LOVE THURSDAY

Katrina sent the Cabbage an Easter bucket filled with a bubble wand, side walk chalk, a sock monkey and the Dog Walker Barbie. Dog Walker Barbie comes with a dog that you can feed teeny tiny cookies to and it poops teeny tiny poop pellets. Needless to say that the Cabbage has had more interest in the dog than the Barbie. We now know that only the poop pellets can go into the opening for poop. Cookie pellets get stuck. Also Barbie is wearing some ridiculous high heeled wedge shoes for walking a dog. Saturday morning after we'd all eaten breakfast, the Cabbage picked up the chalk and said "Can I play with this?". I looked at my empty coffee mug and said "let me refill this". Michael looked at me and asked if I was sure. After all, we were still in our pajamas. I shrugged and said "Why not?". So out to the front drive we went where we spent the morning coloring the driveway and (me) drinking coffee in our pajamas. These are the days I have been waiting for, days where the sun has warmed the morning enough to be outside without a coat or jacket or socks or even shoes. All winter long we've spent most weekends tucked inside 750 square feet of space. We have resembled our ancestral cave people, huddled together on the floor with Barbies or around the TV (modern day fire). There were some days where I'm pretty sure the Cabbage spent half of the day on the iPad. Venturing out required thirty minutes of preparation time just to make sure everyone was bundled properly, hardly worth it for a trip to the grocery store. Even if TJ's has stickers. But finally, on Saturday, we had a weekend where there was no rain. It was not windy or cold. No sweaters or socks where required. In fact, we spent the whole day outside. We packed up some toys and snacks and headed to the park. There was lounging on a blanket and many rides down the big curly-q slide. We walked to the other side of the park to see the geese and we ate carrots and broccoli and cherry tomatoes and string cheese. There was even the construction of a sand castle in the sand pit. The only downside is the crazy sunburn I ended up with (Michael fell asleep in the sun and barely turned pink, meanwhile the back of neck has started to peel).

I love that we are finally into the season where the outside can be our living room. We can spread out and chase bubbles around the yard. We can poke at the things sprouting in the garden. Every time the Cabbage went out to check on the "pwants" (we're working on our Ls), she came back in with a surprise for me. "Now close your eyes really tight" and when I'd open them I'd exclaim "it's a dandelion!". Then she would say "no, it's a bandelion". Then we'd spend the next five minutes correcting each other, but it didn't even matter because she could go outside and pick as many "bandelions" as she wanted to. I'd rather have a million dandelions littered around the house than seeing her zoned out in front of the iPad. So here's to mornings coloring on sidewalks and days spent in a park. Happy Love Thursday!