A Sunday Outing

Normally our Sunday afternoons are spent eating my father-in-law's amazing homemade pizza over at Ish's parents house.  Yesterday there was no pizza planned so we decided to spend our afternoon at Longwood Gardens--an easy trip to decide on as we have a membership.  I had all these hopes of taking pictures of the children in and among the tulips which were at their peak. Apparently everyone else and their brother had the same idea and there was no way I was going to try to take pictures of my children amongst the hordes of tulip-gazers. 

Although we did visit the tulips, we spent most of our time in less crowded areas.  Both kids had a blast running around and enjoying being outside in the beautiful spring weather.  Little Ish was very excited to visit the Chimes Tower which he has renamed Gandalf's Tower; he was especially excited about ringing the bell at the top of the tower.

As a side note, I spied more than one stranger taking a photo of Lily.  I didn't bother saying anything because I would have had to chase the offenders down .  I just find it odd that people who don't know me or my family will have a picture of my daughter on their camera.  I am not sure that I care about it, but am I right in finding that to be particularly strange?

Pirates!

Outside in Their Feet

On one of the particularly warm days we had last week, Little Ish asked if he could go outside in his feet.  Going outside in ones feet is Little Ish speak for going outside barefoot.  I quickly agreed.  It was such a beautiful day out and I have many fond childhood memories of standing barefoot on the sidewalk just enjoying the warmth of it soaking into my feet.  We had quite a fun time and both kids were absolutely delighted when they saw Ish arriving home. 

Side note: The rubber band that Liliana is holding is compliments of our mailman who leaves them on the ground all over our apartment complex.  We have a huge collection of them now thanks to him.

All smiles!

This was Lily's reaction when she heard her brother waking up from his nap a few days ago. 

Off the Wall

Ready...

Set...

Jump!

For Patting Not Picking

Both Liliana and Ish are very interested in flowers this year.  After contending with several beheaded daffodils, I knew my directions not to pick the flowers were falling on deaf ears.  My solution was to tell them that they were allowed to pat the flowers but not pick them.  This solution has worked wonderfully and not one of my tulips has been picked.

What's fermenting?

Yesterday I decided to finally take the leap and start fermenting something in my kitchen.  Ever since learning that lemons could be pickled, I knew that they would be my first fermentation project.  There is something so enticing about the thought of pickled lemons.  It didn't take me very long to cut, salt, and pack the lemons and now I just need to wait a few weeks and let the lactic acid bacteria do their job.  On a side note, Little Ish thinks the lemon bag makes a fabulous mask.  He pulls it on and declares that he is "Salty the Macchia" (aka Jarrod Saltalamacchia, the catcher for the Boston Red Sox).