End of Winter (Hopefully)

Spring has been slow in coming this year, but we've tried to make the best of things and enjoy winter.

Juan Pablo had a little stomach bug one weekend, and Jeff volunteered to take the girls to the mall for the day so that I could take more time to focus on him.  We snuggled up, read books, and watched videos of when he was a baby.  By afternoon he was feeling better, so we decided to go to our favorite nature area at Kensington Metropark and feed the birds.  Juan Pablo was so excited to see a group of wild turkeys.  He kept saying, "Mama!  I didn't know we were going to see wild turkeys!  We've never seen wild turkeys here before!  I can't believe it!"

When the birds first came and stood on my hand he squealed with excitement.  They weren't landing on him though, and we figured out that it was probably because his mitten is so small.  So we put my glove on him instead.  He thought the best way to attract birds would be to be like a tree- still and quiet, with eyes closed because trees don't have eyes, and his mouth open because trees have holes in their trunks.  It worked!  He got several chickadees that came and ate from his hand!

A couple weeks later Jeff went back with both big kids to feed the bird again.  This time a woodpecker even landed on Juan Pablo's head!

We also went on a winter walk in Barton Park one afternoon with Abuelo. Teresita was a little confused by the whole thing.  She was cold, but there was water everywhere so she wanted to go swimming...I think she's ready for summer.  The older kids had fun though.

We found a steep hill that would be great for sledding and they decided that it didn't matter that we didn't have sleds and just slid on their bellies instead.

During Holy Week, we celebrated Holy Thursday by having a little family seder meal.  After dinner, Jeff washed everybody's feet, which Teresita thought was hilarious.

We had a great Easter with Abuelo and the tias (and the future Tio Antoine).  The kids got new pajamas from Abuela in their Easter baskets (which the girls had to try on immediately) and they all ate way too much candy.  This is Teresita on a sugar high:

Ok, that's more like Teresita at any given moment of the day no matter what.  She is so sweet and silly.

Ana Luisa's ballet class ended with a little performance last week.  Juan Pablo had been talking for weeks about how he wanted to give her flowers at the end.  He is the sweetest big brother.

Ana Luisa definitely took the prize for "most enthusiastic ballerina".  The girl is definitely a performer.  It was adorable to watch.

She was so happy to get her flowers.

And she just loved her teacher Miss Emily.

And now that I'm caught up on this blog, can we please move on to spring?

Though I will say, kids in footie pajamas are just about the cutest thing ever