Spring Break

We had a fun spring break at home last week. I did not have to work and was able to spend all my time with the girls.

Highlights
Monday: Swimming at my parents' condo

Tuesday: Doctor appointments (Okay, they were not highlights, but at least the doc was able to remove a huge splinter from Willa's finger).

Wednesday: Macy's Flower Show with friends and family!

 

Afterward, we curled our hair!

Thursday: Zoo with family and friends (with lots of babies on display!)

And afterward, a game of Pits and Alleys at the neighbors' house.

Friday: The More Real? exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts with friends, and lunch at our favorite Vietnamese place afterward. Yum!!

Lots of Foolin'

We had a good time with various pranks on April Fool's Day. When the girls stirred their oatmeal in the morning, it turned blue. I also posted this sign, and we talked about being good sports.

Our snack of nachos with jalapenos was actually pudding, bananas and gummies!

For dinner, we had soup (not sure why the video is sideways):

And our dessert was "cake":

 

We all get a kick out of this silly holiday!

Happy Easter!

We attended the world's dreariest egg hunt at a park the day before Easter. Thankfully the girls didn't recognize it as such, and had a good time! (Although Jia did tell me she debated about one of her eggs because it was so close to yellow snow.)

There were also bunnies to pet, crafts to make, a brunch and puppet show! Jia was far too cool to act like a bunny.

 

On Easter day, we attended a brunch at a restaurant.

The kids received soft, fuzzy bunnies from their grandparents.

  

 

Then we returned to our house for dessert (black forest cupcakes).

 

We also had another egg hunt. Indoors this time!

 

A fun day!

March Madness

March has been really busy! And when we haven't been busy, we've been sick. Or sick and busy. (Not a good combination.)

Most of our busy times have been fun ones though! We went to the auto show with the girls. They had definite opinions about which cars they liked! We all had a good time.

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day.

We spent some time at the Arboretum focusing on maple trees. We made a spile for maple syruping and practiced drilling holes into trees.

Our Girl Scout, Jia, also made us breakfast, lunch and dinner on her own! Breakfast was toast and jam. Lunch was flatbread with hummus, chicken, cheese, tomatoes, spinach and guacamole. Dinner was a salad with spinach, tomatoes, carrots, eggs (that she boiled), peppers, cheese and ranch dressing, and toast with garlic, parmesan and basil. The meals and ingredients were entirely up to her. We think she did great!

 

Separately, we have decided to let the girls choose and make one meal each week (with my help, if needed). Jia made dinner last night and chose maple glazed salmon, baked zucchini and homemade garlic bread. Willa is up for dinner tonight. They are so excited to do this and so are we!

Oh the noise!

We recently drove north along the Mississippi River to see trumpeter swans. About 2,000 of them! We also saw geese, ducks and an eagle!

We arrived just before feeding time. It was cold, but so very worth it. The birds were massive, majestic, and LOUD! 

We loved watching them fly in for breakfast.

And watching them form a perfect circle when it was time to eat.

To get a panoramic view and the full effect of the noise, it helps to watch this video of the swans (and the girls pretending to be swans)!

Jia and I are now reading one of my favorite books, The Trumpet of the Swan. Love it!

Outdoor Fun

As winter comes to a close (I think), we've been making sure to enjoy all our favorite winter activities. We spent more time skiing. We did the long trail this time (took about 1 1/2 hours). I was so proud of the girls!

We've also been skating:

We've been snowshoeing. It involved some of this:

 

Some of this:

And some of this:

We also had our usual once-a-year treat: maple snow taffy. It's made by boiling maple syrup and butter to a certain temperature and then pouring it onto snow, which turns it into candy.

I made it on a snowy afternoon for the girls and our neighbors. I poured it on the snow in front of them. (It was hard to stop eating for the picture!)

 Yum!

Piano lessons

Jia started piano lessons. She loves it. 

It is good for her, too. She's a very fast learner at school, and is used to easily getting things right the first time. Therefore, she expected to look at a song and play it perfectly right away, and is learning that it takes some effort and perseverance! She has been practicing non-stop. She even started composing her own music.

Perhaps channeling her adoration for Hans Christian Andersen and Brothers Grimm, here are the lyrics to her first song:

The greedy pearl fairy has her lovely lovely looks,
but inside her heart you can see only black,
the blackest of night you have ever seen.
She brags about her looks just to make you feel bad,
she does, she does, she does.
She's always in a bad mood,
it's true, it's true.
No one can find anything good about her,
no, no, no, no.
It's really really true, it is, it is.
She lives in the icy castle in the north, it's in the north.
It's really really cold, really, really cold.
She eats slugs for breakfast, and snails for lunch.
Ick, ick, ick, ick, it's gross.

I love the ending. She has now moved onto songs with more pleasant topics. In fact, she just composed "Song For My Beloved Parents" numbers 1-7.  So sweet. I took piano lessons for many years and enjoyed it. I hope she continues to do so!