My Pre-Spring Spring Break

OK, true, I don't technically have a spring break, not being a part of the working world.  I have TWO!  One for BJ (this week) and one for Toby (in April).  And this first spring break, which seems to me to be extremely early (it not actually being spring for another two weeks and all), is being spent pretty much the same as always.  BJ's at the office (aka Starbucks) working on a paper or something, and Toby's at school while Norah and I are home or running errands and the like.  But we're also enjoying a fair bit of this:

Toby is turning into a pretty good chess player, and in just a few more games he's possibly going to beat me.  And, I'm telling you, my competitive spirit doesn't want to lose to a five year old, so when he does beat me it just might be the end of my chess-playing days.

And this.  Norah got her first haircut.  We got to keep the hair in a bag, which I thought was a nice touch.  Except the girl who cut her hair seemed to be hesitant to cut anything at all.  So there's barely any hair in the baggie, and when I brought it home BJ said, "Is that all she cut?"  Needless to say, we won't be waiting another 3 years for Norah's second haircut.

And, of course, there's still lots of dancing going on.  Toby takes a break from putting on his socks to do some moves.  (Yes, he's wearing an iPod shuffle.  We let him borrow it.  Honest.)  Before long he heads back to the Lego table.

What do you think of Toby's new haircut?  I like the short hair look.  (I'm not sure if I have shown a picture of this Lego creation yet, but there it is...  That castle came in a box of over 800 pieces.  And do you know when Toby wanted to build it?  New Year's Day, when we had just been up with friends until 4 in the morning.  God, I love that castle.  Click on the picture to see it bigger.  It's amazing it actually looks like a castle, being built by a 5-year-old and an adult operating on 4 hours of sleep.)