The Weather is Getting Nice!

May 25, 2014
The weather was finally getting nice and school was almost out!  I got out of school on June 4th, so by this time I was getting a little anxious!  We had been outside soaking up all the sun and nice weather we could!  Here are a couple of our favorite things to do!

Tea Parties

I think one of my favorite things about summer is just being able to let the girls be outside, get wet, dirty, sticky, whatever.  There is always water around to rinse off and the playing is always so fun!  We had an impromptu tea party in the garage with some of their kitchen toys.  The girls thought it was pretty cool when I brought out some mini muffins for their plates too.  Until Hazey started throwing them all in the water!  Eh, a soggy muffin never hurt anyone!

WATER TIME

We opened our pool!  Luckily, it doesn't take a lot of effort!

They were jumping up and down saying, "Summer, Summer!"
I hear ya girls! 

Face First

Weeeeeeeee!!!!!
Here's to Summer!

Last Day of Preschool

May 15, 2014
I can't believe Norah has already finished her first year of preschool.  It has been quite the year. She started off a little shaky with all the 'newness' of everything. She had to ride a new bus, meet new teachers, make new friends, be in a new environment; talk about overwhelming!!!  But, like always, she adjusted and ended up having a great year! I refused to miss her last day of school, so I ended up taking a half day so I could pick our big girl up and take her for a special afternoon to celebrate!  So proud of our little girl!

The tradition I wanted to start was taking her picture every year on the back deck with the chalkboard.  Well, of course it was raining, so the front porch was the place for the last day of school picture!  Hey, it works, right? 

Saying goodbye to Miss Chelsea

Such a poser!
With Mrs. Donna

Norah and Miss Chelsea

After school we headed to Rachel's for lunch.  We sat down at the table, she ordered her drink, then after the waitress left Norah said, "Soooooo, how was your day!"  She thinks because she is done with her first year of preschool she can grow up.  I think not!!! :)

Our last special 'girls' time' activity was getting our nails done.  Norah notices every time I get my nail polish changed and for Mother's Day Drew and the girls got me a manicure and pedicure.  Drew wanted me to make sure I had some special alone time with Norah and we figured no better time than the last day of school!  What a fun afternoon!

Mother's Day 2014

May 11, 2014
Sorry about the date at the top, but because I am so behind I want to remember when Mother's Day was! Ha! Terrible, I know.  We had a great Mother's Day this year!  We ended up getting together with my family the weekend before.  It was great to spend time with Jimmy, Erin, Thatcher and Mom and Dad!  Aunt Dinah and Uncle Kenny were able to stop by for a little bit too!  We are so grateful that Aunt Dinah was able to capture a few family photos of us.  Then, we had our traditional lunch out at Verona after church with Brinings.  That is always such a lovely lunch and gives all of us a chance to celebrate with each other.  I was so disappointed after I had the girls down for a nap that I realized we didn't get a picture of the our family while we were all dressed up for the day.  Like usual, we got home from lunch and put our comfy clothes on for the rest of the day.  I decided it wasn't about the fancy pictures though!  As long as I got a picture with my girls that day, that is all that mattered.  So, you will see some of the fun selfies we took below, since that has sort of become 'our thing'!  We love a good selfie! Thanks to all our family and the best hubby and girls for a great Mother's Day!

Helping Gramma make dinner!

 SELFIES!!!!!!!!

Easter Weekend!

We headed down to Cincinnati for Easter this year. We had a blast spending time with Grammy, Papa, Mark and Ashlie and the girls, and Dan and Jennifer and the girls! There were a lot of people in one house, but the girls had a blast sleeping together in the basement every night and it was just great spending the holiday together. It is quite a drive down to Cincinnati and I wasn't sure how the girls would do, but we rigged up the Ipad and brought along lots of snacks and things for them to do. They did wonderful!

This little lady was so excited to arrive that she never fell asleep.  Enjoying the Ipad to herself with her headphones!

Our first day in Cincinnati we headed to the zoo!  Here are all the girls!!!  We had a blast at the zoo and it was an absolutely beautiful day!

Waiting to get on the train!

Nap time!  I couldn't believe she fell asleep in her stroller.  Norah never did this, so I am not used to having a baby fall asleep during the action! She really needed the rest though, so I am glad she took advantage of it!

The whole week leading up to going to the zoo all Norah would talk about was the manatees.  She saw a show on tv about them and when I told her we were going to see them at the zoo that is all she wanted to see.  So, she finally got to see them!

Grace and Norah

We go all the way to the zoo to have a goat eat out of our hand! Yuck!

This was Norah about 5 minutes after we got in the vehicle!  Poor baby was exhausted!

She didn't even wake up when we got back to the house, so Drew took her in for a little cuddle time.  I pretty sure he loved every minute of it! :)

The next day we were able to go to Grace's soccer game.  We had a little lunch and the girls got to play around for awhile.   

I love this picture!  The look on Emma's face is precious!  She was such a great little helper the whole weekend!

Cheering for Grace

Later that evening we colored our Easter eggs!  

Grace and Hazey coloring some eggs!

Emma and Norah!  Cheeeessseeee!!!!

Hazel was such a big girl on this cool tire swing they had!  She loved swinging back and forth!

After coloring Easter eggs we got to celebrate Audrey and Lilly's 6th birthday!  Their birthday was actually the week after our visit, but we thought it would be fun to all celebrate together!  Can't believe they are 6 already!

And then it was time for our Grammy and Papa egg hunt!  Grammy brought 90 some plastic Easter eggs for the girls to search for in the backyard.  It was absolutely perfect weather and all of the girls were so excited to be outside searching for all of the eggs!

Looking for the loot!

I love this one!  She found one under the bench on the deck and she slithered right under there to get it!

Hazel getting in on the action too!  She was so funny because these pictures were taken on a pretty steep hill in the backyard and she didn't have enough balance to stay in one spot.  She kept falling backwards and down the hill. 

Mmmmmmmmm.......chocolate!

The next morning was finally Easter morning and the girls were sleepy heads that morning.  All of us adults were sitting having coffee waiting for the girls to come upstairs from the basement.  When they were finally ready we were able to snag a picture of them before they were off on their hunt!

Eggs!!!!!!

Norah found her basket from the Easter Bunny!

Family picture before church!  So glad we were able to get this picture together!

All the girls! 

And here we are on the ride home after a beautiful Easter brunch at Hamilton's house!  We had such a wonderful time and made so many wonderful memories!  We can't wait to visit again!