Hangin' out

Yesterday, it was 61 degrees. Aaaaaahhhhh. Very unusual for early February, but I'll take it!

It was so refreshing to get out of the house and laugh with the kids. It's been an extremely long winter for someone that doesn't like snow and cold. Mother Nature was not kind to us this year.

So, around 10:30a, the kids and I went outside to play. I figured it was time for me to finally take the Christmas decorations down from the front of the house. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking...

"You STILL have your Christmas decorations up outside?!"

Don't say it. I've already been given a hard time by my loving cousins.

I have never kept our hatred towards cold and snow from you. You all know how much we hibernate in the winter. So, that stuff stays up until it's comfortably warm enough to take down. Luckily, yesterday was one of those days, or I might have had to put Valentine's Day hearts on the wreaths.

After cleaning the front yard and playing a bit, we went inside for a quick lunch. The kids were begging me to let them play in the backyard on their swingset. They've been staring at this thing for months. They were DYING to play on it.

"Pllleeeeeeaaaassseeee, Mommy!"

Not sure where they learned that, but it's kinda cute. For now.

I didn't want them to play back there. Not only is our backyard a mudpit from melting snow and occasional rain, but it has a ton of dog poop in it that has been buried under snow for 3 months.

With two big dogs that poop at least once, maybe twice, a day, thirty days in a month, three months of snow (at least)...you do the math. That's a lot of poop!

Luckily, the dogs don't "go" near the swingset. So, I gave in and let the kids run free, with the rule to stay by the swingset due to the landmines.

They were soooooo happy!! As I expected, the yard was muddy. Both of the kids were covered in it very quickly. And, when about 90 minutes was up, they looked hilarious. Each of them looked like a warrior with mud streaks down the nose and under the eye. I stripped them down on the deck & they went straight upstairs to take a bath.

It was so refreshing and relaxing to play outside, just pushing them on the swings & laughing with them as they went down the slide. I haven't seen them that happy for a while, especially since we're still recovering from the cold from Hell.

We leave for Tucson in 9 days. Yea! I'm nervous to take the kids anywhere out of fear they'll get sick again. I really don't want to travel with sick children. Wiping noses at home is rough enough.

So, for the time being, we're just hanging out at home. Today we made cranberry orange muffins. Delish! I love to bake and the kids are so interested in it. They can list everything that goes into a cookie or cake. So cute!

Oh, good news! Yesterday, I saw my tulips coming up in the garden! Yea!!
When I see that, I know we've made it through the rough part. Spring is near.

I showed the kids the tulips and asked them to look for more. After some investigation,
Sasha said, "Ooohhh! Look guys, more lips!"

Connor said, "Ooohhh! Look guys, five lips!"

I tried to explain to them that they are called TUlips not TWO lips, but they didn't understand. Gotta love the mind of a toddler.