Good times!

Yesterday, we went to the nature museum with our playgroup. Mabes was intrigued with all the animals, especially the turtles:




















And she loved the butterfly pavilion. You can't tell, but she's looking at and talking to a butterfly here.






The museum is at a park, so afterwards we went out, ate lunch, and then of course Mabes made friends with the ducks. We enjoyed the nice spring weather and I'm so glad leaves are coming back on the trees! I've been pointing it out to Mabes, so now when she sees a tree with new leaves coming on, she says, "Look, mama! The tree lost the leaves, but now they fixing the tree and new leaves on!"






Prior to the nice spring weather, we got a big storm last weekend, complete with lots of rain. And my Pavlovian response to rain is to make cookies (part of the reason I liked Oregon so much!), so Mabes and made cookies on Friday. First, I put her to work unloading the utensils. And then on to the fun!














She gets to dump ingredients in and turn on the mixer. This is one of the few shots where she actually took her eyes off the mixer and cookie dough.









And finally it's time to add the chocolate chips. Notice that Mabes is pouring them in with one hand and grabbing a handful with the other. She's a natural. I don't have photographic evidence, but she got to enjoy a cookie when we were done. Yes, Mom, I let her have a cookie. Granted, it was a smaller one, but it was a real cookie!