Tiptoe through the tulips

A local farmer plants hundreds of tulip bulbs each winter and the result is a beautiful field of tulips. He even has a little Dutch windmill set up by a little pond. A few friends and I wanted to take our kids out there to get some pictures. The kids had a great time wandering around in the tulips and finding the mud puddles. It was the first of many gorgeous spring days we've been having. We were all wishing we were in shorts! Here are a few pictures of the kiddos, who are getting harder and harder to photograph by the way!

By the dutch windmill.

Morgan smelling the tulips. This one was totally unprompted by mom. She did it on her own and I was able to capture it.

Ethan gave Morgan some love and in typical Morgan fashion she's not too sure about it.

Cousin Annika and Auntie Kara came with us too. Ethan wouldn't pose with the girls.

Ethan and his buds Caden and Trey. He has a blast with these brothers whenever they get together.

Sibbling Love

We have been working so hard with Ethan over the last several months...ok year or more...to be gentle and loving with his sister. We know he loves her, he just gets a little overzealous sometimes and a little overaggressive. It also doesn't help that he loves to touch, be it hugs or tackling, and Morgan just doesn't really enjoy being touched too much. We have been doing a lot of praying about it with him and for him and we finally feel like we are starting to see him turn the corner. I think it also helps that Morgan is getting older so she can tolerate more and follow his directions better too. There have been some very sweet moments between them this past week. She has started allowing him to hold her hand when they walk out to the car and they have been playing Ring around the Rosie ( ring, ring as Mo calls it) together. She will also let him give her hugs....usually. It is very fun to see. As soon as Morgan was born I began praying and hoping that they would grow up loving each other and spending time together. I think surviving twin siblings at the end of the summer will also help bond them together. They'll need each other amidst all the chaos. Here are a few tender moments caught on camera.

While Morgan is learning to tolerate more, she is also learned to be more aggressive, as seen in the head grab above.

Ethan LOVES to play games on PBS kids. He can turn the computer on, get on the Internet and find the website all by himself. It is crazy what kids can learn at such a young age. The other night he called me and told me that Morgan wanted to play with him. I was surprised when this arrangement lasted about 5 minutes. Mo doesn't have a whole lot of sit in her. We pray that these moments continue to happen more frequently!

O Canada

The Olympics were fun to watch this year. I always prefer the summer Olympics and my north of the border husband prefers the winter. It was especially fun for him this year with the Olympics taking place in Canada. He was pretty impartial to the US winning or Canada winning in most sports, until it came to Sunday. He is still Canadian through and through and even wore his Canada hockey jersey to watch the gold medal hockey game between the US and Canada. He was super into the game and loved every minute of it. We were happy in our house that Canada pulled off the win!

Almond blossom run and parade

This year Nana asked Ethan if he would like to run in the Almond Blossom race with her. They have an 8k and a 1 mile. She and Ethan ran the 1 mile. I had intentions to run the 8k until becoming preggo with two. So I was relegated to the sidelines, cheering everyone else on.

Daddy pinning Ethan's number on. Despite the look on his face, Ethan really was excited to run. He'd been talking about it for days!

My sister ran the 8k and actually got 1st place in her age group. Great job Kara!

Waiting at the starting line, all ready to run!

Morgan and Annika cheering everyone on.

Heading towards the finish line! Ethan and Nana completed the race in 16 minutes and 21 seconds. My mom said she only had to carry him a couple times and otherwise he did great. He chatted the whole time, big surprise!

Ethan had a great time and I think this has become a yearly tradition, I'm not sure how much longer Nana will be able to keep up though. There were some pretty young kids running that race quite fast!

After the race we went to watch the parade with friends. We had quite the line-up of little kids watching. Ethan only lasted by the street for a few minutes and then he was up by Daddy, it was "too noisy". The parade got a big thumbs down from Ethan, but the race is a must do next year. Thankfully he isn't aware of the carnival yet, we didn't have to brave the crowds or the weather for that this year. We'll see how long that lasts.