Visit to the Big Top

Saturday, April 26, 2014

We got 14 tickets to the circus this year and went with all of our neighbors - the Moodys, the Stapletons, the Johns and us!  The kids LOVED that we all went together.  This year we arrived in time for the pre-show. Emily and Reagan loved meeting the clowns and trying on all the circus clothes.

 We also got a chance to see some horses and elephants up close too!  And all the kids (and even the adults) got plastic red noses to wear.  Then, before the show started, Emily and Reagan got icee treats in little elephant bowls.  Emily even ate most of hers.

Then when the show started we saw all kinds of neat stuff.  There was a great group of guys riding unicycles and playing basketball, lots of dance and acrobatics, a trapeze act, tigers, a tight rope walking group, and (of course) the elephants!  My favorite part for sure!!  I hope we get to go again next year.  It really is not as creepy as I thought it would be.

The "little" guy on the end was my favorite.

Daniel's Birthday

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Poor Daniel spent 22 of the 24 hours of his birthday at the hospital.  So there was no celebration on April 19.  Instead, we celebrated his birthday the next day, on Easter.  We did some Easter activities in the morning and then later in the day, after Daniel had some rest, we celebrated his birthday.  This year I gave him the gift of less manual labor and had all of our flower beds cleaned up and mulched for him.  He liked that very much!  I also got him a new suitcase and an engraved bottle of Jack Daniels.  Emily got him a new video game t-shirt.  She was very proud of her choice.  I think (despite having no sleep) he had a pretty nice birthday.

Egg Coloring & Easter Fun

Sunday, April 20, 2014

This year we saved our egg coloring for Easter day.  I was glad we did too because it really made our Easter afternoon really fun.  Emily LOVES to color eggs.  I always liked to color eggs too.  She made one in just about every color we had and really liked using the crayon to draw things on her eggs too.

 As you can see, she did a great job!  And the missing one?  Yeah, I broke that one during the hard boiling process.  Ugh.  I will strive to improve next year.

We wrapped up our Easter fun with a trip to Melissa and Jason Moody's house for a fabulous dinner with their family, our family and the Johns family too.  The kids had a blast and the grown ups enjoyed some adult time too.  Definitely a very Happy Easter.

My contribution to Easter dinner!

Easter Morning

Sunday, April 20, 2014

A few years ago, Emily decided that Easter was her favorite holiday.  I think this coincided with the time that the Easter Bunny first left her a trail of jelly beans leading to her Easter basket.  She looks forward to the candy trail each year now.  And of course the Easter Bunny came through again this year leaving a trail of jelly beans straight to... 

the dining room!!!  But the trail of jelly beans did not stop there!  It continued right out the front door!  Apparently this year the bunny had an egg hunt in mind.  So, she hunted down a dozen plastic eggs filled with treats.

Emily has almost persuaded me that Easter is my favorite holiday too.  This year was definitely a great one!

Drama Recital

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Emily joined the drama club at school when she started Kindergarten in the fall.  I was not sure if she was really old enough for something like that, but no one is more dramatic than Emily so I figured it was worth a shot.  Turns out she LOVES drama.  She rarely fusses about practicing and learning her lines and she tends to memorize them very quickly.  They have done several cute shows throughout the year but for the end of the year recital, each child had to learn a whole poem and perform it complete with arm/hand motions. Emily did a great job!  Her poem was called "We Had a Field Trip Yesterday" by Jack Prelutsky.

We had a field trip yesterday,
An annual event.
This year was really special,
We're all happy that we went.
We visited a factory
To watch candy being made,
And saw a million lollipops
On colorful parade.

We saw a vat of chocolate
That they'd warmed so it would melt,
And endless rows of gumdrops
On a great conveyor belt.
They gave us lots of samples,
And we giggled, roared, and squealed -
Our field trip was exciting,
Though we never saw a field.

Great Wolf Lodge (part 3)

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Glow Golf!

After dinner and ice cream, we came back to the lodge to try out the arcade, the bowling alley and the glow in the dark mini-golf!  The glow-in the dark mini-golf course only had 9 holes and they were pretty short holes, but they were perfect for kids.  Believe it or not, Emily even got a hole in one!  

Strike!

The bowling alley was pretty cute too. It was set up like standard bowling, but the balls were tiny (like in duck pin bowling).  Amazingly enough, in addition to a hole in one, Emily got a strike at the bowling alley too!

After mini-golf and bowling we hit up the arcade for some games and rides.  The games were not too exciting, but there were some claw games that arguably picked up stuffed animals, ski-ball, a few rides and a few arcade style games (like fruit ninja which Emily loves).  She ultimately earned enough to get a few prizes from the ticket counter.  She got a ring, some Twizzlers and a small stuffed ladybug.  All in all, it was a most successful trip and a very fun adventure.  I hope we go back again when I am not coming off a trial so I can stay awake for all the fun.

Great Wolf Lodge (part 2)

Saturday, April 5, 2014

The indoor water park was definitely the highlight of Great Wolf Lodge (though it could have been a bit warmer).  Emily rode all the water slides except one and we all really liked the family water slides that we could all ride together.  The slides were very large, but Emily did not seem one bit scared and she laughed and screamed all the way down.  But, her favorite part of the water park was definitely the lazy river.  She swam and floated on the rafts and went around and around at least 100 times.  She also liked trying to cross the lily pads.

 

After some water park fun, we headed out to Chipotle for dinner and then Dairy Queen for ice cream!!!

Great Wolf Lodge (part 1)

Saturday, April 5, 2014

For Christmas, Dan got me a weekend at Great Wolf Lodge up near Cincinnati.  I have been dying to take Emily ever since I saw the first commercial for one in Charlotte when we lived in NC.  We booked it for this particular weekend because Dan would be off early on Friday.  Unfortunately, I ended up in trial and was still waiting for a jury to come back at 8:30 on Friday night.  So they went on up without me.  My mom brought me up to meet them first thing on Saturday morning.

We had a nice room and within our room, Emily had her own special Kid Cabin! It had bunk beds and a twin bed and even a TV!  Emily chose the top bunk and was absolutely thrilled with her accommodations.

Emily also loved the little bakery - Bear Paw!

Bunny Brunch for the Ronald McDonald House

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Emily was very excited for Bunny Brunch this year.  I suppose her excitement was due in part to helping me build so many of the baskets that were put in the auction.  She had her eyes on the Frozen basket, the Princess basket, a gardening basket, a Sofia basket and a few others.  But, true to her strategy as in past years, she put almost all of her tickets into just 2 bags for just 2 baskets - the princess basket and the Frozen basket.

And what do you know - she won both.  She was very pleased.  The best part was that she shared several of the toys from the princess basket with some other girls at the party who did not win anything.  She said that it made her feel warm and happy to share.  So I guess this was a good chance for her to experience the joy (instead of the pain) of sharing.  She asked me when it was over if I could host 2 bunny brunch parties next year...ugh...I don't think so.  We did raise about $3500 for the Ronald McDonald House at the event so it was definitely a success not just from Emily's perspective, but from mine too!

Star Student!

Monday, March 24, 2014

The week of Monday, March 24, 2014, Emily was selected to be Star Student in her Kindergarten class! She was so excited.  She had a bit of a rough start in Kindergarten because she had trouble staying in her seat and following a lot of classroom rules.  Kindergarten was a lot more structured than preschool.  She improved a little up through the holidays, but after the first of the year she really seemed to catch on.  Then finally, she was chosen to be Star Student.  She got to wear a star student ribbon, fill out some special papers telling all about herself, bring in some family pictures and even make her own "awesome art" to be displayed in a special frame.  She loved her special Star Student week!  So proud!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Monday, March 17, 2014

Not the most exciting of holidays, but her is Emily on St. Patrick's Day, 2014.  6 years old.  :-)

First Sleep Over

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Emily went to her first slumber party!  Mallory (the daughter of one of our neighbors) was turning 6 and really wanted to have a sleep over so she had 6 girls over.  They had a great time making bracelets and crafts (including making their own Hello Kitty pillows), putting on matching pjs, having dinner, cake and ice cream together and then opening Mallory's gifts.  After an evening of excitement and fun, it was time to settle down for a movie and then sleep...well, sleep for a few of them.  Only Mallory and 2 friends made it the whole night.  A couple went home early and one went home at about 2:00 a.m.  Emily was very proud of herself that she made it all night.