Spring training...

Cheers to ten months, Molly!

 Our little peanut is becoming a full on nut!  She is a speedy traveler on all fours and will pull herself up on anything, as she seems to feel most comfortable on two feet.  She is now a Cheerio eater and will feed herself black beans, melon, pears, and banana.  She is still toothless but seems pretty bothered by what we assume are incoming teeth.  Her favorite things to say are 'down' and 'dee dee dee'.  She is getting spunky with her 'uh ohs' and tower toppling.  I love the look she's giving me in the picture below after Alli took something away from her, like- did you just see that?!?!  This girl seems to know so much already!

I'm hoping the tenth month will be when little foot decides to sleep through the night.  She will be getting her own room soon, which we think will help.  She does mercifully string together some longer stretches, but congestion and the threat of teeth seem to have her a bit restless.  Sleep deprivation feels pretty normal now though and we're so in love with this bean that it seems a small price to pay!

Princess Greta!

 Neighbor and baby-sitter, Greta was off to the Prom!  She invited Mia and Allison over in their dresses for a fancy photo op!  After pictures, the girls discovered the best stash of Barbies on the block!!!  Should we ever lose the girls, I think I'll check Greta's basement first!

Left foot red...

 St. Cloud State put on a mini-carnival for kiddos!  We met up with the Jacobs for some games, snacks, face painting, and TWISTER!!

Happy "Earf" Day!!!

Cheers to Mother Earth!!  We celebrated this weekend with lots of running.  First, Mia and Allison ran in their first 1K.  They did great, even considering the run came at the end of a long, napless day at school!  Allison even sprinted the last few yards to the finish line!

 I'm bummed Molly is hiding Monica in this picture!  Monica is a fantastic cheerleader and I can't wait to have her at the girls' soccer games this summer!  She even motivated me with her cheering as I completed my first 5K!!

 Shawn ran the half marathon the next morning.  He did awesome and ran so quick I had to go to three different viewing points before I could catch him in a picture!

I think this running stuff may become an Earth Day tradition!  Mia and Allison are already looking forward to their next race, and surprisingly enough, I feel the same way!

A vision in green!

 All thanks to Jeanne Venzke, Molly was decked out in a cute dress and her first hair accessory for Easter Sunday!  I couldn't get enough of her in this little outfit!

My favorite was when the head band would cause her little ears to flip forward like a little elf.  :)

All together now!

It had been a while since we had the Affeldts all together.  We enjoyed the time by...

having a little girl talk on the swing,

 playing soccer,

 (Evidently we still need to teach the finer points of soccer to Mia and Alli.  They spent most of the time bent out of shape that they didn't have the ball.  Mia took to 'zombie running' as Henry called it, and Alli would wonder off pouting just before the ball was to get to her.  We'll try to talk strategy with them before little buddy soccer starts up for them this summer!)

 hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa,

 spectating, (a special shout out to Finny, the handsome dog on the left, who passed away last week after a very full 14 year period with Jay, Sarah, Bryn and Henry.  He is sorely missed but surely in a good place!)

 reading books,

 and posing for the annual family photo!

I can't wait for us to be all together again soon!

The calmer cabin version!

 The Easter Bunny, with some advice from a very wise Grandma, arranged a calmer egg hunt back at the cabin.  Each kiddo had a certain color to hunt for so they were able to help each other instead of feel in competition with each other.  Bryn, Henry, Mia and Alli searched high and low, then rallied together for a final egg count.  Hopefully they found them all so Grandpa doesn't find any with the mower later on!

Thanks, Grandma, for teaching that Easter Bunny how it's done!!!

Do you know the Easter Bunny??

 We headed to the cabin for Easter again this year!  Rumor had it it was open season for egg hunting!  The morning started with Easter baskets from Grandma and Grandpa.  The girls were thrilled with their ring pops (this explains Mia's blue mouth in subsequent pictures...), books, and new outfits!

 After breakfast we went to Lake Arrowhead for a community egg hunt.  We met up with Jay, Sarah, Bryn, and Henry there!  Allison face planted shortly after they called 'go', but still managed to find some eggs after wiping tears and brushing off her knees.  Mia found quite a few but lost us in the crowd.  It is hard to imagine crying with a full Easter basket, but she got pretty spooked when she couldn't see us.  It was a well organized hunt, but I realized two things: egg hunts are super intense for 4 year olds, and the 'fun' is over and done with in a matter of seconds!