More Spring
Yesterday got up to 46 degrees and it was so clear and sunny it felt warmer. We played outside pretty much all day. In the AM kids and I rolled out our Mimenchiasaur string to see how long it would be in relation to our house and our block. Kids were impressed that it went to our next-to-next-door-neighbor's house. And it took them 4 seconds to run the distance and 54 Jossy foot steps to walk it.
Then we went in the back yard for mud squelching and fort stomping. Once the fort was a flat pile of muddy snow we went for a walk. We all worked on training the baby to hold hands and stay on the sidewalk. It was so fun.
After we got Malcolm, him and Joss worked out how many loaves of bread we would need for each big person (not Keian) to have two loaves of bird bread and how much it would cost at the Bakery Thrift store (at a nickel a loaf). They did a great job and picked out and paid for their bread with their own money.
We then went and fed the ducks (including one m/f pair of wood ducks!!), canada geese and seagulls at our usual spot. While we were down there a dad and his two kids stopped and came down by us. We shared our bread with them (truthfully we had about six loaves more than we needed!) and were surprised to discover that the little girl had gone to daycare with Jossy from 15 m to 3.5 years! I was talking to the dad about the birds' behavior this spring as opposed to last year and about other good bird feeding places when he told me that it was only the second time he had ever fed birds with his kids.
Now, for all I know he does tons of cool things with his fam, but it made me realize that I never had time to feed birds before I become more of a SAHM (I still work so I'm not officially a SAHM). Now I can't count how many times we've done it. I am so glad and so lucky to be able to slow down and enjoy our life.
When we got home they went back outside and we all played with the neighbor kids in our mud pit, I mean yard. We had seven kids running around, falling in mud and snow while Noelle and I chatted. When the baby completely bailed in the mud and we realized he also had a poopy diaper, Noelle came inside to keep one eye on the kids outside and to chat with me while I bathed him.
After the neighbor kids went home and all the kids changed clothes I let them watch TV while I prepared dinner. However they abandoned it after about twenty min in favor of "halo".
My friend had assembled a chicken and potato dish so I popped that in the oven and steamed some asparagus and made some fridgerator rolls, YUM! Rachel & Malcolm stayed for supper and then J and I went to the Y.
5 MILES IN 45 MINUTES, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yep, that's right! On the elliptical! A NEW RECORD!!!!!! I am so proud of myself.
And needless to say, after that big day, the kids slept great!
Peace.