Outside in the Springtime

Spring is in full force here.  The trees are leafy green, weeds and grass are growing like crazy and flowers are blooming everywhere.  We have been spending time outside in the nicer weather.  We bought a family pass for the zoo.  The girls have had fun watching the animals and hearing the lions roar and the seeing the monkeys play.  We walk often to the little playground in our neighborhood.  Slides and swings and a merry-go-round keep them busy and demanding the visits anytime they think of it, especially Tess.

We also spend more time in our backyard.  I keep them penned in the middle level of the yard with one of those six panel super yards so they don't fall over the ledge (its about a 3 foot drop).   And they are good about not trying to escape, except every once in awhile T will try to squeeze around one of the sides.  That girl has a little naughty streak.   To keep them busy, I have little brooms with dust pans for sweeping the patio and trowels for digging up the soil in pots. They have their own pots so they leave my little container garden of tomatoes, peppers and green onions alone.   They also have a collection of rocks and sticks they can play with.  I picked up a little slide for them at a consignment sale a few weeks ago.  They have a lot of fun with it and it is a great size for working on their balance and climbing skills.  They have taken tumbles off the top but landing on the grass, they recover pretty quickly.  They also have their little coupe to push each other around in.  A huge part of the enjoyment of the car is actually getting to clean all the rainwater/dirt/oak pollen off of it with a washcloth before they ride it.  Funny girls

 

 

As it really heats up for summer I plan to get them swimming in the kiddie pool and set up a water table for them.  The patio faces full south though.  It gets pretty blazing out there.  So we'll have to restrict our time out back even with help from a canopy.  Unfortunately, this evening our time outside was cut short because, as D learned to say, "Bug eat you."  Mosquitoes are back in the evenings and I am not sure where I put the bug spray last fall.  We really have to do something about our mosquito problem this year since I do want the girls to learn to love being outside.

Garvan Gardens

Last Friday we went for the first time to Garvan Woodland and Gardens a little south of Hot Springs.  It was a beautiful afternoon and the gardens were gorgeous.  It was a little late for the tulip extravaganza but there were still many beautiful tulip blooms.  There were so many different types and colors. 

 

We strolled down to the koi pond and the girls got to watch the fish swimming around and the water flowing down from the rocks above.  It was such a lovely afternoon and the gardens were not crowded. 

Besides seeing the beautiful flowers and water features, I think the girls enjoyed climbing up on the big rocks the most. Most of the time we let the girls out of the stroller and they walked farther and for longer than I expected they would.  My little girls are growing up! 

 



Tulle Skirts

I've been wanting to make these tulle skirts for the girls all winter long.  Compared to this summer, when they had a million cute dresses to wear, it was all pants for winter.  I figured it would be nice and easy to toss a little tulle skirt on over their pants for a more feminine outfit.  I finally finished sewing them (although I have to fix one because I was sloppy with my stitches). 

 

They were relatively easy to make.  I used 1 inch elastic, material for the waist band to cover the elastic and 1/2 a yard of tulle.  I folded the tulle in half and gathered it along the fold.  I cut a rectangle for a waistband, folded it in half and tucked the elastic inside before sewing the gathered tulle to it.  After it was all sewn I trimmed the tulle skirts a bit making the edge scalloped so it looked more like petals. 

Now of course, it is warm and the girls are in cute summer dresses again.  But hopefully they will still fit in them next year and if not I can always pull them apart a bit and fix them again.

Easter

I had big plans for March's posts but my momentum was derailed by a stomach bug that attacked the whole family.  Man, was it miserable.  On a brighter note though, the girls now know when they feel like throwing up, they need to do it in the potty or a bowl or a bucket.  There are other life skills I would have preferred they learn instead but still, got to look for those silver linings.

So now hopefully April will be a better month for this blog.  We got rained out on Easter, so on April Fools' Day we had a mini Easter egg hunt on our back patio.  I would have liked to have hidden eggs in the grass as well, but it is still so muddy and soggy from all the rain.  The afternoon was warm and sunny though and the girls enjoyed it.

It looks like our little neighborhood park has rescheduled its Easter egg hunt for Saturday so the girls will get another chance to hunt for eggs and I'll have another chance to take photos of them in cute dresses.