Catch Up…

I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I posted! We’ve been busy with everyday life lately and of course mixing in extra fun when we can.

The biggest thing we’ve had going was a family trip. I’ve had list after list going for weeks getting ready and packing for it.  It’s already come and gone (we got back yesterday) and it was amazing! (That will be my next post!) For now, here’s a quick recap on a few other things…

 

Disney On Ice was in Jacksonville again this year, so a couple Saturdays ago, we took the girls. Last year it was Toy Story – which AB loved – this year was “Dare to Dream” with the princesses, which was an automatic win for our princess loving girl.

We had great seats – they were the bottom level, but the top row, and on the very end. PERFECT for stepping out with Mames, who doesn’t do “sitting” or quiet very well yet. :)

She was excited to see Mickey & Minnie though, and for the most part enjoyed the show. (It was just a little too long for her) :)

AB loved it again this year. The show was focused around Princess Tiana, Cinderella and Tangled…

But at the end, all of the Disney princesses came out and danced with their princes during the final act.

DW’s been wanting to to eat at Corky Bell’s again, since we tried it a couple months back, so we’d planned to make a little detour and come home through Palatka and have late lunch there.

Lunch and the service was as great as it was on our first visit…and the girls loved being outside and walking on the dock.

When we left Palatka, DW decided he wanted to take yet another slight detour and go home through Hawthorne. The company had paved a small stretch of road there and he said he couldn’t ever remember going through Hawthorne either. We will always make a detour for good food or to check out a paving job.

The detour took us on a road I don’t know that I’ve ever been on. I had a good feeling about it when I saw it was a “Florida Scenic Highway” -

It didn’t disappoint…

 

A few Sundays ago, after church, we spent the afternoon with Adam & Lauren. The weather had them ready to put their boat in the water, so we headed for the river. We’re always glad to tag along, because we still subscribed to the “tis better to have a friend or brother with a boat than to own a boat yourself” philosophy. :)

We had lunch at Blue Gator on the water and then put the boat in at Blue Run. We were just making a practice run for summer time. :) There is nothing like the year’s first smell of sunscreen, swim and ride on a boat. Mames was not fond of the cold water on the run, so we hung out in the shade while the rest of the crew swam.

We ended the day with strawberry limeades. It was the perfect kick-off to summer, because we all know there’s no such thing as spring in Florida!

April 8 was my nephew Garrett’s birthday! We were at my parents’ that night and tried to facetime with him so we could sing Happy Birthday, but due to technical difficulties, we had to settle for sending him a group picture and signing over speakerphone!

AB had her Pre-K screening at the school last week! She did great and I was so proud of her! She had to do everything from hopping on one leg to drawing shapes and identifying colors, letters and letter sounds. At the end of the screening, they showed her some pictures and had her tell how to react to the scenario shown… The first picture had a fly in it and she said “you need to kill the fly”, the next was a picture of a fork that had fallen on the floor beside a cat… her answer for that was “you need to wash the fork” – the last picture was about what you do if you broke a friend’s toy… her reply… “you hot glue it”   :)

Grammy met us for lunch so AB could tell her all about it. Mom & I were thinking Ivy House, but AB picked McD’s…of course. :)  We did at least take it to the park to eat and DW met us there, too. It’s almost May which means we’re just a few months away from starting school!!! I’m going to go have a good cry now. :)

 

~amw~

Spring Tea Party…

On Wednesday mornings, we go to our local library for music time. Ms. Sara, who is also the pianist and children’s choir leader at our church leads the group. She sings songs, reads books and plays games with the kids for 30 minutes on Wednesdays. Every year, she also hosts a Spring/Easter Tea Party.

The kids have been signing “'I’m a little tea pot” every week since Valentine’s Day to get ready for the big tea party. We’ve missed a few weeks lately, but we were able to make it to the tea party. 

It was held in the fellowship hall of our church this morning.

The children, all dressed in their tea party best, gathered on the stage and sang some tea party songs. Mrs. Sara said the blessing with them after they sang.

The children got to try hot tea using real tea cups complete with creamer and sugar cubes. AB took her tea with one lump, which shocked me considering what a sweet tooth she has. She was excited when I told her she could fix mine, too. She asked if I’d like “one lump or two…” She’s a tea party pro. :)

No real tea cup for Mames…Maybe next year… or maybe not, depending on how her love for throwing EVERYTHING diminishes.

After tea and snacks, the kids got to hunt Easter eggs. Usually the tea party falls before Easter, but who says you can’t hunt eggs after Easter anyway?

Mamie was just excited to get down. She didn’t find any eggs on her own, but her sister was so sweet and gave her one.

I dressed the girls in their Easter dresses again, hoping to get a picture of both of them looking at the camera, since we didn’t get one on Easter…

Wishful thinking. :)  My friend, Grace did get this one, though, and everyone’s actually looking!!! Yay!

It was a fun morning with my two sweet girls.

~amw~

Pre-Easter Fun…

We had lots of fun before Easter this year, too…

- The 2013 Easter Bunny visit went way better than expected…

 

- On Palm Sunday, we always have a covered dish lunch and egg hunt at church. I tried to get a picture of the girls together before church, but that wasn’t happening…

Somebody didn’t want their picture taken…

This year the weather was yucky, so the egg hunt got cancelled. Grammy & Pop came back to our house afterward, though, and we dyed eggs with AB. (Mames was napping).

A friend of Mom’s had told her about dying eggs with shaving cream – we gave it a try… AB had fun squishing and mixing it all around. Next time, we’ll remember real plastic gloves though, instead of having to use Ziploc bags. Ha… We dyed some the old fashioned way, too, of course. I’m a firm believer that it’s not REAL egg dying unless you can smell the vinegar. After our egg dying, we hid some outside for AB. We were considering renting some kids from someone for the next weekend so AB would have some kids to hunt with…its always fun in a big group. But she seemed fine finding them all herself. :)

 

- This was our second month to do a brother/sister night. Since it was during the week of Easter, I took back what I said last month about not having decorations or a theme. I couldn’t help myself. :)  I went way easy with dinner and made Italian subs and pasta salad. I even bought tea from McAlister's. I didn’t do that to be easy though, I did that because I LOVE McAlister's sweet tea. :) My SIL, Kelsey made dessert…Pinterest inspired Cookies-n-Cream brownies and ice cream. YUM.

For our “fun” the girls dyed Easter eggs with the kids. For once, all the old T-Shirts in DW’s drawer came in handy.Lauren and Amber both brought the eggs and we had lots of different coloring kits and “tools” for the kids to use. Nen found a glitter kit that we had been searching for that afternoon, so we were excited to see how that turned out.

Elliot joined the big boys for their “fun” – I gave all four of them a pack of 50 straws and a roll of tape, along with an uncooked egg. (This was a project we had to do when I was in 7th grade). They had to construct something that would keep their egg from being busted when it was dropped. I decorated their work table, but to make up for doing that, I put out two bowls of Easter sweet-tarts – a fave of all of theirs. :)

They’re really good sports, and although there wasn’t much excitement to begin with, but after a little bit, they got into it… its that competitive gene that always comes out. :)

After time was called, they were ready for the drop. Before we started, I told them they had to give their contraptions a name… We laughed so hard at what they all came up with on the spur of the moment…

Taylor held the tape measure and all of them made it through the first drop…

Then the second, when Elliot’s broke…Then the third… that’s when we didn’t have any way to drop the egg from any higher, so we got the ladder out…

Van’s went next, then DW’s but Adam’s was still in tact – After throwing his in the air as high as he could, it too, finally cracked.

There wasn’t a prize, except for bragging rights…which is always good enough. :)

The kids went home with Easter candy and I think everyone else left with a smile – it was a fun night.

- We went Easter shopping with Grammy on Thursday. We waited until the last minute, so I was sweating finding dresses for the girls. We found them and still had time to ride the train at the mall. Ha… AB knows the only time she gets to ride the mall train is when Grammy’s with us. :)

- Thursday night, was our Maundy Thursday service at our church. We had a reenactment of the Last Supper, and this was the third time that Van, Devin & Adam all played one of the disciples. They all did a great job. My mom sewed DW’s costume after she saw what he’d grabbed from the closet at church. :) (I didn’t take any pics with my camera, so I had to steal this from Lauren’s Instagram) :)

- We had pre-Easter pedicures on Saturday. DW kept Mamie at home while Mom and I took AB with us.  This was her first pedicure and she loved it. I’m pretty sure I was in HIGH SCHOOL when I had my first one…and I had to walk up hills both ways in the rain to get it. She was big stuff sitting between my chair and mom’s with her feet soaking.It was so cute and she was SO PROUD of her pink piggies. On Easter morning, at church, she leaned over to show her toes to Nen and whispered loudly, “Nen, you’s like my toes? A MAN painted them!” Ha…

Lots of Spring time fun!

~amw~