A Great Weekend!

I don't know about anyone else, but I could really get used to this amazing weather!  If you told me this morning that the rest of the year would be brutally hot, but we'd get one, prefectly sunny, unbuggy, beautiful spring day like today, I'd take it!  Today (and yesterday, and last weekend) were absolutely magical!  Here's what we've been up to (can you tell I don't mind busting out the camera when the weather gets so gorgeous?):

Last weekend we started a couple of projects - I put together a little cabinet that should have taken me 30 minutes but took all morning because I'm an idiot and can't read directions.  Sylvia had fun, though:

No, Mama, you cannot put the shelves in.  Where else would I play?

Screwdrivers are not for babies!

You may or may not have noticed the brown streaks of dust all over Sylvia's sweatshirt.  That came from the project Sylvain started in the garage, which involved power sanding this old dresser:

So I could take over and start painting it to look like a new dresser!

This is what it looked like after two coats of paint last Saturday.  I did one more coat yesterday and will probably do some sort of clear varnish (or whatever you put on top of painted wood to keep it from getting all scratched up) next weekend.  The picture makes it look more pink than it actually is in real life.  The color is called Safflower from Olympic and I love it so much!  Painting the dresser has been a pain, though.  I keep reminding myself that we bought the dresser for $0.00, so a little work and elbow grease are probably well worth it.

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On Friday, I was off work and I can't even begin to describe how happy I was that I got to spend the whole day with Sylvia!  I've been so busy at work lately, and we've been so busy on weeknights and weekends, that I could tell the Nugget was starting to crave some Mama time (or maybe it was the other way around).  Anyway, it was supposed to be a little rainy but warm, so we braved the weather and headed to THE ZOO!!!  Grammy came along, because she had the day off, too.  It rained on the way there, but once we arrived, the skies cleared and the sun was shining!  It was a great day and I know we'll be spending pretty much ALL summer there, thanks to our passes from Dad and Sally (thanks, guys!).

Watching the penguins

These guys are so cool!

Our buddy's beautiful backside.

A little break at the playgroud, because slides are just as cool as animals, you know.

On our way to the Gorillas.

Our buddy's beautiful front side!  Can you believe how close we got?  I thought we might get pecked to death, but he was perfectly well behaved.

She's sitting still!  Take a picture, quick!

All the other flowers weren't quite blooming yet, but these babies were bold and beautiful!  Sylvia adored them.

I didn't get many pictures of the animals, but Sylvia's favorites were the elephants, monkeys, manatees and polar bears.  In one of our favorite night time books (On The Night You Were Born, by Nancy Tillmann), it describes what the world was doing when "you" were born.  It says, "When the polar bears heard, they danced until dawn!"  then later it says, "Whenever you doubt just how special you are, and you wonder who loves you, how much and how far....just look for the bears asleep at the zoo.  (It's because they've been dancing all night for you!)"  Sure enough, two polar bears were sleeping, so I said that line to Sylvia and she yelled "Nigh-night po-bears!  Lah you!"  

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Yesterday we spent all day working around the house and getting our projects finished.  Sylvain started working on our monster of a yard, Sylvia and I took many walks through the neighborhood, and we did lots of spring cleaning / organizing / ohmygodthebabyscomingwhatarewegonnado.  I had a mild panic attack when I thought about all there is to get done between now and June, but after yesterday and today I feel much better. 

This morning we woke up and dressed up to go to Claire's baptism!  I didn't tell Sylvia we were going to see Claire and *Charlie* until a few minutes before we got there, because once you say Charlie's name, she's going to scream it over and over again until she sees him.  Lesson learned.  They had a blast together at the post-baptism party.

The only boy she's never bitten.  Or girl, for that matter. 

The special girl!  Isn't she the sweetest?

Grammy and Poppy with grandbaby #3!  What pros.

Spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning...

...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand falling.

Sylvia and Callie crawled under this little cart and thought they were really cool.

A post-lunch chocolate snack.

 And there you have it!  Our whirlwind weekends in pictures.  We sat outside on our own deck after supper tonight and for a moment I almost cried because I was so darn happy to be in our own sweet house, looking out on our own yard, playing with our own Nugget and eagerly waiting for the next one to get here.  I imagined what it will be like when the baby is Sylvia's age, and Sylvia is about to turn 4, and we're out playing on the deck together as a family of four!  It was all smiles and hugs this weekend, and I can tell it's going to be a great spring!