When it used to be warm...

Mid March it was warm outside, for like a week. Lucius was super excited to be able to play soccer and baseball again. And then it snowed, twice. It also got chilly. It was nice while it lasted and we're hopeful it'll be spring real soon.

We went to parks, walked through the forest and jumped on the swings.

We even went to the library a few times. While there one day we did a art project and a scavenger hunt. Sweet.

Of course, while it was mostly warm but starting to get chiller we were still able to draw chalk monsters on the driveway. 

And celebrate Mormor's birthday with ice cream cake.

simple pleasures: Car washes...

The other day Daddy took us through the car wash and the boys thought it was the best thing ever. Lots of smiles and laughter.

Quotable: Inspectagating...

Oliver had a conversation with his father that went something like this:

Daddy: "what was Lucius doing that bothered you so much?"

Oliver: "He was inspectagating me"
D: "What's that?"
O: "he was looking at me and inspectagating me with weird looks and I didn't like it"

two dollar swimming...

Last Friday we went swimming with Auntie Mick at a local pool. The price was $2 a head. Can't beat that deal. We discovered that Oliver is now over 48 inches tall, which means he can now go down the two water slides they have there. Lucius was a little disappointed that he was not yet 48 inches tall, but was happy to swim and play in the water.

 

 

The start of Chalk season...

The Little Misters use chalk. LOTS of chalk. Last year we went through countless boxes and sticks of chalk drawing massive drawings on the driveway. SO much so that neighbors we met ask if we're the ones with the colorful driveway. Yup, that's us. So as soon as it started getting nice outside, the boys began their chalk usage.

Daddy drove that same night to the dollar store and bought out there supply of chalk. It was five boxes (100 sticks of chalk). Then the next day the boys used their money to buy the 48 different colored chalk from crayola. We now have 148 pieces of chalk and we'll see how long that all lasts before we buy more.

Back to biking...

Hooray its starting to get nice outside again. We can finally ride our bikes again! We've already put in half a dozen bike rides this March.With Daddy taking the car to work most days, it means we're going to be riding our bikes a lot this summer to get any where. The day we took the walk around the neighborhood (Sunday March 8th), we came home and weren't ready to go back inside. so we got the bikes down, filled tires and rode around for quite some time. Gosh, we're so excited about spring.

On Monday (March 9th) Lucius rode his bike and I walked behind to the little free library near our house. And then on to the playground.

Lucius and I wanted to ride to Oliver's school and pick him up one Wednesday (March 11th). Problem: how do Lucius & I pedal two bikes to pick up Oliver and magically have a third bike for him to ride home on? Solution: tie an extra bike on the back with bungees! (There's probably a better solution but this one cost me no money) At least I didn't use duct tape.

Lucius and I arrived way early but there's a couple playgrounds near the school we could explore. And of course, Lucius jumped right on the swing. It's one of his favorite past times.

Took about 40min to bike to the fabric store Friday (March 13th). The boys didn't have school. It took us another 3 hours to get home. Let's just say there are quite a few playgrounds to explore along our route home. Thankfully I packed a picnic lunch, which we ate on a playground. It's nice to be outside all day long without needed to really BE any where.

 

It's 3 miles one way to the fabric store and 2.4 miles one way to Oliver's school and about a mile to the little free library. That's 12 miles total (there and back again).

Tuesday March 17th the took another bike ride to the Roseville library and then over the two blocks to Target. Then back again. Adding another 6.4 miles round trip to our total mileage for the year so far.

Wednesday March 18th we biked to lexington Park for a play date, then to a little free library, and back home. 6 more miles round trip.

Thursday March 19th biked to the roseville library (again) for story time. 6 miles round trip. Total miles biked so far: roughly 30.4 miles (give or take a mile).

Its already the middle of March...

The last few weeks just seemed to fly by. Daddy and I took a trip and when we came home the weather started to get nice. So we've been outside more often and its been wonderful. What have we been up to since the beginning of March. Well lets see...

Lucius and I made Bagels one morning. Delicious!

We had a movie night when kids weren't feeling so well.

The boys continually play with their toys and make messes.

I've been helping out Oliver First Grade teacher with random projects. Once a week, after I drop Lucius off at preschool, I run over to Oliver's school to help for a few hours. I've hung art projects in the hall, sorted school work, decorated the classroom and organized for his teacher. Teachers work hard for our kids, its the least I can do to help her out. Occasionally I even get to be a fly on the wall and see some of what Oliver does at school.

Its starting to get warmer outside. So we're taking more walks and enjoying the sun while it lasts. We took a hike around the neighborhood one afternoon. We took turns at the corners picking the direction to go next. 

Oliver kept trying to get Lucius to pick the way he wanted us to go by saying "this way is more adventurous!"
 

On Thursdays, Luicus and I go to the Library for Story time. Last week they had a snow plow come visit and Lucius got to climb into the drivers seat to check it out.

One Tuesday I needed to get Lucius to school and Daddy had the car at work. At first I had planned to bike down to his school as it's only about a 15-20 min bike ride. But then I decided I wanted to walk. We left the house an hour before we needed to be to preschool and started walking. Lucius had a picnic on the go while walking. We ended up walking it in about 30 minutes. Much faster than I had expected since I was walking fairly relaxed/slowly soaking up the glorious weather. Since we arrived early, Lucius played on the playground for a bit before we headed inside.

 

On the walk back home from School, Lucius informed me: "Marmee... I just lost his mind". Random bits of helpful information that only a walk will produce. Good to know.