There are many reasons why I love spring.  The trees, the flowers, the warm weather...you get the idea.

This picture is of non of those, but is also a reason I love spring.  I am tired of buying pants for my daughter.  The pair on the right lasted only a month before she had shredded the knee.  The other two have been around a little bit longer, but not much.  

Judging from the state of her pants, I definitely need to invest in some bandaids if I expect her knees to make it through the summer once they no longer have denim seperating them from asphalt.  At $1 a box, bandaids are a much better buy than her pants were.

Something Worth Watching

This is a great clip--sorry I couldn't put it right into the blog. It's from Britain's Got Talent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PPlkOyaqaQ

Easter with a Touch of Trick or Treats

We had one final Easter egg hunt this afternoon with some friends. Not wanting it to get too boring, we added in a special egg using a little something I had found while hiding the eggs... I wish I could say I had been gutsy enough to actually be the one to cram it into the egg, but that credit goes to a friend with a much stronger tolerance for wriggly lizards.

Let's Make a Deal

Today on the way to church, Katie asked me if she could talk to me. Alone. With no one else in the room.

Needless to say, I was intrigued.

I kept trying to imagine what it might be. More concerns about the crazy things her body will do when she has a baby? Probably not--I knew she had been sufficiently freaked out about all of that to last her a while. Maybe a boy she likes? Again, probably not. Her best friend at school is a boy, chosen because she didn't have to worry about playing princess things with him, not because she "likes" him.

My curiosity overwhelmed me, but my requests for an explanation met with little success (since we were in the chapel--definitely not a room all by ourselves). I am persistant, so I finally got her started on a game of 20 Questions with me so I could figure out the answer.

I don't have enough time to take you through the dramatic course of how I got the answer out of her, but I had to laught when I finally did. She wanted to discuss with me the possibility of negociating with the Easter Bunny to get her a Flip Camcorder (Mason has one that he got for Christmas). She had come up with this scheme of basically sacrificing some of her other toys to the Easter Bunny to garner his favor, and then throwing out a Hail Mary request for what she really wanted.

It's hard not to tell her that it's a great plan, since she was so very sincere about it and had obsiously put a lot of thought into it. I didn't know how to tell her that I knew that the Easter Bunny had already picked out a couple of perfect things he knew she would love (a jump rope for her, so she'll stop using my favorite scarf, and a hooded bath towel so that she won't always want to use Chloe's). I think she'll forgive him.

Cinquains of Love

You may not remember what a cinquain is, but I wouldn't be surprised if you were forced to write one or two at some point during your elementary education (thanks to Adelaide Crapsey, the poet who made them popular. That is one very unfortunate last name).

Here are Mason's poems (typed on heart-shaped paper) written to Ryan and I:

Mom
Nice cleaner
Loving caring helping
Stirct nice tired happy
Miracle

(I thought the "miracle" at the end was a nice touch. And yes, I am tired. A lot.)

Dad
Nice professor
Loving caring helping
Strict mournful happy helpful
Workful

("Mournful"? That's not usually the word people think of when they think of Ryan. Mason explained to me that he picked that word because "when Dad does something bad, he always repents to us." Very sweet. And I have to say that although "workful" isn't exactly a word, it describes Ryan very well.)

Katie's Music Performance

Katie had her music performance last night, and she did awesome. It's one of my favorite things they do all year. This was my favorite song, mainly because the girl right in front on Katie took on the role of lead dancer. The lead dancer, and only dancer. But she had no reservation doing a solo--which made it all the better. The song has a pretty good beat, so I have to admit I was doing a little dancing myself.

The Absent-Minded Professor

Do you ever have one of those days? You know, the kind when you don't realize until half-way through the day that the shoes you are wearing don't match?

Lucky for Ryan, they aren't so different that anyone noticed. Lucky for me (and my blog) a colleague of his was in the room with him when he made the realization, so I got a picture of it.