It feels like winter vanished and a switch flipped into spring overnight, and boy are we so thankful! After a long winter of significant snowstorms, cold spells and sicknesses, and cooped up kiddos, we welcome the warmer weather and additional outdoor time with open arms. What is one of my favorite new tasks when spring finally arrives? You guessed it…putting away all the winter gear and spending more time outside without tracking all that clothing down! The girls made it through a second winter using the same snow bibs and they are definitely ready for the donation pile, since they have grown SO much!

This next season kicked off with a couple parent work trips, up north for me a couple weeks back and down south for Craig. It’s been about a year since my last overnight work trip and this was my first one hopping on the plane without the kids. I knew when the time came I wouldn’t want to go- all that normal mom guilt or “what if something happens” inner monologue or what if I miss something, etc.- thoughts I pushed through and took my seat on the plane. The trip ended up really nice and much overdue, and while I still felt mom guilt pangs on our quick FaceTime call before bedtime, the logical, non-hormonal side of my brain knows everyone was just fine and having fun dad time. They even dined with Jessie and Jason, because why not keep everyone busy! All three stuffed bunnies joined me on my trip, which the flight attendants giggled at as I buckled them in to the empty seat next to me and sent Craig photo evidence. The bunnies were far less stressed than me and had a great time seeing Denali and my coworkers, and even brought back fancy rocks from the airport. Yep…they did that.

We warned the girls the night before about Craig’s impending departure on a four night work trip to Juneau, knowing stress over it would happened. The last time he did a couple night trip, I certainly stressed more than the tiny toddlers, mostly just mental anxiety that I worked through silently! Funny enough this time around Reagan stressed over my departure while Harper stressed over Craig’s the most, and Reagan and Emerie complained a bit, but were placated with phone calls and pictures of Craig’s adventures. Knowing time would pass quickly with five full days of work, evening chores, and activities; so I planned two evening play dates, one girls’ night movie night, and didn’t sit down each night until nightly chores were done, so Craig didn’t return to a tornado house. I’m happy to report it went smoother than I planned and much less anxiety on my part from two summers ago. Post bedtime routine when solo usually involves holding your breath a bit and crossing your fingers that everyone will stay in bed, not take an hour of arguing to fall asleep, and stay asleep until morning. While each kiddo wandered into my bed once, all on different nights thank goodness, they all slept until it was time to get up for school each day, which was quite a blessing for my mental sanity.

Other fun discoveries that week- everyone forgot mosquitos exist and now scream every time one appears, inside OR outside. It’s not like they didn’t exist last year, but clearly that small detail about summer time in Alaska was forgotten, or those buggers are just really early this year and going to hit us in full force for the next three months. So now we listen for mosquito related screams instead of spiders…because that’s fun! Random topics of conversation this last week also revolve around random exclamations from Emerie, after knocking something over upstairs I hear OH BISCUITS!! (courtesy of Bluey) or moments from all three asking how did the doctor cut your belly open (c-section) questions (Mom, did it hurt? What kind of knife did they use?), which apparently involve great detail to get them to stop, and requests to see said scar, and other cute moments like Harper telling me movie details after school about un-hydrating and when you have a headache, it’s cause you are un-hydrated! She proudly announced “a secret” the other day, one that she insisted she tell directly to Dad…that she and Michael are getting married. Who knew! She insisted only family members are allowed to know this news, and of course Miss Tawni. So of course that means it should be posted on a blog, right? My babies are growing up! Hahaha…

In other news, the girls saw their first moose strike on the highway; poor thing had legs straight up in the air with a dismayed guy standing by his totaled truck. The rest of the drive home consisted of very interesting six-year-old conversations, questions, and some tears:

• Reagan: Mom, I’m going to name that moose Cupcake. (Sniffles) Poor Cupcake, it’s so unfair.
• Emerie: Mom! Was that “our” moose?! Was that Carrot the Moose from our house?! (no- we don’t “have” a moose, just a neighborhood one with the same name each year!)
• Harper: That was definitely a girl moose. People don’t hit boys on the road.
• Reagan: Whyyyyyy didn’t that driver try to not hit him? He’s so mean!
• Me: after an explanation about moose running across roads and people not intentionally hitting them….
• Emerie: No, he hit Cupcake on purpose! He did!
• Harper: Mom, moose to go heaven right? Do their babies go with them? I think they do; their babies go to heaven too. Do they have new babies in heaven? (and she was deep in thought)
• Reagan: You better call Dad and tell him about the moose. Poor Cupcake.
• Emerie: Yeah, why didn’t you take a picture to send to Grandma (as if driving down the highway the opposite direction gives me enough time to try my phone out and snapped a picture!). She will want to see him.

And on and on and on. Bedtime was super fun that night…I tell you…BUT, I can report that we did survive a whole work week without Dad, I finished all the laundry and kept the house semi cleaned up (my life goal is still to have a clean kitchen every night), everyone went to school on time, and all were thrilled to go into the airport to see him walk through security. If we are being real about this, they might have been more excited to see escalators than anything else, but we will just go with they were excited for all of it. And so was I 🙂

Craig ordered a butterfly kit to kickoff spring time and the girls really enjoyed the entire process, from watching the caterpillars burrow into cocoons (listening to all three say cocoon is the greatest!), to watching butterflies grow in the netted cage, to releasing them into the wild one evening. All three were very gentle to pick them up and not damage wings, and other than the random throwing them into the air and hoping they don’t gravitate straight down, it went pretty well. They don’t mind butterflies walking on them, but scream for any mosquito siting; so funny. Most butterflies stayed in the front trees through the following day, much to everyone’s delight. It was a fun experience we should do again, and wasn’t too much effort to do. Those butterflies are part of the family according to the girls; as they flew away or found one nearby, we learned a bunch of them were named. Emerie had a Queen Amaya and Harper named one Lena. Silly girls.

The kindergarten class had another field trip as the school year wraps up. It was a nice, sunny day in Anchorage, but definitely bogged in and raining by the time we arrived in Portage for the wildlife conservation center visit, about forty-five minutes away. The porcupine exhibit was indoors and the entire class did a fantastic job staying quiet and using inside voices for all their questions. Who knew this we even possible with a bunch of six-year-olds, but they did great! Harper and Emerie kept raising their hands not to ask a question, but to point out how cute the porcupine was. His name was Twix; how could he not be cute!?

It may have poured rain as we explored the brown and black bear exhibits, but overall it was a fun trip! We drove the rest of the place in the car, a bit wetter than planned, but for the most part it worked out fine. The girls could care less that they were five feet from two brown bears (other side of the fence), and the class found a couple worms outside the wolf exhibit that became WAY more interesting to see than the big, wild animals directly in front of them. Who knew mosquitoes and worms could be so very exciting? I give you the perspective of a bunch of kids!

The girls last field trip of the school year was to the Botanical Gardens this week, and on an exceptionally beautiful day. Craig joined for the fun and everyone made their own natural chap stick, which was quite a topic of conversation on the way home that afternoon. Needless to say, May is off to a fun start and as everything starts to turn green and get a little less dusty, summer is right around the corner and we are ready for it!!

❤