Happy Arbor Day

Spring clearly presents too many photo opportunities because I've been overwhelmed with the pictures I need to edit, upload, and blog.  My bad!  Let's start fresh though, shall we?  And work our way backward.

Today was Arbor Day.  Also known as THERE'S A REAL PRINCESS GETTING MARRIED TODAY day!  Molly was so excited about the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton, but I started the Tivo-ed wedding too late tonight and ended up with a bit of a raucous crowd.  I remembered how magical Princess Diana and Prince Charles' wedding was to me as a little girl, and just wanted to give the kids the same memory for their lifetime.  Who knows what they'll retain, but sountrack to the wedding at our house sounded something like this

"Why are all those people there?"
"Why can't they all go to the church?"
"Why can't WE go to the church?"
"Someday can we go to the church?"
"And meet them?"
"Molly stop screaming everything!"
"And why do those boys have to sing?"
"What if they don't want to?"
"What if they quit? Can they go back if they change their minds?"
"Why aren't there any girls singing?
"Jack, get your feet out of my face!"
"Why do they sound so funny?
"Why aren't they smiling?"
"Why does that lady have a bird on her head?"  (in reference to a certain hat)
"That can't be the Queen.  She doesn't look very royal."
"Why is she wearing yellow?  Yellow isn't very Queen-ish"
"When will the Princess be the Queen?
"Why can't she be the Queen?"
"That's not very nice. What if she really wants to be Queen?"
"Ben stop kicking me!"
"Why do they call her the Princess of Whales?  Do the whales love her?"
"But why do they call it Wales if it's England?"
"Ben's hitting meeeeeee!!!!!!"
"Molly's hitting meeeeeee!!!"
"Jack, stop picking your nose!"

And on and on it went.  A fine way to watch a royal wedding I say, especially on Arbor Day.  Hey, maybe that explains question number 4,712 - "Mama, why are there trees inside the church?"

But back to Arbor day.  Spring has finally sprung here in Naperville and the trees are bursting with flowers!  Not quite like back in Pembroke, as this place has only had four or five years to grow it's trees (it was farmland and then a construction site before that).  But still, it's magical to go to sleep with no blooms, and wake up to this...



We celebrated by busting out our new Crayola color bubbles from the Easter Bunny.  These unique bubbles are COLORED!  And supposedly wash right out of clothing should they accidentally stain them.

FYI...they LIE!!!  My driveway looks like a human and blue-blooded alien got in a fight to the death.  And Molly's and Ben's fingers are stained all over.  And their shoes.  And clothes.

The offensive bubbles myseriously disappeared shortly after these photos were taken.

We also celebrated the royal nuptuals by welcoming the ice cream man back to the neighborhood.  Remind me to slash his tires next time he rolls through at dinner time.  You can't beat the happiness and excitement that good old ice cream truck music brings out in the kiddos though.

It was certainly a busy day, but a good day too.  Most importantly there was a giant ball of fire in the sky today that we haven't seen in a very long time.  I hope it sticks around!  It is SPRING after all.