{ spring has sprung }

Or at least I think (hope) so!

The beginning of March Madness always seems like the signal for the start of spring. This year we let Oliver and Stella join in the fun of doing basketball picks. It was serious business.

And rightfully so as the pool we do every year has grown so much that the winner now takes home $650! With the takeaways for second through fifth places not being too shabby either. We're a few weeks into the tourney and for awhile it didn't look like there was hope for any of us. But low and behold Oliver could actually take second place if, and only if, Florida and Wisconsin make it to the final game with Florida coming out on top. It is painstakingly difficult for Chop to root for Wisconsin but I told him he has to with $300 riding on it!

Speaking of Oliver, he is quite the little character these days. You just never know what the kid is going to do or say. These pictures do a good job of summing him up.....

I joke that he is an old man stuck in a three year old's body! Today when Grandpa and Grandma C were over I said something to my dad, using "dad" when I said it to him. He looked at me and said "Why did you say dad? That's not dad, that's grandpa. Why would you call him that?!". We couldn't stop laughing at him. Then later when he was sitting on Grandpa C's lap he pushed on his stomach and said "You don't get enough exercise, Grandpa. You eat too much."

Stella has grown to be a very caring little girl. She likes to ask things of us like "How was your sleep last night, mommy?", "Mommy, how is your new fan working for you?", "Mommy, you are the bestest baker", and my most recent favorite......I dropped them off at school one morning and realized that I hadn't put a winter hat in her bag for when they went outside as a class. I had on a knit hat and decided to leave that for her so she would have something. I explained to her that she would have to wear mine that day and she looked at me really concerned and said "But mommy, are you going to be okay without your hat?".

She is also very helpful around the house and is always fetching things for Oliver (and me!). Just last week she brought up the fact that we needed to pack their swim bag for swim lessons. She proceeded to go downstairs to the laundry room and gather their swimsuits, towels, bag and packed all of it. Not bad for a 3.5 year old!

In other happenings around the house......we have decided to pack up the bounce house for a bit and take over the basement as a real playroom. I should have done this awhile back but it is a nice change to not have the bounce house taking up the entire room and being able to actually hang out with toys down there. We have also added a few fun new things like this oil drip pan turned magnet board.

I am still doing my run/walk program which means I get to rock this workout t-shirt that says "Mother of Multiples....Running the family one race at a time" and the back "What is your super power?".

A multiples group that I belong to had them made and they turned out great! My recovery still has good days and bad days but at this point in time, I'm not over thinking it and just trying to go with the flow. I'm loosely following the 8 week back to run program but after just three weeks, I have had to take it even slower than the conservative program due to pain flair ups.

Getting back to the spring weather......if we didn't get a nice day soon, Oliver was going to lose it. Oh wait, I guess he already had. In case you need interpretation, he is saying over and over "I want spring to come but it just keeps snowing".

We did have one nice day a few weeks ago when we were able to get out and enjoy a walk to the library.

And then today we had a true, 60 degree spring temperature day. I attempted to get them out on the double tag along with mild success.

I think they are still a tad too small to reach the pedals perfectly and I was the one that had a hard time balancing - it felt like they were purposely trying to wiggle the bike back and forth behind me. Riding with just one behind me was much easier but the two was tricky. Hoping to get it down by summer so we can enjoy some spins around the lakes!