In place of a thoughtful, well-crafted post, I offer a series of photos capturing things that have put some "spring" in our step the past couple of months. What's given us some pep. Yep.
You may know that I'm a real sucker for good-smelling, slightly-overpriced cleaning products available at Target. All spring I've been enjoying the limited edition Method "lime + sea salt" all-purpose spray and the dish soap. I've also been enjoying looking at the fabric swatch (hanging on window since October. See background of photo) for the kitchen curtains I hope to have made someday.
While we're in the kitchen, how about these adorable "dwink" holders? I use juice pouches or those flavored milk cartons when we are on-the-go for t-ball, eating in the car on the way to swim lessons, or having lunch at a park or play place. And, okay, fine, I also pass them out at lunch at home some days too. Never fails that Sweet P will squeeze half her beverage on her outfit. Found this nifty solution at our local toy store. Pop in the beverage pouch and your child uses the handles instead of causing a mini explosion with injudicious squeezing. Seems to work.
At the risk of looking obsessed with beverages, I'll also brag on my new straw holder. We're phasing out sippy cups around here and rock a lot of cups (often lidded) with straws. Now, don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun keeping the straws in a plastic cup in the cupboard and having that cup topple and its contents scatter a couple of times a week. But this glass canister that I found at Home Goods for $4.99 and filled with colorful straws from IKEA? It's more fun.
My kids think root beer is just about the biggest treat ever so I decided to blow their minds with root beer floats a few weeks ago. I had one myself. Forgot what a delightful combination root beer and vanilla ice cream is.
Cousins always make us happy, and we had a great visit from a few cousins over Easter. It's not often that ALL the cousins are in one spot (hopefully this summer), but whenever two or more are gathered, there is love and fun and chaos.
Here are two of the "little girl cousins" over Easter weekend. What I love about this photo is that at ages 3 and 2, they are posing like they are little tweens or something.
I can't remember now when we first went through the house we are now living in. Maybe in late April or early May of last year. Whatever the time frame, we definitely missed the blooming of the trees. The bloom has come and pretty much gone by now, but what a treat it was to discover that four trees in our yard were just gorgeous.
While we're in our yard, I need to share this photo of Bub. He hauled a kiddie chair up into the swing set and settled in to relax and read his Oriental Trading catalogue. I'd love to enjoy a spring breeze and a good book up there myself.
This next smile-maker was more of a winter favorite, but I found the photo on my phone and had to share. The kids and I found these Duck Tales DVDs at the library, and they were really into them for a while. Got us through a couple late winter afternoon witching hours. I defy anyone to pop one of these in and resist singing and dancing along to the theme song. Definitely a spring-in-your-step kind of song that lends itself to big swoopy, swingy arm movements and some popping jazz hands. We're fans.
Grandma and Grandpa visited last weekend. We had a nice dinner cooked on the grill, and I decided to pick up an iced cookie cake from Jewel so we could sing Happy Birthday to our little Sweet P one more time. The picture is blurry, but I'm sharing it to remind you not to overlook the iced cookie cake from the grocery store. It's so tasty. Every person at the table enjoyed it. An easy and inexpensive item to add some celebratory flair to a meal.
And for anyone tempted to be like, "Oh, MEP, do you know how much HFCS and hydrogenated oils are in the grocery store cookie cakes?" I would also like to share this photo of the beautiful vegetables that were part of our meal. Not that my kids ate them.
As I write this, I'm eagerly awaiting the return of spring weather and all the summer fun to come. Life is good here, and I hope the same is true for you.
What's putting a spring in your step this spring? Please share in the comments.