February 18

It was 61 degrees today. 

I'm not sure whether it was really a good day, or whether the sunshine and warmth just made it seem good, but either way, the day is over, the children are sleeping, and I feel happy.  I call that a win.

The girls and I dropped Caleb off at preschool (he had the Mystery Box today, and chose to put a toy fire engine in it.The last time he had the Mystery Box, he hemmed and hawed for days before deciding to put a paint brush in it. None of his classmates guessed. This time, he knew right away that he wanted to put Red the Fire Engine in the box, and his friend Zachary guessed.), then headed to the post office. I'm finally sending my precious camera lens off to be repaired after the dreadful dropping incident of 2013. You may notice that my pictures will look different for the next few weeks - I'll be shooting with my 50 mm lens all the time. 

After the post office, we headed home and I put Lily down for a nap. Before I put her down, Daisy asked to do a "craft".  I helped her trace her hand on a piece of pink construction paper, and she spent the fifteen minutes I was with Lily decorating that paper. 

You can see her "craft" underneath her plate. She proudly exclaimed, "I drew a cross! I drew a cross! I drew another cross!" at least 35 times.

Also, when I offered her a piece of cheddar cheese for a snack, she asked that I use a cookie cutter to make it into a bear. Anything for my little princess! Look at how happy she is!

Then we played outside, and I took zero pictures. It was lovely!

After we fetched Caleb and ate lunch and put the big kids down for naps, Lily got her alone time with all of their toys. If she didn't find Caleb and Daisy to be so entertaining, I think it would be her favorite time of the day.

After Lily went down for her afternoon nap, I worked feverishly to get all of my dinner prep done so that when the kids woke up, we could have an adventure.

Caleb woke up first, and I proposed an adventure to him. He replied, "Um, how about I just keep playing here instead?" Boo. Since the kid clearly doesn't know what's good for him, I persisted. Luckily, all of the children woke up at a decent time, so we headed to the lake!

They wanted to bring buckets, but we couldn't find shovels for them. Instead, they settled on nets.

It may have technically been warm out, but the lake was still mostly frozen and the wind on the beach was strong and icy! She didn't mind.

He wore his new running shoes. After we finished at the beach, I let him run on the path. He likes when I pretend that it looks like his feet are on fire when he runs, because the soles are orange. He did great running, until he stopped paying attention, crossed the center line on the path, and was nearly run over by a serious cyclist on a recumbent bike. It was bad, but hopefully it was a learning opportunity for him.

This is a terrible picture of our reflection in my car window, but I wore Lily on my back in the wrap. It was our first time wrapping outside of the house, so I was a bit  nervous, but she did great! With all the icy wind, I was especially thankful that Lily was wrapped up in a few layers of fabric.

Also, that sunhat?

Seriously. Isn't she the cutest baby ever? I put that sunhat on her before we left the house, fully expecting her to immediately rip it off her head. Instead, the opposite happened. I put the sunhat on, and she looked up at me and grinned. Girl knew how cute it was! She kept it on the whole time, for the whole car ride home, and during play time with Daddy when we got home. I love it! Maybe she'll be my cooperative one?