Spring Happenings

Spring has been full of many wonderful things so far:

Djeryd finally persuaded us to let him construct a forge in the backyard so he can hone his blacksmithing skills (he uses slave labor to pump the billows so he can monitor the fire – Erik and Anna are embarrassingly obliging).

Easter was a treat with General Conference (which was wonderful!) and visits with grandparents on both sides of the family and our traditional Easter nests.  And I invented a new soup called Easter Soup that I made with all the ham and garlic-mashed potato leftovers – YUM!

Elle is teaching herself to read.

Anna is her inspiration.  This is a picture of her reading the final few pages of her first Harry Potter book.  She finished Chamber of Secrets within the following week and is currently in the middle of Prisoner of Azkaban.  Her reading is finally taking off – yea!!

This guy got his driving permit!  Holy smokes!  How time flies!

And he’s running track.  It has opened up his whole world in such a fun healthy way.

We found out Anna has some seriously disturbed teeth.  Criss-cross applesauce is going on all over the lower half of her mouth.  First she had to have three perfectly good baby teeth pulled out . . .

And a week later, she wound up with these little babies strapped to her teeth.  She is ecstatic and Erik is enormously disappointed (he’s had the orthodontist look at his teeth “way more times than Anna”).

Erik has been helping me in the yard a lot.  The garden is about half planted and the yard is looking really nice.  This is the best garden/yard position we’ve been in since Sean and I hosted a wedding open house for some friends about eleven years ago. 

Elle had her first ride in a swing (normally she’s snuggled up nice and tight in the stroller, falling asleep).

At Alyx’s urging we have been spending a fair amount of time at the park trying to soak up this beautiful weather.  It is hard for me to get out the door (there always seems to be one more thing to do before we leave), but I’m trying hard to say “yes” and let dinner take care of itself.  So dinner’s later than normal, which means everything else, including bedtime, is later than normal, but we’ve sure had fun! 

I hope a little piece of this spring magic stays with my kids long enough for them to share it with their kids.