Lilacs

Spring has sprung around here and the shrubs are getting leaves. We had two mystery bushes on each end of the house which recently began leafing out -- and now they're blooming! We have two nice-sized lilac bushes. What a great surprise! The girls and I went out to cut a few blooms this morning and they had fun sniffing and playing with them.

We're back!

Whew! Long time, no post. Sorry about that. We sadly sent off Grandma, Paw-paw, and Max a little over a week ago. We were confident we sent Max away on the right foot, though, as you can see here:

After they left, Claire busied herself with a tea party:


And Maddie got a new 'do, which she's not too sure about:

Airplane visit

This morning Phil took us out to see one of the C-17s. I think Max had a great time. We even got to see a T-38 (a fighter training airplane) do a touch and go on the runway. I'm guessing this was a tad more fun for Max than the doll dress-up activity that the girls tried to talk him into this morning. As usual, click any of the photos below for a slide show of more pictures!

Gardening

We've been putting in a nice vegetable garden for the past few days (OK, who am I kidding? Mom and Dad did most of the work and we tried to learn how to do it so that they don't have to come set it up in every house we move to!). Anyway, it's all set out now, but it took a bit of work. I think my parents are going to send us a bill for their massage therapist when they get back home...

And here they are, taking the kids out for a walk. It sure is nice to have Grandma and PawPaw in town!

They're here!

After much anticipation from our girls, their grandparents finally arrived yesterday. And they brought a bonus playmate - their cousin Max! Claire is diligently working on getting Max to play princesses or ballet with her, so far to no avail. His resolve to stick to boy-type activities has been strong.

The weather has been beautiful again. It was in the 80's today - almost too hot for all of the running around the kids were doing outside and we even turned on the air conditioning. Max was able to ride his bike here, which is nice because the weather at home hasn't been very good for that. We haven't downloaded many photos yet; there will be more to come. In the meantime, here's one of Grandma reading Peter Rabbit:

playing outside

For the second day in a row it was really pretty outside. Highs in the 80's. No clouds. Very little breeze (OK, there was a breeze, but it wasn't the usual gusty, miserable wind). The girls have made friends with some little girls that live just a few houses over. We get together with them nearly every day so the girls can play - and so we Mommies can have a fellow grown-up to talk to/drink a glass of wine with! No wine today (though I promised margaritas on Friday) but it was still nice to hang out with friends.

Altus Entertainment

We live in a small town, but this town likes the Air Force. The chamber of commerce hosts a quarterly dinner for military newcomers and folks returning from deployments. There were around 200 or more people there to be "welcomed." Miss Altus painted a patriotic picture to music and they introduced a lot of the local big-wigs. The big entertainment after the food was the Magnum Rattlesnake Derby (Roundup) wranglers showing off some of their specimens. Claire was excited to see snakes, but about three feet was as close as she was comfortable getting -- didn't want to play with their rattles!

Wheeeeee!

Day 1 on the bike!

Happy Easter!!!

Hope you have a wonderful Easter and a beautiful spring!

Claire really wanted the Easter Bunny to bring her a new candy necklace and a "Claire-sized" bike. He must have listened well with those big ears because she got her first two-wheeler (OK, 4 wheels when you add in the training wheels) and both girls found a candy necklace in their baskets. He also hid the hard-boiled decorated eggs all around the house and the girls had fun discovering them all. After Mass here on base they were having another egg hunt, but we ducked out after the doughnuts, figuring the girls already had plenty of candy. They each had an egg hunt at school last week, then after the squadron egg hunt and their Easter Bunny baskets AND their Peeps from Aunt Heidi (yes, they're eating them!) we have enough candy in this house to keep them on a sugar high until Halloween!

Squadron Egg Hunt

Today we had an egg hunt/cook-out with Phil's squadron at the ranch of one of Phil's co-workers. It was a really pretty place with plenty of room for sugared-up kids to run around. The girls made out quite well and immediately dug into their loot. Here are some pictures from the day (and yep, you can click on the photo if you'd like to see more):

Go Fly a Kite

It's windy here. Really windy. But yesterday the UPS man delivered a new kite to our house, so Phil and the girls wanted to try it out. Fortunately it wasn't quite as ridiculously windy today as it usually is, and Phil was able to get some good flying in.

As usual, clicky for more pics...

Luck o' the Irish

What a lucky day we've had today! Coincidence? Or lucky St Patrick's Day? You decide:

-Phil flew during the day today, not at night!
-Claire slept in until 7:30; even the bugle didn't wake her!
-When Maddie and I got into the kitchen I discovered my husband had made coffee before he left this morning and left enough for me!
-While making Maddie breakfast I discovered he had also left some homemade smoothie in the fridge - yay snack for the girls! Seriously, am I lucky to have this guy or what?
-Maddie looked like she had some "business" to do so I asked her if she'd like to sit on the potty. To my surprise she said, "Yeah" and ran into the bathroom, where she proceeded to go peepee on the potty. Hurray Maddie!
-While she was on the potty the phone rang. It was the housing office. No, our luck wasn't good enough for them to decide they wanted to move us to the base commander's house or anything, but they did tell me that we won the drawing this month for $100!