COME ON, SPRING

I am normally one to really relish winter. Growing up in southern Alabama, there was really no such thing, save for a week or two where it dipped into the 40s (ooh, brrr!), so moving around to different places that experienced seasons, I could not have enjoyed it more. It always seemed the cool weather left too quickly though, and Minnesota is the first place I have definitely gotten my fill of the cooler temps. Most of the country seemed to experience some sort of (admittedly, concerning) heat wave in February and pictures of people running around outside or having picnics or playing in tshirts floated all over my instagram. Minnesota did not get the global warming memo and continued on with temps in the 20s. But! One day it was sunny and about 33*, so we lugged out the bikes and stroller and tried to make the "warm" weather count!

Blurry, but look at the joy on her face!

Seuss week at school continued and one day was Wacky Day, so I let the kids pick out their own clothes for school. This is usually a sufficient amount of whack, so I thought their ensembles would be golden. Instead, they came out like this.

Uhhhh.....? This is fairly normal. Most days if they beat me to the dresser, they will have shirts on backwards, mismatched socks, skirts on under a dress, short sleeves in -2* weather, and definitely a rainbow of color all over their little bodies. So this seemed pretty tame. I asked if they wanted to wear something a little wackier and tried explaining the point of the wacky day to them but they were pretty set on their outfits. Whatever!

Sammy from 5 years ago!!! (sobs)

Fun fact- if you have Amazon Prime, you have access to the greatest photo storage ever. FOR FREE. There is an app (you can also open it on your computer from the website), you download it, open the app, grant it access to your photos, let it upload, and then it organizes everything by date for you!! It also has this nifty "On This Day" feature that makes me want to cry my eyes out because I see Baby Sammy With All The Hair and wonder where the last five years went. Anyways, I can't keep that sort of thing to myself any longer. The downside is that there is limited video storage, but if you pay $60/year, you get unlimited.

This is an affiliate link and clicking on it might earn me enough pennies to one day justify a tiny fraction of my Amazon purchases.

Molly and I had some clearance rack success and managed to pull off a twin moment- hard to do when one of you is shopping mostly the maternity section.

Will has recently adopted a real crap sleep schedule (as has been his "thing" since birth, basically) and he refused a nap until I came up and laid down in Sam's bed with him. I seriously almost passed out myself, but remembered what a cranky beeyotch I'd be if I slept an entire 20 minutes at 3:30 in the afternoon. If the nap ain't eight hours, I have no business taking it.

He's pretty cute though, huh?

The weekend arrived and the forecast claimed it would be mid-40's with sunshine so we hightailed it out to Rick and Monica's house to get their kids outside with ours to run around and burn all their energy.

Turns out it was 41* but with the biting wind, it felt like 5*. Didn't seem to bother the kids one bit though.

We lasted about two hours before Will and I were about frozen solid. Sam and Molly came home and went straight back outside to play basketball across the street and stomp all over our mud yard. Will woke up from his nap and wished he could run around with them too.

We had pizza for dinner and then the kids got early showers and watched a movie with some popcorn.

Like how I try to distract you from the crummy photography with some sparkly nonsense? Is it working?

First Sunday of Lent and Molly took note that the priests are now wearing PURPLE (HALLELUJAH FOR THE WARDROBE CHANGE, AMIRIGHT SISTER?!) instead of green.

I mentioned it on IG, but I am really ready for spring church clothes. We have been trying to mix it up with the few winter church clothes they have for months now. Every combination just seems bleh. Molly's sundresses are staring at me and I want to see Will's chubby little legs again!! I need to do a blog post on how our entire family basically has a capsule wardrobe now (mostly out of necessity not because we choose to) because kids tend to have an insane amount of clothes.

The weather yesterday was beeyoooooooootiful and I was itching to get out there the entire time I was making this birthday cake. Steve took the kids for multiple walks and bike rides and I tried to bake as fast as I could and get the house cleaned up so we could go party that afternoon.

I tried a new buttercream recipe (as I've said before, I'll try almost anything labeled "the best") and it did NOT disappoint. It was simple, quick, easy, and best of all, tasty. I highly recommend.

The cake did not disappoint either. It's a good thing we left the few leftover slices at Monica's house because I know for a fact that would have been breakfast.

After cake though, it felt like my birthday when I noticed a sunset through the trees.

We live "in town" and the way our house sits, we do not get to see sunrises and sunsets. Sad, right? I didn't see any sunsets in NY either due to the way our apartment and the others around us were situated. I am very much a natural light person, so this bothers me. This one filled up my sunset tank nicely though.

It was so much more vibrant than these pictures even show. I kept tapping my phone screen in different places hoping it would focus on just the right spot to correct the colors to what I was seeing with my eyes, but it never did. Oh well. Still gorgeous.

Today is supposed to be super warm again (in the 50's!!!) but very cloudy/muddy. I think a thrift store might be calling my name... Molly has decided she wants to have a deer themed birthday party (oh mylanta....) and I've finally nailed down details. Just a matter of finding deer-related things that are not covered in camo. (Jesus take the wheel.) A week or two ago, we were all ready to plan a horsey birthday party. We had the space and the friends who were willing to bring horses TO the party! It was going to be so CUTE. Now I am trying to find a pinata that does not look like we are fixin to drain the blood and guts out of a deer strung up by its feet. Again, JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL.