Spring Break 2013

The first day of Spring Break, it was too cold to play outside, the neighborhood kids weren't around, and by 11am my girls were seriously... no, I mean seriously... driving me crazy. 

 We had to get out and about, so I texted a friend and got permission for us to hide Easter eggs in her yard as a surprise for her kiddos. Fun! We had something to do! We stuffed several dozen eggs with stickers and candy and headed out.

 

We had coupons for free ice cream cones, so we stopped to grab that treat after hiding those eggs.

 Later during Spring Break, I broke down and agreed to use the tie dye kit the girls had received for Christmas.

 I was pleasantly surprised with the process. It really wasn't too much of a mess. We initially just did shirts for the girls, but when there was leftover dye we grabbed a couple of pairs of white socks, and I grabbed a t-shirt for myself. I thought they looked pretty cute! We wore our new tie-dye shirts when we headed to the park for "family exercise".

I made sure to buy Audrey some new flip flops this Spring Break so that I wouldn't feel so bad when I finally insisted these much loved Hello Kitty shoes be thrown away. 

And Friday of Spring Break we headed to an "Eggstravaganza"  We did an egg/spoon relay first thing.

There were tears.

But the tears dried up and we hunted eggs. There *might* have been an egg hunting strategy session beforehand. 

Afterwards, we posed with "princesses" and rode horses!

 I'm so glad Julia conquered her fears from last year.

 

Happy Easter!

Party at the Park

Saturday, we invited several friends to the park to celebrate the girls' birthdays! The day was absolutely beautiful with a high of 75. Other than some pretty heavy wind that kept blowing away presents, it was perfect! Julia and Audrey started their party fun with some dancing while I set up and Matt got the grill ready. 

Then they played with some friends  (Few pictures of play time. I was talking too much.)

   Our party was midday, so Matt grilled hotdogs. 

Then we pulled out the dirt cake.

A pail for Julia...

And a pail for Audrey.

We sang to Audrey first, but then she wholeheartedly sang "Happy Birthday" to her sister!

The "dirt" was quite tasty.

Matt's Granny sent down a pinata for the girls' party. It was a cute spring chicken. 

Finally, it was present time! 

 

 

Hairbows that glow. Fabulous!

I wanted a nice family picture, but the girls weren't cooperative.

So we all went silly instead. 

 Happy Birthday, girlies!

I’m obviously not much on blogging anymore, but I thought I'd slowly play catchup! 

How about we revisit December? (pre-Christmas!) 

*We visited Santa several times.

* The girls sang in the children’s musical at church. They had a good time learning the songs, and Audrey eventually volunteered for a short speaking part. (Julia and a 3 year old were the only 2 in the program to not have a speaking part. As much as Julia likes to sing and talk, being spotlighted isn’t currently her thing!) We weren’t sure if Audrey would actually say her line come performance time, but she did!! She grabbed hold tightly to the mic, turned and stared at me and Matt, and rushed very quickly through her short line “And Jonathan did, make his entrance I mean.” I’m not sure that anyone but the 2 of us understood her, but we were thrilled that she “faced her fears” and did it! 

* Audrey and I enjoyed fun times with our preschool friends. We had pajama day with Santa, and we had a short program for parents. 

*We had fun at a few Christmas Parties. Audrey and I joined Julia's class for their Chick-Fil-A Christmas party at school. And we all headed up to church for the staff party. The girls especially had fun, see...?


Our elf, Elfie, had some fun with us this December.
He lit up the girls' dollhouse... (side note: Matt's a great Daddy!)

And he toilet papered the tree.

I and so glad we have our Elf! He's a lot of fun.
More Christmas to come. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a great week in Tennessee visiting family for Thanksgiving! We saw all of our parents, our siblings, our grandparents, and almost all of our cousins! We even got to meet my cousin Ellen's daughter, Mary Peyton! 

With Grandmother Ford...

With Memaw Taylor and Mammy

 

 Poppa had the girls working out in the shop this week. They made a bird feeder, a mini flower garden thing, and a school bus.

They also learned to operate a few power tools.

As always, we were all over this little cousin of ours, Eli! He's smothered with Julia and Audrey kisses and hugs every time we see him. :)

An unusual prayer of thanks.

I haven't mentioned losing my engagement ring, but I did. Early September I remember taking it off in the girls' bathroom to gel their hair and thought I'd forgotten to put it back on. The next night (and days) we searched high and low in that bathroom. I questioned the girls time and time again, begging them to let me know if they'd seen or moved it. I cried. I took apart some of the pipes under the sink (stopping myself before I did too much damage). I searched the garbage cans and cringed for a week afterwards every time we tossed out a trash bag, afraid I was tossing away my ring. I cried some more, and then told myself it was gone, quite possibly flushed away.

Wednesday morning, during our preschool Halloween party, my little ones were lining up to come inside when a parent said, "Wooo, someone lost some bling!" MY RING! I squealed with delight, told the parents about it being lost for 2 months, celebrated with my coworkers who knew I'd lost it, and then texted Matt a picture! 2 months outside, stuck in the crack between sidewalk and grass, but my ring had no visible damage. 

This November, a lot of people are taking time every day to Facebook something for which they're thankful. I'm not committing to doing it everyday for the world to see, but please know that I'm definitely including my found ring in my prayers of thanks. Financially, replacing it wouldn't have been happening, and emotionally replacing it wouldn't have been possible. I know it might sound silly. "Bigger" thanksgivings are for my wonderful family, for our health, for providence in yet another year of home ownership... but I desperately wanted my ring back and days later I still look down at it on my finger and grin uncontrollably. 

Halloween 2012

Julia dug around in our dress up chest and decided she wanted to be a cheerleader for Halloween. Other than searching a bit for a Cheerleader book for her school's "Character Parade" her costume this year was easy.

Audrey wanted a new costume and picked out this pretty dress. She said she was a "mermaid princess".

Don't they look cute with their face paint?

We had 3 days of Halloween festivals. 

One night was extra cold and windy.

 

By the time Halloween night actually rolled around, Audrey decided she was sick of being a mermaid princess. She went to the trusty dress up chest and came up with...

Dr. Audrey! 

Fun at the Fair

I don't remember ever having gone to a fair before, so I had no intentions of taking the girls this year. My coworker, however, insisted I should. Being a spendthrift, I took them on a school night. $10 a head for admittance and unlimited rides. 

We got on our first ride at 5:01

 Most of our time at the fair we were able to walk right on the rides! Very little waiting! Yay!

 My girls wanted to ride everything, especially Audrey!  That child had no fear! I was the one most afraid. The ferris wheel in particular freaked me out! 

 We ran into many friends at the fair and enjoyed riding rides with them! This little girls is a favorite from my preschool class last year. (Shhh, don't tell anyone I have class favorites!)

The high swings was Audrey's favorite ride in the place! She rode it 6 times and would have been happy to ride it more!

 I brought a couple of drinks and a few snacks with me, but we did buy a huge bag of cotton candy to share.

$36 total spent for 5+ hours of fun for the three of us! Next year, we'll try to go when Matt can come with us. 

The girls got off their last ride at 10:22... on a school night. I guess I'm not a great mom. Fair fun vs. a good night's sleep before school and I chose Fair fun! Ah well!