Our trip to the Tulip Fields

For Jamisen's Annual Montessori Art show, each family had to bring a dish. Jamisen wanted to make a pie so we looked up recipes on the internet and even found some cooking YouTube shows with children as hosts. We watched several of these little episodes before deciding which apple pie option to go with. The apple pie option we did involved coating each apple piece with sugar and cinnamon. We also made a egg white glaze for the top to really make the pie get crisp and glossy. The pie was such a hit that Jamisen only got a teensy little slice - but what he did eat looked delicious. He seemed very satisfied with how his pie turned out. 

  

Lily continues to be an adveturous spirit. At Jamisen's class party held at a Lake Whatcom park the kids don't often go to, she was the first one in the lake and, for that matter, the last one. Then she played in the sand, wet, and had a great time at the party. She was so dirty that we had to strip her down to go home in the car.  

The other day, Lily found an Easter egg in the yard. Like a legit, hard boiled Easter egg. That was oh, six weeks old? Sure enough, not five minutes later, Jamisen's panicked alert sounds through the house, "Mommy! Lily's eating the egg!!!!!" The egg yolk had liquefied, the egg white was gray and it smelled like the inside of a trash compactor that had been rolled in manure and then dropped into a methane processing plant. She didn't get sick but what the what? Like, I can't even comprehend what she was thinking. Oh, I know what she was thinking! We told her NOT to eat the egg. And in Lily's world, everything is opposite day when it comes to being defiant. Sweet, but defiant.

Before the tulips were cut down, we visited the tulip fields with our little friends Sam and Liam.  Sam especially is quite sweet with Lily and she seems to gravitate towards him as well. It is an adorable friendship.

They hug every chance they get. In fact, at Lily's birthday party, they spent a good 2 minutes hugging and posing for the camera. Which you'll never see since the camera setting was on incorrectly and none of the photos turned out. But that is a sob story for another time ... =)

Jamisen has started repeating the kindest, most sweet phrase of all time to all of us. He looks up, sweetly, and says, "Mama, you are loved." Then he turns to Lily and says, "Lily, you are loved" And then he goes through everyone in our family and says "Daddy is loved, Lily is loved, you are loved and I am loved. Our family is loved." Could anything be sweeter?

The day in the tulip fields was beautiful and we had a really lovely time. I was exhausted by the time the flower excursion was over but we went to a park and just kept the party rolling. The kids took their bikes and we had a fun time being active in the park. Though, to be fair, much of why I had fun is because I mostly stayed horizontal on the ground and watched them bike around me. Their energy is impressive.

Chris was gone to Saudi for our tulip day excursion. To help the kids while he was on the long trip, he made cards for the days he was gone - and a countdown paper calendar so the kids could have a visual indicator of when Daddy would be home. 

The cards meant so much to Jamisen that he fell asleep with them. It was sooooo sweet. The kids love their Daddy so much. And how much more thoughtful of a Daddy could you find? Awwwww ...

Jamisen tells me that he's ready to try staying dry at night without night diapers ... we had him mostly dry at night before the house explosion and we're game to try it again. Wish us luck! Lily is potty training so a few more clothes in the extra daily washes won't be noticed.