Adrianna requested that I make another scavenger hunt for her on Easter, so I did. Greg hid a bunch of easy eggs for Bree (along with a few harder ones for Adrianna) while most of Adrianna’s eggs were hidden throughout the house, found by following her scavenger hunt clues.

Bree didn’t really get the excitement of hunting for Easter eggs until Adrianna showed her that they had candy inside. Then, she began to bring me eggs all day to open and beg for the chocolate inside. Finally, I told her “all done”. She knows what that means, but it didn’t stop her. The next thing I knew, she had taken the metallic wrapper off of a Reece’s cup (but not the paper cup part) and stuck the whole thing in her mouth: Reece’s, paper and all! This girl LOVES chocolate.

Later in the day, the girls and I went outside to the front yard to enjoy the beautiful day.

Adrianna and Bree are the sweetest of sisters. For the most part, they get along wonderfully. Bree loves to play with “Na-Na”.

Adrianna’s confidence in her reading skills has grown by leaps and bounds this year. She loves to read to Bree. And I love to watch their sisterly bond grow every day. These girls bring so much joy to my life.

Adrianna had been begging me to buy her a sled ever since 2012 rolled around. It was almost March, normally Colorado’s snowiest month, and none of the nearby stores were stocking sleds anymore. I hate that stores start bringing in the next season’s items so dang early! So I decided to buy one online, on the Toys ‘R Us website. It was on clearance, the sled itself costing half the price of the actual shipping costs.

A few days later, a very large box arrived on our doorstep. Adrianna didn’t know what I had ordered but was excited to open it nonetheless. We opened the box, only to find…no sled. Instead, it was a set of dress up clothes (2 dresses, fancy shoes, earrings, tiaras). Sadly, they were for children closer to Bree’s age than Adrianna’s.

The shipping receipt and my online order receipt both clearly listed that I’d ordered a sled, so I am not sure what happened. So, disappointed, I called Toys ‘R Us customer service. I was dreading the hassle of having to re-box and ship back the incorrect order. But the person I spoke with was awesome. She said that the cost to ship back the item was more than the item itself so we could keep it (free) and they’d re-ship the correct item. Yay!

So we kept the dress up clothes and got a new sled too. And Adrianna was thrilled that she could fit into some of the dress up items after all and loves the dress up shoes, even if they are a little small.

The one disappointment to the whole story is the fact that this March ended up becoming one of the dryest March months on record! No snow! We finally did receive a small dusting of snow in early April and Adrianna got to try out her new sled. She was quite happy to sled down the small hill next to our house. The sled works great!

Bree walking down the hill. It’s a bit steep for a little toddler and at one time, she bent forward to pick up some snow. The bending forward when she was already walking downhill put her off balance and she did a face plant right into the snow. After some comfort and cuddles from mom, she was fine.

I am so glad Adrianna finally got to go sledding this winter.

One of Adrianna’s favorite memories from her preschool days was when a “leprechaun” came to visit their classroom during the night and made some mischief in the room. She talked about it at length after it happened and still mentions it from time to time. So for St. Patrick’s Day this year, I thought it would be fun to do some fun leprechaun mischief at our house.

We had Jeremy and Amy over for dinner, along with their two girls, Rhys and Zoe. While the girls were playing downstairs, I went up to our loft and turned over the desk chairs in the middle of the room and sprinkled green sequins all over them and the floor. Then I left a note on the whiteboard, which was the first “clue” for a scavenger hunt.

The girls seemed to enjoy the scavenger hunt quite a bit. I purposely designed many of the clues to alternate between upstairs and downstairs so they’d have to do a bit of running around. They did find the end of the hunt, which was a bunch of candy.

A couple of mornings later, I awoke to find clues to a new scavenger hunt put together just for me by Adrianna. I just have to share, as they are too cute.

“Hi there. I am Sally. Are you looking for treasure? If you are, follow me. (On back)”

“The first step is something that is above us. Here is another hint. Who turned out the lights?” (The next clue was by a light switch.)

“Your next clue is a place where you cook. And it is pretend.” (Her pretend kitchen set)

“The next place is under a pillow.”

“The next clue is a place where you’ll see the days of the week.” (My calendar)

“The next clue is sometimes warm and sometimes cold.”

“Good job, you found the leprechaun’s gold!” (Which happened to be a bunch of the leftover sequins from St. Patrick’s day.)

As requested by several family members, here is Adrianna’s wish list for her birthday this year. (The picture is of Adrianna playing the Mario Party video game.)

Her note says,

“For my birthday, I want Mario Party and finger paint. I also would like a Mario umbrella. I would like a bomb candy container. I would like window paint and Barbie and the Three Musketeers.”

So here is what Adrianna is asking for, along with some additional ideas by me.

• Mario Party (Video Game for Wii)
• Kirby’s Return to Dream Land (Video Game for Wii)
• Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Video Game for Wii)
• Finger Paint
• Mario Umbrella (she saw one at Toys R Us)
• Bomb Candy Container (the bomb-omb character from the Mario games apparently is a candy container – found at Toys R Us. She already has the Star and Mushroom containers.)
• Window Paint
• Barbie and the Three Musketeers movie (She already has the Barbie Princess and the Pauper movie and watches it over and over again.)
• Art and craft supplies. She could use a new sketch pad. She loves to draw and make crafts.
• Any Super Mario Brothers toys. Feel free to give me a call if you aren’t sure if she has something yet or not.
• Mario Jigsaw puzzle (we have the Super Mario Galaxy one already)
• Glow Planets and Stars (the kind you stick on the ceiling)
• Hot Wheels Race Car Track
• She loves dresses. Her favorite colors are blue and pink.

If I think of anything else, I’ll add it. Really though, I am sure she’d be happy with anything.

In the 6 years that Greg worked from home, the girls and I had really gotten spoiled by having him around all the time, even if he was working. Now that he goes into an actual office, we really miss him during the day!

One way he and I keep in touch sporadically throughout the day is through IM or text. Lately, that has sometimes included pictures of whatever we may be doing at the moment. (Disclosure: we don’t do this constantly since he is, after all, working. ) Adrianna really enjoys sending Greg pictures and receiving them back.

Here is just a sample of a couple of the pictures sent:

Sent to Greg – The girls doing school.

Sent to us – Greg at work. We really enjoy getting a glimpse of his day!

One of the benefits of homeschooling – impromptu field trips!

When spring hits, especially when we have these mild Colorado days, we really struggle with Spring fever and the desire to be outside. Yet I keep looking at the calendar and comparing it with the number of lessons we have yet to do. Guess we’d better not play hooky for too many days.

Adrianna has been continuing her classes at Children’s Music Academy. I love that they encourage music theory and learning how to read music but also how to sing on pitch and play by ear. (Bragging time here: she is one of just a few in her class that consistently sings on pitch.

I think one of Adrianna’s learning styles is auditory. She still plays out loud (recites her toys’ dialogue while playing or even sings while playing), enjoys music and singing and tends to rely on playing by ear more than by the music. She also seems to have a knack for creating her own music. I think she takes after her Daddy and Grammy!

Here is a video of Greg and Adrianna creating music together. I just wish you could hear the keyboard a little better in this video. She is playing along with Greg and doing a pretty good job of finding notes that sound good with what he is playing on the guita. She seems to have a natural rhythm too. So proud of this girl.

We still give Bree a bottle and rock together in our gliding chair at bedtime. I know, she is probably a little old for a bottle. But it is a nice routine that we both enjoy. What can I say; she is still my baby.

After she finishes her milk, we have a new addition now to our bedtime routine. Singing together. She will ask me, “sane?” (Sing?) And I will start to sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and she will sing along. Granted, she doesn’t sing any of the correct words, but she does follow the general tune pattern. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star seems to be her favorite song. When I sing other songs to her, she politely listens but *usually* doesn’t sing along. Until I sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star again.

After we finish a song, she will comment, “guh jah” (Good job). I think that was because I would often praise her for singing along. And then she will ask again, “sane?”

Here is a video that Greg took of us last month singing her favorite song.

Adrianna and I went to see the Colorado Ballet’s production of Peter Pan at the Ellie Caulkins theatre earlier this month. It was the first time either of us had been to a professional ballet. Even though I knew it was a ballet and not a musical or regular play, it was still weird to me to not hear any dialogue or singing. But still very impressive and fun to watch.

Upon arrival to the theatre, all the children were handed a “fairy fixer” to be used later in the show. This light up wand was to be waved in the air to help Tinkerbell at the beginning of the second act. In the darkened theatre, the moment when everyone turned their fairy fixers on and waved them around was magical!

The way Tinkerbell was portrayed was pretty clever. Sometimes she was twinkling lights in the set and other times she was an actual dancer, lit up with sparkly lights.

Adrianna was thrilled that she got to keep the fairy fixer. Since I couldn’t take pictures during the show, this is her holding her fairy fixer before it began. Along with a photobomb of my hand.

Since the show was Peter Pan, the characters, of course, had to fly. Even when they were hooked up to ropes and high in the air, they were able to make their flying look graceful and like they were dancing.

I was glad they included Nanna in the story. She was as sweet in the ballet as she was in the Disney movie.

The music/theme for the braves was another highlight of the show for me.

When they shot the cannon, it made a loud boom which startled Adrianna (and me) quite a bit!

Captain Hook was a lot of fun to watch. He had a lot of swagger; I am pretty sure the dancer who played him was influenced by Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.

And of course the story wouldn’t be complete (or as fun) without the ticking crocodile. One of my favorite parts was when he appeared and crept along the back of the orchestra pit, complete with the clock’s ticking built into the music.

I am so glad Adrianna and I got to experience the ballet together.