To celebrate Natalie’s spring break Jolie, Grandma, and a bunch of kids came to visit. We were delighted and the girls were so excited. They arrived in the afternoon and Grandma and I surprised Emily with checking her out early from school. Nichole, Jennifer and the kids have never seen snow and they had been delighted with some snow in Gatlinburg. Still more came the day they arrived and we enjoyed playing at the park with the snow falling on us.

Snow here does not always last long and this snow shower ended before we left the park. Natalie gave Emily a ride across the park.

The "oldies" bundled up to stay warm.

What could be better than swinging while it is snowing?

Our silly kid slide photo!

We moved a few things around to make it easier to sleep and play. The under-the-bunk play space was just the perfect size for Mikayla.

The girls were excited to take their Daddy to the Children’s Museum.

Natalie is getting a lesson about how to make a call with a rotary phone.

Dylan is taking a trip on a rocket ship!

Posing with Anakin Skywalker. Who knew it was so easy to visit the outer reaches of the universe in one afternoon?

The kids enjoyed the train room. They even stopped long enough for a photo.

One afternoon we had a picnic at Norris Dam. We took the walk to the middle so we could see off both sides of the dam to compare. It was a cool picnic. Thankfully it was a sunny day and the sun kept us warm.

Of course we had to stop at Krispy Kreme doughnuts and enjoy a dozen or so. We were sad that the visit was short, but it was good to visit for the time we had. It will have to tide us over to summer when we will visit again.

We were able to help out our friend and do some dog sitting. This also helped us with our dog therapy for Julia. We watched George (black 5 lbs. poodle) and Belle (tan 10 lbs. poodle) for a week. The girls were excited, but Julia was a bit unsure when the dogs arrived. It took the dogs a couple of days to get used to us and our house, but we didn’t have any trouble with them. George is younger and more active so the girls gravitated to playing with him more. Belle preferred to lay on the couch and get love. By the end of the week Julia wanted to pick up George and carry him around the house. She also wanted to hold his leash when he went for walks. It was a great experiment for the girls.

One of Emily’s birthday gifts was ballet lessons. She had been asking to try it for quite a while and she had to wait until she passed the halfway mark of kindergarten. She patiently waited and was rewarded with lessons. She was excited to go, but found that there was a lot involved in dancing. She has continued to go and is willing to learn. She is ready for it to become for fun though. Her best skill is leaping. In just the few months she has been going her skill has improved greatly and it isn’t so new anymore.

The girls seem to enjoy "Make Your Own Pizza" night a lot. Emily spends time making sure all her desired toppings are spread out evenly. Julia either dumps her toppings all in one spot or she spends her time making them into a face design. You have to enjoy personality via food. We won’t discuss Mama’s pizza topping placement issues.

Birthdays are a great thing to celebrate! We celebrated Daddy’s birthday with morning gifts, afternoon not-so-surprise at Daddy’s work with snacks, evening Mexican food, and soapillias for dessert. There were cupcakes because Julia couldn’t handle the though of a birthday without cupcakes. Daddy enjoyed his day! We will do it again in a year.

Emily read her homework book to Julia. They started it on their own and it was quite a sweet moment. We love that Emily has this gift she can share with Julia. On a side note, see the shoe on the chair. The shoelaces were tied in that pretty bow by Emily. She had to learn to tie shoes on Mama’s shoes because she is still a size away from her first pair of shoe laced sneakers. But she did it and is quite proud of her new skill!