It's another beautiful spring day with temps in the low 50s, sunny blue skies with a few fluffy clouds, and a light breeze. It's a perfect day to be outside enjoying the new sidewalk chalk and bubbles. Unfortunately, half of the family is too sick to do much of anything other than sleep and lie on the couch.

We made it through almost the entire winter without any illnesses - not even colds - and then March hit and along with it came the flu and nasty colds. That lasted about two weeks, and suddenly Cory gets sick. For the past couple days, Cory has been under the weather, but he was feeling better this morning. Cole and Accalia seem to have caught whatever he has, though, and are really suffering today. Accalia and Cole both went upstairs around 11:30 a.m. for a nap, and Accalia came down after an hour. Two hours later Cole is still up there sound asleep. I really, really hope that this stays clear of Ella, Tylan and myself.

Yesterday, before the kids were feeling really bad, they were outside playing with the neighbor girls. Cole lost energy, though, and Accalia started to feel dizzy and almost black out, so they both came inside. The younger girl (age 6) then sat outside on her sidewalk and pouted about the whole thing. I completely understand her disappointment in losing her playmates early on a lovely day, but this seems to be the response whenever Accalia or Cole stop playing before the girls have to go inside. This happened all last summer, too, and it drove me nuts. Longtime readers probably remember a few rants of mine, fueled on by pregnancy hormones. I just can't help but feel trapped at our home when the neighbor girls are at home, too, and seem to want nothing to do with their own house. The instant they can they come over and stay as long as they can. I guess I should feel pleased that they have such a good time at our house, and it makes me feel sad that they apparently dislike their own house (I suspect mom more than anything) so much that they don't want to spend any extra time there than necessary. I just need to find a balance when school lets out because Accalia and Cole also lose interest in playing after a while and just want to be inside and relax without additional playmates. We'll figure it out. I guess now I have the excuse of a baby needing to nap in order to keep things quiet.

Okay, since I have been so remiss in regularly posting pictures, I'm going to share some below. Yay!

Here is Cory and his dad at the 65th birthday celebration we had for Myron at Outback Steakhouse in Sioux Falls.


Here is Tylan chewing on a wooden book. At seven months old, she still has no teeth and is not yet crawling. She loves to turn around in a 360, though, and seems to pull herself short distances.


Cole loves nothing more than to pose for pictures with Tylan. He loves that Tylan resembles him more than either of his other sisters. I think he takes solace in that since he didn't get a brother this last time around.


And here are my three girls. Tylan loves Accalia so much. She gets so excited every time she sees her biggest sister and nearly jumps out of my arms to get to her. Ella's relationship with Tylan is slowly evolving with Ella trying to play with Tylan more and more, taking her cues from Accalia.