Spring Time is Fun!

Spring time has been a lot of fun for us. We've been really busy and haven't posted much, so following this entry are many, many more entries about what we've been up to! To start is this first pic of Maria eating a yummy sweet strawberry from the Farmer's Market :)

Field of Flowers

Yesterday the Abuelos treated Maria and I to a trip to the Field of Flowers in Carlsbad. It was beautiful and much to my relief pretty bee-free (Maria was stung a few weeks ago so now I'm a bit paranoid!)

The recurring theme nowadays - Maria picking up rocks :)

Checking out the ranunculus up close...

Then going for a ride on the tractor and wagon! She was good as soon as we were able to sit right behind the wagon and watch its wheels turn and turn...

Then off to play in the Santa's Village playground. She spent most of the time picking up sand and piling it up on the curb.

...and at the end of the day worn out (she had had no nap!) and looking disheveled after a fun day of flowers! She was out as soon as we put her in her carseat :)

Cho-co-late!

I finally decided to let Maria know what was inside the foil wrapped bunny and boy was she serious about that chocolate! She wouldn't let go of it and threw quite a fit when I took it away - otherwise she would've eaten the whole thing up. Unfortunately for Maria, Greg and I are going to have to eat her bigger chocolate bunny because the girl just doesn't need that much chocolate!

Operation: Easter Bunny

Maria had fun decorating her Easter eggs. Luckily, she didn't make too much of a mess, but she did end up with an easter-egg-colored onesie by the end!

On Easter morning, the Easter Bunny put Maria's basket just outside her crib. He told us that she didn't move a bit when he dropped it off - phew! Greg had asked the bunny to leave the basket out in the living room - Santa/Christmas style. Apparently the Easter Bunny has geographically-dependent delivery methods and that is where the Bunny used to leave it where he grew up. Since Maria lives where Mommy grew up, he of course had to leave it in her room :)

Here she is when she first woke up trying to figure out what this plastic covered basket is.

...a few minutes later with an added barrette to look a bit more put together :)
Slowly and methodically taking everything out of the basket (really a basket within a big castle pail)

One of her favorites gifts was a pinwheel!

At last, with everything pulled out of the pail.

Before church we were able to get in a picture of her in her Easter dress.

Later in the day we went to the abuelos house for an Easter egg hunt - Maria's first! We were surprised at how quickly Maria and her cousins caught on to the idea.

These pictures really capture each of the kids' personalities. Aidan was mostly into getting the eggs and cracking them open - not really caring what was inside of them.

Maria was mostly into getting what was inside of the eggs and eating it all up! Plus collecting everyone else's baskets!

Isabella was into collecting the eggs in the basket and them dumping all of the eggs out!

...and some random shots from the day...

Kidspace Museum!

So for months I've been reading about Heather's visits to Habitot and so jealous that we don't have something comparable near us. I finally discovered the Kidspace Museum. Although I think Maria will probably enjoy it more in a few more months, it was still a lot of fun.

Here's Maria in the spider web rope...

Helping Daddy play the drums with water sprayers... They have pop jets that the kids can run through and get all soaked. I totally came prepared with a second set of clothes in case she got into it...thank goodness at this stage in her life (or maybe because she's a girl?! - there were definitely more boys than girls running through these) she was more interested in sitting on Daddy's lap and only trying to touch the water with her hands. They have a toddler room that Maria really enjoyed and probably could've spent the whole day in!

Not really sure about what that other kid is doing in there!

There's no story to this picture, I just like how it turned out :)

Hanging out with the family

Here are some random shots taken over the last month...

Reading with Daddy every night after dinner. She lasts from 10 to 30 minutes and just keeps picking book after book. Some of her favorite ones right now are What Daddy Loves, Aloha is..., Dr. Seuss A,B,C's and Old Makana Had a Taro Farm - and that doesn't count the Goodnight Moon and My Goodnight Book he reads her right before bed! I guess it was definitely worth asking people to bring books to her baby shower. She loves books! A picture with my sister and Isabella.

Hike in the Marsh

The three of us enjoyed a recent afternoon at a local marsh. Maria had a lot of fun finding little froggies jumping around us, butterflies and of course, ducks!


Maria's most recently added hobby is rock collecting, or rather rock picking-up (plus leaves, twigs, etc.). Here she finds some rocks during the walk. We're starting to get a lot of these pictures!and some fun shots with Mommy and Daddy :)

Quack, Quack

Maria loves ducks! We've been going at least once a week to feed the ducks at the park. We were reassured by the park worker that they wouldn't bite her, so she went ahead and hand fed them! We'll have to try and get a video soon. Now she imitates how the duck eats out of her hand (also probably something we need to get on video!) She's very proud to stand next the ducks in this picture. The one on the right is almost as tall as her!

Noah and Ellie

Last month my friend Melissa was back in town, so Maria got to hang out with Noah and Ellie! Noah got serious rocking out on Maria's drum...and probably would've used the drumsticks to rock out on anything!

This is as good as we could get for a group picture. Now you see Ellie...
...now you don't!