Rain, rain come again

Last week was full, both of stuff to do and rain. I had my ultrasound on Monday... baby looks good, but, for those of you who are going to ask, we still don't know what gender it will be. We also got a new refrigerator because our old one had a leak with the ice maker. That was a lot of work to have to pull everything out, put it in the deep freeze and then put it back in after. I've also been trying to put up shelves and get more organized. Eric and I went to a friend's house to help them move in on Saturday and seeing her house and remembering how cute it was before made me even more motivated to get decorating. I am having a nightmare of a time picking out curtains, but I am one step closer... I actually went and got a few to try out. Wish me luck! It also rained many days last week. I know our grass was happy, but we were all getting stir-crazy, and I thought, "What do we have raincoats for anyway?" The kids ran through puddles, floated sticks down the gutter, helped me pull weeds from the cracks in our driveway (the pile below is purely weeds we pulled from our driveway cracks),and before I could stop them, they laid down in the puddle (see video). So much for raincoats! Elia about lost her jeans and Ethan didn't like the floating dirt that looked like bugs and if you wait to the very end you will see his cute reaction to the bubbles in the puddle.

They ended up muddy from head to toe, but it was actually very nice to not try and keep them clean or from stomping in puddles and to actually get those weeds pulled. I just had them strip down in the garage before I carried them up to a nice warm bath.

Here is our personal eye-spy game. Can you find Elia? This is how I found her one afternoon during her nap:

And, last but not least, we are getting ready for Ethan's birthday on the 18th! I decided to have people bring "recycled" gifts... meaning something Ethan would enjoy from either the Goodwill or from their own collection. Then, I just sort of got carried away and decided to make it a whole "green" themed party. It isn't that I am ready to chain myself to a tree to prevent it from being cut down, though I do think it is important to protect the environment, but the idea sort of snowballed and it has been fun to think of eco-related party games and center the party on a theme. I am far from an environmental protection pro, but it should be fun. Oh, and one more funny thing, I was finishing up the invitation today and I started to wonder when Earth Day was. I looked it up, and it is April 22nd. Honestly, it is just so coincidental that I would plan this kind of party for Ethan's birthday and it is the weekend before Earth Day. I guess it was meant to be! We'll let you know how it turns out.