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.

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.

We officially celebrated our own spring break this year instead of tagging along with someone else’s break. It was nice to celebrate several spring breaks with different people when we didn’t have school constraints on us, but alas those days are over. We did a local activity everyday of the break and Mama enjoyed just spending time with her girls.

Playdate with friends! – We enjoyed playing with someone else’s toys for a morning and having lunch. The kids are getting old enough that they really play on their own. The littlest is having to learn to voice her opinion and keep up with the bigger kids. They are working it out for sure.

They have formed a band. Watch out! For a concert just contact their booking agent.

This might need to become a career option. It appears she has the personality to go with the instrument.

Swim Time – No photos from this event because Mama forgot the camera in the car. We swam in the heated indoor pool and loved it. We didn’t have to share the pool with anyone else and had a lifeguard to keep an eye on us. Emily enjoyed showing off some tricks for the lifeguard including sit diving. Emily figured out how to swim under Mama’s legs in the pool. Julia enjoyed freedom in the pool and being able to walk fairly deep into the pool. She would would play right at the point that it became too deep to keep her head above water and would bounce between the sides. It sure kept the lifeguard busy until he figured out that she was doing it on purpose and could get herself out of trouble.

Playdate at Grammy’s – Grammy watched the girls for a morning and Mama brought lunch back for everyone to enjoy. The girls were supposed to take care of Grammy while they were there, but they forgot their purpose once they got playing. They are only six and four though. We finished out the day with dress-up playtime. Always a good day when the princess dresses can come out.

Photo Day and Consignment Shopping – Emily had not gotten her six year old photo taken yet so we knocked that one off the list one morning and then hung out at a consignment sale and the mall until they were collapsing and ready for a nap.

Playdate at the Children’s Museum – We met friends at the Children’s Museum for some enjoyable playtime. The only thing that would have made the day better was if Daddy had been able to join us. The kids did all their favorite things!

A stack of good friends and giggles

Really it was a beach vacation. Getting four kids to look in one direction is still tough even though they are now older.

The puppet performance of the Ladybug and fish.

First Friend Sleepover – Our friends invited the girls over for a sleepover and then we met them at church the next morning. All four girls had a blast and they did get some sleep. They went to sleep around 10 and were up by 6 the next morning. That wake-up time might just be Julia’s fault. They just enjoyed playing with each other and toys. They are ready for the next sleepover, I guess it will be at our house.

One of the best photos ever! These are the moments that really define childhood.

Sunday Afternoon Church Picnic – This activity just happened to fall during our spring break and worked out for a fun time to spend with friends. Some out-of-town friends came in to visit and everyone converged on a park to enjoy fellowship and a little catching up. All the girls church friends were able to make it and they all enjoyed a sunny time at the park. Of course our girls were the best dressed girls at the park, but despite being told what we were doing they wanted to dress in their finest for church. It didn’t seem to slow them down.

Really not sure if they ware playing get the ball or get the Jeremy. Way to go Dads for keeping all the kids running on the field!

Christmas break is in full force for Emily and her Mama is trying to enjoy her as much as possible before school resumes. To enjoy a beautiful sunny December day we planned a day to visit the zoo, see Santa, run errands, make a holiday craft, buy Mama a sweater, drive through a light show, eat dinner out, and visit with kid friends for most of it. At the end of the evening two tired girls were carried in from the car and put directly in bed. Tomorrow has been declared a PJ day with lots of Christmas story reading.

The ZOO!

So much fun just hanging out playing with our friends. The weather was beautiful and sunny. We might have encouraged a kid to skip a little school today to join us. Julia’s top animal choice for the day was the beaver (who was awake and playing today) and Emily’s top animal choice for the day were the bats.

We have called the combo of Julia and Maeve by the title of “the littles” for 4 years now, but it seems like maybe this pair will take the title over.

Santa!

Emily loves to talk to Santa and will do so every time she gets a chance. Julia passed up the opportunity to speak with this Santa. She told Mama that “maybe next year I would like to”.

Holiday Craft!

Making a fun Santa ornament. Thank goodness Ms. Ashley was around to help Mama. There was some tight threading and small knots to tie that she seems to be better at. 😉

Julia loved it, obviously. She is just too cute when excited. Check out little Thea in the background.

The girls loved driving the racecar around the track and trying to stop and start it exactly on the start/finish line. Kids are fun.

Carousel!

The zoo carousel was closed today (much disappointment) and then we found this one later in the day to ride. I think the wild bear, moose, and elk make for a fun ride.