Spring is here...

Spring has arrived and the cherry blossoms here are in full bloom. (And so are the allergies and the sneezing!)

We've been spending more and more time at our local parks.  There is one that is within walking distance and another with a more interesting playground a short drive away.  Here is Eliana dutifully pushing her little sister on the swing, which is a novelty for both girls.

Karina definetely enjoys the swings and is enjoying the park more in general now that she is really stable on her feet.

Karina is also getting better and better at building with Legos.  Not content to build boring towers, she picks out the pieces with wheels, connects them like a train, and then builds on those.  She is our little engineer.

And she says "choo-choo!" while pushing it back and forth.

When Eliana was this age, she was talking a lot better and so we were disciplining a lot more.  Because Karina is not talking nearly as well, she somehow gets away with a lot more.  Such as dumping all the hair clips and rubber bands into the sink and turning the faucet on.

A few weeks ago, it was Eliana's 6th and last ice skating class.  It was a mixed success.  She definetely made progress and can now skate-shuffle forward across the ice.  On the other hand, she doesn't follow the technique that her teachers tell her to do (put your hands forward, bend your knees) and so she falls on her bottom every once in a while--and HATES falling.  So we think we will wait a little while before signing her up again for another class.

But we wanted to end it on a positive note and so Eliana got a special treat after she 'graduated'.  She got frozen custard at Sheridan's, with caramel on top.

The other day, Grandpa came over and decided to teach Eliana tic-tac-toe.  Elvin scoffed because he didn't think Eliana would understand.  But ever so patiently, Grandpa explained the strategy of looking for two in a row to block the opponent, etc etc.

To Elvin's surprise, Eliana started catching on...

And even beat Grandpa!

If you remember from before, Eliana has been doing chores as a way of earning spending money.  For the past month, she has been working towards a little Hello Kitty stuffed animal/doll that she picked out from Amazon.  So some weeks she would feel very motivated and do a spurt of chores, earning 10 cents at a time towards her $5.00 goal.  But on other weeks, she would do nothing.

 

This past week, she finally did a spurt of chores, which put her over the top.  Out came the money from her piggy bank...

 

And she finally got her coveted doll!  It has accompanied her to many places this past week.

And just because, Karina also likes doing chores.  Probably because she likes copying everything her big sister does.  And we are impressed that when putting silverware away in the drawer, she is pretty good about putting everything in the right place.

Elvin's parents came to visit a couple weekends ago.  Probably the highlight of the visit for Eliana was the fact that she got a new Princess kite from Costco.  Yeh-yeh assembled it... 

And because there was not wind, Yeh-yeh also had to put in the effort to make it fly.  It was very exciting for Eliana.

All in all, the girls are growing up very quickly, it seems.  We are also in the midst of reconfiguring rooms in preparation for #3, who will be arriving sometime in late May.  More on that later!