Taraxacum

Each spring, our well-manicured lawn, ahem, bursts into bloom with dandelions, violets and clover. The landscapers mowed down all but a few flowers... and those few are now gone... it's amazing how one's perspective of a weed changes when presented with a carefully gathered, toddler-sized bouquet.

What dat?


Look, Toddler Wily! Dandelions!


Say Pickles!

A day late...

But not a dollar short. The rock-star quotient on these images ups their value to well over priceless.


(she'll be doing the Crocodile Rock before long...)


(look at all those dots! Pointilissm! A Seurat in the making?)

More than just a movie name...

The past week was rather busy for the Wily Jeneric family, as we visited both Minnesota and North Dakota. Highlights from the North Dakota part of our trip:

We visited several bison...




A tasty thin-crust pizza place...

(in business 'since "1956"' - whatever "that" means...)

A fantastic yarn store...


Nichole's - an outstanding local bakery...


And an awesome bicycle shop.


Oh yeah, there's a river here, too.

and it floods. Every year. We'll let you know how badly it floods next year!

Photo Album Day

The weather is too nice to be inside typing.  Today is photo album day, featuring the Great Grandparents!!!

Daffodils

Spring is here!  Both girls loved their boquets!

Glueing Glitter

Maybe this project was more suitable for a 4 or 5 year old, but both Jeneric and Toddler Wily thought their friend's idea for an art project was fantastic!

The camera wasn't fast enough to catch Toddler Wily's hand:


Not everything made it onto the paper:


And here is who we have to thank for the art materials:


Any bets on how many months until all the glitter in the carpet is gone?

Baseball!

From ballet to baseball... Jeneric spotted a t-ball set at Target over the weekend and asked to put it on her Christmas list (yeah, that's an aww moment). However, she and Toddler Wily had received a bit of money for Easter and had some leftover money from Christmas, so Eric suggested that perhaps the girls could pool their money to purchase the t-ball set and an extra bat. We think they made a good decision.

Random Wednesday

The movie edition.

1. Singin' in the rain.


2. Dodgeball!

A night at the ballet

On Friday, we headed to our local YMCA for Jeneric's second ballet recital (refresh your memory of her first recital, then come back). This time, Jeneric pretty much stuck with the program, following the lead of the teacher.

Energetic warm up:


Class picture. No, her fingers are not her her nose. She's just acting a little shy.


Stretching out:


A few dance moves:






And the video.


Toddler Wily approved the performance!

Art Day

Eric was ambitious one day and pulled out various paints and chalks for the girls. Jeneric is starting to draw and paint objects. Here she is with her recent painting and we follow that with a hard-hitting interview.




Toddler Wily also stretched her creativity, dabbling in water colors.




Finally, Jeneric's chalk masterpiece.

See if you can find:
the bicycle, the bicycle rack, her signature, another bicycle rack and two bubble wands

Happy Easter, part deux

The Easter Bunny hid a few treats for Jeneric and Toddler Wily to find on Easter morning - the bunny even hid the baskets from Grammy and Grampy!

Hunting for chocolate eggs.




This is what happens when you let them eat all the candy they want!

Happy Easter!

Once again, the Wily Jeneric family trekked to the local science center to have Breakfast with the Bunny. We were cautiously optimistic about a good shot of Jeneric with the Bunny... but this is as close as she'd get:


Toddler Wily was about 6 feet further away! (If you care to remember, here's what happened last year.) So instead of bunny photos, we spent our time petting 1-day old chicks:


Learning about levers:


And pulleys:


Jeneric played the double bass (unlike Eric's, this bass had rainbow strings):


and both girls pounded on the piano (Jeneric even noticed the monitor overhead that displayed the sine wave of the notes they were hitting):
'

We ended our time at the science center in the bubble room - Toddler Wily's favorite exhibit.

(look closely - you can see the bubble breaking!)