Spring is Here!

Lewis' new favorite word is PLAY! If he spots a playground when we're in the car, he yells out PLAY! When asked what he wants to do, he says PLAY! Play, play, play! With spring upon us and warmer temperatures finally here, we've been trying to do just that.

Playing in the garden

I added sand to the raised bed last week, and he immediately grabbed his dump truck and went to work. He knew what to do--scooping and dumping and the like. I've since mixed in the sand, and yesterday we planted strawberries, broccoli, and peas. He seems interested in the garden so far, so hopefully he a) won't destroy the plants and b) will eat what we grow!

This past Saturday, Kevin had decided to do a race at the last minute to help prepare for the mini at the end of April (he hasn't been able to get in as many long runs this time around, so he signed up for this race to help ensure he at least got 10 miles in). With me falling ill, he was going to skip it, but Saturday morning I thought I was feeling better and told him to go ahead and go. Lew and I had breakfast, and I decided we would go ahead to see him finish. It took a little while to make our way around the stadium with the stroller, but within a few minutes we spotted him:

 Go, baby, go!

(He's the one on the outside right in a green shirt and black pants.)

Crossed the finish!

I lost him in the crowd as he was actually crossing the finish line, oops. I totally felt like a paparazzo, taking his picture without him knowing we were even there. While he was down on the field, Lewis and I were up in the stands, out of shouting range (and he thought we were staying home, so he didn't even think to look up our way).

After he crossed, Lewis and I made our way down to where the runners exited the hospitality area. It was the Papa John's 10 Miler (and the finish line was inside Papa John's Cardinal Stadium), so they had the usual bagels, bananas, Gatorade, water, etc. AND Papa John's pizza. I think he was happily surprised to see us out and about--Lewis stole Kevin's bagel right away, I guess as his way of saying, 'Good job, Dada!'

We headed out later Saturday for lunch and stopped at a park on the way to play: 

 Lewis was very interested in the creek. He played at the playground for a bit, but then he just wanted to walk along the water and sit (very) close to it.

Play!

We stopped at a different park this morning that we've never visited before. It's pretty near our house, but I've never driven back to fully check it out (it's behind a post office). I'm so glad I did today--it's really nice back there! There are three different playgrounds, a huge field to run through, a walking path, a couple of picnic shelters, etc. I didn't realize it was such a big, open space--we'll definitely have to go back there.

While at the new park, there was a dad with a bubble wand that I'd never seen before--I immediately was impressed by how easy it was to make bubbles and how big the bubbles were, so we went out and got one this afternoon. It is awesome: 

 Bubbles, bubbles, everywhere!

(But not a drop to drink...yet, for any Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory nuts like me out there.)

:)

The cuteness hurts my eyes (and my heart) sometimes. :)

And on a side note, here are our forsythia in full bloom. We have a lot of storm chances this week, so I'm afraid wind or rain will take the flowers away. That is why I took a picture: 

Ah, spring!

This would be the love part of my love/hate relationship with these bushes. Come mid-summer, I'm cursing them for overgrowing into the driveway. Until then, they can stay.