New adventures!

We took Emma Kate to a gymnastics place today to let her try a class out- it was supposed to be for kids 2-3 years old, but ended up being a group of about 7 kids, all older, and some of them somewhat experienced. There was a 2 year old boy, but he wasn't really in the class, just running around with his dad playing on the equipment and having a blast. So, after we sort of realized that it wasn't really what Emma Kate was needing, we ended up just playing around too! She ran around a lot, climbed over and under pads, and had a good time jumping on the trampolines! It took her a little while to warm up to it, but I think in the end it was good fun for her. And great exercise- hopefully she will sleep well tonight! We are trying to find a good class for her to have fun in before starting some swim lessons this summer.

Gretta had a good time watching big sis playing, although it wasn't exciting enough to keep her awake the whole time- she passed out while Daddy was holding her walking around... :) She's been a great little girl during the days lately- very smiley, laughing more, and self-entertaining rolling on the floor with some toys! Night is a different matter altogether though... She slept so much better for the first 4 months of her life (while we were away from home that is!) than she has lately... I'm covering my clock at night so I can't agonize over the fact that she's awake again only a hour or so after the last time... argh. Maybe it's a growth spurt or teeth coming in that are bothering her? Hope it clears up soon and she can go back to being a peaceful sleeper again!

Daddy is doing well- getting around great and seems more comfortable. Still doing physical therapy and taking things slow with weight carrying and such, and he will be re-evaluated on May 4. We got all the fruit trees trimmed- Greg had done some of it on the smaller trees, but we like to hire a friend-of-a-friend who doesn't mind a little tree climbing and going out on the limbs to get the big apple tree done! It always looks so much better when it's been trimmed back so dramatically! We're hoping for a great season- she tells us our peach trees are some of the best ones she's seen in the area- sounds like a lot of them aren't doing so well... ours are wonderfully happy!!! We've also gotten the garden up and running a bit- not too much, as it's still pretty cold here most days, but it's good to see some progress there- the asparagus has even started coming in and we had enough from two harvestings to have it as a side with a meal the other night- it was delicious!!! :)

We've ordered some beeswax candles from a great company out of Kentucky in order to attempt to go without electric lights for the summer- we try to be judicious with out electricity, but a lot of things have become so second-nature that we take advantage of it. There's so little of the day in the summer where we need light in the house, so we're going to make an effort to use candlelight instead of bulbs! If it is reasonably doable for us, maybe we'll keep it up... The beeswax candles are going to be great! We'll see where we go from there... :)