Spring!!!

For once, the UP actually has spring weather on the first day of spring!  The weather has been crazy!  Record setting.  Too warm for March.  In the 80's people!  I hate the gross, wet, muddy mess of spring, so I'm glad everything melted quickly because of the weather.  But I don't live in the UP to feel hot in March!  I hope this is some weird fluke, and we aren't going to have a super scorching summer, but it's been a little bit fun too.  I mean, we even went to wade around in Lake Superior yesterday!  (Caleb loved it, by the way.  Wish I got pictures. :)  

The pics above are of the duck pond that is in the cemetery behind our house, and the bottom two are our back yard a week ago (all the snow's gone now).  First picnic at the new house!!!

Silly Cabers was obsessed with these glasses the kids got at a birthday party.  :)  They suit him.  hehe.

I hosted the LaJoice ladies lunch this month.  Sweet Lilly Jean was as snuggly as ever. 

KC and her date stopped by on Saturday on their way to Twirp (formal dance at the high school).  Anna was just amazed at how fancy her Aunti was.  :)  Ben-Ben got super shy, I think mainly from KC's date who he didn't know.  When we asked if he wanted a picture with his Auntie too, he came out from behind the chair and said, "No." and then pointed to Grampa Chuck.  So they had a little photo shoot.  hehe.

We had the grandparents over for a St. Patrick's day feast.  (Well, Melissa is out of town, but the other three).  Corned beef and cabbage, green sides, and green frosted and sprinkled cupcakes for dessert.  Yummo!  Oh, and we had Irish music playing too, a group called Gaelic Storm.  Our Irish ancestors would be proud.  :)  The beautiful bouquet is from my Gramma LaJoice, when she came for the ladies lunch.  Sweet.

Here's Caleb J throwing a little tantrum.  I don't know why this makes me crack up.  He just gets so upset sometimes (not often, which is probably why I can laugh about it), and I just wish he had the words to tell me what's bothering him. 

Ok.  So Ben-Ben has been obsessed with super heroes lately.  OBSESSED!  How does that happen?  When did he learn about them?  Is it just an inborn thing for most boys, to be drawn to that?  Anyway, this also cracks me up.  His current faves are Spider Man and Captain America.  This is him doing an impression of one of them.  Fierce!  :) 

Final pics - Caleb's baby hair, before it was cut off by my mother.  Cute, wispy, with a few curls along the bottom.  Gone now.  All gone.  He is still a pretty adorable kid, and hopefully it'll grow back.  hehe. 

Hmmm, other things on my mind? 

• Our yard isn't humongous (although pretty big for an in town house), but I'm already dreading all the raking/pruning/etc.  And all of our neighbors seem to be super meticulous lawn people.  Ethan and I will have to improve in this area.  We'll also have to get a lawn mower.  I do plan to start ripping out all the flower beds except the little one right behind our front path.  I mean, when does a mother of three have time for all that weeding and care?!  Maybe when all the kids are a little older and they can help. 
• I have been in a rut with cooking.  Or not cooking, really.  I just can't find my groove.  It seems like too much work . . . especially because by the time dinner has rolled around I've already prepared two meals (simple ones, but still) and a couple snacks AND cleaned up from them too.  Who wants to go for round three at 5pm??  Not me.  Anyone else have this same problem?   Anything work for you?  I feel like I need to do more slow cooker stuff, and I have a whole cookbook just for slow cookers, but so far, I only manage to do that every so often.  And I'm not saying we eat out all the time - we definitely try to keep that to a minimum.  We just eat really, really simple things for dinner.  :)   
• Anna had a sleep over at my parent's house last Friday night.  It was so special for her.  My mom took her to see a musical, and when she woke up early on Saturday morning, my dad made breakfast for her.  I love that my kids live close to so many family members right now (which is exactly why we were hoping to stay in Marquette).  Anna's Auntie KC gets her on the bus most days she has school, which is special for her, and SO helpful for me.  If I have a Dr's appointment or something, I have no worries in finding a babysitter.  The kiddos get to have special outtings with their grandparents, often one-on-one (especially now that my dad's retired :).  It's nice for the help and the babysitting, especially while we're in this phase of three young kids, but it's more than that too.  Having our moms, dads, brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents, etc. be a regular part of our lives and our children's lives is something we love.   (And of course we very much miss the family that we don't live near right now too!)     
• We've been making some new friends.  It sounds silly or unimportant, but with the before mentioned family in the area (and the same church family we've known forever, and friends we've known in the area from forever too), we kind of have to make a conscious effort to make new friends, be more outgoing, invite new people over, etc.  Is this making any sense?  Well, anyway, yay for new friends!  :)       

I think I'll end it here.  I haven't really been in the mood to journal/blog lately, or take many pictures.  I know, CRAZY for me.  Hopefully I'll snap out of it.  Oh wait!  One last thing - we should be getting a new niece sometime today or tomorrow.  Yay for babies!!!  Good luck Meghan!!!!!!!  :)