Spring at last!

After slogging through some snowy, slushy, sleety days well into April, we are finally feeling securely enough into springtime to pack away the winter coats, boots, hats, and mittens. We've been enjoying some warmer weather outdoor activities, too -- lots of bubble blowing, sidewalk chalk drawing, and bike/trike riding. Leif is getting to be quite the whiz on his balance bike, zooming around the large, open asphalt play area at the school across the street from our house. Bjorn sort of has the hang of pedaling a tricycle, although at not quite two years old, his legs are too short to reach the pedals on many of the trikes he encounters (much to his chagrin). He's also not a fan of having to work too hard while pedaling, so he prefers to have a grown-up push the trike unless he's going slightly downhill. We're humoring him with the trike assistance for now, assuming that soon enough he'll be insisting (like he does already with many other things), "Do it SELF!"

Leif and Bjorn aren't very adept at blowing bubbles the old-fashioned way yet (they do try, but get frustrated with their limited success), so I picked up a couple of hand-held, battery-operated bubble blowers that work like a charm -- quite the hit!

Another popular outdoor activity at our house: scaling the back yard fence. Fortunately, Aaron built it to be sturdy enough to withstand such treatment.