Birthday Pictures cont.

Abbie blowing out her candle-she almost got burned when she blew it out!

All of these presents are for me!!

Harper, Sophie, Gracie and Abbie

Abbie's not used to being the center of attention but I think she enjoyed it. She was excited about all of her presents. She got a couple of new games which we've been trying out and a Dora suitcase. She saw suitcases right before Christmas and we almost couldn't leave the store without one that day! She also loves her new princess mat with little princesses to play with and her new Strawberry shortcake remote control car. I think she may suffer from withdrawal now that Christmas and her birthday are over! Sophie was a little jealous about all of the attention that Abbie got for her birthday but she'll get her turn in a few months! It's just hard on the sibling having the other one showered with attention.

We had to keep checking on the girls because they preferred to go upstairs and play while the adults were downstairs. Abbie kept locking Sophie's door. Adults kept taking turns checking on them because there's no telling what kind of trouble they could get into on their own. One time, my cousin, Chris, found them all jumping on Sophie's bed. =)

Family Birthday Celebrations

Abbie with her cupcake!

Abbie with Aunt Daba (Martha)

Ha! Ha! A cake for my birthday-wow!

On Friday night, my parents came over and we had a poppyseed chicken with sides and cupcakes for dessert. Then, on Saturday morning, we had a family party with Nana and Paw-paw, Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt, Keri, great aunt Patti, cousins Gracie and Harper, their dad, Chris, Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda. We had pizza, chips and dip, and fruit. Nana had made a strawberry cake for Abbie's birthday. Abbie kept changing her mind on who she wanted on her cake so it was hard to plan for her birthday. Nana tried to make Pooh, Strawberry Shortcake and Boz on Abbie's cake. Even on Abbie's birthday, she kept changing her mind about which character she wanted on her cake! We had a good time at Abbie's party. It was nice that Gracie and Harper ended up being able to come so that they were some kids for the girls to play with. I was glad that the weather cooperated as well so that we could have it!

Abbie's birthday

On Friday, Abbie turned 3. After she had eaten her breakfast, we unveiled her big birthday present which was a baby care center. She was so excited about it! We hid it under a sleeping bag because it was pretty big! It has a baby bed, bathtub, baby seat, mobile and cabinets included in it. It was on clearance after Christmas! Abbie loves her baby dolls so I know she's going to have fun playing with it.

The bottom picture is a picture of Abbie just chillin'. We had planned to get together with a couple of friends on Friday for a little playdate but since it snowed, I wasn't totally sure about the roads, etc. Matt assured me that they were fine. We cancelled the playdate for Friday. Sophie ended up being out of school that day so we went as a family to Bounce U and the girls had a great time jumping! Then, we ate lunch at Moe's and enjoyed yummy cupcakes from Sparkle cupcakes after lunch. It was a nice family outing and a fun way to celebrate Abbie's birthday!

Goofballs

It's war-Daddy against the girls!

Recently, we had a great time visiting Goofballs! We ended up going on a Saturday morning right when it opened and let the girls play. They had a large inflatable that the girls could slide down, a huge wooden play structure with air guns (Matt and the girls loved this). It had tons of tunnels and slides. It also had several of the air guns. We just played for the open play time but they also had video games, bowling, bumper cars (they weren't quite old enough) and they had a little pizza restaurant there too. There were a couple of birthday parties going on that morning but it still wasn't too crowded. We didn't end up really do the video games and stuff. Our girls stayed busy just with the indoor playgrounds and the big slide. Sophie met a little friend who let her do the laser game with her. We felt like we got our money's worth but next time, I think the girls will want to do the video games too!

Busch Gardens part 2

We saw live penguins and then, we saw Pierre, the penguin. Abbie didn't want anything to do with him but Sophie was glad to go and see him.

Sophie with one of the Christmas trees at Busch Gardens.

Busch Gardens-Christmas Town

our family with the snowman

Sophie & Aunt Leia (with her funky hat) with the penguins behind them

me and the girls in front of Santa's workshop

One afternoon, we all bundled up and drove over to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg for their annual Christmas Town. At this time of year, they are only open in the evenings and they have special Christmas shows, lights, Santa Claus, a few rides are open, etc. Anyway, Mimi had given us all long underwear for Christmas in preparation for this because she knew that it would be cold once the sun went down. It definitely was cold but not as bad as it could have been. We saw a couple of shows, some beautiful lights, visited Santa Claus (although next time I would skip it because I thought there was going to be more of a workshop inside), ate kettlecorn and tried to stay warm. Abbie was really not too happy once it got cold. The girls rode one ride while some of us stood right under a heater to try to get warm. It was a fun atmosphere though and very pretty with all of the Christmas lights up. The girls loved the Sesame Street show and there was another one where they sang a lot of Christmas carols that was fun!

Christmas break in Virginia

Sophie stops skating to strike a pose

We're all here-quick, take our picture while we're all standing!

It looks like Sophie's being served for dinner tonight!

All of us worked hard to build this arch at the Science Museum.

The first couple of days in Virginia, there was a lot of snow on the ground so we didn't do a whole lot. The girls just played with their new toys and mostly stayed indoors. After the snow cleared up a little, we were able to go and do more things. One day we took the girls roller skating (for the first time) and it was great because we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves. Both of the girls had several falls so they were probably a little sore.  They both ended up doing best in the skates where you just put your shoes inside them.  They were probably sore the next day!  We also visited the science museum one day and that was alot of fun!