Sunday, March 29, 2009

Where Does It Come From?




We had a farmy day beginning with MapleFest at Glenna Farms which included a free pancake breakfast, a self-guided sap-to-syrup tour and a ride on a horse-drawn wagon. Then we visited our friend, Khaiti, to see her new baby goats. Eight in all, as well as chickens, ducks and dogs. She treated us to snacks made with feta cheese and yogurt made from goat milk - yum!

March Madness




March has been a fun, busy month filled with friends and relatives and lots to do. After our last Music Together class, we grabbed a snack at the coffee shop with Aixing and her mom, Lisa. We met up with Jonathan and his mom, Christine, at open gym and took the boys out for their own tiny pizzas. We spent some time with Adrian and his mom, Lynette, at the gym, too - no picture, but a good time! We even spent a weekend with Gabby and Papa which included visits to Great Grandma Jean and Nana Vi. We are lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives.

Wild Rumpus!




We recently visited Wild Rumpus with our friends Joel, Samantha, Alysa and Rhiannon. This children's bookstore not only carries an enormous number of titles, and not only offers a weekly storytime, and not only hosts remarkable authors such as Jeremy Tankard... it is also home to several charming critters! Mateo's favorites, aside from the three manx cats, were the ferrets. He was also a little taken with the chicken running loose in the store. In addition there were lizards, chinchillas, pigeons, a rat, cockatiels, and a tarantula. While we took several wrong turns in getting there, the drive was well worth it. Afterward, we enjoyed lunch at a neighboring cafe and stopped at the Como Park Conservatory on the way home.
Joel and Alysa stayed with Mateo later that night so "mom and dad" could go on a date. Can you believe that Tim Mahoney was playing in the tiny, tiny town of Dresser? We only caught three songs, but what a treat!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Happy Birthday, Aunt Pat!

We had a nice lunch and visit with the Bradley-Ethertons. Mateo particularly enjoyed whipping Easter eggs across Aunt Pat's living room. He did not, however, enjoy Papa Bill pretending to be a tiger - scary!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Tribal Spirits

We took Mateo to see Tribal Spirits of the Sun belly-dancing troupe perform last night. Before the show he was sitting at a table with mom and dad, munching on spicy snack mix and guzzling a bottle of water - being such a big boy. As soon as the music started he was standing on his chair, bouncing to the beat and clapping his hands. When we got to the parking lot he exclaimed, "That was fun!" It's so easy to take him places (knock on wood) and is rewarding to see him get such a kick out of it.

Monday, March 9, 2009

No Go Home



Mateo often says this during our outings. Sometimes it's asked with a question mark, and sometimes it's stated forcefully with an exclamation point. He's having fun, and so am I! Today we strolled from the chiropractor to the grocery store to the food shelf to the coffee shop, down and up the stairs near the falls, and finally to a park overlooking the falls. But eventually it became noon so we headed home for lunch.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Whiling away the winter...




Today was gorgeous. On less gorgeous days we have been trying to keep ourselves busy indoors. Mateo is learning the alphabet through a series of crafts that have his mommy becoming very MacGyverish with paper towel tubes, construction paper, paper plates and markers. Mateo has also been practicing looking waifish in various Main Street doorways. That could come in handy should the economy fail to recover.
In the top photo he is enjoying gifts from our friends at MBI Publishing. On a recent visit Miss Carolyn gave Mateo a coloring book with markers and the phone room gals gave him a little bottle of water and some Hershey kisses. The kisses (not pictured) were gone before we even got in the car. Thanks, ladies - it was nice to see you all!

Oh Happy Day!




You have no idea how long Mateo has been asking when the snow will melt so he could ride his motorcycle. Today! Today Mateo! Look at that smile.

We also trudged through the woods for a little while. It was nice to finally spend some time outdoors without counting the minutes until we could go back inside.