Oops! It's been a couple weeks. So busy! But happily busy.

My sister and brother-in-law stayed at our house for Memorial Day weekend. Quinn loved playing with Boo and D. And we have fed a lot of other friends and relatives at our house lately too. What a treat.

There's also been lots of playing, reading, puzzling, dancing, singing, sliding, walking, hiding, giggling, and guitar playing. Quinn loves having us play guitar for her and is pretty gentle with the strings. She's trying her best to sing Baby Beluga, Twinkle Twinkle, Old McDonald, Wheels on the Bus, some Britt Nicole and Mat Kearney songs, Jump in the Line (by Harry Belafonte), and the "Mmm" part of Little Bitty Pretty One. We are loving the Pandora stations for Raffi and Rain for Roots around here. And current favorite new word: mushy (muffin).

The rain this week has been a blessing. I feel like a master gardener even though I haven't done anything.

We are still eating lots of spinach and this week have been able to start harvesting kale. My second row of green beans has sprouted and the tomato plant has two flowers. I have five dahlias emerging from the ground now and a bunch of other doubtful plants are starting to look more promising. Even the meadow has a ton of sprouts, some of which may be weeds, but I'm really excited to see how it grows. The peonies are exploding so I have a continuous fluffy bouquet in the house to remind me of my wedding day. I'm also excited about the addition of some hostas. I had hosta leaves in my wedding bouquet. My great grandmother grew hostas in her yard and gave cuttings from them to many of her sixteen children for their yards. My dad was visiting my grandparents in Canada last week and brought me home some hosta cuttings from my grandma's plant. I hope I can keep them healthy!

It was also nice to have some quality indoor time with Quinn. It's easy to spend tons of time at the park running around with the nice weather. She's starting to like to do art projects, play dress up, and use her imagination. It was really fun to just play with her instead of cramming our days full of outings. We had so many comical little conversations this week.

This week marked the end of moms group at church and home group until Fall. That went fast. We have cake club tomorrow and I get to have a moms day out on Sunday with the neighbor ladies. Woohoo! And as a random close to this post, here's a really challenging article.

Happy Mother's Day Mamas! You matter. What you do matters in light of eternity. Trust in the Lord to hold you up when you run out of strength. And go snuggle your baby.

Date night
ice cream date with a friend
mom visit
tomatoes, peppers, and star jasmine in the ground
sewing projects
Jonathan taking Quinn down the water slide
Quinn thinking roosters say, "taco!"
new water bottle

Our pool is officially open for the season!

We went to the zoo yesterday with our neighbors. Quinn rode the kitty.

And by kitty I mean camel. She was frightened by many small animals at the zoo. But when the male lion strode out from feeding time and posed in a majestic, fierce way, she looked right at him and let out her best roar! This little gal keeps me guessing, that's for sure.

A pretty good week I'd say. I'm still kind of in shock at all the sun we've had. It's boggling my mind that our rain barrel is running low from having to water plants already. I've managed to keep everything alive still though, which I'm shocked about as well. The newest growth is one dahlia sprout emerging from the soil and a lot of tiny sprouts in our future meadow. They could be weed sprouts I suppose, but I'm hoping they are flowers.

Quinn sported some OSU gear this week.

She was mowing the lawn "like daddy". I want to go on the record as saying that though Quinn has more opportunities for attending Duck events and receives more Duck paraphernalia as gifts, we will let her make up her own mind about her college preferences :). We both truly support both schools. This OSU cheer dress was a gift and is getting some wear now that it fits. And she currently enjoys watching a "ball show" played by a wide variety of teams. Though, she already points out the "O" when she sees it.  
I celebrated my 22nd "born again" birthday on Wednesday. What a mercy to have been held in the Lord's grip this long!

Today we went to the pool. I couldn't get a photo because Quinn was too excited to start swimming. Our neighbors went down the giant slide and I thought Quinn wouldn't want to. She went down it last Summer during swim lessons and was silent, didn't laugh or cry. But she wanted to try it today. As soon as we got to the bottom she started saying, "more more!" And she wants to sit on the bench at the table now to eat instead of her high chair. So grown up!

We have the Canada ski trip film festival at our house this weekend. And lots of yard work as well. Enjoy the sun everyone!