So much for Spring!

We woke up this morning to be greeted by 3o degree temps and snow on the ground. It's hard to take snow after a lovely weekend of sun and warmth. This was the view in our backyard at 6:00 this morning. Poor Sadie, when I let her outside this morning, she turned and looked at me as if to say: "Are you kidding me! - I thought this stuff was all gone!"
All weekend long I agonized over the fact that I have flowerbeds that need to be cleared. I'm sure that my tulips and irises are much happier today covered in leaves and mulch.

Birthday Bowling becomes Blissful Bash

We celebrated Katie's 7th birthday a few fays early today by hosting her first grade class at the local bowling alley. Boy, 7 year olds are a lot of fun...but once you add cake and ice cream into the mix, it can get quite rambunctious!

This may be the last year (until high school) when it is actually "cool" to hang out with the boys.

Katie's friends are so delightful. Steve and I love to watch them play together because they are truly such a nice group.

If Kate wished for a spare or a strike, her wish came true. After the cake, she bowled 4 spares in a row followed by a strike. Well played, birthday girl!

Riley does her victory dance... Any pin down is a good roll!
Each child signed the bowling pin and Katie was able to take it home as a momento. This was a fun day, and the best part was Steve and I didn't have to clean up afterward!

April Showers Greening the Midwest

It seems as though it has been raining non-stop for weeks. I realize that can't possibly be the case; however, that is how it seems. The river is pretty high and there is talk about floods again this year.

The up side to all this rain is the fact that the leaves are coming into bud and the flowers are beginning to shoot upward. I love this time of year (sorry Steph). I find so much joy in the fact that everything starts all over again. I'm reminded of the Philip Larkin poem, "The Trees":

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.


Such good advice for all of us; nothing beats the opportunity to "begin afresh".

Absent blogger returns

It's been a pretty rough month and I really haven't felt like getting online very much. To those of you who have been nudging me, thanks for the push...I'll try to be more consistent in my posts.

Katie turns seven on Tuesday. It's difficult to imagine, she seems to be growing up so quickly. I know how clichéd this will sound, but it truly does seem like yesterday that she was 6 lbs, 11 oz. Now we have deep and meaningful conversations about truly important things (like how High School Musical was WAY better than High School Musical 2, and about how Zac Effron is really cute, but that Corbin Bleu would probably be more fun to hang out with). She makes me smile and I am grateful for these silly moments that we share. Each one is a gift.

I finished her birthday gift recently - I made her this quilt for her bed...I can't wait to see her reaction when she opens it.