Singing and dancing

Just in case you weren't already convinced of Maggie's many talents:

Early Spring

Random Pics Leading up to Spring

A couple of weeks ago, we got our biggest snow of the year (about 16 inches or so in less than 24 hours). It was a nice, wet snow perfect for snowman building:

Maggie has been tearing up her sticker charts. These were originally started to promote potty usage (where after a certain number of successful no. 2's, she would be awarded with a prize), but they have expanded to encourage spelling and math.

Here we are hanging out on the bed playing with jewelry and silly St. Patrick's day garb.

Here we are about to do some liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

Here's Maggie playing around on some construction equipment.

When I saw these pictures, I was about to ask Gabby what the Hell she was doing allowing our daughter to play around on this stuff, but then I saw this next picture where the owner/operators are apparently cool with it.

Here's Maggie being her typical goof-ball self.

Finally, here are few pictures of the University of Illinois campus showing a Japanese magnolia in early bloom and the walk way towards Maggie's preschool. Last year, which was really warm, the Japanese magnolia bloom lasted about 2 days. This year, the flowers seem to be coming out a little slower, so I'll try to get a few pictures when they are in their peak.

We have a lot more to post over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

Royalty

We found this golden crown somewhere (probably in the mountain of junk in Maggie's toy room), so we had some fun wearing it. This first picture summarizes Maggie (and me, for that matter) on most days. Any of you who have Skyped with Maggie will understand immediately.

We got her to stand still long enough to dance in one spot (yes, we consider dancing in one spot "standing still.")

Funny face time.

Cupcakes Galore

Cupcakes are the new thing around here. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter - that concoction of sweet breads, icing, and condensed sugar sprinkles will ameliorate even the drollest of occasions. If not, they will at least make you happy for the duration of the ensuing sugar high. The magical powers of cupcakes on one's energy level have not been lost on Maggie, who is becoming quite the confectioner. Here she is with her Easter batch of diabetes bombs.

As if cupcakes were not already irresistibly alluring, Disney came up with the million dollar idea of combining cupcakes with princesses in their latest board game, the "Enchanted Cupcake Party Game." When combined with a nearly 4-year old girl, this mixture produces an all too predictable outcome: hours and hours (and hours) of game time with daddy.

Card Shark

In the grand tradition of Big Daddy, I've been teaching Maggie how to play cards.  We have been focusing mainly on battle and go fish.  I'd say she's got the hang of go fish - seeing as how she has been unmercifully whipping me:

I've even tried to switch decks - to no avail.  It just gets worse:

Speaking of fish, I cashed in one last time on my 2012 fishing license.  There's a fairly large reservoir nearby (Clinton Lake) that has some sort of warm water discharged into it this time of year. This leads to pre-spawn goggle-eye action.  I ended up with about 6-7 white perch and a couple of what are either white bass or stripers (I hope it was the former, because there is a 17 in. limit on stripers).  I'm going over to Kickapoo today.  They just stocked the main lake with rainbow trout, so I thought I'd throw a panther martin at them.