March Madness

Somehow, another month slipped by without a blog update. Needless to say, this month has been wall-to-wall madness for us. Ariella was swamped with work. Andy was slammed with a new business pitch. And everyone got sidelined with a late-season cold at one point or another.

But with all that madness, the most unbelievable thing to happen this month was the explosion in Gwen's vocabulary. At the beginning of the month, she was saying a decent amount of words. But by the end of the month, not only did she have a ton more words, but she was also stringing them together in 2- and 3-word sentences. Her favorite new word seems to be "Morgan" (which she pronounces "Mawkin").

Here's a recap of our March:

Spring is springing

Our flowers bloomed early this year thanks to the ultra-mild winter. (A week of weather in the 70's and 80's didn't hurt either.) Early in the month, Ariella, Lindsay and the girls bought and planted all the seed for our garden. The tomato plants had to grow inside for a while. But the green beans and broccoli could go straight to the garden.

With the weather finally warming up, the girls wanted to play outside. Morgan and Ariella cracked open a fresh box of sidewalk chalk. Later, Morgan and Gwen practiced riding their bikes in the driveway. "Bikes, Daddy?" Gwen asked.

Kiss me, I'm (partly) Irish...

The girls donned their green outfits for their St. Patty's Day party at school. After much deliberation, we're not exactly sure how Irish the girls are, though. Andy and Ariella are both at least a quarter Irish. So I guess that means the girls are at least a quarter Irish, too. Right?

Going to the Park

We've been taking the kid(s) to the park in nearby Collingswood since Morgan was little (compare the photo above to this one). Now that Gwen is big enough to run, climb and swing, it's even more fun to take the girls out for a good time.

You've Got a Friend in Schenectady, Part 1

Months ago, Ariella and her friends Susan and Heather planned to get all three of our families together for the first time since before Gwen and Susan's little boy, Ryan, were born (so, basically, it's been two years). So on Friday afternoon, we headed up the NY State Thruway for a weekend with the gang. But, as fate would have it, Heather's little girl (Jaimie) came down with a case of pink eye on Friday. So three families ended up being just two. But that was still more than enough people to have a fun weekend, with Ryan (2-ish) and Ava (5) as playtime hosts.

Gwen discovered Ava's jewelry game and got herself all glammed-up.

Later Saturday afternoon, Ava and Morgan headed to a nearby park while the little ones (and Andy) napped.

After the park, Ava and Morgan dyed Easter eggs.

On Sunday morning, they entertained everyone with a puppet show.

You've Got a Friend in Schenectady, Part 2

Conveniently, our pre-arranged trip to Schenectady coincided with the 4th birthday party for Morgan's other Schenectady friend, a certain Mr. Cooper J. Bonsteel. It seems like only yesterday that we were introducing Morgan and Cooper for the very first time. Now they're both turning four, going to pre-school, and able to climb through the massive Jungle Jim where Cooper had his birthday party.

Morgan has been begging for a bouncy castle lately, so she was thrilled to see one at the party. Gwen wasn't afraid to get in on the action with the big kids, either.

Morgan absolutely beamed when she saw that she could have her picture taken with Rapunzel at the party. (She's been watching "Tangled" for weeks and knows most of the movie by heart already.)