Big Huge Catch Up Post

Wow, it's been a crazy few months!  I'll be honest, I do not like being this busy, but during tax season, there's little I can do about it.  Other than both girls getting Fifth Disease and Lily getting strep twice in three weeks, it's been pretty good!  Here's a huge post to catch up on some of the highlights.  Enjoy!

We started a fun new tradition for Valentine's this year.  Starting on the first, the girls came out of their rooms to a new heart each day.  They would say things such as "You are so fun to watch movies with," "You are a great sous chef" and "I love you!"  The girls liked this little surprise each morning.  I promise that I started both of them with sticking the hearts around their doors, but after about 4 days, both wanted them in a nice little straight pattern!

 The girls spent several hours making this rocket for Mia out of some spare boxes we had.  They had a great time together!

 For a little family fun one afternoon, we went bowling and had a blast!

 One beautiful day the girls asked if they could make a lemonade stand.  I agreed because we had about a half gallon of pink lemonade left.  They filled another pitcher up with water to have on hand too.  Lily made a sign offering cups for 25 cents.  We camped out in our front yard.  Luckily, there were two estate sales going on that day, so we actually more people coming by then I expected.  The girls were very brave to go up and ask several of our neighbors if they would buy a cup too.  Thankfully, we have some great people here in Smyrna, so several people bought cups and let them keep the change.  I think they made about $10 overall, and they couldn't have been more excited!

 Love any art with hand prints on it!

 Both girls were looking forward to going to the annual Daddy/Daughter Dance at JFBC this year.  Unfortunately, Lily was diagnosed with Fifth Disease earlier in the day and didn't feel like going, so she stayed home with me.  Mia had a blast with Ryan though!

 I would like to do another blog entry for Lily's baptism at the end of February.  It was such a wonderful celebration!  Ryan was able to baptize her which made it even more special.  Here's a quick look at that special moment.

 One afternoon the girls started arguing over who got to help me with which chores.  We finally settled on Mia can be my laundry helper while Lily will be my dishes helper.  Love it!

 Out riding bikes one afternoon.  Since taking this picture, Lily's training wheels have come off, and she's getting the hang of two wheels.

 For my birthday this year, I just wanted my family to be together.  Ryan found a great deal called the Lego Package at the Westin in Buckhead, so we headed down there the Saturday of my birthday.  Upon check in, each girl received a 3 in 1 Lego Creator set which they played with for about an hour while Ryan and I rested.  After that, we changed into our suits and headed to the indoor pool.  It was a little chilly but it was great to be swimming again!

 Towards the end of our swim time, Mia cut her foot on the drain, so we headed back to our room to bandage her up, shower off and change into comfy clothes.  We ordered some room service (my favorite meal), and then turned on the movie "The Nut Job" since none of us had seen it.  We had lots of great cuddle time too!

 After we a good night's sleep, we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed over to LEGOLAND at Phipps which the girls enjoy a lot.  I think their favorite part is the gift shop.  :-)

 We all had fun at the 4D movie theatre.  This was a great way to spend my birthday!

 I had to work late one evening and didn't make it to the school's spirit night at Chick-fil-a.  Ryan sent me these pictures though.  I love seeing the girls with their friends.  I love our school!

 Mia's sweet little class presenting in chapel one Wednesday morning.  Precious!

 To celebrate the release of Frozen, we had a frozen ice cream bar as a special treat one evening.  The girls loved adding the toppings to their ice cream...sprinkles galore, crushed oreos, gummy bears, cherries, caramel and hot fudge were on the menu.

 Both girls said sleepovers were their favorite part of spring break this year.  Ryan hooked his iPad up to his mini projector, and then he projected movies onto Mia's wall.  They loved it!  I think they did this just about every night of spring break.  This is how the fun started each evening.

 And then this is what it looked like a couple of hours later.

 Loved this picture of my sweet Mia in her dance/gymnastics outfit.  She is having so much fun at her weekly Little Gym class learning tap, ballet and gymnastics.

 Lily and Ryan hanging out in my office; love these two!

 Liz helped the girls make these awesome hand and footprint flowers.  How cute are they?!

 I received this text picture one evening.  Ryan said he asked Mia to strike a pose and this is what he got!

 Lily enjoys working on her art skills; I thought this was a pretty awesome drawing of penguins.

 This cracked me up.  I went in to check on Mia one evening, and she had stuffed behind the bed rail every one of her stuffed animals that is usually on her bed (except for Glowie who is safe in her arms).  You never know what you'll find when you go in to check on her.  I have found her pogo stick in bed with her before.  There's often books.  A lot of times the Kleenex box is right by her head.  Usually the only thing that isn't around are her covers; she kicks them straight off!

 The weekend before tax season was over, while Ryan was in Alaska, the Hobsons offered to take the girls to Fernbank with their kids for their dinosaur egg hunt.  I knew how much they would love this time with friends, and I knew Liz would appreciate some downtime as she had been working overtime with the girls that week.  The kids were ready to go!

 Ready for some fun!  Avery and Lily have become the absolute best of friends this year which has been fun to watch; both are such sweet girls.  Their teacher told me they got up and performed part of Frozen for their class once!  Liam is such a precious little boy too; he's in Kindergarten but he and Mia had a great time together.

 ACCA's gala was another success this year!  We were so excited that David and Jan were able to come down for it.  David has provided PR assistance to the school several times, so we were glad they were able to come and put some faces and names together.  My parents also came which added to the fun.  We all sat at a table with the Hobsons and Wilkinsons who we love.  It was a great evening!  Towards the end of the evening, Mr. Edwards got up to speak for a few minutes and said he wanted to thank a few people.  I assumed he meant the committee that had put the gala together.  I was wrong!  He presented Shannon Neece and myself a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a lovely framed pictures that all the kids at school had signed to thank us for our service to the school.  Shannon has just recently stepped down from being the development director, and at the end of the year, I stepped down from my volunteer position of financial administrator.  I was shocked to say the least but very appreciative for this thank you from the school.

I loved the Pre-K art projects for the gala.  Look at this precious silhouette of Mia!

 David and Jan were so generous and wanted to win something for the girls, so they made sure each girl won a date with their teacher.  We struck up a deal where Mrs. Barbulescu took Lily, Avery and Emory out for a lunch date to a local Mexican restaurant; they loved it.  These three girls love each other so much!  Mia has her day with Kara and Sammy to go with Ms. Messer to the horse farm; she can't wait!  A big thank you to Grandpops and Grandma Jan for winning these!

We were so proud that both of the girls won their class poetry contest this year, so they both went on to compete in the school poetry contest.  Mia performed "Five Little Kittens" while Lily took on Shel Silverstein's "It's Dark In Here."  Granna, Bama, Daddy and I were all there to cheer them on.  They both did a fantastic job, and we were so proud of them!  We wanted to celebrate, so I bought this little cake from Publix and they wrote "Great Job Girls!" on it so we could surprise them after dinner.  They loved it!

 This is a picture Ryan took while flying in Alaska.  Amazingly beautiful isn't it?

This is the calendar in Mia's room.  Not too surprising, she has a markers on Bama's birthday, Grandparent's Day at ACCA, the Egg Hunt at FBCC and Easter.  It cracks me up though that she has a star on April 15th.  That's right; my kids already understand tax deadlines; I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not!

 Love that Mia is learning to read and write!

 Last Wednesday, Ryan and I played hooky from work and school and went to the Braves game.  It was a beautiful (though slightly chilly) day, and the Braves won; we treated ourselves to Rathbun sandwiches for lunch too.  All in all, a wonderful day!

 On Thursday, we surprised the girls with tickets to go see The Lion King at the Fox.  They loved it!  It didn't even start until 7:30, but they were such troopers.  They were enthralled from the beginning, and I think they loved all of it.  I always love an outing to the Fox.

 Whose heart wouldn't melt on seeing this?

 Let's see, other things going on that I don't have pictures of:

1. Lily is taking a martial arts class once a week as an after school activity.  She's really enjoying it!

2. I had a small, benign cyst removed from my shoulder after it became irritated and burst; you know, one more fun thing to do during tax season.

3. The girls most recent reports cards were great.  They are both doing an excellent job.  One of the comments on Lily's card was that she "continues to show a love for learning and a diligence in her work."  One of Mia's comments is that "she is very creative and diligent in her work."  I like seeing that they are both developing good, diligent work ethics.

4. On Friday, our friend Heather and Andy called to see if we wanted to go to the Nickle Creek concert with them at The Tabernacle.  Luckily, Liz was able to keep the girls so we agreed.  We had never even heard the band before, but we knew we would have fun with our friends.  We were right; it was a great evening!
5. Two dads from ACCA were going with their church on a mission trip to Kenya.  Twice, they hosted a "Rainbow Loom Party" after school so the kids could make bracelets for them to take with them to share with kids in Kenya.  This was such a great opportunity to get kids involved in missions!  Lily attended and had fun making bracelets with her friends for kids' overseas (Mia didn't go since she leaves at noon).  I love that our school supports missions!

So, I plan to do a separate post on Lily's baptism and our Easter activities soon.  Otherwise, this is pretty much the gist of the last two months around here.  I think we're all glad the whirlwind is over and life can return to normal again (whatever "normal" is!).