While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the weather so far this weekend has been WARM, it’s certainly been warmER. Especially when you consider the fact that it snowed halfway through the week. But I refuse to talk about that any further, and since it melted by lunch time, I’ve decided not to hold it against Mother Nature, though there will be WORDS if it happens again. Ahem.

Anyway, with the weather being pleasantly sunny on Friday (more overcast today) and of a decent temperature both days Hayley, Breanna, and I spent many hours (hours!) outside. It was so nice. We decided to hit up the park both days for awhile for some playing on the swings and the slides.

After doing that for awhile, we decided to take a nice hike through the woods. Breanna demonstrated her utterly fearless leader behavior (as long as you don’t turn out the lights!) by leading the way the whole time.

Can you TELL how happy I was to finally be able to enjoy the great outdoors again, instead of just trying to survive it? It was so nice!

When we finished our hike we stopped by the park again for a little while since some kids had shown up. Neither Hayley nor Breanna were very keen on coming home, but I finally managed to convince them – plus we were hungry! We had eaten a really early supper after Hayley’s eye appointment on Friday, so by the time we were done running around outside, we all needed a little something else to fill us up.

(Hayley’s eye exam was inconclusive. It’s been determined that she will most likely need glasses but because of the scope of the issues with Hayley’s eyes and her history with strabismus, he said he’d feel more comfortable referring us back to the hospital, so we’ll know more then. At least I still have an appointment for May!)

Today wasn’t quite as beautiful as yesterday but it was pleasant enough. The kids were both all wound up and high strung because they were excited about Easter being tomorrow, so I figured the best thing for my sanity was to take them back out again to kill some of the afternoon. Another two hours passed in a blur as we spent time at the park and in the woods again. We took a different trail this time but it was cold enough that I didn’t want to go too far; I figured it would be better to go back to the park instead and let them run around to keep warm.

That photo of Breanna makes me laugh because after all the playing she sighed and said she was tired, so she ran over to sit on the bench at the newly installed picnic table. She said, “Oh, I never sat here before!” Then all of ten seconds later, she hopped back down, announced, “I feel better now!” and ran off full tilt to play some more.

We also took Pearl this time which was an exercise in patience (I failed) because she still pretty much sucks at understanding not to pull on the leash. She knows not to, but she doesn’t care. I don’t understand how she can enjoy walking for long periods while constantly gasping for breath since she essentially strangles herself, but I guess that’s part of what they were talking about when the SPCA folks told us Beagles are stubborn. STUBBORN IS PUTTING IT MILDLY.

She enjoyed it too, though, and is currently passed out asleep by my feet. I love this picture of her sitting on the park bench (attached, naturally), because you can tell how utterly unamused she was.

I know it’s cliche for a mother to say that her kids are gorgeous, but you know, duh. Of course my girls are beautiful. But even knowing that, every once in awhile I take a picture that takes even MY breath away. This would be one of them:

I think that happy smile sums it all up, you know?

I hope you’ve all had a great weekend so far too!