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I hope everyone is enjoying the snowy spring! We had around 3 inches fall Saturday night. It went away fairly quickly, but it was fun while it lasted.

We had a good week, overall. The girls and I made the trip down to Centralia with my folks for my Aunt’s birthday. We took her out to lunch and I was very proud of how well my kids behaved! They’re usually good, but this was exceptional… playing quietly while we waited for the food and eating their lunches neatly, it was great! I could get spoiled.

We had a fun toddler gym class on Saturday. It was the last class of the session and our teacher’s last class ever. She’s been doing the class for nine years so they had a big party for her with fruit and cake and crackers… all the toddler favorites. We’ll miss her and I wonder who we’ll get next time around.

Chris is starting his fourth week of jury duty today. They’re heavily into deliberations now, but I don’t know if there’s an end in sight. He’s getting a little stressed by the whole thing, especially since he hasn’t been to work in weeks so all of that stuff is piling up. Hopefully, they’ll all be refreshed and ready to come to a consensus after having the weekend off.

The not-so-good part of the week is that I woke up yesterday with a cough and a fever. I don’t know what it is, but it’s no fun. So far, no one else in the house has caught it. I hope it stays that way! I’m trying to avoid everyone, but it’s hard to keep the kids off of me (especially since Lilia attaches herself to me several times a day to nurse). I have no idea where I picked this up, either, so I don’t know how long it would take them to come down with it. The upshot is that my brain is fuzzy and this email may make less sense than usual. And I can’t remember half of what we did last week.

I’d better get well soon, though, since we have a wedding to attend on Wednesday! I got my hair cut for it and everything.

I love the snow. Most people I know are tired of winter and looking forward to spring (and, technically, it is spring), but it started snowing here this afternoon. It’s sticking to the ground now and if there’s enough of it, I’ll get some pictures of the spring snow to post tomorrow. I just love watching the snow fall!

Of course, I love the rain, too. And the wind. And I hate it when it’s too hot and sunny. Is that weird?

Happy Spring! 

We had a nice week, though not nearly as exciting as last week. It was pretty low key around here and we managed to get some stuff done. All good.

CareBear had her 3-year doctor’s appointment last week. She was very brave, of course. There weren’t any vaccinations, but they did a finger stick to check her hematocrit (for anemia, she’s fine but they like to screen for it) and she had her first TB test. I’m guessing a needle stick is a needle stick to her. Anyway, she’s good and healthy! She’s right on track for height and weight for her age and doing all the right stuff. We do need to go back in a month to get her vision checked again and then they’ll decide if she needs more testing. I guess they wait for two abnormal tests before referring kids to an eye doctor. I wouldn’t be too surprised if she needed glasses.. she seems to see ok, but Chris is mostly blind and there are plenty of people with glasses in the family!

LiliBee decided to start talking more, finally! She’s been picking up words and sounds a lot faster in the last couple of weeks and will now ask for snacks and water with her own words instead of waiting for CareBear to translate. LiliBee has also decided to take her fashion advice from CareBear… whenever CareBear strips (a daily occurrence), LiliBee does too. Whenever CareBear is a dancer, LiliBee is too. There are a lot more costume changes going on these days!

Chris’ trial is moving right along. The prosecution rested last week and it looks like the defense is going to rest this week. Then it’s all deliberations and verdicts and he can finally tell me all about it! I did my own research and figured out what the case was way back in the beginning, but it will be nice to get to hear all of the courtroom stuff once it’s over.

We’ve got some fun stuff to do this week! The girls and I are heading down to Centralia to visit my Aunt (yay for birthday lunch). And I’m hoping to get my hair cut… that may not sound like a big deal, but it only happens once or twice a year!

Here’s a quick movie Chris took of me and the kids meeting the new baby at The Crabby Chicken Ranch.

Is everyone enjoying the weather? It’s been quite a roller coaster around here lately. I think we actually had most forms of weather roll through here yesterday… rain, hail, snow, sleet, wind, sun…

We ended up having a lot of fun things to do this week! Chris took Friday off to recover from his days and days of jury interviews and selection so we ditched the kids and went out to lunch. Don’t feel bad for the girls, though, they had lots of fun playing with their cousin.

After toddler class on Saturday, we wandered around downtown to check out their 2nd annual “Celtic Faire”. We enjoyed the pipers and the dog parade in the park before roaming the participating shops for Irish treats and festively dressed people. It was a little too cold and rainy to check out everything, but what we saw was fun! CareBear really liked the green cupcakes but I think LiliBee liked the hot dog lunch better.

On Sunday, we headed south to the “Crabby Chicken Ranch“. A coworker of Chris’ owns miniature horses and one of them gave birth a little less than 2 weeks ago.

The girls and I had a lot of fun meeting the new baby and petting all of the horses. The baby nibbled on CareBear’s coat and gave everyone kisses. LiliBee was fascinated by everything.

After visiting the horses, CareBear and I checked out the chickens… we were able to pet one of the hens and then she chased a couple of them around for awhile. It was lots of fun.

Chris ended up being selected for the jury, so he’ll be spending the next 3-4 weeks hearing about murder and evidence. I can’t wait for him to be able to tell me about it!

How cute is this baby? We made a trip out to The Crabby Chicken Ranch today to meet the newest baby. Mark (Chris’ coworker) and his wife, Kim, raise miniature horses and one of them foaled about a week and a half ago. The new baby is adorable and sweet!

Apparently, CareBear’s jacket was a tasty treat.

Both CareBear and LiliBee got baby horse kisses.

After checking out the horses, Mark let CareBear and me visit the chickens. We got to pet a very sweet Bantam hen and then CareBear chased some of the bigger ones around.

LiliBee and Chris watched the chicken festivities.

A visit to the ranch always makes me want to have miniature horses (and other miniature farm animals) and chickens. I need to look into our county’s regulations for backyard chickens… I’d love to have fresh eggs!

We ventured out in the rain today to visit the 2nd Annual Celtic Faire in downtown Puyallup. It’s put on by the Puyallup Main Street Association and isn’t so much a fair as a collection of stores doing something Irish themed. It was fun to walk around town, stopping here and there for some green cupcakes or colcannon. There were men in kilts, women in Irish garb and we even saw a leprechaun! The girls really liked the bag pipers wandering the park along with the Corgis, Scotties, Sheepdogs and Irish Wolfhounds.  We had a very non-Irish lunch of hot dogs at Lucky’s Hot Dog Diner (very much recommended!) and watched the dog parade go by.

One of the really fun things about downtown is the art.

They have sculptures on many street corners and even some building walls.

This one seems to be art within art.

And you can’t see it very well from this picture, but the cross walks on some of the streets in town have daffodil inlays. Those are the ones along the parade route. Puyallup loves it’s daffodils.

I’m just sad that I didn’t get a picture of the “saltine bed” hanging on the side of a building… one of these days I’m going to do the “art walk”.

We had a big week around here… CareBear is three years old! 

She had a good birthday, I think. She had a fun party with balloons and cupcakes and dancing and games. Many of her favorite people came to her house for her party and I think everyone had a good time. LiliBee was quite a little social butterfly, going from person to person to get picked up and carried around. We’re still enjoying all of the presents and play with them several times a day. 

It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since CareBear was born, though. It makes me a little sentimental since she can’t even be considered a toddler anymore! She told me yesterday that she was going to take a dance class and I couldn’t come with her, I had to sit with the other moms… my little independent girl… sigh.

The girls and I also went to a bridal shower this weekend. It was lots of fun for them as they got to have their own party with some cousins and even more cupcakes. It was quite a weekend!

And, of course, this morning we woke up to 3 inches of new snow! We got all bundled up and headed out to play. It was good snowball snow and CareBear had a great time having snowball fights. She also enjoyed eating the snow off of her slide. LiliBee is getting really good at walking around in the snow in her boots… she still falls a lot, but it doesn’t bother her at all anymore.

Chris is on jury duty this week. He has the potential to get on an interesting (and maybe long) trial. I’m actually hoping that he does since I’d love to hear about it (once he’s able to talk about it, of course).

In other news, we had our appraisal, which I think went well. And it’s now daylight savings time, which is not going so well yet. It’s making me feel like I’m late for everything and messing up our bedtimes!

I hope everyone is staying warm!

CareBear 2006

CareBear 2007

CareBear 2008

CareBear 2009

(“Baby Blues” by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott. Published 3/3/09. Not sure who gets ©.)