Why the hesitation?  Well, let’s face it, most days all I see of Connecticut is the not so pretty New Haven I95 corridor, loads of houses and cars and New Haven itself – not the most picturesque to say the least.

Sunday I was reminded why everyone says it’s so beautiful.

Driving through the  countryside of Connecticut with the windows down, bluegrass on the radio and nothing but amazing and yes beautiful things all around.  It made me wonder why we don’t get out of the city more often.

We crossed a river the same way they have for 200 years on a ferry that has been doing just that for 60 years:

Explored -at least from the outside because it doesn’t open until Memorial Day- an American castle that was once owned by a famous movie star - http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2716&q=325204&depNav_GID=1650

We drove through the countryside seeing huge houses and the Connecticut coastline:

and we ended the adventure at Rocky Neck State Park in East Lyme- http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2716&q=325256&depNav_GID=1650 :

So the next time someone tells me Connecticut is beautiful I can shake my head and say, yes, yes it is.

We made a trip to Lenny and Joe’s for fish and carousel riding…

…and decorated eggs on Saturday.

Oh and we got ready for the Easter Bunny.

This year not only did he us treats he collected Sadie’s dummies (also know as pacifiers) to take to all the baby bunnies who don’t have them.

We left them all together on her bedroom door so he could find them.

Wish us luck on that one!

So I went about planning.  Everything was green (Sadie’s favorite color),  Max and Ruby and bunny shaped .  We had 20 kiddos and their parents all inside (the weather wasn’t as  happy as we were on Saturday but hey we made it work).  I made frozen lime jello (green again), bunny cupcakes, dirt cake and had nibbles for everyone.  It was crazy and manic and so much fun.  Don’t have many pictures of the actual party.  I don’t know why (heehee maybe I was a wee bit busy) but Sadie was happy and that was all that really mattered to me.

Remember when Birthdays where the best day of the year?  When you could still count on one hand how old you are?  When nothing seemed more important than your cake, pressies and party.  I kind of wish we all still had that feeling if just for one day of the year – our Birthday.

Sadie’s big day was March 30 and the day started with a very excited little girl running into our room and proclaiming that it was “my birthday today.”

We all ran downstairs and she proceeded to rip through all her pressies in no time at all.  Those pressies included a basket ball net for the back yard

A balance bike and Barbie gear

A new rain coat and boots

A new bunny made by me

and loads of other goodies.

Breakfast was bunny shaped pancakes and milk

and we proceeded to play and do pretty much whatever Sadie wanted to do all day.

For dinner we had what she requested pink fish (salmon) and couscous and of course a Max and Ruby birthday cake I made for her.

All in all it was a great day of celebration for my baby’s day of birth.

As I age time seems to have speed up. The older I get the faster it goes.  Whole months go by now and I catch my breathe and say “how can it be April Fools Day already, it was just March 1st?”

So here is a bit of what we did in March (minus Sadie’s 3rd Birthday that gets a post all its own.)

The “Spring Thaw” ended quite abrutly a few days later with snow so I guess we weren’t totally ready for the warmth yet.

I took Ellie’s flat Daisy/Brownie Scout on an adventure to Hamburg,

Sadie had Spring Break and the weather was nice so Ken installed the swing set in the backyard that had lived in our garage since we moved here 3 1/2 years ago.  We were never sure where to put it or if to put it up.  We finally made a decision and boy am I glad we did.  The girls love it!

Ellie had Pink day at school.  All the money raised was given to breast cancer research.  It happened to also be the day her class was class of the week.  This means they said a few poems and did a  few dances, on stage, in front of the whole school!  The coolest part was Ellie got to introduce her class.  A star in the making if you ask me.

We also had a very excited little girl who eagerly awaited her 3rd Birthday and the party that we decided to throw her.

By the end of March we began to see true signs of Spring.  It might still only be in the 40s and 50s during the day and in the 30s at night but don’t tell all of our beautiful blooms that.

You know those few days in Feb. when the sun shines and it’s warm – it’s going to be in the mid to high 50′s and sunny here the next few days.  That’s not warm to you Southerns but if you live in Connecticut you welcome 50′s in February with open arms.

I have always thought of the Spring Thaw as God’s way of saying “hang in there, Spring and warm days are on there way!”  It is usually followed by cold weather, after all it is only February, but those precious few days of warmth tie us over till the warmth is truly here.

When I was younger this included a night out with lots of drinks, crazy fun and maybe a few beads.

These days my fun comes from laughing at two little girls who dance and goof around in the mardi gras beads they were lucky enough to score from Ms. Melissa.  Thanks for the delivery and the hours of dress up, goofy dancing, posing fun!

Sadie’s masterpiece from this past weekend:

Ellie read to Sadie’s and one of the other classes at Sadie’s school.  What did she read you ask?  There’s a Bird on Your Head by Mo Willems -http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/there-is-a-bird-on-your-head-mo-willems/1100551108 - one of our all time favs.

Indulge me my parental pride…

After I got home on Thursday morning from India, I took a couple of hours nap and started on a cake for him.  Thanks to help from Ellie and Sadie I made him a classic yellow butter cake with chocolate fudge buttercream, all from scratch.  The decorations weren’t my best, I just didn’t have the time or mental ablity to get it done this year but I did bust out him camping by a campfire.  I even got the “bright” idea to put his candles in the campfire so it looked like an actual fire when it was lit.  I was more concerned with the taste and wanted him to have a yummy cake and it sure was yummy if I do say so myself.

Predecorations

The top

We went to Texas Roadhouse Steakhouse for his Birthday steak dinner and came home to the birthday cake and pressies.

Another year done and dusted, just don’t mention to Ken he’s getting older.