What does Earth Day mean to you?

Over breakfast this morning I attempted to explain the significance of Earth Day to olan. I talked about taking care of nature and saving water and loving and respecting the world around us. Olan listened carefully with his trademark serious expression. When I was finished he sat quietly for a minute and then announced "I think we should have cupcakes for Earth Day". 

I'm thinking the message got lost somehow. :)

Here we are decorating our Earth Day cake. Luckily Aunty Mer made a delicious pesto salmon for supper so Olan only managed two bites of cake before declaring his tummy full.

Just call me Chive...

The O-man is chive obsessed. All winter he has tried to convince me that we can find the chives under the snow... so imagine my relief when we got back from the land of sun and chocolate to find the chives in our garden were 3-4 inches long! I asked Olan what he wanted for dessert and the the answer? "Chives!" On went our crocs and out we went to the garden for an onion-breath chaser of chives. He might have been sweet looking in his sleep that night, but you wouldn't want to get too close! 

Boy with chive and purple crocuses 

Pretty white flowers, and proof to Gran that there ARE flowers blooming here :)

Olan learns a frustrating lesson: Toboggans only work on the snow.

The "pro" shots

John & Martha took some wonderful pro shots of us all on the beach, even the cheesy jumping in the air shots are great. Thanks again John & Martha! You should start a little side business while you're down there!

it was the best of times!

We had such a fantastic trip. The only bad thing about it was that it had to end. 

The weather was blissful and the bigger condo fit the whole clan nicely... poor Aunty Mer was stuck on a couch with early risers in the house so I fully expect her to take to her bed for a week once she gets back to catch up on all the shut-eye she no doubt missed!

It was great fun to have Easter in Florida. The Easter Bunny tracked us down and hid loads of eggs out on the beach for Liam, Sarah, Isabelle and Olan to find. He hid them all in sandcastles, which was genius. There were even sandcastles with nothing in them to fake out the hunters. We all had a great time watching and helping in the hunt.

We all loved to see Olan and his Belle together again. Those two have such a special relationship... we were questioned I don't know how many times about whether they were twins because they get along so well and are so close. It was beyond sweet to look over at them playing and see them spontaneously hugging.

Just a couple of the many *interesting* conversations between Belle & Olan, I swear I could listen to the two of them all day.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Isabelle: That's my baby brother Oliver. He cries all day you know.

Olan: Oh.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Isablle: Are you happy?

Olan: Yes. Are you happy?

Isabelle: Yes.

Olan: Oh good.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Olan keeps wondering why we're back in Halifax and has begged me on more than one occasion to take him back to the condo. Sobs of "I want the condo, I want the condo" have been heard throughout Halifax since our return. Ahh, the complexities of explaining jobs, money and all that stuff to a two-year-old!

Huge, HUGE thanks to Mom and Dad for making yet another wonderful place for us to all be together.