Longwood Gardens today

This morning Svea and I headed off to Longwood Gardens. She was excited and so was I! It was kind of last-minute and we had a great time exploring. There was an orchid show and it was fun to see hundreds of different varieties. Here are a few photos of our morning together.

Helper Boy

Viggo loves to fold Svea's diapers. I have no idea why, but I'm not complaining. Look at all those neat little stacks! Clearly he's inherited Nate's love of all things perfectly folded. I'm hopeful this trend will continue when Baby #3 joins us in July!

Another Sunday, another zoo!

Time for some fun at the Brandywine Zoo!

A welcome sign of spring.

The world's biggest rodent: the capybara. These animals give me the creeps.

This is better - who doesn't love a fun little otter!

Viggo taking in a view of the zoo. As you can see, he has a stick in his hand. Wherever we go, sticks seem to find him.

No, really - this goat isn't dead. It's sleeping. They all were. We went into the petting-zoo area and every single goat was asleep.

More sleepy goats.

Llamas - and they're awake! And that ends our tour at the zoo. We saw a handful of birds, some small mammals and a tiger, too. Nate wasn't kidding when he said it would take 20 minutes to walk through.

After the zoo we ran around in the park surrounding it. Viggo and Svea wanted to climb up everything.

Into Dad's arms.

Viggo's up in a tree!

Okay, so Viggo has a big scab over his eye. He had a rough Friday. First thing in the morning, he fell off a radiator he was perched on while trying to wave good-bye to Nate. (When things like that happen - and they do all the time - I call him Viggo Bump.) Then at church for preschool, his eye got hit by a skinny metal pole sticking up in an island (that's meant to be a marker for the salt trucks and snowplows) while walking through the parking lot after playing in the playground. It is such a blessing that the pole didn't go in his eye. Half an inch lower and Viggo could have suffered from damage to his eye we don't even want to think about.

5 months pregnant and feeling great! No, I'm not comfortable in these clothes, are you kidding me? Nothing I am wearing here is maternity! After looking at this photo, obviously that fleece doesn't cover my bump as well as I thought - it's hard to tell when you look down and it seems to be covering everything. The UPS man came today bearing a package from Old Navy maternity . . . thank goodness for a good sale.

Urban Outreach!

On Saturday morning the kids and I headed for Central Baptist Church in downtown Wilmington. We joined friends from Central Baptist and our church, Brandywine Valley Baptist, to give neighborhood kids a good time! Svea and I helped with crafts, and Viggo had fun playing with the kids. It was a great way to spend Saturday.

The night before, I told Viggo we were going to go and spend some time with kids that probably aren't as blessed as we are - we are truly rich in family stability and blessed with so many things. I told him some of the kids that come might not know about Jesus. Viggo couldn't imagine that these kids might not know Him! So Viggo prayed that the children that came to the event would accept Jesus into their hearts. 50 kids attended the event and about 14 accepted Christ! Viggo even watched as some of the kids prayed for Christ to come into their hearts - he was VERY excited about the huge party in heaven the angels were having!
The idea here was to keep Svea contained in a chair and occupied with coloring while I helped our friend Karen with crafts. Svea did not color Jesus and the lamb, but she did peel the paper off some crayons, so at least that kept her busy for awhile. Then I pulled out a car and she played cars with Karen's husband, Steve. I wish I could have gotten a photo of them playing together, but I was trying to make little cross keychains! All I could hear was wild giggling from the side of the room that Svea and Steve were on.

My beloved friend Jen in her element: helping kids!

Viggo plays games with kids and friend Jim Bob.

This little cutie nabbed my camera and took some pictures! She was only 6 and was carrying her little sister around on her hip.

Svea really wanted to just hang out with the big kids. The children there were more than welcoming to her and Viggo. Some even held her hand and led her around to show her things. She loved the attention! Many little girls asked if she was my daughter. I was amazed at their interest in us.

Friends Alex and Anna work on a craft with Karen and kids from the neighborhood.

Andrew and Viggo, and a little girl work on their cross magnets. Personally, this was my favorite craft :)

Sewing

Look at this cute girl. I know her hair is frightful but she woke up from her nap a sweaty mess and didn't want her hair brushed. And in case you haven't noticed, that's her favorite sweatshirt. I got it about a week ago and she loves wearing it. She calls the flowers on it "flowsies".

This afternoon I really wanted to get some knit fabric sewn around the edges to prevent unraveling in the wash. It is intended for baby blankets for my friend Jen (I'm sure Jen would want to let you know it's not for her baby!). But then Svea woke up and big surprise, she wanted a clementine for a snack. "'Tine! Me! Pate! Peas!" (Translation: Clementine for me on a plate, please). I didn't want her to eat it unsupervised because of the seeds, so I just brought her high chair into our bedroom and she sat and peeled and ate her 'tine while I sewed. It worked out well and she thought it was fun to be sewing!

Although she was probably a little confused - after all, she's never eaten in our room before. Hopefully this won't become a habit and I can limit my sewing to nap time.

~~~

Looking at these pictures makes me sad that our walls look completely naked. We haven't painted because we are always hopeful we will be moving soon. Believe me, if I could have freedom to paint these photos would be much more colorful. But for now we're just vanilla.

Crafty

Here's the cute hat Lane knit - hard to believe someone will actually be able to fit in it, it seems so tiny! Thanks again, Lane!

So, this isn't a craft . . . but Nate was holding Viggo up with his feet and they were having so much fun, I had to include it!

I've barely touched the muffin since I started it a week and a half ago, but did some knitting in the car today while Svea and I waited for Viggo to finish up preschool. I have to wait until tomorrow to completely finish it because Viggo is going to help me stuff it.

Maren, despite what you might be thinking, the muffin was not attacked by a sea urchin - just double-pointed needles. Knitting in the round really isn't crazy once you catch on :)

Field trip

Today felt like a good day for an outing, so I took Viggo and Svea to Delaware's Museum of Natural History.
The butterflies . . . my favorite. They didn't move and were small, so not a big draw for the kids.

Svea loved the jaguar. "Awww! Nice." If it's big, scary, and has teeth it MUST be cuddle-worthy!

Svea kept saying, "Hug. Kiss!" at the bears, which I think would look pretty fierce to most almost-2-year-old kids. She wasn't frightened at all. She also thought they were wearing mittens and needed their nails trimmed.

She loved this big scary bear too. She loved them all.

The possums mystified her. "Mouse?"

The current featured exhibit: BACKYARD MONSTERS!

This preying mantis actually moved thanks to animatronics . . . ew.

Viggo loved peeking out of the big bug head.

We didn't even notice the giant dragonfly at first!

The robotic bugs you could move . . . SO fun. Svea had a great time watching Viggo and I make them waddle around.

If only we could have taken them home . . .