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!

Surgery and Movies

Last week Joe had outpatient surgery to repair a hernia.  Here he is waiting in pre-op:

The surgery went well and we were home by 3:30.  Joe was dizzy from the anesthesia and pain meds so while he slept it off I picked the girls up from Alexa's.  They had a great time playing with them until we could get home.

Since Joe has had to take a week at home recovering we took advantage of Stimulus Tuesday at a nearby theater that has discount tickets and $2 popcorn, drinks and candy.  We saw the Lego Movie:

The movie was hilarious!  I didn't think I was going to like it but the girls wanted to go.  I ended up really enjoying it and laughing out loud during several scenes.  One scene in the movie could have been played out at our house over arguments the girls have had over their Legos : )  Emily likes to follow instructions and build the Legos exactly how it says to and then doesn't want anyone to touch them.  Abigail takes the approach of building whatever she wants and taking apart anything she can . . . basically the whole plot of the movie.

Trip to see College Roomies

Well it's that time of year again!  Last Thursday I headed to Columbia, TN to spend a couple of days with my college roomies.  We have been getting together annually since 2004.  It's always such a wonderful trip to get to spend time with these ladies.

While we were there we ate lots of food and visited 2 presidents homes.  I can always count on a history lesson when I'm around Michelle and Danielle : )  We visited Polk's home in Columbia and this is Andrew Jackson's home outside of Nashville.

We visited a local winery and stopped at a restaurant featured on Diners, DriveIns and Dives.  The restaurant was famous for the redneck taco so we all got one to try.  Cornbread pancake with bbcue pork and coleslaw on top.  It was SO GOOD!

 Michelle and I split the taco so we could also try their ribs:

We also ate at a place called TrueLove's Pizza and Grits!  We all had the shrimp and grits and it was great!

Michelle lives out on some land on the outskirts of Columbia.  One of her neighbor's cows died and this was what greeted me on the side of the road going up to her house!

 We also got the grand tour of her property complete with these ducks and swans, chickens, dogs, cats, and inside they have some gerbels, hamsters and a turtle!

See you next year girls!

PawPaw and DeeDee

On Tuesday of Winter Break we headed to Paw Paw and Dee Dee's house for a visit.  I worked while the girls played and had a welcome change of scenery since we had been working so many days with them home this winter.  On Thursday afternoon PawPaw and DeeDee had appointments so I took the girls to the Montgomery Zoo.  It's a really great zoo and we had a nice time. It sprinkled on us for about the first hour we were there and then it turned out really nice.

Their schools were in session so we practically had the whole zoo to ourselves.  Their exhibits allowed you to get much closer looks at the animals than our zoo.

 

 Right after the first picture was taken Emily ran towards me to go inside the bird cage and skidded across the cement.  She hit hard and scraped her knees and chin and hands.  I know it hurt and we caused quite a fuss in the zoo.  A sweet family had their son run to the van to get band-aids and gave us several for her.  Here she is bandaged up:

 These pictures of the monkeys and the alligator is the part of the zoo I had growing up.  It was a much smaller zoo back then and walking back thru this section brought back many memories of childhood trips to the zoo:

 I wonder if this is the same alligator from when I was a kid.  Looks like he hasn't moved from his spot in 30 years!

 Loved the cat/lion/tiger exhibits where they were all so close.  This leopard was pacing back and forth the whole time we were there and I think it was because she was telling us to back away from her cubs that were in the back of the exhibit:

 

 

 These tigers are beautiful.  They came right up to the window and Abigail got a good look!

There were also several peacocks and peahens that roamed freely around the zoo.  We saw them several times thru out our visit:

We also got to ride the train and see more bird exhibits:

 

This rhino was huge!

We went to the petting zoo and there were 3 baby goats just a week old.  The girls loved seeing them and the babies were super cute!

 

 We played on the playground for a bit and then went to meet PawPaw and DeeDee for dinner:

We came back home on Saturday afternoon to get ready for school to FINALLY start up again on Monday!!!