Budding Artists

Last week, we were invited to AG's school for the annual art show. Each student had several pieces on display, transforming the school rooms into a beautiful gallery. Each class had learned about one of the "masters" and then each child had created their version of one of the master's famous works. Here are T and AG with her take on a piece by Georgia O'Keefe (the one to the right of the top of T's head):
Her class also made these cute sunflowers. Of course her little sisters were along to enjoy the fun, eye-catching artwork, too!
After seeing it all, we hung around for a little "refreshment on the patio"...
SJ was happy in her stroller, blissfully unaware, again, that she was missing out on CAKE!
AG and LL gobbled their cake up with enough time left for some playing around with the other kids before it was time to go home.

The Great Outdoors

The weather here over the last month has been wonderful...the kind of perfectly cool/warm Spring days when you just can't stay inside. We've all enjoyed getting out and playing in the yard, having meals on the patio, picking up sticks...whatever we can just to soak in the sun and the breezes before the temperature creeps into the 90s, as it's sure to do soon.

Last week we did a little "gardening" out front...if it can be called that! My version of gardening these days is just scratching up some dirt (in an area that I hope will eventually be a nice bed to border our porch) and sprinkling in a few packets of flower seeds with a bit of hope and a prayer that maybe, just maybe, in a few months something will bloom. Whatever happens, it was worthwhile just for the fun of watching the girls dig in the dirt!LL is showing that she is "everywoman"...not just a mommy, or a gardener, but she can do it all at once, and while wearing high heels, no less!

SJ likes the outdoor "baby" swing, which wasn't seeing much action since the swing set came to our yard. I think she will keep it in business for another few years!
I took these pictures trying to capture how her growing hair blows in the breeze while she swings...now I realize that you can't really tell if it's the breeze or just her usual wild style!
AG and LL made this "red berry soup" together. They love to cook things up using ingredients fresh from the yard...sticks, rocks, leaves, grass, berries, sawdust from T's latest project... whatever they can find. Of course everything, even the salads, has to be cooked in the imaginary outdoor oven.

A 5K and a Ballet

Here are a few of the activities that have filled our last two Saturdays. First, the day before T's birthday, he ran in a race and we all went along to cheer him on! Actually, we saw him off from the starting point and then the girls and I went straight to the finish point, which was just about a block away. It was fun to watch for him and see him cross the finish line! We hung out afterward at his company's tent and enjoyed some live music and jambalaya. The girls had fun and discovered this fountain nearby.

Then, last weekend, AG's long wait to enjoy her birthday present from us finally came to an end! She and I went to see Cinderella (a ballet)...here we are before heading downtown to the theater.
It was a great show and she really seemed to take it all in. We both enjoyed the ballet and getting to see the stage where she will dance in her first recital in just a few weeks! It was in the afternoon, so of course she didn't have any rest time...so by the time we got home I was chauffering Sleeping Beauty!

April Days

We've had a busy few weeks, by our standards! Haven't uploaded photos recently, so here are a few from several weeks back. The day after AG's birthday party we had our church crawfish boil. T took LL because I took AG (and SJ) to a friend's ballerina princess tea party beforehand. When I arrived at the boil, this is what I found:
LL and the other little ones had been playing with a few unlucky crawfish...let's just say I don't think these made it into the boiling pot! Then later she fell into a huge mud puddle and was covered with black mud and had to wear a little boy's extra clothes home. So later that evening we had an interesting bath time, trying to get the glitter and makeup from the princess party off of AG and trying to scrub the mud off LL, all at the same time!

This is what the girls have been doing daily for the last two weeks:

They LOVE the new swingset and we've been spending tons of time outside enjoying it on these wonderful Spring days.

More to come soon... Have a great week!

AG turns 4!

Last Wednesday was AG's 4th birthday! It was a fun day for sure, as she had school and it was skate day. Back in August, I thought it would be a good idea to sign up to help with skate day on her birthday (I also signed up to help on my birthday...I think I thought the birthday/skate link would be a good reminder for me, and what better way to celebrate any very special occasion than in a gym full of toddlers on wheels?). So, the girls and I spent the morning there, AG with her class, and LL and SJ with me as class after class came rolling through. LL even got to skate for the first time, right along with her big sister. After her class skated, we all went along with them to snack time for birthday cupcakes. T came to join us and AG got to blow out 4 candles and celebrate a bit with her class.
Saturday we continued the celebration with a "pink and purple" party at our house. It was a nice cool afternoon and AG had a great time playing with her friends and family who came! Here she is with a few of her friends and LL, enjoying the new swing set she got from Grandpa and Nana. T finished putting it up that morning, so this was the first time she'd played on it!
Blowing out more birthday candles...no problem!

The swing set got well-tested on its first run with 10 giddy girls playing on it at the same time!
Having PawPaw, Mimi, Grandpa, Nana, Gran, and PopPop there for the party made the occasion even more special! AG was delighted, as you can see!
SJ enjoyed hanging out with Nana and others during the party. Not long til she'll have her own cake, but for now she doesn't know what she's missing!
Our "party of five" at the Party of 4!

Time in Texas

Well, it had been a year since we'd been back to our "home" in Texas, and we were thrilled to go back for a visit! We took a long weekend (weekend before last) and drove out, and thankfully the girls all did great...way easier of a drive than I would've imagined! It was great to see AG and LL having fun with some of their first friends ever!



AG and her sweet friend S, playing outside during our fun visit at their house. I will never forget S's parents coming to visit us in the hospital when AG was born, and it seemed like they were so experienced and S was so much older than AG, though she was really only about 10 weeks old! What big girls they are now!



Playing in the sand at a park with friends K and A... LL is busy in the background! We enjoyed meeting some friends at this new park Saturday afternoon for playtime and a picnic.

SJ, though not a true Texan, had lots of fun getting to meet everyone for the first time! Here she is trying out a bumbo seat for the first time, too.

Bedtime story reading with A and her mommy (not in the picture, but graciously doing the reading!). We stayed with A's family and the girls loved playing and jumping on the air mattress "bouncy bed" that AG slept on!

AG and A out for an afternoon "drive" with their biking Dads.
SJ and W (A's brother) shared a "birthday" while we were there...he turned 11 months old and she turned 7 months on the same day!
Pizza and playtime outside with friends A and J...obviously the girls were having a fabulous time!

We enjoyed every minute of our time back in Texas. Thanks to y'all out there for your hospitality! We miss you already!

A Day at Gran and PopPop's

Well, our weekend away continued after the reunion/egg hunt with an visit at my parents' house, where we started things off by watching our Bulldogs play basketball and unfortunately not continue on to the Sweet 16. We had a good time anyway, and I got to catch up with "the other J," my dear friend since high school, which always makes me happy.

The next day the girls got to harvest the first vegetables they ever planted themselves: turnips. Gran had helped AG and LL plant the seeds in her flowerbed back at Christmas, and I don't think she expected them to actually grow into three gigantic turnips, right there next to her flowers. Here's LL pulling one with a hand from Gran.

Here's SJ pulling one with a hand from AG. Just kidding, I just got my pictures mixed up.

Here's AG's turnip. How cool to grow something you can eat! Or grow something at all, actually...I did not inherit my mother's green thumb, so I am glad AG has two grandmothers (and a Mimi!) who can actually keep plants alive and thriving. I'll just take care of the cooking...we roasted the turnips when we got home!

SJ had her first visit to the Bunny Yard...I don't know what else to call it. This is our third year to go there; it's in my parents' town and these people have decorated their yard with hundreds of rabbits, eggs, and various other Easter/Springish decor. It is quite a spectacle.

Rabbits on a train, they got 'em. Rabbits having a tea party, riding bikes, ferris wheels, swings, climbing ladders? They got 'em.

Girls who had a great time visiting their grandparents? We got 'em!

We chugged on back home later that day and they slept later the next morning than they have in...maybe ever. Thanks, Gran, PopPop, Nana and Grandpa for a busy, fun, special weekend!

Family Tradition

On Easter Sunday, after church, we went to a family reunion/egg hunt I've been attending all my life. Some of my grandfather's siblings were there, who've also been attending all their lives! It was fun to see a new crop of little egg hunters carrying on the tradition. LL paired up with PopPop...here they are heading toward the big pasture where all the eggs are hidden!
AG and Gran made a good team, too. AG found some plastic eggs and some real...which she'd pick up and say, "This is the cracking kind!"

LL's extra-tuned sight kicked in and she was really good at finding the eggs. She would pick one up, take a few steps, and be on her way to another one. She shook them all before depositing them in her basket.

Jackpot! With her basket overflowing, LL called it a day. Notice the egg with a stick on top...it was "lawlipop" and was LL's favorite!

It was a wonderful Easter day with family and friends!

Our Visit at Nana and Grandpa's

We got to spend the weekend with grandparents! First stop: Grandpa and Nana's house. The girls had lots of fun playing and got to go to an Easter egg hunt on Saturday. Nana was a great hunting partner!

Finders, keepers and candy eaters!

LL had some good storytime with Grandpa.

SJ sat up in a high chair for the first time to eat her first avocado!

Between bathtime and bedtime...

It was a great weekend to relax and celebrate Easter together! More photos of our weekend events to come soon...

Spring Chicks