A Birthday Tradition

Sophie with Uncle Phil

Sophie's ready to do a virtual bowling game. 

Paw-paw, Sophie and Nana (the two birthday girls)

  

Paw-paw, Abbie, Sophie, and Nana

 

 

 

 

Ever since Sophie was about 3 years old, we have gone to Chuck E. Cheese each year for her birthday (or around her birthday).  This year I thought that she might be tired of it and want to do something else since she was turning "7".  When I asked her where she wanted to go eat for her birthday though she said, "Chuck E. Cheese".  I was like, "really?"  Nana, Paw-paw, and Uncle Phil were able to go with us.  Nana's birthday is the day before Sophie's.  We were able to go to Logan's with her right before her birthday.  The girls had a great time there as long as we kept Abbie away from the big rat-she's scared to death of Chuck E.! 

I was able to take cupcakes to Sophie's school on her birthday too and have lunch with her.   At the end of Sophie's birthday, she said something like, "Wow, I had such a great birthday! I felt like I was in a dream at school all day."  It makes you feel really good when you know that your child has had a memorable day that made them feel so special.  She received some nice gifts and phone calls on her birthday.  Her principal, Dr. LaChance even came and sang to her, had a card for her and let her and a friend help do the announcements!  I can't believe that Sophie is 7.  She's growing up too fast!

Birthday Parties

Princess Rapunzel is ready to go to Anna's birthday party

Here's a picture of Abbie at Carolina's birthday party where each child could  paint their own playhouse.

Abbie loved this project!  All of the kids had a blast painting their houses!

We have been so busy lately so I've gotten behind on blogging (again).  Sorry.  Abbie's been to a couple of really fun birthday parties lately so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from those.  One of her friends (Anna) had a party at the Music Playhouse (I think it's called) and she absolutely loved it.  Each child was supposed to dress up like a prince or princess.  Parents and children all participated in a music class where we did all kinds of fun things (rolled balls, played instruments, swung our children like monkeys, marched to the beat, etc).  Abbie had a blast dancing with some of her friends and they even sent each child home with a C.D. full of fun songs on it.

This past week, Abbie was invited to a party for Carolina who we go to church with and they have been taking gymnastics together lately.  It was a outdoor party and thankfully the rain held off other than a few sprinkles.  Carolina's mom gave each child a box -their "playhouse" that he or she could paint however he or she wanted to.  Each child wore older clothes and they had a wonderful time painting.  Every kid's dream for sure.  Then, they did a pinata, had cupcakes, and played with these water rockets (they were shooting each other with them).  Abbie came home soaking wet but she had a fun time!

Sea World in Orlando

 

the girls at Sea World



us riding up in the tower



Woo hoo! The Shamu roller coaster.  We all loved this one!



One of the beluga whales  Some people had paid extra so that they could dress up like a trainer and have the behind the scenes experience.



The girls riding in a car (actually at Busch Gardens)



Here's proof that I fed the dolphins at Sea World!



This time Sophie was brave enough to pet the dolphins and help feed them.  Dolphins are her favorite animal!

Abbie and I with the dolphin as I feed it.

We had a wonderful time at Sea World!  They had certain times that you could pay to feed the dolphins but there were very long lines.  We told Sophie that we could do it but only if she would pet the dolphin this time.   (When we were in San Antonio in the fall of 2011, there were no crowds and Sophie wanted to feed the dolphins.  We bought 2 different trays of fish and then Sophie chickened out on petting the dolphins).  Sea World seemed to be pretty busy for Spring Break.  We rode a lot of rides and saw many animals but it didn't work out for us to see the shows this time. 

Busch Gardens



Abbie's jumping and having so much fun!



Here's Sophie having a blast jumping!

Sophie with Abby Cadabby and Cookie Monster

Sophie with Zoe and Grover

the girls riding something in Sesame Street Land

Abbie's riding an airplane

  

Abbie and Sophie in front of the train!

While we were in Florida, we visited Busch Gardens a couple of different times.  I think I mentioned that we went the first day we were there even though it kept raining off and on.  After it stopped that night, it was very pleasant outside.  We went back a few days later and it was very hot outside.    Sophie enjoyed meeting all of the Sesame Street characters (or many of them) after an outdoor show but Abbie is still really frightened when people have costumes on and their faces are covered!  Both of the girls enjoyed the kids bounce area.  There was also a big playground structure with nets, etc that you could climb on.  Sophie rode one of the roller coasters at Busch Gardens with her Mama. 

Clearwater Beach and the aquarium



Winter, the dolphin, with her trainer, Abby Stone.



Our girls got a close-up look at Winter's prosthetic tail.

Winter, with trainer, Abby Stone (can you tell that Winter's missing her tail?)



Abbie and Sophie with the turtle statue

    

Abbie and I with a prop from the movie, Dolphin Tale.

Here's Sophie, Abbie and Daddy on the red carpet at an exhibit featuring many of the sets from the movie, Dolphin Tale.

sunset at Clearwater Beach

 

our family near the pier at Clearwater Beach (I love how this picture was captured).

Over the girls Spring Break, we headed down to Clearwater Beach, Florida.  Sophie had a half day of school on Friday.  We headed out of town as soon as she arrived home from school.  The trip down to Florida seemed to take forever because we had to make several stops and some of them took awhile.  Also, it rained almost the entire way down to Florida.  We stopped on Friday night in Tifton, Georgia to spend the night.  That's supposed to be about the halfway point.  The next day, we got up, had breakfast and got on the road again.  We arrived in the St. Petersburg area in the early afternoon.  That night we stayed in St. Petersburg because there wasn't a vacancy at our Clearwater beach hotel for that night.  It was still kind of rainy when we arrived in the area but we headed to Busch Gardens.  We were able to see a  show and then the rain cleared off so we rode some rides.  We were hoping that everyone would leave the park since it rained but there were still a lot of people there.  We had fun but we were all pretty tired. 

The next morning, we attended church at the congregration where Matt spent most of his growing up years.  He was able to see a couple of families that he knew.  We had lunch and Matt showed the girls the house that he grew up in and his former schools.  Then, we headed over to our hotel at Clearwater Beach!  Everyone was excited to see the beach and spend a little time in the ocean.  We stayed there for 2 nights and enjoyed the heated pool and spending some time at the beach (though we were careful to mostly do it in the later part of the day and slather on sunscreen due to our fair skin).  The girls loved the beach-the waves and sand, etc.  It was fun to see them enjoying it so much!

On Monday, we visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.  We made sure to get there soon after it opened.  Matt and I had been there before but we hadn't taken the girls.  This aquarium is the home of Winter the dolphin who was featured in the movie "Dolphin Tale".  The girls both love this movie!  The last time we were down in the area visiting, they were actually filming the movie so you couldn't visit the aquarium.  It was closed during the movie's filming.  There's a lot more hype surrounding this aquarium now (due to the movie) than when Matt and I went about 3 years ago.  Everyone wants to come and see Winter, who eventually lost her tail due to it being caught in a crab trap.  She was a fighter and recuperated well, learning to swim again using a different motion.  They made a special prosthetic tail for her that she occasionally uses.  We saw a couple of little shows while we were there and took lots of pictures of Winter.  Sophie loves dolphins!  They had added another facility that you can tour which is connected with the aquarium.  It shows some of the sets that were used in the movie, different facts about the movie, etc. so we visited it too.  Sophie was able to meet Winter's trainer, Abby Stone.

Abbie's Easter party and egg hunt

Here's Abbie with the Easter sugar cookies we made for the party!

Mama and Abbie with our cookies!

Silly Abbie with a plastic egg over her eyes!

Abbie on the playground after the egg hunt!

Abbie and Anna, one of her friends from church and school.

 

Ms. Gloria's class after the egg hunt.  back: Mrs. Gloria, Molly, Abbie and Braden, middle: Ford, Caleb (back), Nolen (front), Nathan (back), front: Ben and Garrett

 The Easter party was a lot of fun and we had some yummy food for lunch.  We had chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A, fruit kabobs with dip, pretzels, sugar cookies and Peeps.  After the kids had eaten and were really excited, we headed outside for their Easter egg hunt.  It was a very warm day but I was thankful that it didn't rain because it was their last day to have school before Spring Break.  All of the kids had fun hunting eggs.  The egg hunt was over in a flash!  It's hard to believe that this school year is almost over too!

Bunnies!

Abbie in front of the bunnies.

 

Abbie loved this stroller and she wanted to push it around the store.  She also loved a cleaning set that she found.  She carried it around the store.  It had a larger broom than the one she had at home.  We used her Easter money from Mimi and Paw-paw Tom to buy the new broom set because she was very attached to it.

Before Spring Break, we went out to Phillips Toy Mart because we had heard that they had live bunnies.  We couldn't find a time that was good for all of us to go so I took Abbie one day.  We enjoyed seeing the bunnies, the train, and all of the toys.