The Daintys

Happy Father's Day to all the daddies! (Especially Grandpa Dainty and Grandpa Rutecki!) We started off the day by going to the early Mass, then Leah helped me make her daddy some banana peanut-butter chip pancakes and cherrywood smoked bacon. Yum! We gave Ryan his gifts. He is holding up his nifty new golf towel below. (Who new a towel could be so high tech!) After breakfast Ryan started working on painting the basement since we're trying to get most of that done before we have new carpet installed. Leah decided to paint as well. She made some beautiful pictures and got very messy. So, of course we had to get out the sprinkler to rinse off. Next it's lunch and nap time! Check out her face in the picture above. She was not crazy about the feel of paint on her hands!

Now that it is officially summer, we took the plunge and converted Leah's crib into a toddler bed.  (Due to the fact that she could climb both in and out of it...)  It has been an adventure.  The first night Ryan went in to check on her and found her sitting cross-legged in the middle of her bedroom, looking exhausted but content with her own power.  The next night we checked on her before we went to bed and found her sprawled out on the carpet.  Tonight, she came out to see what we were doing a good half hour after we thought she was asleep.  Such a stinker!  The best part is hearing her little feet POUNDING down the hallway in the morning when she runs into our room to wake us up.  What a great alarm clock! If only she had a snooze button...  :) In other news, I have a new job next year!  I am transferring to another Catholic school that is much closer and I will be teaching middle school science, which I'm really excited about. Also, we have had a bit of a home-owner catastr...

Yesterday was a beautiful spring afternoon, so after school I packed Leah, Lucy, and some snacks into the car and drove over the the East Bank Trail along the river. We went for a walk, played around on a little ampitheatre, and stopped at the park. Then, we went home, grilled hot dogs, and read Grumpy Bird . What a good day! ( I LOVE this picture of her!) Leah's swings just one arm like crazy when she runs! Ok, this is her "No-no!" finger wag. Lucy was trying to climb up on the playground, and Leah didn't think it was a good idea. (I didn't think I did this, but apparently I do...)

Leah has recently taken in interest in being read to!  Obviously, as we are both educators, we are very excited about this.  Now, we just have to work on broadening her horizons.  Because currently, she has her sights set on one particular book: Grumpy Bird, by Jeremy Tankard.  She cannot get enough of little Grumpy Bird.  My favorite is when she jumps in my lap when Bird jumps.  When we finish reading it, she opens it right back up and says, "Gen? gen?" (Again?)   I love Grumpy Bird as well, but I no longer need the book to read it because after reading it at LEAST  25 times this weekend I have the whole story memorized.  She brought it to me while I was making pancakes.  She brought it to me while we were playing with the bean box.  She brought it to me when we were getting ready to go play at a friend's house.  We read it after dinner.  After bath time.  Before bed.  You get the picture.  Every once in a while, we can get in another story between dramatic readings of ...

We have all been on Spring Break this past week which has been a VERY welcome event.  Unfortunately, after the first day of sunshine (into which we crammed a zoo trip, park visit, walk, and tricycle ride) we have had rain, rain, rain.  And Miss Leah tends to get ants in her pants when trapped in the house for too long.  Her what-should-I-not-play-with sensor goes into red alert and she becomes quite impossible.  So, while Ryan had baseball practice Leah and I visited the library, the chocolate cafe with the indoor cocoa tree themed playhouse, Target, the Farmer's Market, and other assorted indoor venues.  However, I decided we needed to come up with something to entertain our busy girl at home. And so, we took one last trip to the dollar store and the Bean Box was born.  Take one long, shallow T upperware box.  Fill it with dried kidney and pinto beans.  Add tumblers, shovels, sand molds, spoons, measuring cups, etc. and you have a toddler magnet .  Leah played with those beans fo...

Happy Easter Everyone!  We had a great Easter here at our house.  Grandma and Grandpa Dainty came for the weekend it was wonderful to see them as it had been far too long!  Of course, we put them to work as soon as they got here rearranging furniture, fixing the kitchen sink, and replacing window treatments so it may be a while before we see them again...  Some of my family joined us for Easter day, so we had a nice merry crowd and of course couldn't find enough seats together at Church.  After a beautiful Mass at our Church, we ate a big brunch, hunted for Easter Eggs, and opened goodies in our Easter baskets.