New books for L

Yay! I just found out that I was the winner of 2 new, signed books by Karma Wilson. Thanks so much to Vassily for the giveaway. :)

I'm going to keep the zoo one for L, and I'm thinking that Mama Always Comes Home would be a perfect gift for a certain charming 2 year old who has a birthday coming up in July.

The birds are singing, the sun is shining....

and I get to pull dandelions today! Yep, we're "those" neighbors on your block. The ones with all the dandelions in the yard. Honestly, if it were up to me, I'd love a yard full of dandelions--they're pretty and you can eat the leaves, and they take zero effort to maintain. Alas, our homeowner's association would not be pleased. :( I put down a bunch of corn gluten a few weeks ago, so that should take care of any new guys sprouting up, but the established ones are plentiful and huge.

Which means today I get to pull a metric ton of dandelions. (Yes, I'm sure about the weight on that.) Wish me luck!

Pretty Much Perfect Friday

It's been a lovely, happy Friday for us. And I *knew* it was going to be a good day from the moment I woke up (well, from the moment I had coffee, actually, but close enough). Lila was in a sunny mood all day, the weather was beautiful, we did fun things.....really, just the perfect way to spend the day.

We decided to drive up to Bailey, CO for no particular reason. We wanted to toodle around, Bailey is a nice drive, so why not, right? We stopped in for lunch at this fantastically kitschy roadside hot dog stand, Coney Island. You know it's good when there's a line out the door, and Coney Island didn't disappoint. Lila had fries and a marshmallow milkshake, and I had fries and a dog. There were 5 or 6 hummingbirds flitting around, dipping in and out at the feeder. And Lila found a little bug that wanted to eat lunch with us, so between the milkshake, the hummingbirds, and the buggy, she was in heaven. :)

After that we drove up the road a ways and stopped to dip our feet in the cold mountain river water. Lila splashed and waded around and threw rocks. I put my feet in the water and looked at river rocks. Oh and this huge trout totally came to visit us! It was amazing, I've never seen anything like it. Lila was wading around, when all of the sudden we both saw this big trout swimming upstream, right next to her.....and then it flopped on the river bank, directly next to us! It was there for probably 5 seconds, barely long enough for me to snap a picture and hope it came out (it did, which I owe to the "good day" energy, I think...seriously I just pointed the camera and pushed the button, sure that I wouldn't get the pic). Then the trout flopped back into the water and continued on upstream. So cool!

On the drive home we had fun conversations in between singing along to music. It was the best way to end this day. You know, I was worried that I was going to jinx the day by feeling and acknowledging that it had an "awesome day" vibe, but that totally didn't happen. No tantrums, no whining, no grumpiness....just super good times. And now I am off to have a glass of wine, put my kiddo to bed, and enjoy my evening. Yay!
**Oh, and once again, the bandaid is just for show. She has about 7 bandaids adorning her body right now, and not one cut or scrape. **

Friday chill

We have the music cranked (Classic Rewind-70s and 80s rock, perfect for today) and I'm cleaning and puttering, and Lila is playing "Africa". It's a nice day. And Justin gets home tomorrow.....finally! Yay!

P.S. The band-aid on her head is just for show. She loves putting band-aids there. Weirdo. ;)

Can seedlings feel smug?

Because I think these guys are feeling pretty warm and cozy and smug right about now. Poor little outside plants, thinking the snow season was over!

Lila and I have been planting seeds and buy herbs and generally just loving getting ready to garden. We have dill, basil (growing in the egg carton), wheatgrass (that she planted at preschool,) and lettuce (in the yogurt cups). We'll be getting to tomatoes soon!

April Snow Showers Bring May Flowers

We've had an extremely snowy April this year, which makes me very happy, since I love LOVE snow. Especially since I hardly have to go out in it if I don't want to (amazing what a difference that makes, right?). The past 2 days have dumped over a foot of snow around us, and Lila took advantage of the weather by building loads of snowballs (mostly thrown at me) and a snow fort.

I'm so grateful we got some much needed moisture before late Spring and Summer hit; here's to a beautiful green Spring!

National Western Stock Show

Despite my little bear having a terrible head cold, she still had a really terrific time at the National Western Stock Show this weekend! I wish we could have stayed longer so we could have seen the Mexican rodeo, but 2 and a half hours was L's limit. She was a trooper the whole time, but at the end she was really wilting and dragging. Still, she keeps telling me she wants to go again--but I'm sure her memories of the gigantitron ice cream cone that Grandpa bought her have nothing to do with her wish to go back (seriously, it was big, and she ate the entire thing).

Grandpa also took her into the cool petting zoo--there were llamas and chickens and goats and sheep and pigs milling about, and they were all so gentle! Bear loooooooved the goats, and didn't really care about any of the other animals. I thought the pigs were beyond cute, but L had zero interest in them (or the llamas, either)--it was all about the goats for her. So sweet!