Here she is going for a walk with our neighbor Cole. He says Joy is his best friend.
Strolling through the garden - aren't they cute?
On a different note, tonight Joy put a CD into the top drawer of our little dresser and declared she was going to watch Monsters, Inc. She sat there for a good five minutes before moving on to some other activity. I guess you'd call that a silent film festival.
And of course, what is Easter dinner without an egg hunt for the grandkids (or at least the one who can walk and carry a basket)?
Since Joy currently has no egg-hunting competition, she took her sweet time gathering eggs, opening each one to inspect its contents before strolling along to find the next one. There were about twenty eggs hidden around the backyard, so this hunt took a very, veeery long time.
After the hunt, Joy tried her hand at Wii bowling with a little help from Coach Sean--soon to be Uncle Sean. He and Heather are engaged to be married next year! Yay!!
Our multipurpose stroller helped us transport our plates over to the lawn. Thanks, buddy.
There are always a few performers at the market, and today Joy was fascinated by these Mexican musicians who took turns dancing on a little stage.
After their performance they invited the curious kids to check out their instruments and do a little dance of their own.
The carrots flourished with little effort on my part. I like that in a plant.
The turnips were nearly devoured by bugs, which has actually been my experience nearly every time I've tried to grow them. Insecticidal soap spray (my preferred organic bug solution) took care of the pesky critters every time, but I've decided I'm not a big enough fan of turnips to bother with them next year.
I tried celery for the first time this year. For some reason I thought it would be high maintenance, but as long as I kept it well watered it did fine. It's been nice to just go out and pick a rib or two when I need it, rather than buying a whole bunch at the store and having most of it go bad.
OK, I don't actually eat cactus, but you've got to admit the flower is cute. This Scarlet Crown cactus variety is sometimes called a Valentine's cactus because it often blooms in February. Ours waited until March so it could pretend to be Irish for St. Patty's Day.
Joy concurs.
After brunch we went out back to play. Joy gravitated toward the play kitchen (a girl after my own heart).
"Jackson, your order's up!"
We finished off the party by hunting in the front yard for coins that a friendly leprechaun had left behind. Chocolate gold - my kind of treasure. :)
Joy loves running laps around the pool in our complex. She usually runs on her own . . .
. . . but sometimes it's nice to have a jogging buddy. Joy actually has two this time: Papa is running with her, and her baby doll is tucked under her arm.
Not to be outdone by his sister's feats of strength and stamina, Daniel is learning to stand on his own (for a whopping two seconds at a time--you gotta start somewhere).
And though carbo-loading is widely held to increase endurance, Daniel and Daddy prefer to load up on protein.
Joy is very protective of her bucket (don't make the egregious mistake of calling it a "pail"--Joy insists that is just what Papa and the policeman stand in in Dr. Seuss's ABC book).
Daniel doesn't mind--he has plenty of fun in the baby swings.
Joy has definitely moved on to the big kid swings. I tried to teach her to pump her legs the other day, but she wasn't interested.
You see some interesting wildlife at the parks here. Like this parrot . . .
. . . or this dude giving a free concert so people will buy his CD of Beatles-inspired children songs. The tunes were catchy and the kids seemed to dig it, but I'm not sure I'd want to listen to it all day.
wRiting - Joy can write her own name (it helps that it's only three letters - probably would have been more of a challenge if we'd named her Stephanie or Ermengarde). If you look closely, you can see that she wrote her name small, then is working on it again in a larger font. Good thing Y's can be skinny.
aRithmetic - Joy is also learning to write numbers. Since she's written an X here, too, I guess she's working on algebra. Remember, Joy: two wrongs don't make a right, but a negative times a negative equals a positive.
