Abbie's 5th Birthday

Ava Grace, Abbie, and Meagan

 

Abbie and Anna (giving her best roar)

Layla and Abbie

the girls playing musical chairs

The girls enjoying their pizza.

  

the butterfly pinata

Abbie's clown cake

Abbie with her clown cake!

Anna, Sophie, Meagan, Abbie, Layla and Dani with Keri (holding Carter), Aunt Martha with Morgan

Morgan and Abbie

Paula, Abbie, Sophie and Matt

Sophie playing with Morgan

This year, we decided to do Abbie's birthday party on a much smaller scale than last year.  I thought that a circus theme would be fun since we were taking Abbie to the circus for the first time just a week after her party.  We had the party at our church and just invited a few girls from school and church.  We also invited some family to come to the party.  Matt's parents were able to come in for Abbie's party from Virginia as well even though they got a few inches of snow there before leaving town.  About half of the girls that we invited were able to come to the party.  We played some games like musical chairs, tossing bean bags to knock down the cans,  trying to toss a ball into a bucket, we did the pinata, did an egg on the spoon race and played with a parachute (the kids loved that).  We had pizza, popcorn and of course, cake and ice cream.  The popcorn was very important to Abbie because she LOVES popcorn and I had told her we could have it for our circus party.  =)  One thing that was funny is that Abbie wanted a clown cake but she kept saying that a clown would come out at her party (but she doesn't like people who are dressed up-except princesses).  I kept saying, "no, we are not having a clown at your party.  I don't think you'd like that."  We had a nice time and it was fun to be with friends and family.  We gave Abbie her first "American Girl doll"-really the Target version of the doll.  She was very excited.  She had told Mimi that she needed a big car for her doll that could pull Sophie's RV (that she got for Christmas).  Mimi and Paw-paw Tom gave her a Jeep so Abbie was in heaven with her new toys.  Nana and Paw-paw gave her a salon chair too for her doll so she can fix their hair.   She is all set!  She got some other nice gifts as well.

Vergne Christmas Celebration



Sophie lost another tooth.  The tooth fairy's going to pay us another visit.



A winter wonderland at the Cooper's home in Cincinnati.



The girls were so excited to see a few inches of snow covering everything!

me and the girls with Aunt Leia, Mimi and Paw-paw Tom.  We were on an old bus.

The girls enjoyed visiting a couple of the museums in Cincinnati. 

 

Sophie and Abbie with Aunt Leia in the museum.  We saw a special train display that was set up for Christmas. 

Paula, Sophie Aunt Leia and Abbie at JoAnne and Gary's house in KY.

Matt received this shirt from Leia for Christmas.  We love Christmas Vacation.

Our girls with Gary, Leia and JoAnne.

This year for Christmas would have been our year to travel to Virginia to visit Matt's family after Christmas.  However, one of Matt's first cousins was getting married on Dec 29th in Cincinnati, Ohio so we decided to meet there instead and celebrate Christmas.  Children were invited to the wedding but not the reception which made everything tougher for us to figure out.  We arrived in Cincinnati on a Friday evening.  Paula's cousin, Beth, lives right outside of Cincinnati with her family.  They were out of town while we were there but they let us stay in their home which was very generous of them.  We ate at Skyline Chili on Friday night and then woke up to a winter wonderland.  It had snowed about 4-5 inches.  Too bad we didn't come better prepared with warmer clothes so that the girls could enjoy it more.  They did walk around a little and help their daddy shovel snow but we just didn't come prepared. 

On Saturday, we met up with Tom, Teresa and Leia at an old train station that houses three different museums in Cincinnati.  We checked out the children's museum and a history museum that had a large train display set up for this time of year only.  All of us enjoyed checking out the museums.  One of our girls got kind of wet playing in the water area at the children's museum but oh, well.  We had some lunch together there and then split up so that we could have some down time before the wedding.  It started snowing again in the afternoon but they are good about clearing the roads there.  We went to the wedding that afternoon for Lindsey and Patrick.  Thankfully, the girls behaved and it was not a full Catholic wedding.  A friend of Matt's aunts was able to keep the girls for us at the hotel for most of Matt's family were staying. 

The rest of us attended the reception.  It was very pretty because they had it at a place with lots of windows that was right on the Ohio River and you could see a beautiful view of Cincinnati.  We had a nice sit down dinner.  They also had a photo booth which was fun.  We stayed for a couple of hours and visited with several from Matt's family.  The next day, we headed over to eastern Kentucky where Uncle Gary and Aunt JoAnne live.  We were able to have a wonderful lunch with them, Matt's parents and Leia.  Then, we all celebrated Christmas together.  The next day, we headed back home.

Christmas Day 2012

Sophie and Abbie with their loot from Santa!

Uncle Phil, Morgan, and Sophie

the Waggoner/Vergne/Riley crew at Christmas

Abbie with her Barbie cruise ship!

   

Sophie with her RV for her American Girl doll!

Matt got a surprist-Snowbird mittens, a hat and even houseshoes.

 

Sophie with Morgan

We had a wonderful Christmas!  Aunt Martha, Uncle Matt, and Uncle Phil all spent the night at Nana and Paw-paw's on Christmas Eve.  On Christmas morning, Nana and Paw-paw came over to our house early to see what Santa had brought the girls.  Sophie got roller skates, some books and several smaller things from Santa this year.  Abbie got a "Doctor Baby" doll, a baby carrier, and a bunch of other stuff for Christmas.  Our immediate family decided to go over to Nana and Paw-paw's for breakfast and to spend the day because Morgan wasn't up yet.  We had a yummy breakfast and the girls enjoyed some time with Morgan.  Uncle Matt, Aunt Martha, and Morgan left for a while to visit Uncle Matt's family.  The girls had a great time playing with their toys from Nana!  We opened the other presents to each other that night after dinner.  Overall, we had a very nice Christmas(and it wasn't totally over for us)!

Pre-Christmas and Christmas Eve pictures

Abbie singing at their Christmas program

Sophie loved her fancy lollipop that she received at church!

Look where our elf turned up-at the kissing booth!

Abbie holding cousin Morgan

3 of the 4 Matt's on the couch together!

Aunt Martha, Sophie, and Abbie

Keri with her Channel 5 News Hound phone (Matt V. wrapped up a few gags for Christmas).

Skyler with Abbie and Sophie

Summer with Abbie and Sophie

We finally remembered to get a shot of our family when we got home from Aunt Patti and Uncle John's house.

December happenings

Paula and Sophie at Sunnyside (strange pose I know)

our family at Sunnyside

Ava Grace and Abbie

Sophie's all smiles before her violin recital!

Sisters!

Paula, Sophie and Abbie with the gingerbread house.

We did a lot of fun things in December.  At the beginning of December, Sophie had a  Christmas violin recital.  She did great!  That afternoon, her Girl Scout troop rode in a float that they had helped decorate in the Franklin Christmas Parade.  It turned out to be beautiful weather for it.  The girls had a great time and the float looked really good!  Abbie and I watched the parade, Sophie rode in it and Matt walked along with them.  Matt bought a pre-built gingerbread house and he and the girls decorated it (I just supervised some).  It turned out amazing!  Yay for pre-built kits.  =)  We also went to look at Christmas lights one night.  One of our favorite places that we always hit is Sunnyside (shown above).  These pictures are a little bit out of order but Abbie and Ava Grace had a fun time at their school Christmas party!  I'll try to post more pictures soon from our December fun!  We have some cute pictures of our elf, Crispin, and some of the things that he got into around our house.

Disney Vacation-last post

Sophie and Abbie with Tinkerbell

The area where we met Tinkerbell and we met her new sister, Periwinkle, too!

Abbie liked the tea cups this time.

Sophie with Paw-paw and Nana on the safari

Leia and Sophie on the Buzz ride.  Go Space rangers!

Paula and Sophie get a hug from Mickey.

Uncle Phil, Sophie and Aunt Leia with Minnie (Abbie stayed as far away as possible).

Here we are at Chef Mickey's!

This was on our last day at Disney!

We had a wonderful time at Disney!  We have so many great pictures so I dreaded going through them.  We arrived on a Friday night and left on a Wednesday.  Some of our family stayed longer but I'm glad we didn't because a big storm came through with a lot of wind and rain.  We were able to see all of the parks this time.  We spent a few days at Magic Kingdom which was great!  We saw some awesome shows, had some good food and fun times with family so all in all it was a great trip.  I wish that Abbie hadn't been scared of the characters with masks on but what can you do?