Joe Bliven

After our trip to Texas, which was a hot and sweaty trip, we returned home to find snow still on the ground, but it sure didn't stay long. It promptly turned into a hot hot spring with lots of opportunities for outdoor play and yard work. For more pictures from our spring click HERE.


The cold start to spring was enough to delay the Saints home opener for the fourth consecutive year (every year since they've become a Twins affiliate). We still made it to the Saints home opener when it finally happened, and we've made it to a few additional games throughout the Spring. We also went to a Dodgers @ Twins game because one of Amelia's choirs (Bloomington Chorale) sang the national anthem. It was dollar hot dog night, which was great for Maya. The Twins lost 6-3, but I got to see North Saint Paul native Louie Varland strike out Shohei Ohtani.




Sadly Leo our bunny died an ironic death just before Easter. He was our best bunny ever and we will always remember him.



Elena had quite the spring this year. She finished her last year at middle school. She decided to try running track this year, and liked it enough that she plans to continue at the high school. On Saturday mornings she had choir practice. The end of eighth grade came with some exciting events like a class trip to Valley Fair, the eighth grade dance, and the eighth grade recognition ceremony. She received the presidential gold award for maintaining an A average through 7th and 8th grade, and received the loudest scream award from her orchestra teacher. Elena also got her ears pierced for the first time this spring. She has spent much of the first leg of summer skateboarding with her friend Natalie, binge watching TV, talking to her friends online, playing piano and playing Roblox. She's also been putting a lot of time into the guitar and she's getting pretty good pretty quickly.




Amelia has been hard at work as always. Not just at the VA, but on her Master's program as well. She is also in two choirs which had several performances this spring, sorry if we failed to invite you. She also is continuing to read more books than anyone I know. She's joined a few book clubs and I even accompanied her to one of them. She's still finding all sorts of ways to fill up our schedule with enriching experiences.



I managed to break my nearly two year streak of not being able to finish a book. I started so many books, sometimes getting over half way through. The book that finally did it was Parable of the Sower. Since then I've finished two other books. I also started and finished Dragon Quest IV for the Nintendo DS, and oh ho ho ho boy, was that a fun one! With the weather being so nice so early I got a lot done outside, including building a garden arbor that I'd been plotting since we moved to this house four years ago!



Maya loves helping in the yard and garden. She had a blast helping build the arbor. She also loves to help in the kitchen. She's started wearing lots of accessories this spring; purses, necklaces, watches, clip-on earrings, and glasses. She's gotten her face painted at least 5 times this spring. She was doing 3 days of ECFE a week, but now she's on summer vacation just like her big sister. During the colder months of spring and winter we had set up a bounce house in the basement for her to get her wiggles out. Since the weather's gotten warmer she constantly wants to be outside. She loves riding her bike and scooters, playing with bubbles, her water table, and baseball. We set up an inflatable waterslide one day, and we're excited to bring that out on some hotter days this summer. She wants to go to the playground all day every day, where her favorite thing is the swings. We've already been to more than a dozen playgrounds this spring and will likely go to dozens more by the end of summer.


Clara loves the playground. She gleefully watches the other kids run around, she especially loves watching Maya. Clara also loves the baby swings, she could spend all day swinging. She also loves riding in shopping carts, especially when her sister can sit next to her. When she isn't sick she's the happiest baby in the world.



We had a family of asylum seekers from Colombia staying with us for a month. They had a two year old daughter that loved playing with 3 year old Maya, they also had a baby who was born just days apart from Clara. It was fun having them stay with us but unfortunately they were denied asylum and then deported without warning. We had to ship their clothes back to them in Colombia.


We've made it to many local festivals and events, two parades, a fireworks show, the cabin, Harmony Park, concerts, restaurants, and treat shops. It's rarely a dull day in our family, maybe a bit more rare than I'd prefer, but it sure has been a fun spring. I'm looking forward to another fun summer.