Nothing says spring like dead grass!

With the appearance of the matted, brown, dead grass in the yard comes the beginning of the Stafford soccer league. Here we see the team of Solveig and Jonah battle against their dad. An additional participant, Anju, plays whenever someone gives her the ball and shoots at whatever goal is closest. Luckily, both teams are okay with that.

Playing in the side yard with a tee ball base put over the opening to the culvert to prevent ball loss. Don't ask how many balls have been lost in the culvert- some for a few minutes, some for months before we could dig them out the other side of the ditch.

"I'm open!"

Anju's fancy footwork

Solveig takes the game very seriously!

Shawn is proud of the fact that he never lets the kids win--so usually he is the winner. However, yesterday the kids beat him in both games! Way to go, kids!

Anju has been much better behaved lately. Yesterday, she awoke dry and stayed dry all day, using the potty by herself. She has finally outgrown her last pair of 12 month pants and is fully into 18 month pants and 24 month shirts/dresses. She is really into puzzles now, and loves to do them while I work in the kitchen. She pretends she doesn't know where a piece goes, and puts it in a silly place, asking me if that is right. She laughs deep belly laughs when I tell her she knows where it goes and that she is silly. She is also really enamored with her "bun". I keep telling her it is "buns", but she claims to only have a "baby bun". So, she daily tries to moon me. It could be worse, huh?

She has her second visit to the Int'l Adoption Study at the U of MN on Tuesday, so we're going to be down in the cities for a few days. It'll be nice to have a little break after the insane lenten season we've had. We're hoping to get to see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Science Museum of MN, and shop at Ikea while we're down there.

Her last ECSE visit is April 7, and her next appointment at the Myelodysplasia clinic in Fargo is May 7th. So, lots of spring activity for her, plus piano recital for Solveig, the upcoming Festival of Nations trip in the beginning of May, and planning for VBS and all that good pre-summer stuff.

Oh, yes. When I opened the window to take the soccer pictures yesterday (I was indoors baking cookies for post-game treats), I had my first flying visitor of the season. Although not my favorite bug, a mosquito is definitely a sign of warmer days ahead!