Spring Break- Day 2: Childrens Museum

Things got a little busy right after spring break but I'm going to attempt to get caught up on our activities during spring break. Day 2 of spring break we decided to head over to Portsmouth to check out the children's museum there. They are getting ready to do a large renovation and expansion this fall so some exhibits weren't working properly but the girls had a great time. I think the favorite areas were the bubble room and the slide area. In the bubble room they had a couple tables with various instruments to blow bubbles with and then had two stands that you could make large bubble columns that you could stand inside. The was also a play town where you could visit and play pretend in various businesses. At the end of the day we saw a show in the planetarium. Whitney is now an expert at identifying Orion's belt when the stars are out at night.

Jonas Owen Dahle...

We're excited to announce the arrival of our little guy. Jonas was born on 14 April at 1:24 am. He was supposed to wait another day or two to come until my friend and doctor returned from vacation but decided to come on his own time table. In fact, he came so quickly that the doctor on call didn't make it there in time and the nurse got to deliver him. He weighed in at 7 lb. 14 oz. and is 20.5" long. The girls are ecstatic about baby brother's arrival and love to give him lots of attention. We're grateful to have this sweet little guy in our home!

Spring Break- Day 1: VA Aquarium

Since Whitney was on spring break this last week we tried to get out for an adventure each day to have some fun and help Mom keep her sanity. Monday, we joined our friends the Napoleons down at the Virginia Aquarium. The girls enjoyed seeing the seals, stingrays, sharks, and otters. Whitney said her favorite part was seeing the seals kissing. We had fun seeing the exhibits but the place was crowded that day and it didn't help that a third of it was under construction and the place was poorly designed to manage the traffic flow of people. This made it difficult to maneuver through with the strollers. It was also pouring rain so we were unable to check out the nature walk through the swamp areas. We had a fun time regardless and the kids were especially excited about the lunch stop at McD's with the play place (shh, don't tell Dad as he has boycotted McD's!)

After naps that afternoon we pulled out the hard boiled eggs to decorate for Easter. I think the girls fingers ended up as colorful as the eggs but they had fun coloring and dyeing the eggs.

The neighborhood bike pump...

We've decided that we own the only bike pump in our entire community of 1oo townhomes. You would think that when the parents of the 30 or more kids riding bikes purchased that bike they would think to buy a pump but that doesn't seem to be the case. They ride the bike until the tires are flat and then it is useless to them. That was until the kids figured out that there is this nice family that owns a bike pump and will pump up their tires for them. It's pretty much a given that on a nice day especially after its been cold for awhile and they haven't been riding that at least one kid will stop by to get their tires pumped up. Just this afternoon we pumped up 8 tires. It's pretty funny when a kid knocks on our door the first time as they are scared to death to ask us not knowing what to expect but perk right up when their friend says "See I told you they were nice!" We're just glad to that we can contribute to the kids being involved in a worthwhile activity and being out getting some exercise.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We've been having a fun time making green treats and dressing in green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Yesterday at playgroup everybody got to bring green treats to share and they made a pot of gold for the craft. Today we started off with green eggs, yogurt, grapes, and milk along with bacon instead of ham for breakfast. For lunch they also got green grapes and the green jello jigglers they made yesterday. Whitney wore her leprechaun hat to school today. On the way home she wanted to go looking for the pot of gold but unfortunately there were no rainbows today. Hope you all have wonderful green celebrations today!

Snow to Sun...

We started off the week with school being cancelled and being able to enjoy a real snow day. The girls had fun building a snowman, throwing snowballs at Daddy, and playing in the snow. It wasn't great packing snow and there was only a couple inches so it was a little snowman but they enjoyed it nonetheless. However some not so nice neighborhood kids stomped it later in the day while we were out running errands :( Jump to the end of the week and we're out at the playground running around in t-shirts, shorts, and sandals enjoying the temps in the 70's. It was nice to go for a long walk as a family this evening. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be back in the 30's and 40's by the end of the week but we'll enjoy the great weather while it lasts!

Our little artist....

(If you look closely you can see her drawings on the tile, both walls, and herself.)

In a matter of a few minutes the other day, Maren was able to create quite the masterpiece in our home. Unfortunately she chose to use a variety of canvases for her work. I sent her downstairs to have Jim put a new diaper on her as I was currently busy organizing clothes in the girls room. She returns about 5 minutes later still diaperless and covered in red! I was not very happy and started hollering and before it was all through the entire family was implicated as having played a part in the ordeal. Maren had started in the kitchen with the marker and had colored on the carpet, clothing, shoes, walls, tile, doors, etc. between there and the bedroom I was working in. She was in trouble for her masterpieces, Jim for his inattention to her allowing her to sneak a marker out of the box sitting next to the laptop he was on, Whitney for leaving the markers out, and me for allowing Whitney to use the markers while Maren was napping. Luckily it was a washable marker and came off most stuff quite easily and most of the walls hit I painted with Scotchguard paint last fall so it wiped right off. It's quite comical to think about now and that I totally over-reacted. Maybe its a good time to pull out that blame it on pregnancy card!