Changing times

It has been so nice having the sun shining and as the weather gets warmer, we spend most of out time outside. Recently I lost my teaching job at the Tesseract School in Eagan, MN. It was quite a shock to be working one day and not the next. This is my second week off and it still feels very awkward. I am looking for a new teaching job, but they are very hard to come by.

Along with me losing my job, we decided it best to have Sophia at home with me not going to daycare. It was so hard to say good-bye and we truly feel blessed to have had the opportunity to be at Corey's house. Sophia will go back in the fall if I can find a job.

We have been having quite a bit of fun at home. Sophia and I have been doing several art projects, going to the park, applying for jobs, cleaning the house, and much more. She is such a trooper!

Yesterday we made a caterpillar to celebrate spring and the sunny weather. She did such a great job painting it with water colors and glitter paint.

On another note, we have been practicing writing her name and she has the S and O down. Now if we could just get that tricky P next.

A pet and a party

Over the weekend my mother-in-law came home from Utah. Along with her she brought Sophia a new pet. Well, it isn't exactly alive though. She brought her a ZhuZhu pet. I'm not sure if you are aware of just what this thing exactly is......
It's name is Jilly. She is a pink and white hamster. She moves quite quickly and makes noise. It's almost like she is alive.

Sophia has had a blast playing with Jilly. She made Jilly a little bed out of an ice cream pail. In it she put one of her baby doll blankies and pillows so Jilly could, "get a good night rest". It is quite hysterical to watch her with this little thing. She also found out her friend Ava had two of them and a track for them to play in so the girls had a movie playdate and watched Tinkerbell with popcorn and played with their pets.



We also went to a party over the weekend. Our niece Abby Wickman turned 2 on Sunday. The party was Saturday and the weather held out. It was a bit breezy, but nice enough to be outside and enjoy the sun with jackets on. Sophia had a great time playing with all of the toys in the yard.

All of the girls at the party


Abby opening her presents


The birthday girl drawing with chalk

It was a wonderful weekend and I'm really glad that the weather is starting to get warmer and less windy. On to a beautiful week outside!

Easter Sunday

We had a wonderful weekend with all of the festivities, but Easter Sunday couldn't have been more amazing. We got up and let Sophia go find her basket on the front step. She was thrilled that the bunny ate most of the carrots she left.

She played with her basket goodies for a bit and then we headed out to church. The service was wonderful and the music was excellent! After church we had my parents over for brunch. It was so good, and I could hardly stop eating.

We were so happy to have my parents back home in MN. Sophia was thrilled to see Papa and Nana too. As evidence from the photo above!

Sophia loved finding all of the eggs in the yard, but loved the treats even more. We barely came inside and she had cracked one of the eggs open and indulged in a little melty chocolate candy.


My parents left for the afternoon and we played a bit outside with Sophia. Then she went down for a nap and I cleaned up after our brunch. I also took the decorations down. I felt a little guilty considering it was still Easter and here I was taking down the decorations before the day was over, but I needed to clean.

That night we went to the park and it felt a little like summer. I commented on this and Hal agreed. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful end to a fun-filled weekend!

Egg Mania

Last night we colored eggs with Sophia in preparation for Easter on Sunday. She had quite a bit of fun doing this, but kept wanting to touch the color dye in the cups. Being the over paranoid person that I am, every time she reached for the cup I thought in my mind here it goes. To my surprise, we made it through the whole process without any dye spilling on the floor or her clothes.

Sophia ready with all of the colors out

My happy little bunny

Today we went to the first annual egg hunt for our neighborhood. One of the neighbor mom's put it together. It was just AMAZING! Each of the kids found so many eggs and they had such a wonderful time. I was shocked at how many eggs Sophia found and brought home all filled with different treats.

Ready to hunt for eggs


The whole crew posing for a pre-egg hunt photo


Sophia hunting for eggs (the entire time she hunted she was singing the song, "A Hunting We Will Go")


Sophia post-hunt with all of her treats

While hunting, Sophia found an egg wrapped in silver tin foil. We were unaware, but there were only two eggs that were put out like this. Sophia was thrilled when she found out that this egg entitled her to a special surprise. In family tradition, one of the neighbors has done this for years and put together the special surprise for the two lucky finders. Here was prize:

We can hardly wait to have the egg hunt again next year! What a success for everyone. The kids loved it and found tons of eggs. The parents had a great time watching all of the smiles and happy kiddos.