Maren's New Sandbox - "Crabbie"

You'll have to listen carefully (Maren is quiet and SORRY my voice picks up way too well...), but this is Maren chattering about her friends and discovering her sandbox.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sweet Maren!

I'm sitting here at 9:30 on Wednesday, April 21st after a wonderful day of just being. I loved watching the excitement in Maren's eyes from the minute I got her up. Being two doesn't mean you really understand "birthdays" or why your mom and dad stayed home with you today, but i hope Maren felt our excitement today too and had a wonderful, relaxing day.

She noticed the big green balloon and presents right away and forgot all about milk and cereal.

I will post a video of her going outside and discovering "Crabbie." We kept her in until 8:30! But spent a good part of our day outside. The weather was fabulous!

Maren helped make cupcakes even before going outside. After lunch we sang to her and...

She managed to blow out her candles!

Dear Maren - thank you for being you. We so love the extra time we spend smiling each day because of you. Watchig you grow and change over 2 years has been amazing and we can't wait for more! (Of course, time could slow a LITTLE.) Happy 2nd Birthday!

Grandma Klein

Maren knows Grandma Klein will be checking her blog today, so I thought I would post a few pictures from the weekend. Grandma Klein came to visit because Grandpa Klein was supposed to be off to Germany for a beer drinking, I mean, concrete conference. Given the recent shenanigans of Eyjafjallajokul (neighbor to Katia, much larger and which I can spell...), Grandpa was not off to Germany, but decided he needed to be close to home in case he was "called up." Grandma came anyway and boy was Maren excited to have someone who would play with her nonstop! She sure missed Grandpa, though.

Here is Uncle Eric, Maren, and Grandma playing "car." Obviously, Maren is not wearing her seatbelt...

Prima Ballerina

Posing on her stool for a picture.

The preparation...

Mommy: "whatcha doin'?"

Prima: "I'm painting my eyes."

The production...


The exit.

Easter, part two...

Pretty girl.

All dressed up.

Is that candy on the table?

Yep. It was candy. Blue candy and chocolate, in fact.

Maren's friend Lily stopped by for a quick visit with her mom and dad. We were so happy to see them and thankful they took time away from their family to visit us before going home to TX. Maren decided to share her stickers with Lily (they are on her shirt, but hard to see).

Happy Easter, everyone!

Easter

Armed with her milk and morning cereal snack, Maren discovers that the Bunny has made his appearance sometime in the night.

What's this? An M&M bunny? "Open it!"

"This, Mama. Open this!"

(It's 7:00 or so, so the M&M bunny stays closed.)

Other fun things to read and color in.

Egg Hunt

Last year, I ran Maren around Lee's parents' front yard and I think we picked up two eggs before the cousins had canvased the whole area in about 1.2 seconds!

She was a teeny peanut who didn't walk on her own or really with us yet!

Here she is this year, collecting ALL the eggs herself at my parents'.

So fun!

Hey...what's in here? (This is where the frenzy of the hunt came to a screeching halt as she ate the m&m's inside.)

With much coaxing to keep going on this kinda chilly and windy afternoon and Grand and Great-Grand parents cheering her on (ok, so it looks like they got distracted too...) she got all 24 eggs picked up.