Birthday weekend

This weekend we celebrated my 40TH BIRTHDAY!  I can't believe I'm 40 . . . I did have a fun time celebrating. 

 Emily picked this cake out for us to share:

 Then Joe cooked steaks and shrimp for our dinner:

 

I also caved and bought the girls D|sney toys at the mall : )  Abigail got some "sparkly" shoes and Emily got a set of 4 dolls:

 

My mom made this beautiful quilt for my birthday:

My brother and sister had balloons delivered to the house : )

 On my actual birthday, we went to the GA aquarium.  You can get in free on your birthday.  We asked our friends Rachel, Julia, and Liliana to join us:

 

 

 They have a dolphin show now that is included in your ticket.  We had a great time watching them perform:

 They also let you see the 4D movie now with your ticket instead of paying extra.  I think my favorite part of the day was watching the girls enjoy the dolphin show and watching their first 3D movie.  They kept putting their hands up in the air to try to touch whatever was in front of them.  It was neat to watch them:

 

We enjoyed a picnic lunch outside:

They also have a frog exhibit you can see:

I had a great celebration for turning 40!!!

School is Out!

We've been out of school for a week and a half now.  After we finished painting Emily's room, we painted the downstairs bathroom.  This room was the worst paint job I've ever seen.  The previous owners of this house did a horrible paint job in this room, so I was so excited to finally get to do something about it.  Joe had to sand all the walls down for me and then we painted:

Since the girls were out of school all this week, my parents came to help me out while I worked.  They had fun with Dee Dee and Paw Paw and enjoyed being lazy around the house:

Joe and I also got new phones.  We now have smart phones so they quickly figured out that you could watch movies and play games on our phones.  Emily finally talked me into letting her watch a show on my phone.  They sat quietly for 20 minutes while this show was on:

 They also love watching Joe play games on his phone:

On Saturday morning, Joe and Emily went to Chaz's graduation (Joe's nephew).  Abigail and I showed up at the end since we knew Abigail wouldn't sit thru the ceremony.  Chaz was born the year Joe and I started dating and now he's a high school graduate!

 Joe's mom wanted a picture with her grandchildren but Abigail would not cooperate.  Joe tried to stand in with her but she just cried and tried to get out of the picture . . . the little stinker!

Congratulations Chaz!!!

Bus Ride

On Monday, Emily's class got to ride a school bus in preparation for kindergarten.  They watched a video about bus safety and then the bus driver took them on a small ride around the parking lot:

 

That afternoon Emily's dance class had their group pictures taken:

  We have one more class next week and then it's dress rehearsal and her first dance recital!

Emily's Room

This weekend we painted Emily's room!  It turned out great and now I'm motivated to paint the downstairs bathroom this week : )  Here are the before pictures:

 The girls and I moved all the toys to the loft area on Friday afternoon and then Joe and I started painting on Friday night after the girls went to bed:

 

 

 We left a space behind the door so on Saturday morning the girls got to paint a section:

 Joe touched up the spots I missed on Saturday and we were done!  I was so proud of how easy it was for us.  After almost 17 years together we are finally starting to get these house projects down!

Here are the pretty after pictures.  Emily is very pleased with her new purple room and new curtains: