Random

Most of life is day to day normal family stuff--not too worthy of big posts but stuff I don't want to forget about nonetheless.
Here are just a few random happenings of our spring.


The teepee.  
After gathering a lot of the sticks that fell in our yard over the course of winter, we had a big pile, as usual.  Lots of long ones too.  The kids got a teepee idea and worked on it for like 5 hours over a two day span.  They gathered leaves for the cover and were in heaven.  I love having a back yard that is big and butts right up to the woods.  Up near the edge of the wood, it's mostly dirt, we have a big pile of rocks from our excavations of trench digging forever ago and the kids dig, build and get creative.  And the way our yard is situated, you hardly notice it.  Love it.

Still needing one more short shelf, but we redid Andrew's long open wall in his room and put up lego shelves.  I love them.  The lego table, as you can see, is still covered with stuff they are working on but a lot of the stuff they love is now on display.  We got Mary a new bookshelf too that perfectly fits her Hogwart's castle on top.  She loves finally having a space for it in her room.

Whit and Julia.  Julia is our neighbor across the street.  She and Whit are in kindergarten together and thanks to half days, all 3 little girls see a lot of each other.  They have so many driveway adventures.  One of our first really warm days, I got out popsicles for them, and then set up their chairs to see by the road.  They sat forever talking and laughing like old souls.  So precious and cute.  I'll miss all the extra playtime next year when school is full day and I know Annie will miss having buddies 1/2 the day.

Speaking of Annie...she continues to be silly

Whit a Bit

Our Whitney girl is 6 years old!  It's been so exciting counting down and prepping for her birthday and party.  I think her hardest decision once she figured out what kind of party she wanted was what she wanted her cake to look like.  Oh it's so hard to make tough decisions when we are so detail oriented!

Party theme--art party.  Happy day.
Cake--after about 10 different options, she wanted a flower cake.  Then there were about 10 different specific flower cake color combos she wanted.  I was fearful she wouldn't be happy b/c she was being that particular.  Fortunately, success!


What a happy girl.  A perfect day.

Here was the main craft we did at her art party.  We did a bunch of other fun things but kept coming back to the letter blocks b/c we'd have to paint then dry then paint then dry then modge podge then dry.  Hurray for happy 6 year olds who have 15 minute attention spans and just love to giggle with each other.

 

A bunch of happy working girls.

 

 

One of my most favorite cakes I've ever done.

And my first attempt at a polka dot cake.  Happy results.

A great birthday.
And what a great girl.  Whitney is just an awesome kid.  She gets along with everyone, she's laid back and happy most all of the time, she's thoughtful and loves to be helpful, she is hilariously funny, she is a problem solver, she continues to be an amazing big sister and best friend to Annie, and just a beautiful girl inside and out.  I feel lucky to be her mom.

Happy Birthday dear Whit a Bit.  We love you

Easter

A happy Easter.  Man, Easter came fast this year.
A wonderful Easter weekend.  Let's recap.

We made our traditional Big Mouth Bunnies.  I love them.  They are fun to make; they help us be creative; they don't hold a ton of stuff which helps Easter not turn ridiculous.  Everyone was happy with how theirs turned out.  Thank heavens!  Matt started on a chocolate bunny that was looking awesome but he never got around to finishing it.  Til next year...
 

 

 

 

On Saturday we went hiking/letterboxing.  We found a great trail that we never knew existed.  It had a river, some little bridges, and a nice dam/waterfall.  Plus there were 5 letterboxes hidden.  Made for a great afternoon.

 

We finally got around to dying eggs on Saturday night.

Lookin' good.

Happy Easter!!  Church and then dinner with some friends made for a perfect day.

Earrings, Candles and Croods

After the baptism weekend, we had a few days with Nanny and Papa.

As an early birthday present from them, we took Whit to get her ears pierced.  She was so excited, can't you tell?  What a trooper too--no tears, total bravery.  She's such a girly girl--loves her clothes and being fancy.  Whit will be the girl who changes her earrings every day.
 

 

We pulled the kids out of school one day and headed up to S. Deerfield, MA to go to Yankee Candle.  We haven't been in a few years and my parents have never been.  It's a fun place.

Hard to believe Annie would be lovin' gumballs!

We grabbed some fast food and then caught an afternoon showing of The Croods.  The kids loved it.

 

And now the house is kind of quiet.  We love having company and always hate to see them go!

Gymnastics

My mom and dad had never seen the girls at gymnastics so we made it happen while they were here.  Took advantage of dad's awesome camera to get some good action shots.  We've seen lots of improvement this year.  It's fun watching them get so much stronger and gain some new skills!

 

 

 

They couldn't even do a bridge for the first few weeks of class.  Annie probably couldn't do it til Christmas--now she can hold it a long time.

 

 

 

 

So fun!

PEZ with Grandma and Grandpa

My creative skills are diminishing.  Remember how this blog used to have snazzy titles and awesome words. Now I'm just happy to get something down. :)

We pulled the kids out of school and took an afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa before the rest of the company came.  Stopped at Stew Leonard's--the fun grocery store experience and then headed down to Orange, CT to visit the Pez Visitor's Center.  What a fun place.  Pretty small but really interesting.  Who knew there was so much to learn about Pez.  Did you know Pez originally began as something to help people stop smoking?  Original Pez dispensers looked like lighters.  Cool.

Do you know what Pez are made out of?
Sugar, a little flavoring, and mist.  That's it.  They go through like 100,000 pounds of sugar a week.  Gross.

There was a small admission price but then everyone got a $2 credit toward anything in the Pez store.  Dispensers were $2, so we had some happy kids with a lot of selection to choose from.  We also discovered chocolate pez, which taste just like tootsie rolls, only less chewy.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fun day.  Glad we went and glad we got great time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Waiting for them to schedule their next trip! :)