Sprinkler

I think Clara's hand-me-down swimsuit is a bit big in her butt.

Wingaersheek in April

So we get back from Florida, and it's almost my birthday, which is when we traditionally go to the beach and FREEZE. But here it was, April 26th, and over 80 degrees. Given that Bridges couldn't really afford to take my birthday off work since we just returned from Florida, we decided to cheat and go a few days early, thereby taking advantage of the unbelievable weather.

Usually on my birthday we have the beach to ourselves, but this day it was mobbed. Only since it wasn't really summer yet, there were no bathrooms, no garbage cans, etc.....you can imagine the rest. But, hey, free parking, so there you go.

First Trip to Dairy Queen

Sanibel 2009

Our trip to Sanibel was with both families this spring. Linda, Roger, and Liam stayed in one condo with my Mom and Dad, Bridges' parents and Aunt Lee stayed in their condo, and we rented the one downstairs. All in all it worked pretty well, and we had a wonderful week.

My Dad. Look, he's learned to relax as he's gotten older!

We made sand creations with colored sand.

We rode bikes, even my Mom and Clara.

A great picture of Linda, Liam and Roger.

Bridges fixing up the bikes his family bought for something like 15 cents forty or fifty years ago.

Lee looking for shells. The bandage on her finger is from getting it caught in the screen door (ouch). This injury limited the swimming during the week.

Aunt Ethel, Aunt Marge, and Aunt Jeanette came for lunch one day.

An alligator:

And here's my Hallmark shot of Clara and Liam, taken after dark and then lightened in Photoshop. I like it, though.

Easter

Easter wasn't until mid-April this year, so for the first time in several years we had no snow at Deb's house in Maine.

Here's the start of the Easter Egg hunt. The pink and purple eggs were reserved for the girls, and the boys could grab any other color. It worked out pretty well.

Milestones

We've had two big milestones recently.  We can safely say that Clara is potty-trained.  I think she may have had one accident this past week, and more importantly, for her there's no going back at this point.  She's just wearing a pull-up for naptime and nighttime.  Most of the time she's dry after her nap, but I expect she'll need something at night for another year if she follows Lee's pattern.  It's wonderful to be done with diapers!  

What's really cool, though, is that we were able to stop her daily antibiotics that she's been on for her urinary reflux since she was one month old.  She just needs to go back for a follow-up exam in 2010.  We're thrilled.  

Easter Eggs

The Cow-Pig

We went to ArtBeat the other day.   They have an open studio, where you can drop in, pick out a craft, and go to it.  They provide all the supplies and deal with the mess.  It was really fun.  

Here is Clara's pig, which for some reason I called a cow until after Bridges got home and pointed out that it was in fact a pig.  The woman at the studio probably thought I was simple.  Of course now Clara refuses to call it a pig, although perhaps we made progress the other day when she started calling it a frog.   

Here is the box Lee decorated.

Bunny Masks

Meredith brought over bunny masks for the kids). 

 I never knew she was so crafty!

Dizzy