March, Mud, and Lots of Fun

I've been back home for almost a week and haven't had time to update my blog. The last couple of days have been beautiful and I the time to take the girls outside. We went to visit our neighbour across the street and today we played/worked in the backyard. It's 8 p.m. now and everyone is tired. The girls are finally sleeping and I think Jeff and I will watch a movie and then head to bed at a decent time.
We hope you all enjoyed March/Mud break.
As we were heading out to get the mail and drop in on our neighbour I gave both girls a cookie. I guess Maya figured since she was wearing mitts she can't use her hands. (In her defense, with her big, snow-and-cold mitts she wouldn't have been able to hold it and today was the first time she had lighter mitts on) She did clue in after a while that she actually can hold the cookie in her hand.

It can't be spring in Canada without the mud. Our girls are discovering the fun of playing in puddles. Laundry, laundry, laundry...

Maya was keeping up with us very well, she walked all the way over to our neighbours and back without fussing or being carried. I know for a lot of you out there that's not a big deal, but up until now we usually took either a wagon or sled along and she just got a ride. Katie didn't really enjoy walking much, but now she'd doing much better and Maya is doing a great job keeping up.

Splashing in the mud and water all the way out our driveway. (Katie funny: On one part of our driveway the water was running down a bit of a slope so Katie said: "Look Mommy, the mud is rivering")

Katie is getting kind of sick of my picture taking, but when I asked her to smile for cousin Nate she still put on a big CHEESE.

This smile is for Grandma

As we visited with our neighbour Katie got comfortable with their giant schauzer Midnight. No fear or hesitation because of the size.

The girls playing somewhat nicely together. Play wrestling that actually for once didn't end up in tears. It started out with Maya deciding to climb on Katie who was just lying on the floor minding her own business. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera right handy and by the time I went to get it they have "digressed" to wrestling.

Our backyard is pretty messy and having a hyper dog running rounds around the perimeter made it very muddy. So I figured if Mom can make aprons out of table cloth, I can make some mud pants. So Jeff looked after the girls for a bit this morning while I got to sowing. They turned out pretty good, and they really did work (until Jeff coaxed Katie into a puddle that was deeper then her boots so the water went under the pants and into the boot, oh well, at least the mud was kept out)

This smile is for Grosi. Katie sporting a much to big coat and her new pants.

Maya doesn't have mud pants yet, but she does need them. I have enough material left over so maybe at sometime this weekend I can whip up a pair for her as well.

All those muddy trails are getting covered with some wood chips that Jeff's old company dropped off for us last year. I think it's going to work great. Katie was a very big helper today. In the morning she helped me bake banana chocolate chip muffins and some low-fat-high-fiber blueberry muffins. Then in the afternoon she got right into the yard clean up. Daddy is loading her up with wood chips...

...which she proceeded to roll to the mud and dump it. (Notice the size of that wheelbarrow in the next picture - my back would kill walking bent over like that)

Cleaning up the mess the birds and squirrels made with the corn and sunflower seeds below the feeder. Katie shovelled it into her wheelbarrow, then rolled it about a foot to the big one and then she picked hers up and dumped it into the large one. She moved almost that whole pile.

Maya also kept busy doing yard work, cutting grass like a big girl.