House Rules

This is just a peek at the week we had:

I won't get in to what encouraged its genesis but, I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the results. Harper enjoyed coloring in the pictures and "reads" it to us proudly.

Then I saw this:

 

and thought of all the clever parents out there, just trying to survive from day to day. 

How about you? What is your best parenting moment?

The Baby Whale

So here it is. The belly shot. By popular request.

 

 

Just to refresh your memory, this is what I looked like FIVE DAYS before delivering Harper.

 

In case you're doing the math in your head, I have approximately four months before I am expected to deliver this time. That's four MONTHS, not weeks.

 

I fear I may explode before that happens.

 

Harper is referring to the baby as "baby whale" and she's pretty much right. I am just clinging to the hope that the next fifteen plus weeks pass quickly.

 

Oh, please let them pass quickly.   

 

 

 

Our Easter at the Farm

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! Brad, Harper and I had a fun time celebrating Easter with some friends.

On Friday Harper requested a picnic at the farm. I thought it was a great idea and, with Easter only two days away, thought it may be fun to do our egg hunt out there, too. So we invited our friends, the Aglaves, to join us for the festivities.

The farm in Dover.

Balaji Aglave is Brad’s coworker and he and his family came to the states from India just a couple of years ago. They live in the home on the farm (the one Brad and I lived in when we first moved to Florida). As practicing Hindus, Easter was a pretty foreign concept to them, and I’m afraid that trying to explain it didn’t help any, either. No matter, they understood the concept of picnics, toys and candy just fine so they were on board. Their daughter, Taneshka, is four years old and she and Harper always have a nice time together. Sunday was no exception.

Brad and Balaji took the girls to see the neighbor’s cows while Madavi and I chatted under the large oak trees in the front of the property.  Harper was so looking forward to seeing the Easter Bunny in person but, unfortunately, he came by while they were gone and the girls just missed him. He was kind enough to leave a couple of Easter bags with some toys inside and took the time to hide some eggs and candy in their absence, so Harper's disappointment was short-lived. Maybe she'll have better luck next year.   

Ready for some serious egg hunting with her all-purpose owl bag.

 

Taneshka was an expert egg hunter in no time.

It was so cute how Taneshka showed Harper the ropes and Harper tagged right along.

 

Going in for the kill.

Where did those curls come from?

 

Pretty Easter girl.

 

After the egg hunt we had a picnic lunch. Then the girls tagged up the property with their new chalk that the Easter Bunny had brought and ran around the acerage until they were exhausted. All in all, it was a pretty successful day.  

There was one tense chalk-related moment, but things were smoothed over pretty quickly.

Harper LOVES tractors. It runs on the Booker side of the family.

Daddy and his girl in the strawberry fields.

Balaji and Taneshka.

 

Our happy, sleepy girl pretending to slumber on our way back home.

 

Thank you for the nice day, Aglaves!