End of April

Last Sunday our class had a picnic at a nearby park after church.  We enjoyed eating lunch together and the girls enjoyed playing on the playground:

We went to Emily's school one afternoon for the Book Fair.  She showed us the flowers that her class planted in the school garden:

And showed us her picture on the library wall for the 1st Grade AR Wall:

Hanging out with Neighbors

The kids have enjoyed the warm weather this week.  Yesterday several of the kids in the neighborhood ended up at our house and the girls and boys made their own forts:

The boys mainly had fun trying to bother the girls and use their Nerf guns on them: )

Then the girls decided to take all their animals for a walk:

Once everyone was good and sweaty we ended up in a neighbor's backyard to enjoy the sprinkler:

This lasted about 10 minutes before they all migrated inside to play with toys.

It was a really fun day.  I love this time of year!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!!!

We ate lunch with friends after services.  All of the little girls look so sweet!

Swimming, Hiking, and a Museum

Abigail has really come a long way with her swimming lessons.  I'm excited to see how she will do this summer in the pool:

 We also discovered the walking trails in our neighborhood.  I had heard about them from others but hadn't ventured out far enough to find them.  We walked with some friends and it was a lot of fun.  Emily collected leaves for a collection:

Abigail was off from school on Friday for Good Friday and asked if we could go to Fernbank.  So we did.  She said she wanted an "Abigail and Mommy" Day:

 They had a new exhibit since we went this summer that included whales.  This was a replica of a blue whale.  It was huge!!!

We had a good day together!

Easter Egg Hunt

Our church had their Easter Egg Hunt after services today.  The girls had a lot of fun.  Waiting for the hunt to begin for Abigail's group:

 And they are off!

 Then Emily's group got to go:

 I asked Jason to take a picture of our family and he snuck this one in there too:

 Sweet sisters!

Spring Break

We had a wonderful spring break this year!  The weather was so nice so we spent a lot of time riding bikes and coloring with chalk.  On Tuesday we went to the $1 movie with friends:

On Wednesday Joe took the girls to the dentist and that afternoon they rode their bikes and played with friends:

 

On Thursday  I took the girls swimming at our gym during their Family swim time.  I wanted Abigail to practice what she was learning at swim lessons and give Emily an opportunity to swim since she had been watching Abigail from the sidelines.  Abigail started out with her life jacket on, but after about a half hour in the water I took them off to practice with her.  By the end of the afternoon she was putting her whole head under water and swimming to me and then back to the steps.  She also floated on her back by herself!  Yea!  Progress is being made!

They had also been saving up money to buy Palace Pets.  So we bought those at the end of the week:

Kick off Spring Break

Today was our first day of Spring Break!  I took off work so we could shop for some sandals for Emily.  We met Joe for lunch at the mall and the girls rode the carousel:

We were able to find some shoes and I got Emily this dress and matching one for her doll.  It wasn't on the list of purchases but I couldn't resist:

That afternoon our friends joined us at our playground to play:

We then took them to dinner.  Once the dads picked up the kids we enjoyed a ladies night out dinner.

Trying new things

We bought a bike for Abigail during all our holiday shopping and kept it in the attic until warm weather.  Abigail had been faithfully riding her little tricycle until we could finally remember to get the bike out of the attic and Joe put it together.  She was so excited and really took off with it quite easily:

I also decided to try a swim lesson with her to see how I thought it would go.  I really liked the instructor so we signed her up for some lessons.  Here she is practicing at her first lesson:

My goal is to hopefully get rid of her life jacket this summer!

She has also enjoyed wanting to cuddle with me on the couch which is one of my favorite things!  one afternoon she decorated me while I sat leisurely on the couch:

Mystery Reader

I surprised Emily on Thursday as the Mystery Reader for her class.  It's a lot of fun at this age because everyone gets excited when a parent comes into the room to read!

I've also been going thru bins of clothes to switch closets around for Spring.  Emily found some treasures that she enjoyed wearing all afternoon:

Skating

On Saturday, Emily went to a birthday party at an ice skating rink.  I had Abigail with me so I told her before hand that I wouldn't be able to get out there with her.  She was nervous but I told her to give it a try and go slow and we'll see what happens. 

Well, she had a blast!  

I was SO PROUD of her!  She is usually very cautious about these kinds of things and if she thinks people are staring at her it makes it worse.  It was really good that I didn't get out there with her because it let her figure it out on her own and give her more confidence.

Once I was sure she would be ok, I took Abigail to the rink next door to go roller skating.  Abigail really wanted to try ice skating but I knew we would just stay a heap on the ice floor the whole time because they would require me to wear ice skates out there.  I had a hard enough time keeping Abigail upright while walking around with her at the roller skating rink.  There were only 4 or 5 kids roller skating so Abigail liked being out there:

Shortly after I took this picture she fell and hit hard.  She had a good cry and told me I couldn't take pictures because I was supposed to help her : )

The girls enjoyed cookie cake and then a little more skate time.  Also, Emily insisted on wearing her PJ top to the rink today.  Ok, sure, no problem:

In other news this past week, Joe went back to work on Saturday and did ok.  It was his first day back after surgery.  Abigail's school made dinosaur eggs and we cut it open to find a baby dino inside:

And after WEEKS of Emily's hair driving me crazy because she never kept barrettes in her hair, I finally convinced her to wear it back one day.  She didn't like it but I basically made her do it.  When she got home from school she said, "Mom, I actually liked having my hair back and out of my eyes today."  SCORE!!!  She even wore a bow several times last week.  This is one happy mama!!!

I can see that beautiful face again!  And last but not least, Emily pulled her 7th tooth Sunday morning!  It had been hanging on for a couple of months now so Joe and I were happy to see that tooth go!