Spring

Some fault Phoenix for its lack of seasons...I disagree. It has seasons. Spring is my favorite. The citrus trees in our backyard are in bloom, and the smell of orange and lemon blossoms might be the most heavenly scent in the world. I don't know, a baby's neck probably has orange blossoms beat... also sunscreened baby...the smell of a sunscreened baby is pretty delicious, but anyway, orange blossoms are in my top three.

Audrey also has a few little home-school preschool gardening projects going...like her pot of baby lettuces. (She samples them everyday and yesterday she ate a little dirt with her baby arugula and I sure was glad I splurged on the organic potting mix.)

Kateri's afternoon nap (when she is kind enough to take one) affords Audrey and I a little reading/story time in our favorite spot right now: a blanket under the citrus trees where we can enjoy the balmy breeze, a perfect mix of sun and shade, and that heavenly aroma. The thought is in my mind that next year Audrey will be in kindergarten, and these quiet moments with her will be fewer and farther in between, but right now it's hard to do anything other than soak up the springtime.

Look how happy that little bee is.

Kateri and Leah on the air mattress

Here are the only other photos I managed to snap of our company: Kateri and Leah snuggling on the air mattress we set up in the toy room.

Kateri looks positively gargantuan here next to her pretty little Leah, but it is funny to think that in a couple of years they are going to be running around the beach together in the summers.

Peekaboo

We've been too busy...

...living life to do much documenting of it. We've had a really fun busy month with lots of visitors. We celebrated Nanny's 60th birthday!

And the Bird babies came to see us (with their parents, of course.) The girls were so excited for some cousin time...especially since they got to meet little Leah Regina for the first time.

We had a really fun pizza party on Friday before the big event of the weekend: the Burch's St. Patrick's Day block party, which of course I have no photos of...

At least I snapped one of this precious little face! We miss everyone already, but we are already looking forward to summer in Scituate.

Happy Valemtimes Day!

That's how Audrey says "Valentine's Day." On Sunday morning we were going to a later Mass than usual so the girls made us stay in bed (how dare they!!) while they worked on a special Valentine's Day surprise for us. Well, Audrey and Lili worked on the surprise, Kateri just dragged a chair over to the counter where Lili's Valentine's candy from school was and helped herself to some delicious Nerds until Luke and I heard the mysterious crunching sounds and rushed out to rescue Lili's stash. Here was our surprise! They dressed up the flowers Luke had bought for his household of girls.

Please notice how our little Daddy's girl Audrey smothered his card with as many foam hearts as possible. What a nice way to start the day! They even cleaned up their craft mess before leading us out blindfolded.

Maybe Audrey needs more structure to her day

I had just finished putting Kateri down for a nap and I came out to see that ALL of the light switches in the house had been carefully set exactly in between on and off thanks to Audrey. I asked her about it and I guess she thought they worked like dimmers and she wanted "Perfectly medium light."

That was yesterday. Today she came up to me after her bath wearing a towel and a defeated expression. She handed me her underwear and said, "Mom, I just don't understand my panties." I guess she couldn't tell the front from the back because the tag was on the side.

What to do on a Friday night...

If you are lucky enough to live in Phoenix, and it is a beautiful January night with a gorgeous full moon, you can break out a bed sheet and a projector and watch Star Wars in the back yard with some friends. Maybe it was the s'mores, but some of us were a little more excited than others...

It was just chilly enough so that the fire in the fire pit felt nice, and the pillows and blankets came in handy.

Star Wars has some intense scenes,

Lucky for sweet little Mr. Finn, his sweet big brother was there to put his arm around him during the scary parts.

Audrey loves...

...our backyard. I love our backyard, too, especially during the winter. During the summer the grass bakes and gets crispy and uncomfortable, but right now it seems like our own little slice of heaven on earth, decrepit old swing set and all. Audrey spends a good part of each day swinging happily on her beat-up old swing and making "salads" out of grass and lemon leaves and rosemary. We also like to play hide-and-go-seek with her beloved Koala. Audrey and I take turns hiding him in the yard and the other person has to go find him. During a recent session of this game, Audrey came inside giggling to tell me that I would never find Koala...he was in the best hiding place ever! I did find him in fact, in a lonely corner of the yard, buried in torn-up grass...I think the fact that he is lying face-down adds to the stealthiness of it all...