Preparing for Big Changes

Grandpa Dada came up for several days last week to help us prepare for a big change that will happen later this spring.  We're moving!  Okay, just a few miles down the road, but still, it doesn't matter if you're moving to Tuscaloosa or the house next door ... it's still a major ordeal.  Right now we are preparing to put our house on the market, and Grandpa Dad was a huge help with some long-overdue projects- updating part of the kids' bathroom, touching up our paint inside and out, fixing closet shelving, and the like.  Between staging and preparing our house, working with the mortage and legal people toward a closing on the new house, thinking about what the new house will need, and the fact that this is my absolute busiest time at work... I'm more than a little stressed.  It seems INSANE to leave for a week in the midst of this chaos, but we planned a vacation back in January before we knew we were moving, and now it's here.  So we're off to Costa Rica in 3 days.  I really am excited to go and explore the rainforest, but I just hope we can actually relax while we're there!

 
While Grandpa Dada was here, we also found some time for fun activities.  On a beautiful Saturday morning we went to an Earth Day celebration at Massabesic Audubon where the kids enjoyed making bird feeders and crafts, getting faces painted, constructing a bluebird house, poking around a vernal pool, watching bird banding, and roasting marshmallows over the fire.  We also went to a very chilly Fisher Cats game on Sunday.  The kids didn't seem to mind the chill at all, and happily ate their popcorn and cotton candy and took various excursions around the stadium when the tedium of actually watching baseball (tough for a 3 and 7 year old) got to be too much.  The Fisher Cats lost, but that really doesn't bother us.  It's the spring-ness of  being outside in a stadium and watching a game that matters.  Two days after that baseball game, it snowed 2 inches.  So, we're not quite there yet, but we're getting closer...

Haley putting the finishing touches on the painted quilt square we did together

Aiden's square- a pelican, fish and crab