Do you see what I see?

Look closer. See that little girl squashed between the chair and the window? That's where she retires every afternoon for quiet time. Forget about the playroom. Kids like the teeniest, coziest spots they can find, and this girl's been working on this spot for a few years now.

I finally put all her little figures into baskets and clear containers so she knows where all her stuff is for telling her stories. She'll come home from school and tell me she has such a great story to tell, and sneak back there for a few minutes while I make lunch.It's just the perfect visual of how kids don't need much, and they certainly don't need anything big. She's got animals and fairies and pollys and frogs and bugs and dinosaurs and ocean animals, and they are all super important characters in her stories.

Plus she's got the best view of Mama and Papa Robin swooping down for beakfuls of dead grass to build up their nest.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. The sun is shining. Perhaps this isn't front-page news to anyone else, but here, on May first, we were in wool coats and UGGs and the north wind blew right through us. So sunshine, warmth, is very welcome.

2. Good news on the swimming front! Fisher walked into the pool on his own yesterday with enthusiasm!



3. I have no idea what we're having for dinner. None.



4. Alla's sixth birthdy party was this past Saturday - a bug-themed party. I think we've recovered.



5. The highlight of the party - pairs of kids wrapping each other in toilet paper "cocoons." Hilarious.

6. I'm willing to take a long break from parties for awhile, but then there's Fisher who hasn't had even one party of his own yet. And, of course, now that he's seen his big sister's party, he wants to invite "all the friends," meaning all of her guests, to his birthday, which he thinks will happen again soon.



7. I finally got some allergy relief for my poor, nearly-scratched out eyes: Allegra! It's all good except for this: it seems to be making me toss and turn all night. But if I weren't taking it, I'd probably be itching and scratching instead of tossing and turning. A trade-off, I guess, for a few more weeks.



8. I think Santa may need to bring Fisher a marble run this year, as he had quite a good time with it this morning in school. He happened to ask yesterday how to tell Santa what he wants, so I told him to write a letter and we'd mail it to the North Pole. He'd like his very own copy of the Oscar-winning movie Barbie and the Three Musketeers, which he calls "I For One," his version of the "All for One" song in the movie.

9. This will be a hard-earned spring, if it ever arrives. As a reward for our continued patience, a mama robin has blessed us by building a nest under our deck. Blue eggs and baby chirps coming soon! I read somewhere that robins or their offspring often return to the same place each spring to build again. So perhaps this is the child of last year's mama.

10. I'll leave you with an image of Saturday's party. I love that no matter how crazy it was, Alla was in her own little birthday world having a wonderful time. We love you, six year old girl!

Easter in pictures.

It started at 6:20 am. Hence the moon.But kiddos don't wait for Easter and eggs and finding and opening, do they?

We've had some super crummy spring weather here, but isn't this just the picture of Easter? I mean, I think it's always been this way, no matter what it was the day before or after, the nature of Easter is this glorious sunny blue sky.

Our third annual trip to the Minnesota Zoo - farm babies, tractor ride, cute baby piggies, stinky cows.

And, new this year, topping it off with dinner at Nana and Pappi's!

Thank you, Easter Bunny, for a lovely, exhausting day.

Birthday girl.

We surprised the birthday girl on Tuesday by picking her up from school and taking her out to Red Robin, where both Daddy and Pappi met us. Of course there was the birthday singing and balloons that will hang around our house for awhile. The rest of the day we waited for Daddy to come home so she could open presents. She made me hide them.

The first year she is reading her own birthday cards!

The ones she could remember to get to before ripping open the gifts, that is!

We surprised her with the pink guitar she's been asking for since last summer.

She's smitten. The next Carole King, I think.

6:37 - officially SIX!

Oh, so patiently waiting for chocolate-chocolate chip cake! I saw her mouth the words of her wish - she's still wishing for a magic wand with real magic.

At bedtime, there were two more presents waiting in her drawers - matching jammies for her and Lily! She was over the moon, and said over and over all day long, This is the best birthday ever!

Now we are six.

When I was One,
I had just begun. When I was Two,
I was nearly new. When I was Three,
I was hardly Me. When I was Four,
I was not much more. When I was Five,
I was just alive. But now I am Six,
I’m as clever as clever.
So I think I’ll be six now
for ever and ever. {A.A. MILNE, NOW WE ARE SIX}

Six years ago.

Six years ago I was 37 pounds heavier and waiting not-so-patiently for my first baby to be born. It was also a Friday. I didn't know I'd have to wait three more days for my water to break and then one more after that for her to come into our world.

And now she's going off to school so confident in herself, and everyday making my world so wonderful.

I love you, sweetpea.

Ruled by weather.

Just two weeks ago we still had tons of snow on the ground (don't worry it's all gone now, at least from our yard, however our silly weatherman is predicting 3-6 inches tomorrow night).All through the winter I wondered what on earth Fisher will do outside once the snow is gone.That blue shovel was like an extra appendage anytime we were outside. It was his personal mission to shovel snow all over the neighborhood. Not necessarily to do anything helpful with it, mind you, just to pick it up and dump it out.I never thought we'd get rid of waist-high piles of snow, let alone the piles that were over MY head.(Oh yes, and it was Fake Moustache Day at school, too, for April Fool's.)

It's a good thing I watched and waited for those maple blossoms, because, as I remembered, their show was short-lived, only two or three days and the wind took the whites of them clear away. But for those two or three days, it was like someone had put light bulbs in our maple tree, which for those two or three days, was much appreciated while we waited for the piles of snow to finally melt.

Save the worms.

Sunday morning I hadn't gone too far on my run before I started noticing tons of stuff in the road, and shortly after that I realized they were worms. As in hundreds of worms. As in, suddenly I was leaping over them on my tippy toes so as not to crush the survivors.

When I was home stretching, I told Alla all about it, and of course my little animal rescuer dashed out the door to save as many as she could. It wasn't long before her sidekick came out to join us.

I'm sure we saved at least a hundred worms, but when it was time to come in (I had to shower and eat, for pete's sake!), Alla was sad for the ones we couldn't save. Love that girl!

I love her.

It's a shame there's no school today because it means Alla's teacher won't be treated to one of her colorful, crazy outfits. But I will.

Lots of snuggles.

I am the lucky mama of two little snugglers. They snuggle me, they snuggle Daddy, and they snuggle each other.Which must be how they shared this lovely cold that kept Alla home from school on Monday and Fisher home today.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. My husband is the resident candy-lover in the house and seems to pride himself on new discoveries. First it was the pretzel MnM, and now it is some Dove coconut creme egg.

2. I myself think I have kicked my sugar addiction, but would not turn down my favorite Easter treat, the ever-delicious Cadbury egg, should it turn up Easter morning.

3. Alla was home yesterday from school with a downer of a cold. All the extra resting must have paid off, because she woke up this morning before her alarm, and the first thing we heard was, I feel great! She sounded so surprised and genuinely delighted. The simple things.

4. Nana and Pappi got a dog! The little guy's name is Joe and he is a really, really sweet dog. I don't throw that around either, since I really have no desire for pets of my own, however, this dog really is a good one. The kids were so sad to leave him after our dinner there Saturday evening, saying they were going to miss Joe.

5. We have happily reached the 50s, steadily, and the buds on the trees are just about ready to burst. You'd think that the actual leaves are my favorite part, but it's the burst of fuzz from the buds that glistens in the sunsets for just a few days each spring.

6. Alla and I are in the middle of the second Little House book. I didn't read the series as a kid, so I'm invested in it now. When we started last summer, and then [she chose to] put it down for awhile, I was certain that after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it wouldn't hold her attention. I mean, a whole chapter on how Pa builds the chimney for heaven's sakes? But Laura Ingalls Wilder knew her audience because my daughter is hooked, I tell you. I want to get through three more this summer so we can read The Long Winter during our next long winter.

7. Today was the first day the snow mound in the front yard was low enough to allow the swing to fly high without feet dragging across the snow on your way down, so Fisher wanted to swing, swing, swing, beary high.

8. This week's swimming update: only five minutes of crying!

9. The kids and I had a brief discussion while making dinner this evening about going to school every [single] day when you're in kindergarten, to which Fisher responded by crinkling up his nose and saying, But I will miss you! I don't want to go to Pinewood.

10. Trying to think of a poignant and enchanting and perfect book for Alla's sixth birthday...stay tuned.

Kids at the counter.

They're up there for lots of different reasons. To help assemble muffin tins. To play with water and cups and spoons spread across dish towels. To bake muffins or cookies or cakes. To make Pizza Friday.

I'm just glad they're up there with me.