magnolias!

We made our annual visit to see the blooming magnolia trees at the Haupt Garden on Monday night. Although it had been a pretty warm day, it turned out to be a windy and chilly evening. The kids didn't seem to mind and ran around nonstop as usual.

The first thing Oliver did was climb into the empty fountains. It made our evening much more enjoyable to not have any water features to worry about with that kid.

The girls were quick to turn this into a stage and perform a few shows.

It's fun to look back at previous years and see how things have changed. Last year Amelia was more than happy to come up with poses for the camera and Elsa refused. This year was the opposite. Amelia had little interest (minus the one photo above) and Elsa was requesting her photo be taken at various places around the garden.

Some of my favorite pictures from last year's visit:

Easter festivities.

 I was excited to use some of our food storage wheat to grow wheat grass for decoration.

 

 Ben's parents joined us for an Easter feast on Sunday evening. The kids did an egg hunt in the backyard before dinner which was fun.

 

 I was craving one of the cakes I made for Elsa's camping birthday party. But I kept it to a more reasonable four layers. (Chocolate cake with malted chocolate frosting on the outside and toasted marshmallow frosting on the inside.)

 

American Visionary Art Museum

We had fun checking out the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore one afternoon last week. We had just returned from Philadelphia the day before, but I had wanted to take the kids here for awhile and spring break seemed like a good time since Amelia could join us. Ben was working at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore that day so he was able to meet us at the museum which was a huge bonus.

It turned out to be a fantastic museum and great for the kids. They were fascinated by the fun sculptures and whimsical art. The girls were especially excited about the giant nest on one of the buildings and even more excited when they found out they could go IN the nest. The Cabaret Mechanical Theatre automata was a favorite of everyone (you got to push a button for each mechanical sculpture and see them move).

No photos were allowed inside but there was plenty to photograph outside.

Family portrait.

A rare photo of me. And proof that I'm carrying what is apparently a gigantic baby (at least according to my doctor at my 37 week appointment today).

Excited to be in the nest!

Getting ready to hatch.