A Tennessee spring

It's blossoming and beautiful here. Here are some pictures from out and about.

First, some pictures from the apartment. Our downstairs neighbor has done a beautiful job with the front garden:










She told me she planted one hundred daffodil bulbs. I can believe it.

We also have a few things blooming at our new home.

In the front,




and in the back.




The tree in the front is a cherry tree of some kind, I believe, but I don't know about this one in back. Any ideas?

Home sweet home

On March 31st, we became homeowners for the first time. Here's the new place.


You can't quite see it in this picture, but it's a two-car garage.


Here we are during the final walk through on the 30th. Anna properly inaugurated the house by taking her first step while we were in the kitchen. Naturally I didn't have the camera ready, since that wasn't what I was expecting!


Photo from the back deck.


The yard backs up to a farm, so it's a very nice view.

We are also very happy with the neighborhood. It's a new development with many young families, plus a park and a library within walking distance. The new location should also cut Ben's commute time to Greenville. (He is still working out the ideal route). We'll be plunging into cleaning and painting and getting the place the way we want it for our final move-in shortly. I'll put up more pictures as we go.

Shredded paper

In a flurry of spring organizing, I shredded some documents earlier this week (or was it last week? You know, it's been a whirlwind lately). Anyway, Anna reminded me how incredibly cool shredded paper can be.










We must have spent half an hour putting wigs on each other, throwing confetti up in the air, and bending strips into links and "bunny ears". It didn't help me get organized, but it sure was fun.

Easter Egg Hunt!!

Yesterday we enjoyed some beautiful weather and a visit to a neighbor's house for Anna's FIRST Easter Egg Hunt!


It was so sunny, we were squinty during photos.


They have a fantastic backyard--lots of room to hide eggs and hunt for them.


The competition was fierce.


But considering Anna isn't walking yet, she did pretty well for herself.


Enjoying the fruit for our labor--an egg full of rice puffs. YUM! Thanks so much to our neighbors for hosting us. We had a wonderful time. (And for those of you on Facebook, there are a few more photos on my profile).

Getting closer

This week Anna grabbed her red wagon and started pushing it around like she's been doing it forever. Here is a short "movie":

More Map Mischief

We caught her on video this time.

Mondays at the mall

This past Monday was rainy and a little cold outside, so a group of moms from baby bookworms got together at a nearby mall to escape from the house and to take advantage of the free play area. It took Anna quite a while to warm up to the place, even though we've been there before, and of course she waited until the other moms and kids had left for lunch, but with the pressure off, she started exploring.









At first she was a little tentative.





But then she decided it was pretty cool.





So much so that she turned right around to do it again.





After a few more trips through the tunnel, she also tried out some of the toys mounted along the wall.

I had a little shopping to do, so that's all the play time we had for this visit. But we're looking forward to working our way up to the slide one of these days soon.