Seriously Cute

My, what a talented daughter I have.  Melissa has been very "crafty" lately.  In addition to the cute things she's been working on that you can see on her blog, she surprised me with an adorable Mother's Day gift -- a sock monkey.  (I have admired them in the stores, but had resisted the temptation so far).  Mine is the striped one.  "Polkie" (the polka-dot one) is Danica's.  I haven't found the perfect name for mine yet.

And what's even cuter than two monkeys?  Why, three monkeys, of course!  Just kidding!! -- I'm not really calling  my adorable granddaughter a "monkey".  Danica wanted to be in the picture too.  Notice how well her outfit matches the monkeys -- was that on purpose?.

Danica loves working in the garden with her grandpa.  She was in charge of planting the marigolds this year.  The one thing I insist on having in the garden every year is marigolds.  Clay chooses the rest of whatever gets planted.

She did a great job of planting the flowers.  She wasn't bothered at all by the excessive amount of worms we have in our garden. She enjoyed the worm "family" she found, and had very elaborate descriptions of the great big daddy worm, the medium-sized mama worm, and the itty-bitty baby worm, and the exciting life they were leading.  She put them (along with a bunch of soil and "food") in a little bug habitat she has, which Melissa has decreed must stay at our house.  They were "freed" a couple of days later.

And of course, if we're talking about cute, we can't leave Mira out of this post.  So here's a picture of her from a recent trip to the grocery store -- gotta get her started early on smart shopping!  She loves being able to sit up in the cart and see what's going on.

Seriously cute!

Soccer Game and Miscellaneous

Danica is playing soccer again this year.  Now they're even playing games against other teams (in the past they were basically just learning the skills and practicing).  Clay and I went to see yesterday's game (Clay had been to previous games, but it was the first one I'd been to this year).  It was a beautiful morning, and it was fun to watch.  Most 5-year-olds are not very competitive, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves, for the most part (there were a few tears at times).

Danica likes kicking the ball.  

She's a pretty fast runner, too.

Time for a juice break.  This is hard work.

The whole team got in there to try and block the goal.  Not very successfully, though.  The white-shirted team had some pretty good players and made a lot of goals.

Danica played three quarters, then ran races with Grandpa while she sat out the 4th quarter.

I need a camera with a better zoom lens!

A hug for little sister.

A cheer for the other team when the game was over (that one little boy didn't look very cheerful, though).

Everything is a picture-taking occasion.  Here are my favorite girls.

Mira really wanted to get down and explore.  And by that I mean she wanted to eat the pretty little white flowers in the grass, and anything else she could find.

It's kind of hard to learn to walk when your pants are falling down and covering up your feet!

Mira turned 10 months old on the 15th.  Melissa really wanted to get some pictures, and it was a nice sunny day (really too sunny--it was hard to get a good picture), but kind of windy.

I don't think she could figure out why we were sitting her down in a patch of flowers.

I think she's saying: "I'm just not too sure about this, folks!"

We "borrowed" the neighbor's yard for a nice background, as our tulips were a bit past their prime.

But it was kinda hard to get the squirmy one to cooperate.

We girls have gone on a few walks lately.

Danica likes to pick up "souvenirs" everywhere we go.  We try to limit them to the least disgusting of what she wants to pick up.

Drumming on the bus stop with the reeds she picked.

On our walk today, Danica insisted that she was an "old lady" and had to use these "canes" for walking.

I was baby-sitting Mira and gave her a silky blue shirt from the dress-up box (because she likes things of that "slippery" texture such as nylon slips, etc.).  Somehow she managed to get it on by accident.  Upside down, but she wore it for at least ten minutes before she finally shook it off.

One hand was all the way through the sleeve, but the other one wasn't, and she got frustrated trying to pick things up with the hand that was covered.

She looks good in blue, don't you think?

And last, but not least:  Danica and Melissa were playing around with the Dynamo labeler.  I'm glad to know that I'll be able to remember their names now!

Actually, this might be useful for Clay--he has a tendency to mix up the names of his family members.  :-)

Spring Has Sprung in Eugene

We had a ward activity this morning at a local park, including a very nice breakfast, an Easter nature walk (looking for specific items to remind us of Christ), and some Easter games for the young (and young at heart).  It was a bit chilly to begin with (at 9:00 a.m. it's still in the 40's), but there was plenty of sunshine, which was kind of a miracle itself -- I thought our activities committee was rather crazy brave to plan an outdoor activity in March, even with a covered picnic shelter.  (It was raining yesterday and supposed to rain tomorrow, so we were really lucky to have such a beautiful day today).

After the breakfast, Clay and I headed out for a walk, as there are plenty of jogging and bike paths surrounding the park, and I wanted to take some pictures of the spring blossoms along the millrace.

We had a good view of the hotel Clay works at, since the trees along the side are still bare.

We were amused (and amazed) by the ducks that sleep standing on one foot with their heads turned backwards to tuck them under their wing.  I would think they'd fall over, or wake up with a neck ache.

We saw some trees with pretty pinkish blossoms and bright green leaves.  I like the blossoms against the blue sky.

Here's a close-up of the same tree.

Even Autzen Stadium looked fresh and shiny.  Go Ducks!

We saw tons of geese and ducks and other birds.  Clay can still identify a few birds by their songs, even though it's been many years since he studied them.  (He's a long-time bird watcher).

Clay doesn't like this picture, but I do.  I think most of us don't like pictures of ourselves.  You'll notice there isn't one of me in this post, even though I let Clay take one of me wearing the bunny ears he made for me at the ward activity.  The kids we teach in nursery looked a lot cuter in theirs.

It was just a beautiful morning for a walk, and we enjoyed ourselves!

And here are a couple of pictures I took earlier this month.  The first is one I took from inside the car (don't worry, I wasn't driving while I took it, Clay was).  And the second is some crocuses in our front yard.

Of course, there is a downside to all this beauty.  Here is a picture of our best friend this time of year:

HAPPY SPRING, EVERYBODY!

Mama's Helpers?

I'm told that Danica is a pretty good helper at home.  One of the chores she is learning to do is to put away the dishes.  I was invited over for a meal the other day, and while Melissa was making sandwiches for everyone, Danica was emptying the dishwasher and Mira was "helping."

But as everyone knows, everything in baby's hand goes right into baby's mouth (how else can she explore her world?).

Let's try the green plastic spoon first.   

Meanwhile, Danica is diligently working on her task.

Then Mira needs to try out a plastic plate to go with the spoon.

The next course is the metal spoon.  (Doesn't she look like she's plotting something?)

No, you can't have this one -- it's all mine!

Danica shows us how carefully she can carry the dishes.

Making progress.

Oh, are we done already?  I was having fun.  Can't I help some more?

Of course, the dishes that Mira "helped" with had to go straight back into the dishwasher.  :-)