Bella at the Arboretum

We went to the arboretum here a few weeks ago to see if there were any signs of spring. We found daphne, pussy willows, and violets. I'm betting that the forsythia is blooming now, but it's going to be a rainy day so I think we'll wait to go and see!

Hangin' at the LaX game

Here's Bella being quite cheerful as she sits and watches the Logos LaCrosse game.

Washing the Car

We had lovely weather last weekend so Bella helped me wash and wax the car. She also helped scrub the driveway, because it was apparently looking a little shabby.

Licking the Beaters

Every kid's favorite part of baking day. These things were spotless when Bella was done with them.

Easter

Sorry we're so late with these! Here's some of the egg coloring action and a shot of B in her Easter Dress. I'll point out that she was not cooperative for the Easter Dress shots, and as I was sick that morning, I didn't really want to take the time to get her into a decent pose. Enjoy!

Bugs

We've been gone for a while. The first week or so of our absence was due to my laziness, and the last week has been due to our having a bug. Bella and I both managed to come down with a rather nasty stomach bug (that actually landed Bella in the hospital for a few hours, but she's fine now, we promise!). So now we're back with pictures from the illness (the cute pathetic ones, not the gross ones). Note the hospital bracelet and bandaid from a botched blood draw on her arm in the first picture.


And here's the kind of mom I am. I made my daughter make her own jello to eat when she was sick. How horrible is that? (Actually, she insisted on stirring it. Who am I to refuse the wishes of a pathetically sick little girl???)

Fun Toys

Papa got lots of fun freebies at his conference, and of course B had to test them out. Here she is trying on all the various armbands and wristbands that he got.

B and "Kazoo"

We spent some time with the grandparents over in Seattle while we were there, and Bella fell in love with their little dog, who she affectionately calls "Kazoo". She still asks for him, a week later.

Yearly Sunglasses

Every year we have to take advantage of the 2 for $5 deal on sunglasses at the Children's Place. This year resulted in some fun ones. Here are some pics, with the last one demonstrating what sunglasses are apparently really for. Oh, and we know that they're upside down in the second pic. She put them on that way.

Fun at the Zoo

While we were in Seattle this last weekend, Bella and I hit the zoo for a few hours while we were waiting for Andrew to get done with his day of conferencing. As could be expected for a March day in Seattle, it rained. But we came prepared with hats and jackets. As it turns out, I've spent too much time on this side of the mountains and I've managed to forget that hats and jackets don't quite cut it in a Pacific Coast rain. But, we managed to enjoy ourselves all the same and had a great time running from one sheltered exhibit to another. It was actually quite fantastic because there was hardly anyone else there (all the natives were smart and stayed home), so it was easy to get front row seats for everything. One drawback though was that I didn't get a whole lot of pictures because I didn't want to get my camera wet. But here's a few of the ones that I did get...

Here's the giant spider that they had in the bug exhibit, sans glass. Yes, there was no glass separating this large flesh-eating monster from my child. Creepy creepy creepy. (Okay, so it wasn't really flesh eating, but any spider that's that size should be behind at least 2 feet of glass.)


Here is Bella, cheerfully dipping her fingers in the rain water on her tray and sucking it off of her fingers. Notice how her jacket and the stroller canopy are both soaked. I should mention that Bella was incredibly tolerant of the wet and didn't fuss at all while we were at the zoo (I think she was actually too tired to).


And here's the tiger who roared at Bella. The sun came out here (15 minutes before the zoo closed and we had to leave, of course), so I was able to get a few shots of the big guy.


Last but not least, here's Bella konked out in her car seat after a long afternoon at the zoo.