Spring Update

I'm a bad blogger, I know!  I just haven't been giving it any time on my list of priorities...that and because my small amounts of free time has been spent reading!  I can't believe its taken me this long to appreciate the resource that is the city library.  After I purchased all 3 books in the series The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I realized I was going to be in big trouble if I continued to buy books!  Reading really helps me to calm down and its one of the few things that can pull me from house work without feeling guilty.  I've since checked out other great books for myself (including the trilogy Hunger Games...still need to read book 3....and The Help) and the girls.  Kylie is reading the Little House series of books and Ava is reading the Magic Tree House books. 

We've been re-doing the back yard since Christmas.  I can't find the "before" pictures, but basically the yard was not kid friendly.  There was no place for the girls to run and play.  The old owner had a pond in the middle of the yard, and we liked the pond idea, just not its placement.  Jonathan dug a new one and we did a LOT of dirt and rock moving, paver re-locating, plant removal and transplanting, sprinkler system re-laying (moving it wasn't enough...we found U-turns of PVC underground...Jonathan wasn't thrilled about that!) and new landscaping. It took about 3 months to get done (we did hire day-laborers a few of those days to get it moving along in the beginning).

  And don't tell Jonathan I told you but the pond leaks...he's working on it.

 

New grass!!

 Bigger grass area to play!

 Its soooo hard to get them all looking!

 New pond. 

We've since planted a queen palm in the corner and a few other filler plants around it.

 Jonathans parents were in town for a weekend so he felt it was time to turn the tables on his dad and have him help us with our yard work!

This random photo was cracking us up.  We wanted to close one of the heater/AC vents in our formal living room.  No ladder will reach this so we had to improvise.  He got it closed after only a few attempts!

 The girls like playing games and here we are playing THE LOOOOONGEST game EVER!!  I like the ladders part, but the chutes can really test a mothers nerves!

I love little hands.

Spring soccer has started as well. 

 Cheetahs (same team as in the fall)

 Dragons

 Doing sprints with daddy before the game.

 Ava really came out of her shell this season.  She's more aggressive and light on her feet!

 Look at that form!

Kylie plays well, but it seems like, while playing, her mind is somewhere else.  Still not sure if this is her sport or not.

Coolness watches from the sidelines.  She'll most likely start in the fall. 

 

Its really really really tough keeping up with all of the girls activities.  In addition to soccer, the big girls are still doing gymnastics (which they love!) and Juliet is finishing up ballet.  She even has a little recital May 6th at a retirement community.  She wants to try gymnastics too.  I'm still going to the gym 3 days a week too.  Needless to say, we are out of the house a lot.

Oh yeah, Kylie also began piano lessons back in March.

 She's has caught on very well.  I'm learning too!

That old piano we bought back in Florida is actually being used for more than displaying stuff, and her teacher said it isn't that badly out of tune.

Now that both Kylie and Ava can start and stop their bikes on their own (I taught them mind you!  I was so excited since Jonathan taught them to ride without training wheels, I didn't want to feel totally worthless in the bike riding department) and Juliet has figured out how to ride a bike instead of a tricycle, we've been out riding bikes a lot.  We even took our first family bike ride a couple of weekends ago and it was so much fun!

Pool weather is here too.

And just yesterday, I stole and idea from my friend Amber, and the girls and I went on a nature scavenger hunt.  They had a list of stuff to find and Kylie was really into it.  Juliet enjoyed pulling the wagon and I had to remind Ava she had to find her own things and not copy Kylie all the time.

 Let the adventure begin!

 Some things were to be collected, while others required just a picture.

Touching something prickly.

Just this past weekend Jonathan and I traveled to Florida to fix up our house for our new renters.  We are grateful our old renters are out and have better hopes for our new tenant.  It was weird to be back at the house and after we spruced it back up both inside and it, it was sad to leave it yet again.  The girls stayed in California with both grandparents for the weekend and we got the pleasure of being up for 21 straight hours on our last travel day and managed to set foot in both houses we own on opposite coasts in the same day.  At night we went out with wonderful friends that we miss terribly (who were also extremely helpful in letting us borrow stuff, and do things for us when we weren't in town), saw a few other friends during the day, had Starbucks every morning for breakfast, and Jonathan and I enjoyed working together.  We never even had one argument!  We joke around that we'd never survive something like "Amazing Race" but maybe we really could.

The only pictures I got were what our renters managed to do to our house....I'll spare you the dirty air filter and broken screen door.  I failed to take a picture of the moldy shower curtain and the chewed up gum left on a window sill.

I'll be better, I promise!