Teachers

Starting tomorrow is teacher appreciation week, since we appreciate Amara's teachers, Miss Kelly and Miss Amber, we wanted to do something special for them.  Last year we did rainbow cupcakes for the class, and it was a big hit--but we thought since everyone is so health conscious and there seem to be a lot of food allergies now, that we'd just focus on the teachers themselves.

We picked out these cute flower pots, where Amara could color and decorate the insert.  

We then came home and dad filled the pots for us, where Amara planted her Zinnia seeds and watered them through.  We placed them by the back door for optimal sun exposure and wait :)  We have sprouts already, very quick I thought, and can't wait to give them to the teachers!

1st day of preschool: Primrose

This picture kind of breaks my heart because I've never seen such a forced smile out of her--but the sentiment was sweet.

Primrose, and her new class with Miss Shirey, sent this note to Eric and I to "let us know she's doing ok" last week on her first day.  Certainly harder for her than us it seemed, I think she had a great time once we were gone, but leaving was not fun for any of us!

They give full reports at the end of each day, but it sounds like she did an ice cream cone craft, played outside, napped, and enjoyed her lunch and snacks.  Most days follow a similar pattern, but have different key activities around a theme.  Because she's only there 2 days a week (now) she is limited on what she does verses some of the other kids, but we wanted to see how it would go before deciding to add more or not.

She was happy to come home, and tired, I think the constant changing of activities, teachers, inside and outside wears them out--but I was so happy to have my little girl home!

Easter morning

Easter snuck up on us this year--which sounds funny, considering how late it was! I was glad, though, that it was nice and warm--barely more than sweaters needed, certainly no coats and no snow! 

Amara hunted for her basket, which was cleverly hid in her igloo in the living room, and helped Cora--by helped, I mean disassembled, considering she's much more interested in baby toys than her own things...but regardless, we both had fun going through the baskets with Amara while Cora watched.

After church we went to Grandma and Grandpa Jahn's for lunch and an egg hunt.  The girls (and maybe Eric) napped and then changed clothes to get ready to go outside.  Still squishy from a week of rain, we knew we needed to break out the boots and jeans again, but managed a picture or two while they were clean and dressed up.

This Easter bunny was from Grandma Jahn--he really got the stare down on the couch there.  With her exaggerated eyes, she really gave it to that bunny!

Egg hunt w kris

Seems every year, we're hunting for egg hunts.  We'll find an awesome one, then it's not repeated for whatever reason.  We found a replacement 'coptor drop one, but it was rained out the first time and we had a conflict the second time--it's been a VERY rainy Spring to say the least, just ask grandpa!

Luckily, Aunt Kristin came through for us and told us about an egg hunt right close to her house!  It was perfect, because I have it on authority that Kristin is an excellent egg hunter herself, so we knew we were in good hands!  We got a really warm (but squishy) day, so boots were a must!

Kristin and Amara took off across the grass in search of blue and pink eggs, then moved on to other eggs.  Quickly afterwards, they had to inspect their loot, and I was so proud that Amara was ok with "recycling" her eggs to be used next year, and didn't insist on keeping hers!

Along with candy, she even got some Dairy Queen coupons, a gecko, and a coupon for a free blow up bunny (which we promptly gave away to a younger kid who seemed infatuated with it).  We grabbed our bottle of water and headed for the car--it started to get a bit windy and even though Cora was unaffected by it all, we were getting close to lunch time too!

I don't know if this will be a tradition, I don't want to ginx it! ...but it was great fun, and maybe Kristin will able to hold 2 little hands while hunting next Spring :)

Blooms and Butterflies

Since we made it to the B&B event last year and thought it was so cool, we thought we'd try it again this year.  This year though, we opted to try to get there for one of the releases, they do each day at 3.  We hurried up there and got the girls up the stairs and past the cafe (a feat in itself) and saw the ladies loading up the newly "hatched" butterflies.

We headed in the big atrium and slowly the crowd began to fill in and we got our place near the waterfall for the big event.  Amara wasn't quite sure about all the standing around, and Cora fell asleep, so she didn't have an opinion, but boy it was warm in there!

The lady began releasing the butterflies right on time.  With each one, she'd tell us the name, a special fact about it, where it's from, its' predators, etc.

We also made our way under the waterfall and rock areas, to the GIANT coi pond area--those things were bigger than most cats!

Again, Cora was pretty calm during it all--with the rushing water, sleeping was favorable for sure!

Cora Update

These aren't exactly her two month pics, probably closer to one actually, but since we went to see Dr. Dicarlo today, I figured I'd update some.

At just over 2 months, she reports in at over 13 lbs and 23 inches tall!  She is really starting to coo and laugh at us, and continues to be infatuated with big sister Amara ;)

She's sleeping like an absolute champ and does SO well on walks or trips to the park.  We'd hoped Spring would come earlier and drier this year, but we're managing in the house as best we can--more an issue for Amara actually, as she has a bit of cabin fever.