Family Celebration

Look at Abbie's creation!

Abbie's soccer team after their final game.

cousin time!

what a cutie-little Monroe!

Abbie, Sophie and Matt-Sophie's got her new music stand.

the birthday "girls"

Abbie in her pretty dress.

The weekend of Sophie and Nana's birthdays was quite busy.  Friday night we had Sophie's friends' party.  Saturday morning, Sophie's GS troop was doing a little booth at a garage sale for a little while.  Then, Sophie had a violin recital.  Nana and Paw-paw were able to come to that.  Sophie did a great job but she was really tired from staying up a little bit late the night before.

Our family ate some lunch and then, Abbie had her last soccer game of the season.  Afterwards, she got a new trophy and they had cookie cake.  Then, we went home to get cleaned up before going to Nana's house.  We were all able to be there-Uncle Phil, Nana and Paw-paw, Aunt Martha's family and our family.  We celebrated Nana's birthday that day (April 30) and Sophie's birthday on the next day.

On Sophie's birthday, she was able to open some gifts from us, we went to church and then we had lunch at Cheesecake Factory.  We were able to sit outside and we really enjoyed that.  That afternoon, our family went for a bike ride since the weather was nice.  Unfortunately, I think Sophie enjoyed it least of all because she got hot and sweaty.  Afterwards, we got some cold drinks from Sonic!  That night at church, there were having a special separate service led by young ladies and Sophie did a great job reading a scripture.  The girls had some cookies and snacks afterwards.  Whew, it was a busy weekend!!

Sophie's 11th Birthday

Sophie and Carley getting their nails done!

Lots of fun with "Minute to win it" games

Abbie vs. Allie on a challenge

Go, Sophie!  Get those ping pong balls out of there!

Another "minute to win it" challenge.  =)

We tried a face mask-here's the girls chillaxin'-Abby B., Anaiah, and Ellie

Here's Abby C. and Allie

Abbie, Sophie and Carley

Here's Jessie with her pyramid.

Allie and Sophie-BFFs since 1st grade!

Sophie, Anaiah, and Carley-we made bath bombs!

All of the girls watching a movie.

Did you know plastic stacking cups provide hours of entertainment?

I really can't believe it but Sophie turned 11 earlier this week on Sunday, May 1.  It seems crazy that she's already 11 and she's almost as tall as I am.  On the Friday before Sophie's birthday, we had a birthday party at our house.   Six of her friends were able to come so it was a great turnout.  I made poppyseed chicken casserole, rice, rolls, and then we had a tossed salad and strawberry pretzel salad that mom made.  (Sophie had requested no pizza this time.)  Our theme this year was a spa party and put on the invite that the girls could wear their p.j.s if they wanted to.  After the girls had dinner, we painted their nails and then, we played several "minute to win it" games.  The girls had a great time with these.  Then, some of the girls tried the face mask that I made (it turned out kind of runny).  Just for fun, they put some cucumber slices on their eyes.  Nana was able to come to the party and my friend, Jill, was nice enough to help me with painting nails, etc.  Carley's sister, Jessie, also stayed and played with Abbie.  After playing some games, the girls had some cookie cake and ice cream.  Then, we made some bath bombs that the girls could take home after they dried.  Sophie opened her gifts and then, they watched part of a movie called Parental Guidance with Billy Crystal and Marisa Tomei.  It was pretty funny!  After watching part of the movie, it was time for the girls to go home.  I think that all of them had a great time!

Funny Stories on Abbie

I had a couple of funny stories that I wanted to share about Abbie.  The first one has to do with Abbie's frequent sleep walking habits.  She usually goes to bed about 8:00 at night but she frequently gets up around 9:30 and we have to walk her back to bed.  Sometimes, she says things and other times she does not.  One night when she was sleep walking recently, Matt got up to check on her and help her get back to bed.  Before she got back in the bed she asked, "Did Sophie get baptized tonight?"  Matt just responded with a "yes".  We thought it was funny because Sophie was baptized last summer.  It's better not to argue with someone when he or she is half asleep though.  =)

A few days ago, we were driving home from church one Sunday night.  We had celebrated Sophie and Nana's birthdays over the weekend so we had been eating a lot of dessert (they had also brought cookie cake for Abbie's last soccer game on Saturday.)  Anyway, Abbie asked if she could have some cookie cake when we got home ( I had made some for Sophie's birthday cake).  I was a little bit distracted but I said, "well, you don't really need more dessert but maybe you can have just a bit".  We had also eaten lunch at Cheesecake Factory that day for Sophie's birthday and shared a piece of cheesecake.  She said, "what is a bit of cake?  I don't know what a bit of cake is.  Can I have more than a bit of cake?"  I said, a bit of cake just means that you only need a little bit."  She had also eaten cookies after church so I didn't really feel sorry for her.  We decided that both of the girls had already eaten enough dessert for the day!

Another story on Abbie that was cute happened this past Sunday morning.  Abbie usually takes some notes on our Sunday morning sermon.  She does a great job with it.  This past Sunday she was taking notes because normally her age group meets on Sunday nights and we review the scriptures from that morning's sermon.  Well, this Sunday she was taking notes and our preacher started talking about some recent health problems that he had.  He recently dislocated his hip and he was talking about he had to go back and look up his precautions from that surgery.  On one of the slides it listed some hip precautions.  Our preacher was tying that in to a Biblical point but Abbie busily copied down the precautions.  I just thought it was cute!