today it's spring

 With the time change we now wake up before the sun comes over the mountains.
In the early light we found some backyard visitors.
Ellie goes wild when she sees these desert sheep.  

Yesterday morning there were eight robins in our backyard.  I remember as a little girl my mom would always point out the robins--they're the first sign of Spring, she'd say.
So I made sure my kids noticed the robins.  It's Spring, and we have robins to prove it.

We needed to go grocery shopping,
but we got distracted by the warm weather, and the kids played outside with our next-door neighbors (who are moving. Boo.). It is beautiful today.  53 degrees, sunny with white fluffy clouds, birds singing, ahhh.  

I love that Ellie isn't crawling anymore.  It's so much easier for her to play outside when I don't have to worry about her eating rocks or other nasty stuff.

Aaaand, I picked up a shriveled dead mouse with the snow shovel.  The snowmelt always leaves such "treasures" uncovered. It was just as delightful as it sounds.

 We opened the windows.  I bought a Creamy Tahitian Coconut melty brick for my scentsy (Walmart-only $2!) and it is divine.  
I feel like singing. Hooray for Spring!

 Nicholas stuck his head out the window when we got back from shopping and told his friends to "Just wait one minute! I'm coming--just need to put on my shoes and shocks!"  
He doesn't usually say "shocks" like that.

Ellie learned a new word this week.  "Oopsie," only she says it "boopsie."  That brings her total word count to somewhere around sixteen I think.  Dad, Mom, Nicholas ("diss"), ball, bottle, please, thank-you, up, more, Sarah, yes ("dah!" like a Russian), bird, apple, banana, water, and oopsie.

  

I love my kitchen island.   And this is generally what it looks like in the middle of the day.  My workstation. Green decorations and party supplies for our party this weekend, recipe binder, strawberries from lunch, stack of towels (because my kids spill things probably fifty times a day), ingredients and mixer for making cheesecake, flowers, muffin tin (not sure why it's out), and pretzels with laughing cow cheese (my snack).


Tonight we're taking cheesecake to my sister, going out for pizza, and I get to go to Target by myself afterwards.