" event, which was great. Music, crafts, fabulous face painting, breakfast, and dancing with the Easter bunny (or screaming as you meet the Easter bunny, in Stella's case!). Stella did have a good time too, bopping to the music and screaming to the Easter bunny (she was very excited by him as long as he was a foot or two away.)
That night we dyed eggs, which we also "sparkled". We had a great time and have some spare egg dye, so we may have to have an Easter Egg dying party later this summer....why not?!We went to Grammy and Pop-pop's for Easter dinner of salmon and asparagus. Yum! The weather felt like summer, and I loved every second of it!
Lots of fun lately, playing inside and out, dressing in play clothes, and trying out fun summer outfits. Looking forward to some more of that sunshine!

girls day out

It has gotten much easier to get the girls out of the house now that Sylvia has become very independent. She gets picks out her clothes, gets dressed, and goes potty on her own. The outfits are usually pretty well put-together. The other day she picked out her pants to patch her hot pink underwear. "Look Mommy! My pants match the pillow on my bed...and my butt!!" Stella is still challenging, screaming whenever I change her diaper, and whenever the mood strikes her. She is generally happy to go to library or out shopping though, and the girls seem to take turns throwing tantrums, which keeps everything to a controlled level of chaos.The other day I took them to the bank to show Sylvia how to use the change counting machine, so she would understand what she may do with her piggy banks. Once she heard that the bank gives you MORE money for keeping your money, she was on board with taking the pig (and the cow and the rabbit and the bear banks) to the Bank to count and deposit her change.After that, we went to Michaels, which Sylvie refers to as "Big Michaels". Too much American Idol for a 3 year old, anyone?? By the end of our shopping, Sylvia was throwing a huge tantrum, for reasons I didn't understand. After a few minutes of sobbing she cried out, "I just want to go to AC Moore!". Too many craft stores, anyone?? Haha!And, Sylvie has continued to name songs that she wants to put on Sylvie songs, Volume 2. At this point, the second CD will include John Flynn songs, John Lennon Songs [Instant Karma is her fav], and the Subway commercial "5 Dollar Foot Long". Too funny. Writing the paper cover for the first CD is on my "to-do" list to explain the song choices and meaning to her, while I still remember - my memory is incredibly short these days and Sylvia's is amazing! She looks at pictures from last summer and can tell you what happened in great detail...."We were chasing little leaves in the pool and then I got a boo boo and Daddy was taking a nap because he was worn out......" Wow! I can't tell you how many times she has shocked me when she recalls the events from a certain photo. It is wonderful timing that she has developed an amazing memory just as mine has failed :)

little flowers

Little flowers on my little helpers and little flowers on the new plants to replace those "stick bushes".....Hello spring! Sylvie helped me move dirt around, and we did our best to make sure Stella didn't eat any grass, sticks, or mud while she played nearby. We still need to plant a few more little flowers and add some new mulch - looking forward to it!For the record, we planted a pretty little purple gem rhododendron, an emerald gaiety euonymus, and a mediterranean pink heather on one side - see below. It might help to have record of exactly what they are in case they start having issues - although I've been pretty lucky in the past.....fingers crossed!I LOVE the color or the purple gem, and it reminds me a little of the one I had at the townhouse, only smaller and cuter (just like my little helpers!). The other side of the front has similar plants with 2 white azaleas (not doing much yet) and a pretty pink olga rhododendron. Finally, I let Sylvie pick out a wind chime for the porch. She fell in love with them when we were browsing at a deck store while Daddy made big deck decisions, and Sylvie loves her wind chime (so do I!). We also all love the progress John has made with the deck. We can now walk out of the house and down the completed steps into our back yard. Beautiful work - I need to take some updated photos! But for now, here is the wind chime:

sweet Stella Jane

So... sweet baby Stella took her first wiggly, wobbly steps on March 30th. It's been a few weeks now, and she is still wiggling and wobbling, and oh so cute! Every now and then she is steady for several steps, and the child has no fear. I'm sure she'll be running in no time. It seemed like she did her slow little backwards crawl forever, and now she zooms forward to get into all sorts of trouble. She also figured out how to climb the steps, so the combination of speed crawler and daredevil climber makes me nervous. No need to add running to that list too soon, although she will LOVE being able to keep up with her sister. Stella spends a lot of time yelling (whether she is happy, frustrated, sad, or excited - she likes to make noise), but lately there has been a lot of giggling too. Somehow, even though she can't talk yet (with the exception of "hi", "mama", "dada", and her favorite, "uh-oh") she has a connection with Sylvia that does not compare to the bonds with anyone else. They hold hands and sing songs together, and the sounds of their giggling fill the whole house. In the car, the wind makes Stella giggle, and that makes Sylvia giggle and their laughter goes on for minutes. I only wish their connection lasts forever along with the sounds of those giggles!