Each year our church has a crazy fun hunt of eggs for the kids. This year was no exception. There was the egg hunt, an estimation station, a trampoline, cake decorating, picnic lunch, and a photo booth with friends. The day was busy and not many photos were taken of the fun, but these will be cherished. Two are more serious ones and two have no trouble expressing their spunk. Want to guess who belongs to which one?

The girls celebrated their birthday together and chose to have a dress-up party at a local store. We planned the party for when all of our friends (out-of-town ones too) could come. Everyone brought a doll/friend and they and their doll dressed for the party. Then they all shared snacks and giggles. The girls really enjoyed all the fun and being “grown-up”. While they are quickly growing up at least we can slow down enough to have these wonderful moments of fun. For the party theme they chose a Pink-Paris party.  Thanks friends for joining us for the fun.

All of our friends together again!!

Birthday Sisters

Princess Julia in white with TWO tiaras! Why pick one when you can have more.

Princess Emily ready to strut her stuff. She is not our shy kid.

A pretty cupcake ready to celebrate.

The dolls get to eat a bit too. Here is the yummy eraser cupcake for the dolls.

Before all the fun started we snapped a photo. They are pretty pleased that the fun will be starting soon. Emily brought her Emily doll and Julia brought her doll she named Julia.

So glad to get to spend some time with friends!!

Sharing the fun the best part. Pure joy!

This year we spent our spring break at home playing.

Our first day was spent just getting chores done so we could play the rest of the week. This involved a trip to the grocery. Lately the kids have been making trips in the car-cart a lot of trouble, but after lots of pleading and promising Mama gave them another try. They were angels and despite not fitting well together we finished the shopping with peace. Hurray!

The next day we met some friends at the zoo and braved a cold morning. By the time we make it to the playground area it warmed up and all the jackets were off. The highlight for the day was playing playing with our friends and the second highlight was playing together at the playground. Never fear, we did walk past a few animals.

All the girls can fit on the lion, kind-of.

The next day we had big plans … then we threw them out and just played at our friends’ house. The mamas sewed these Elsa dresses while the girls played. Once they got the dresses on they sang almost every song from Frozen while watching videos of the songs.

What is a week of play without ice cream? Of course we had to go! We sat at the soda fountain counter and enjoyed milkshakes. Emily had a pineapple/strawberry shake. Julia had a strawberry shake. And mama had a cookie shake. While we ate them we discussed a movie we recently saw that had a scene where the girl did exactly what we were doing.

Our last day of break was spent with an evening at Frozen Head State Park. We picked daddy up from work and took sandwiches with us.

We made it to a stream on our hike and played around the bridge. We also looked for animals in the stream. There was a frog we found waiting for a bug to float by. When the hike was over we enjoyed our dinner and then an hour at the playground.

While we love to travel we enjoyed our stay at home too. It was nice for Emily to see friends she misses while she is at school. Julia enjoyed having Emily home to play with, at least most of the time.

We are just adding up years of friendship between these two. Here are some shots from the past! Oh my, the mama’s had no idea that those cute little ones would grow so big.

2014 – spring day at a friends house

2012 – spring day at the park; 2010 – fall day at the botanical garden

2008 – church picnic

It was a good year! Looking forward to the memorable and everyday moments of 2014.

Our church Easter egg hunt was an indoor hunt because of a wet morning. This would not dampen the fun though. The kids all wanted to help with the sign coloring. It was very colorful and amazingly still within the lines.

Julia was still hunting in the younger group and Emily was hunting for the second year in the older group. They gave the youngest of the older group a few minute head start so they didn’t get trampled on the steps.

Emily found her allotment upstairs. She enjoyed the hunt.

Who doesn’t love opening and finding all the fun stuff inside of the eggs. Even little Carson got in on this photo. He was not as interested in his first Easter egg hunt.

From the prize table Julia picked out this cute flower-top.

There is always an estimation table to guess at. Mama asked Emily which of the things she wanted to estimate on and she picked a huge container of cheese puffs. She and Mama counted and made our estimate. When it was time to hand out the winners, we had guessed it to the exact puff. Who knew we were such good estimators. Emily was delighted to win her puffs.

Our friends with the girls showing off their matching skirts. Mama made the skirts from left over blanket material. They liked being matching girls.

After all the fun was over Mr. Kenny offered to take Emily, Julia, and Aiden for an afternoon of fun. They went out and visited some horses and swung on a tire swing. A good way to end the afternoon.