Kindergarten Sneak a peek

Yesterday was Kindergarten Sneak a peek at the school Abbie will attend in the fall with Sophie.  The kids got to ride the school bus from the front to the back of the school and go into a classroom with the current kindergarteners present.  (they split our soon to be kindergarteners into small groups and put them in different classes).  The parents had a meeting with a couple of the kindergarten teachers during this time.  Abbie really seemed to enjoy herself.   The teacher that she was with read them all a story.  They were supposed to pair up with a partner and Abbie paired up with one of our neighbors who is in kindergarten this year.  They cut out a picture of a school bus and were supposed to color it.  They also let the kids play with letter stamps which Abbie loved!  Today, Abbie was cute because she said that her favorite part about riding the school bus yesterday was going up the big steps.  She said, the seats are warm.  "You don't have blankets or anything but they are warm."  She was also talking about how they didn't have seat belts.  She said that it was kind of a bumpy ride and that the driver was telling the kids that they needed to stay seated.  I made sure to tell her that you have to stay seated so you don't fall down and get hurt or something.  (I don't want her to get any ideas about standing up since she doesn't have a seat belt).  =)

Valentine's Day

Abbie and Emory at the Valentine's Day party

Abbie's excited about getting some Valentines!

Taylor and Sophie at a Girl Scouts event

This is the picture of Abbie we used to make Valentine cards this year.  We stuck a lollipop in her hand for the card.

We had a nice Valentine's Day this year although I don't think Matt and I ever had a real date night.  It was just too busy right around that time this year.  On  Valentine's Day, we decided to have a nice candlelit family dinner.  We all exchanged little gifts so it was good.  Abbie had a fun time at her school Valentine party!  Sophie's class at school exchanged Valentines but didn't have an official party or anything.  Sophie and her Girl Scout troop went to a local event where each Girl Scout troop set up a little booth about different states.  Our troop hosted a booth about Florida and performed a little skit.  The girls enjoyed bringing some change and buying little trinkets from various states that represented their state.  Abbie's Valentine cards turned out really cute.  I decided to do something creative and use an idea I had seen before.  Aunt Leia was able to come the weekend before Valentine's Day.  We enjoyed spending time with her!

Family Fun

Paw-paw and Nana with Abbie and Sophie after violin recital

Sophie dressed as Laura Ingalls for book character day!

Sophie playing with cousin Morgan

Abbie, Aunt Martha and Morgan

 

Paula with her birthday cake, Sophie and Paw-paw

I have gotten way behind on blogging lately.  There's just always something going on!  Towards the end of February, Sophie had a violin recital.  She was pretty nervous about it but overall she did well.  It was great that Nana and Paw-paw were able to come cheer her on.  =)  A couple of weeks ago, Sophie had book character day at school.  They do this each year and they have a parade around the school.  I was just going to try to put an outfit together for Sophie and make it work but the night before I found some dresses that Mimi (Matt's mom) had given us last year.  I was so thankful to find them because they gave us much better options for Sophie to dress up as Laura Ingalls.  The first weekend in March, Aunt Martha, Uncle Matt and Morgan were able to come down and visit.  We were able to spend some time with them and celebrate Paula's birthday.  It was a low-key affair but it was nice to get together.  The girls (and all of us) love being able to spend time with Morgan.  He is creeping now and able to get around more.  

Goofballs

Abbie and Mama are ready to declare war on Dad/Sophie with the airgun.

Ta-da!  A perfect landing.  =)

Sophie and Dempsey Rose, our neighbor having fun in the bumper cars.

Right after our snow day in early February, we headed to Goofballs for something fun to do on a Saturday.  The girls had a great time doing the bumper cars, bowling, playing on the big indoor playground and inflatable, and playing some video games.  We all rode on the bumper cars once and the girls actually rode a second time because they had so much fun!  I even liked these bumper cars because you didn't get a huge jolt every time someone bumped you.   I had bought a groupon for there and we had a great time using it!    We saw some people that Sophie knew from school and ran into our neighbor as well.

Snow Day

Here are a couple of pictures from our snow day a couple of weeks ago.  One Friday, both of the girls got out for a snow day but it was just a little bit of snow.  They were more concerned about the ice.  The grass was just barely covered and the roads were clear so it wasn't enough to do much playing in.  Well, the next day, Abbie looked out our bedroom window and said, "there's a lot of snow!"  We didn't know whether to believe her or not but we had gotten a couple of inches. We were really surprised!  The girls were able to go out sledding on our alley with their Daddy and have some fun with the neighbors for a little bit.  It melted pretty quickly though.

Circus Fun

Sophie and Abbie tried on some circus clothes

Miss Angela, Ava Grace, Abbie and Sophie

Ava Grace and Abbie before the show.

We went to the Dragon Show.  Here's a lady riding an elephant for the National anthem.

I love seeing the elephants parade around!

A lion and some tigers. 

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Barnum and Bailey circus with the Bell's, some friends from church.  Matt and I were able to take the girls to the pre-show as well.  This was Abbie's first time to go to the circus (one of the reasons we had a circus theme for her birthday party).  Sophie was able to get in the ring for a minute at the pre-show while some clowns juggled over her head!  They had some other fun things for the kids to do as well such as trying on circus clothes, watching different acts, participating in some fun, tattoos, etc.   A little bit before the show, we found our seats and met up with the Bell's.   Abbie had fun sitting by Ava Grace and sharing some popcorn with her.  We all loved the show-the acrobats, clowns, elephants, other animals, motorcycles, etc were great!  Abbie enjoyed all of the motorcycles in the big steel ball but that wasn't Sophie and I's favorite act.   Even Caleb, Ava Grace's little brother, did really well sitting there watching the circus for the most part.  A couple of days after the circus Abbie said, "when are we going to the circus again?"  That being said, it's clear that Abbie LOVED the circus!  The rest of us enjoyed it as well!  =)

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.