look mommy, a waterfall!!

I always feel like God gives me the grace to contentedly handle the situation I'm in... whether its a big deal or a little deal...yet once I'm out of it it seems way less "handle-able..." for example... winter/SPRING! i really feel so excited and energized all the way down to my soul that spring is here - the birds are singing, the windows are open, the parks and the backyard are calling to us every single day. I now think that if we still had another month of winter - being indoors almost all of the time - I would go crazy. Yet while we were in the moment, it was all good.... but now that this beautiful weather is here I am so full of thankfulness!! Ah...even this morning's sound of spring rain with the open windows brings me joy. I'm thankful.
We went back to the zoo on Friday - our membership expires the end of March so we're just packing in these free zoo days. The boys and I went with Nana and our buddy Rosie and it was lots of fun for all.





Simeon still says his highlight of the day was the polar bears, even though they did nothing but lazily lounge. He loves polar bears.
Justus is such an elephant lover that one of his highlights was seeing the very unreal yet lifesize elephant statue. He stood there and made his elephant noise right at it. What a happy boy.


Nana surprised us all with a surprise ride on the carousel - Simeon picked to ride on the yellow butterfly - Justus rode an armadillo and Rose an iguana.

Lots of squeals, "oooooohs", (justus' response to every animal), "mommy what's next?", hugs.... a great day! I have found that the boys are very content holding hands with eachother which is precious for me to see.

Other highlights of our past days have been playing "Pooh Sticks" at the little river at the park, a birthday party and cookie fest for uncle Ben, picnics, learning to make letters with our bodies, shooting lots of hoops, many walks, and oh! I can't fail to mention The Circus Ship. It has been Simeon's favorite for about a month (check it out, the pictures are awesome) - but he has now memorized about 75 % of it and its his very favorite thing to do to read it to us. It amazes me every time - he no doubt has better memorization skills than I. Yet his sentences are sometimes a little off - "Mr. Paine the circus boss was terrible demanding" sounds like "Mr Paine the circus boss was tantily commanding". its so cute and so him right now.

all of these little moments of wonder and joy make for a happy house and a happy family.