For the record, Felicia essentially stopped taking naps back in February. It was a series of developments, really …. first we gave up the pacifier (accidentally, when I forgot to take it to Grandee & Grandpa’s house for an extended stay). She handled that pretty well, but the ensuing restlessness of sleeping without it resulted in naps gong by the wayside.

We’ve managed to replace naptime with daily “Quiet Time” which is sometimes an hour of quiet play in her room, while I try to hustle through all of the chores I used to finish during her two-hour nap. Anyway, sometimes quiet time leads to naptime, although quite rarely.

But I may have found an answer! By coincidence on the past two Wednesdays, Felicia has endured her quiet time as usual without sleeping and then hopped in the stroller for my brisk walk to pick up Jocelyn from school. Both times, she’s fallen asleep in the stroller on the way to Booksin. And she’s continued to sleep through the school bell ringing and the joyful screaming of the released hordes. And she’s gotten a great catnap each time!

There is no shortage of horses in our lives, although they are mostly stuffed and plush, and often alive only on the TV screen. Felicia has developed her sister’s love of – or perhaps it’s an obsession for – horses.

Since we live in the middle of the city, there are no horses in our neighborhood. But there is a barn, sort of. On one of the streets on the way to one of our frequent walking destinations, there is a house that sits on a big lot. The house in question is not very big, but is painted very dark red, with bright white trim. To complete the look and feel of a real barn, the house has diagonally-crossing white stripes on the two-paneled garage door.

Trust me, it really does look like a barn. So, every time we walk past this house, Felicia asks, “Where are the horses?” She will accept no answer denying the existence of horses in that lot, and there has been convincing her otherwise. And she’s growing more and more impatient. They better hurry up and let that horse out of the barn.

It’s time to celebrate our grandparents! Actually, our girls are very lucky that they get to see all three sets of grandparents very often, sometimes even in bunches. GrandMaMa & GrandPaPa have been in town this week, and Nana & Papa arrive on Friday.

Over the last few days, we’ve discovered that Nana (aka Jan Martin) and GrandMaMa (aka Trish Keller) have been recognized in their communities for their volunteer work making the world a better place.

Nana has been named this year’s recipient of the Lynde B. Uihlein Award, presented by the Women’s Fund of Milwaukee:

Jan Martin served on the Women’s Fund Board of Directors and chaired the Grants Advisory Committee from 1999 through 2005. Her leadership and support helped set the course for an independent women’s fund with a social change focus.

And GrandMaMa received a coveted “Yellow Flower” from her local Zonta Womens Club in Roseburg, Oregon:

Each year on Zonta’s birthday, Zonta members honor people in the community who make other people’s day a little brighter. They deliver a yellow rose to each person who is nominated. This year they surprised eleven women at their place of business or at home.

We’re pretty sure that Grandee has been busy in her community, too. We just haven’t found the proof yet!

We’re happy to present the traditional Easter picture with Kiana, taken on the traditional bench (or at least the same bench as last year) at Campbell United Methodist Church.

Felicia & Jocelyn’s dresses are matching white polka dots, but with different base colors.You can’t see it, but they’ve also got matching hair scrunchies, too. There may have been some level of coordination on the cousins’ white sweaters.

We also managed to take a fairly decent family picture, so we decided to include it, too. Enjoy!

Karen and the girls were at Hidden Villa earlier today with Jenni, Ange, and Kiana. The working farm hosts a big collection of cows and sheep.

Felicia: “Where are the sheep?”
Mommy: “They are probably out in the meadow.”
Felica: “Why?”
Mommy: “So they can have a nice yummy grass snack.”
Felicia: “Why?”
Mommy: “They really love grass.”
Felicia: “They can’t eat all the grass.”
Mommy: “Why not?”
Felicia: “They have to leave some for the soccer players.”

We had to do a report on animals in 2nd grade.

Click here to read it: My Horse Flash.

Our own “Spring Break” doesn’t start until next week, but we got a head start on the fun when the Vancouver Kellers stopped by for most of the weekend.

Camden and Brayden played all over and around our house, including a walk to our favorite neighorhood watering hole … Elva’s Coffee Stop. Everyone dressed in light blue (Felicia is wearing her 2007 “soccer jersey,” which happened to match shirts Camden and Brayden had, too)! Jocelyn managed to find a similar shade of blue.