jewels

Last weekend we had a rainy day. After the rain stopped Chad and Maggie went to the backyard to spend a little time outside. Chad spotted these really beautiful raindrops in our smoke bush and fortunately pointed them out to me. The water beads look just like diamonds. Many many diamonds. Big and sparkly and beautiful.

bugs

Recently my mom bought Maggie a bug catcher. Maggie saw it in Michaels, had to have it, and, of course, who is my mom to say no to her? So off we went to find a bug to trap. It was harder than we thought it would be. The net worked well, we just couldn't find any bugs! So a few days later Chad and Maggie tried again. Maggie shouted, "here buggy buggy!" and eventually they caught an ant. Hooray! We gave the ant some fresh lettuce. As expected, unfortunately, the poor ant didn't last long. Needless to say we're going to hold off on pets for awhile.

rule followers

The morning before daylight savings day we were woken by chirping from two different smoke alarms. At 5:45am. Weird. Soon we were off to get batteries and when we got home Chad replaced all of them in our house. Funny the batteries should start failing on the day when you're supposed to replace them anyway. We're such rule followers.

hiking

On Sunday the three of us went on a hike. We read in the paper that a local hike on a protected site was open to the public for the weekend and we figured it sounded fun. The hike we took was four-miles in the McKenzie Preserve at Table Mountain. The area is owned and operated by the Sierra Foothill Conservancy and they did a great job giving us information about the hike. Upon arrival they gave us a pamphlet identifying 25 spots to watch for on the trail. Each spot had details that, without the booklet, we most likely would have missed and it also provided us with history of the area. Maggie hiked about 1/3 of the trail on her own, the rest was on Chad's back in the pack. We saw birds, cattle, squirrels, Native American mortars, small streams, tiny flowers and more. The Sierra Foothill Conservancy offers guided hikes on privately owned land fall through spring and, now that we're members (we joined because the $20 family membership deal was too cheap to pass up), we plan on taking more of the hikes this spring.

like butter

Here's what happens when I give Maggie a spoon that's full of peanut butter. Yum.

blossoms

A little over a week ago Chad, Maggie and I set out to drive the Blossom Trail. At this time each year the trees bloom out in the country with bright pink and white flowers, depending on what kind of fruit tree they are. The Blossom Trail is 64 miles long, took us about two hours, and Maggie liked about 25 miles of it. The rest of the time she routinely asked, "Where are we going?" Maybe the trip was a little boring for a 2-year-old.

Shades

Last week when we were playing Maggie decided that she HAD.TO.HAVE. sunglasses because the sun was so bright. Being a huge sunglasses fan myself, I was more than willing to oblige. We ran up to (where else?) Target and I let her pick a pair out. Hello Kitty. She wore them (with the tags) in the store, then in the car, then in the house where she wanted to facetime a few people to show off her new acquisition. Since we bought them she has worn them every day outside and in the car (I'm totally surprised but proud) and really still loves them. Finally!

downtown

Last month Chad, Maggie and I spent one morning/afternoon in downtown Fresno. We wanted to try a new eatery called the Iron Bird Cafe which was conveniently located near many work/live loft buildings in the area. Lunch was delicious (I got the veggie sandwich and would definitely get that one again) and was super stoked to finally have the chance to check it out. Luckily that Sunday the loft buildings in the surrounding areas were all open for tours, so we walked from one to the next, enjoying our time downtown.

I Heart Faces - B&W

Garden Update

So our winter (if that's what we're calling it this year) garden is doing well this month. The broccoli has started to flower, as have the snow peas. The peas, in fact, are even starting to sprout. The carrots are getting bigger, but I have no clue when they'll be ready so we'll wait a bit longer before we start pulling them. In another few days we'll taste our broccoli and snow peas. Yeah!