"Meet Mo" weekend

The entire Cooper clan was back in town and their spouses and significant others. Why did everyone converge on this beautiful weekend in April? To meet Mo, Greg's "friend," who nobody in the family had met yet. What was the verdict? Well...

...Okay, Greg. We approve.

This is Greg, exploring in White Pine Hollow.

White Pine Hollow was pretty nice, with lots of edible plants and wild flowers, cliffs and stream crossings. Occasionally trees got in the way, however.

Lise had fun, too.

Lise is almost one year old and she got an early birthday gift from Aunt Ellen, though Claire was maybe a bit more excited about the parrot than Lise.

Claire had a wonderful weekend, too.

Lise contemplates life.

"I don't have anything to do!"

When Claire says she has nothing to do our response is to tell her she can scrub the floors or clean the bathroom. This was the result this weekend.

Lise and Claire swing together for the first time. It won't be the last.

Crazy girl!

See camera? It's a stick.

Peek-a-boo! Out of the oven drawer pops Lise. After discovering just how dirty it was in there we won't be letting her in there again for a while.

Sisters

Are these two related?

Already?

(Sunday morning, after hunting for eggs)

Claire (age 3 yr 5 mo): Mama, is the Easter Bunny real?

Me: (already? seriously? how do I answer this?) Um... what do you think, Claire?

Claire: Well, have you ever seen the Easter Bunny?

Me: (at least she has a scientific mind! observation and evidence! But...) uh, no.

Claire: I'll ask Dada. (he's just coming downstairs.) Dada, have you ever seen the Easter Bunny?

Will: um, no.

Claire: I think he's probably just 'tend. (pretend)

***

(After lunch Monday as she was having a treat from her Easter basket.)

Claire: Mama, how the Easter bunny get in our house? All the doors was locked, right? How he get in?

Me: I don't know.

Claire: (silently thinking)

***

What will she ask next?

Happy Spring!

For the last month Claire has been asking us frequently if it is spring now. March is a difficult month to teach the seasons - it starts off as winter ("When it going to be spring, Mama?"), then a little spring weather teases us ("The birds with the red bellies is here!"), then we get some snow ("why it snow in spring, Mama?"), then all of a sudden it's 80 degrees ("Is it summer now, Mama?")

Even though it's finally technically spring no one in our house is complaining about the summer weather last week. However, Claire still doesn't understand when spring arrives! Join the club, Claire -- no one in the Midwest knows!

Recycling

A few weeks ago when I got home from work Claire met me at the door exclaiming something so quickly that I wasn't sure what she had said. Turns out Will had taught her how to bring stuff out to the recycling bins and she was SO EXCITED about this new job. She begged us all evening for things to take out to the bins. We had to actually search for things to send out with her, rather than just letting it pile up by the back door waiting for someone to get around to taking it out. She's not quite so enthused about it these days, but we still try to have her help occasionally.