Happy (Belated) St. Patrick's Day!

The week leading up to St. Patrick's Day we spent as much time as possible outside.  MiniM.E. is so excited to be able to go out that she tries to put on her shoes first thing in the morning.

MiniM.E. loves walking.  Everywhere.  

Peek-a-boo!

This swing is a little big.

MiniM.E. did this slide all by herself!

She doesn't really understand that it's not quite spring yet, and not every day is a nice day for playing outside... I don't particularly care to be pushing her in a swing when it's 20 and windy.

So on days when I don't want to play outside, I have to find MiniM.E. things to do that are equally as or more fun that outside.

We went to the Tiny Tots Tea Room again, which MiniM.E. loved.  There were a ton of kids there this time, and most were her age.

Driving around...

And we bought some Dollar Store painting utensils.

We spent St. Patrick's Day weekend putting in an attic pull down ladder (actually Bob and my dad put it in and my mom and I were on MiniM.E.-duty), which I'm SO excited about because we have SO MUCH baby stuff to store already and MiniM.E. is only one-and-a-half.  Needless to say there wasn't much St. Patty's partying.  It was cold anyway, so we probably wouldn't have gone to a parade, and with a one-year-old we probably wouldn't have gone out drinking...  AND now we have a useful attic!  Yay!

Hole in MiniM.E.'s ceiling

 It was a cold weekend, so we had to keep MiniM.E. busy inside.

Playing with Mardi Gras St. Patrick's Day beads

Cleaning up a mess

Trying on some new accessories.  What do you think?

 Overall, a good week and a fairly un-festive but super-productive weekend.

Spring Is On Its Way!

About a week ago we got a glimpse of spring.  It was sunny and the temperature was around 40.  Something in our kids must sense that the weather is nice because we had a belated-birthday brunch with our playgroup and the kids were itching to get outside.

Then, just when I was ready to pack up our winter jackets and break out the sandals, we saw inches of snow at the end of the week.  But with temperatures in the 50s over the weekend, it's all melted and MiniM.E. and I couldn't be happier.  I've never had a worse case of cabin fever than I did this winter with a one-year-old running around the house!

While we waited out the temporary snow on Friday, we played at the Wilton Mall play area and visited the new Rainbow Room at the Saratoga Public Library.

Maybe we shouldn't have gone so close to nap time

The new Rainbow Room is fantastic and will definitely be added to our list of rainy day spots.  It was perfect for MiniM.E. and we could have stayed for hours!

Crawling through a caterpillar

Riding on a snake

In the caterpillar

Firetruck!

Over the weekend I worked on MiniM.E.'s play kitchen while she and Daddy had some quality Daddy-Daughter time.  Which went really well until MiniM.E. realized I was just in the garage... 

Daddy did a quick diversion and took MiniM.E. to her favorite wagon riding spot, the car wash down the street.  (In all fairness, I don't think she knows it's a car wash... she thinks it's just tunnels.)

The rest of the weekend we tried to spend as much time outside as possible.

Stamping snow

Watching water drip into puddles

Swinging!

Puddle jumping (we need to buy rain boots!!)

Yesterday we were hoping for some more springy weather, but with the cloudy skies and wind, it didn't feel very nice out.  Good thing we had a play group to go to!

new toys!

hugs!

 MiniM.E. is finally starting to play with the other kids at play group so I think she's really starting to enjoy it, but the nicest part for me is having other moms to talk to.  Though this photo is probably my favorite thing about play group EVER:

Happy Birthday Mommy!

MiniM.E. and H. played more together on Friday.  It was the first time they actually seemed to be playing together and it was adorable.

care for some tea?

more kisses over coffee

Then Saturday it was my birthday.  I spent most of the day cutting wood for a play kitchen I'm making MiniM.E. (shhh! it's a surprise!).  While I cut wood, MiniM.E. was busy wrapping presents with Gram and helping to decorate the cake.

such careful little fingers

so many sprinkles in this cup...

and they should all be on the cake!

all gone!

maybe I can spread them around...

or just eat them!

and some candles

Later in the afternoon H. came over to say good-bye.  Cutest hug ever!

Then we sang "Happy Birthday" (to MiniM.E.) and blew out the candles- THREE times.

The best birthday present I got was MiniM.E. singing "Happy Birthday" to me.  She actually tried to sing and it was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever heard in my entire life.  She was so proud of herself.

**Note: I apologize for the lack of video.  For one, MiniM.E. is really hard to record because as soon as she sees the camcorder, she runs over and says, "see baby!" because she wants to watch the videos of herself.  Whenever I DO get to record her, I don't usually have the time to upload the videos because my computer is out of space so uploading them requires that I back up other photos and videos and get them off of my computer... a project I am diligently working on in all my free time... 

Thanks for a great birthday MiniM.E.!