Spring has Sprung (Part 2)

I know the saying goes "April showers bring May flowers" but around here it's been May SHOWERS, not flowers! Of course Lexie doesn't mind. She just grabs her rain boots, coat and umbrella and makes the most of it.


This is Lexie's first year of T-ball and she's loving it. She's gotten to play first base,

catcher-her favorite (the only day I didn't bring my camera!) but most of the time the girls stand (or squat) near the pitcher's mound and try to beat each other to the ball. :)

One of Lexie's favorite parts is getting to bat.

I love watching her run around the bases - she has gotten pretty fast!
But her favorite part of all is getting to spend time with her best friend from Kindergarten (to the left of Lexie). They go to different schools now so they don't get to see each other as often as they'd like. Once T-ball is done I'm sure they're going to want to keep seeing each other 2 times a week!

Lexie's school participated in the Young Inventors' program a couple weeks ago. Lexie's invention was called the "Sleepy Head Solution." (Click on the picture to see a close-up of her board.) It's an alarm clock that doesn't turn off until you physically get out of bed. First we duct taped the clock to the nightstand. Then, Lexie tied/taped one end of the string to the on/off switch and then I tied the other end loosely around her hand. When the alarm clock goes off in the morning, Lexie gets out of bed which pulls the string which turns the switch to the radio. Lexie had a lot of fun working on her invention and Dave and I were proud of her creativity. This a picture from the Young Inventors' Night at her school.

Every year for Mother's Day Dave and Lexie make me "breakfast in bed." This is my favorite part of the day. This year I stayed in bed and finished a wonderful book I'd been reading. (It's called Sarah's Key - I would HIGHLY recommend it.) Dave made his specialty - egg sandwich on a bagel (I LOVE this!) and Lexie helped Dave make a smoothie for me. All of this was brought up on a tray. (Of course Lexie had her Daddy bring up a tray of food for her too.) As you can see, I had no problem finishing my breakfast!
After I ate they gave me my cards and the presents Dave had bought me - a couple of movies and CDs (my favorite was the Sound of Music DVD - love that movie).

Lexie had given me her homemade gifts earlier in the week - a trivet she colored herself and a flower planted in one of her old shoes.
She also gave me a homemade card with a poem she wrote inside - "Your Favorite color is red My eyes are blue And a happy mothers Day to you."

In the afternoon my sister had us over to her house for a Mother's Day BBQ. Here's a picture of my mom, my sister and I. (I DID wear a nice shirt that day but it was so cold I ended up putting on my sweatshirt - I wish I'd taken it off before the picture!) We had a great time - Dave's mom even came!
But as we sat there watching baseball AND golf AND hockey I made a decision, next year I'm going to have Dave take Lexie somewhere and I'm going to spend the day at home by myself. (It IS a day about me, right?) I'll treat my mom to dinner another day.

Probably the best thing that we've done in May was last weekend. Lexie and I went with her class to Toledo where we spent the night AT the Toledo Zoo.
We drove down late Thursday and arrived around 6:30pm. We spent the next SIX hours having fun at the zoo - we got to touch 6 different animals including a snake (our favorites were the hedgehog and the opossum)
and the kids did enrichment activities which were given to the animals the next day.
Finally after midnight we were finally led to the aquarium where we spent the night on cots. This is the only picture I got of Lexie - keep in mind that it was probably 12:30 by then, it was dark and all I wanted to do was sleep - that's why I didn't notice that Lexie was LAUGHING in the picture! :) (It took another 1/2 hour before she finally fell asleep!!!)

The next day our day started before 7am! We ate breakfast then got to see the animals enjoying the items the kids had made.

Eventually we got to split up and go look at whatever we wanted. Lexie had a great time hanging out with her 2 best friends.
We left the zoo around 12:30 and drove to the botanical gardens where we spent 2 hours then finally drove home. Needless to say, we were all exhausted but the trip was so much fun! I'm so glad I got to share this incredible experience with Lexie!