We hosted Easter this year at our house. I just love decorating for Easter (Spring). The yellows, the pinks, the light baby blues. It makes me happy to see my house so full of these lovely colors. It was a very nice Easter weekend. Friday we spent the day at our local Farm. It was all done up for Easter. Even the ponies were painted (and just a side note: I am not a fan of pony rides. I don’t feel that walking around in a circle all day long is a comfortable way to live, but, Ellie had never ridden a horse or pony before and when she saw a pink painted pony, there was no way around not letting her ride this one time). There were other animals there and tractor rides as well. Ellie loved getting to brush the baby goats and touch the ducklings and see the baby pigs.



Saturday we got to go to an Easter event at a friend’s park. Ellie played games and got to do a very quick egg hunt and enjoy some time with friends.

Easter Sunday, we hosted at our house. The Easter bunny delivered some fun goodies for Ellie and hid all the eggs we had dyed that past week in our backyard. My parents and siblings came and Jeff’s parents came too.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!! Happy Spring!!

13/52

eloise: The best photo I could get of you in your new Easter clothes. You are quite the ham! (excuse my pun). 😉 Gramma made the skirt and the top (and pants) are from Nana.

After a horrible, random throw up bug, last week, the weekend was for recovering. However, we had two very important birthdays first. My mom’s 60th and my Mother in Law’s birthday the next day. My middle sister threw my Mom a birthday party with all of our immediate family.
On Sunday we headed up to Carpinteria and took a nice birthday walk down the salt marsh to check out the water birds and the lovely spring green. It was the perfect thing to do on the first day of Spring.
Hoping both my Mom and MIL had a lovely birthday this year. We enjoyed celebrating with them!

12/52

eloise: Always climbing and exploring and questioning and marching to your own beat. A little wonder woman!

-joining Jodi for the 52 project.

We had a very busy and fun weekend! It was our town’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade this past Saturday, so of course we went downtown for that with Gramma and Grandpa. That same day we had Ellie’s best friend’s fourth birthday to celebrate. It was a lovely afternoon! Sunday, Ellie’s Nana and Papa flew in for the month. They will be staying in the next town over. We spent a nice afternoon with them, at the park and taking a walk along the beach in Carpinteria.

11/52

eloise: tending to one of your favorite dolls (Pink Pink). A beautiful spring day, watching you play so gently and lovingly. A perfect afternoon.

10/52

eloise: And then we were done. Three and a half years of nursing seems to be over. You woke up one morning about three weeks ago and said, “Mama, I think I don’t want to drink your milk anymore.” And that, was that. I didn’t think you would wean on your own. You were so attached to milk, but something changed, you grew up all of a sudden and decided. It’s bittersweet, but I was ready for you to be done. We cuddle every morning now and I’m liking the new routine. You are growing up my dear. A whole new world awaits.

March’s bird is the Cliff Swallow. I chose the swallow because as a child I remember visiting the Mission San Juan Capistrano on my Mom’s birthday, several years in a row to watch the swallows return and how neat it was to see them. Their mud nests secured on the Mission walls. Later on, the swallows who returned were fewer and fewer (I believe they head to Chino Hills to freeway overpass’ now).
We’ve been having a really fun time learning about swallows so far.

I made another magnet set for Ellie and our favorite swallow book so far has been Leo Politi’s Song of The Swallow.

I put together a little set of bird card paintings for Ellie (and for me to practice my bird art) and had a friend make a little wooden swallow for the set as well. (I may end up putting a few of these sets in my etsy shop too).
The wooden swallow is getting a lot of play. Here he is co-mingling with some bees.

We even brought in some art into this month’s birding. We molded swallow nests out of clay and then both of us made swallow paper dolls for our nests. It was a fun morning and the nests turned out really sweet.

We even bought a new bird feeder for our front yard and watch our new little house finch friends enjoy the seeds! I never knew birding could be this fun!

We were driving home today, the mountains to our left, the ocean to our right, and the colors of spring were like sirens. Green clover carpeting the previously burned hills with spots of yellow flowers. The ocean, a soft periwinkle with bright blue hues flowing from the Channel Islands. It was just a glorious day. I brought out some Spring toys and materials, replaced fir tree branches in vases, with clover from the garden that desperately needs tending and cuttings from the old peach tree stump, that’s trying very hard to come back to it’s former glory. My mind is full of butterflies and birds, bees and Easter baskets. Spring has come to California.