Holy smokes! Springtime is such a busy time! I wanted to get some fresh pics up here before the girls are grown and off to college . . . here goes:
Here are the girls and our friends Anna and Daniel befor
e they moved to North Carolina. Wherever you are you guys . . . we miss you! Come back to us! We got baby chicks on Sunday and Francesca promptly named them, "Anna, Daniel, Baby Lily and Heather," (sorry Matthew, its Palisade and we are only allowed 4 chicks. Since then, they have re-named three of them so now its, "Anna, Sippy Sippy Sophia, Sunburn and Sunburst." We LOOOOVE our baby chicks. They are sooo sweet
and cuddly. We have two Black Stars and two Barred Rocks - our rock/star chicken flock. I can see how farm pets could get addicting. So far, they're to
tally low maintenance compared to house pets. And soon, I'll be able to kick them outside for good! Unlike our cats, who like to wake me up in the middle of the night to drink out of the water glass right next to my head, even though they have fresh water of their own.
Here we are on one of our Wednesday pre-school days. We walked to the "Sucker Store," aka Ace Hardware to see the baby chicks and ducks. Francesca had just found a dandelion and she was really happy and excited.
And happiness is a sucker from the Sucker Store. I think that night when Andrew asked the girls what they did that day, Cecilia said, "Go to the sucker store!"
Highlights of the hike: The beautiful hike, LUNCH! The Echo, ECHO, echo, echo, echo . . . carrying Cecilia in the backpack while carrying Francesca in my arms on the way out, while Jackie carried Quinlan on her front and Hudson on her shoulders, the sunny, hot weather (woo hoo!) and ICE CREAM afterwards . . . Hudson and Francesca's pick: Electric blue cotton candy ice cream with gummy bears . . . ew! Cecilia had a smoothie and I powered down a huge chocolate shake. 
This was a Riverbend Park Friday when Jackie and Hudson and Quinlan came down to play with us. Jackie endured walking about three blocks carrying Hudson, pushing Quin with both girls hanging onto the side of the stroller. Jackie is the coolest! 
And here is Francesca and Hudson up in the biggest, coolest tree in the world. That was another fun day at Riverbend Park.
Ingredients:
Francesca finally is satisfied with her knight costume. She figured out how to fashion a REAL HARD night helmet (her bike helmet) with a feather, just like a real knight. Awesome! And I have no idea what Cecilia's costume is in this picture - but she looks satisfied with it, too. She's wearing a hat on her head with my had tied around her waist, holding some babies.
