Not on Arturo's list of favorite things

I've posted about Margaret Thomas' gardens before - the lady is not getting any younger - and so far, no historic preservation association has stepped in. So another year of her beautiful blooms have to be enjoyed!  Arturo is usually pretty accomodating of my whims - but there are two things he really hates doing with me:

1) Go for walks

2) Visit flower gardens

I forced him to go this year - thinking he would be overtaken by the beauty and number of flowers.  Didn't happen. 

Love this shot of Alexa running happily amidst the bursts of color:

At least he smiled for the camera, right?

8 months

Bridging to Brownies

In the beginning of May, Emma officially bridged over to Brownies.  They are so proud to "officially" be Brownies now!  There was this big ceremony - a big to do - where they made a "bridge" out of all the different colors of their petals with balloons.  Each girl had to cross the bridge from being a Daisy to being a Brownie.  Afterwards, we had a little reception with treats and yummies.

Here they are, starting wtih the Girl Scout pledge:

I got a kick out of this shot.  This is Tessa's view of the world - I let her crawl around the school cafeteria floor while the ceremony was going on.  Oh, to be a 3rd child!!!

Emma, crossing the bridge:

Jogathon

Crossfield has a yearly PTO Jogathon where the kids spend 30 minutes running as many laps as they can.  It's usually a lot of fun - a local radio station DJ comes and MCs the whole thing and the kids and parents get really into it.  This year, Emma ran 11 laps in 30 minutes which came out to be just over 2 miles!

She's in the middle, ready to go:

With her friend, Abby:

 And she's off!

 

 

They all got popsicles afterwards to celebrate.  Here she is with Carly.

If I hadn't mentioned this before...

Emma adores Tessa.  At school, she draws pictures for Tessa.  At home, she writes cards and letters to Tessa, telling her how much she is loved. 

The other day, I was in the kitchen, looked up, and found Emma playing with Tessa patiently and lovingly.

I love eating

Tessa loves to eat.  Let me repeat that.  Tessa.  Loves.  Food.  In fact, even if it isn't food, it goes straight into her mouth!  This works well when you are following BLW, but not so good when you  have two older girls who leave everything lying around the house.

Here she is stuffing her face with Broccoli.  Girlfriend loves it.  Her mother and father do not love cleaning up after her.

She also loves Mary Kelly's famous pumpkin muffins.  She loves the feeling of crumbling then in her fat little hands and feeding the ants on the kitchen floor too.

Syd Golf Party

The weather was a little chilly and breezy, and there was a tooth debacle with Emma right before Syd's party, but the party was still a success!  So cute to see all the kiddies teeing off - and all the proud dad's watching said kids tee off.

7 months

The weather was warm enough on Tessa's 7 month birthday to eat dinner outside and celebrate with an ice cream cone.  Note two things about this picture:

1) Arturo is holding back Tessa's hand - her new game is to swat/grab/attack anything within arm's reach, so we were worried that she'd get either a handful of ice cream of burn her fingers on the candle...

2) See her crumpled birthday crown.  It was a victim of aforementioned swatting.

Great Falls with Puo Puo

We had originally planned to head down to DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival, but balked last minute.  Instead, we went over to Great Falls which turned out to be a great outing.  The weather was sunny but not too warm, and the girls got to run around quite a bit. 

Swings

Another milestone to check off for Alexa: She has figured out how to pump on the swing by herself.  She still gets a little lazy once in a while, but it's so nice not to have to stand there and push her... and push her... and push her...!

We put Tessa on the swing for the first time too.  She loves it, as you can see from her expression below.

Future Wendy Wellesley's

Wellesley friends: Can't you totally see Lex in 15 years during her homework on Severance Green or in the Quad?

I don't know where Emma comes up with these poses, but they crack me up:

April Fool's!

On April 1, the girls and I planned a fun little trick on Arturo.  When he got home from work, we told him that for dinner that night, we would be eating sushi.  Arturo does not like seaweed.  Arturo does not like raw fish.  Hence, Arturo does not like Sushi. 

When we brought out the plate of sushi... surprise!  We had actually made Rice Krispy treats look like Sushi.  I used Frut-a-Bu for the seaweed, Rice Krispy treats for the rice, and Gummi Worms for the raw fish.  The girls helped me with almost everything and they were very proud of themselves for playing that trick on Daddy!

Meadowlark

During my mom's stay in April, we got a couple of beautifully sunny days, so one afternoon, we packed up the girls and headed off to Meadowlark.  It's still a little early in the season for the flowers to be in full bloom, but something about that garden always immediately lightens my mood.  The girls always love it too.