Leprechauns!

We awoke on St. Patrick's Day to find that the leprechauns had paid a visit to our house!   Apparently, we forgot to leave a note asking them not to make a mess, so a mess they made. 

Alyse surveys the damage.

Leprechaun footprints!

Dirty little creatures!

They can't believe it!

Calder thought it was totally awesome.  However, let's just say Tessa was not a fan of this scenario.  She still asks every few days "Why did the leprechauns make a mess?"  "Why did the leprechauns leave their footprints on our window?"  "Why are the leprechauns dirty little creatures?"  "Are the leprechauns coming back?"  She constantly needs our assurance that they won't be coming back. 

St. Patrick's Day Parade

We had a great time at the St. Patrick's Day parade this year.  We had some gorgeous weather and it was so nice to be outside! 

Failed attempt at pre-parade sibling photo.

Stroller kisses

And more stroller kisses.

Ready for the parade to start!

Getting sleepy...

Tessa spent most of the parade just like this.  She is so sensitive to loud noises.

Loud drums!

Love the bagpipe players!

Had to take this shot for my dad.  A 1919 Ford!

Art Show and Science Fair

It was a busy week for Calder! On Tuesday, a piece of his artwork was on display at the local high school's art show. He was one of only three kindergarteners from his school selected to display their artwork. He was so proud (and so were we!)

Thursday was the big elementary school science fair. The science fair is only mandatory for 5th and 6th graders, but the younger kids are encouraged to participate. We decided to go for it since Calder loves science and was very excited about the idea. We let him do as much of it as possible all by himself, so it would truly be his project.  His project was called "How Does Ice Melt The Fastest?" and he experimented by placing one glass of ice in the sun, one in the closet and one in the refrigerator.  His hypothesis that the ice in the sun would melt the fastest was correct (shocker!)  He had a lot of fun and even graphed his results. (That'll make a statistician-momma proud any day!) Surprisingly, he was the only one in his class to do a project.  Here he is posing with his teacher and his shiny new medal.

Surgery

Earlier this month, Tessa had minor surgery to remove a dark, irregular mole on her head. As you may recall, Calder also had this done around the same age!  (We're hoping this isn't a three-peat situation.)   Since Tessa's was right where her hair naturally parts and was already quite irregular, the doctors suggested removal. 

I was worried about how things would go with her in the morning, since her surgery wasn't until 11:45, and she couldn't have anything to eat all morning.  She did great though (aside from the moment in the car when she found half of an old pretzel and decided to pop it in her mouth -- right when we were parking the car at the surgery center!  I had to reach in and pull it out of her mouth...and she wasn't a fan of that.) 

She was happy and kept very busy while we waited.

And had lots of fun dressing up in silly outfits with mommy and daddy!

She did freak out when we got into the operating room, but she was asleep quickly and all went well with the procedure.  She had a really rough time coming off of the anesthesia (think epic tantrum), but eventually snapped out of it so we could go get her request of a chocolate milkshake. 

Little girl was so wiped out from the events of the morning, that as soon as we got home, she crawled right up on the couch and fell fast asleep!

Sweet Sisters

Reading!

Calder is starting to get the hang of reading! He has always been excited about the idea of learning to read, but for some reason once he entered kindergarten and actually started learning, he wasn't as interested anymore. Lately, though, his interest is renewed and we catch him trying to sound out words that he sees around the house. It's very cute. He was especially excited when his Lego magazine came in the mail and he was able to read some of the comic strip all by himself!

Band-aid

Tessa loves band-aids.  She has to put them on every bump, bruise or boo boo.  When she fell on her bottom the other day, she insisted on putting the bandaid on all by herself... 

Birth of a curl

DIY Portraits

Hello! We're still here! The long blog absence was due to a broken laptop, but thanks to my husband (and his computer guru friend), we are up and running again! I forgot to post these pics earlier. I took the first two in early January when we had a really warm day. She was soooo sweet and posed so well for me!

And the next two I took on another gorgeous winter day, immediately after arriving home from an unsuccessful attempt at 1-year portraits. Seems Miss Alyse doesn't want mommy to go more than 6 inches away from her when strangers are near. Can't say I blame her. I don't like strangers either. So, for now, these will have to do for her 1 year portraits!