Friends visit & Carnival time!

As always Memorial Day weekend brought our favorite carnival to town. But this year we had an extra treat. Our good friends, Brendan, Courtney, Jeb, and Charlie came to town too! Anna, Abby, Jeb, and Charlie had a great time at the carnival and we had a fun time having dinner and playing back at our house after.

 start your engines!

The winner is...Anna by a nose!

 cooling off in the spray tent

 Yum!

Back to the carnival on Monday for a few last rides:

Truckin'

This past Thursday was Public Works Day in our town where all the public vehicles are available for kids to explore. I've taken Anna and Anna & Abby to this other years, but this year the girls seemed to love it more than ever. I had even forgotten about it until a friend reminded me Thursday morning. I mentioned it to the girls at lunch and Anna didn't stop talking about it until we headed out 3 hours later (after Abby's nap). There were about 20 vehicles on display and I think Anna & Abby sat on all of them. Abby was a little tentative at first, but eventually loved it as much as Anna. One thing to note in the pictures is that Anna is wearing a "crown" that she made Thursday morning - an accessory that she wore ALL day Thursday and Friday. (Which resulted in more than one person asking her if it was her birthday.)

 

 With playgroup friends, Alyssa, Maddie, and Ryan

The year of the Ladybug

This past Wednesday was Anna's last day in the Ladybug preschool class. On Tuesday she performed in a whole school concert. After the concert we went to a whole school picnic to celebrate the year. 

Anna had a great year in the Ladybug class. She loved her teachers, Miss K and Miss Kathy. She learned a lot about letters this year - how to write them and what they sound like. She made an Alphabet book with a page for each letter and when she reads it, she can show you a sign for each letter too. One of her favorite parts of the year was filling the "sharing bag" up with a few special items to share with her class. Woobie (Anna'a special blanket) made an appearance almost every time she had the opportunity to fill the bag. On any given day if I asked her to tell me her favorite part of school she usually said, "playground," or "doing my craft." We also learned from her teacher that she really liked keeping track of everyone's job, as she often reminded the teacher who the line leader was supposed to be on the way in from the playground.

"Deep and Wide" performed by the whole school

 at the (indoor) picnic with Miss Kathy

 

with Kate, one of Anna's new friends this year :)

The best part of the year was how excited Anna always was to go to school. On the few Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesdays that she woke up and forgot what day it was, she always got incredibly excited when I reminded her it was a school day. Thank you Miss K, Miss Kathy, and all the Ladybugs for a great year!

First camping trip!

Last night Matt & I took Anna & Abby on their first camping trip. Years ago we targeted Burke Lake Park as the perfect place to take kids camping for the first time. There is a great camping area there geared toward families and it is only about 25 minutes from our house. We previously thought we were going to wait until Abby was a little older to give it a try, but recently she has just seemed like such a big girl that we thought she would be ready for it. It ended up being a wonderful trip and we are all looking forward to our next camping adventure. On our trip we went on some short hikes around the lake, played lots of frisbee, cooked our dinner over the fire, roasted marshmellos, played on the playground, and went canoeing!

 

 Now where did I get off the trail?

Did Anna prefer the slow roast like Mommy or the blackened quick cook like Daddy? the blackened quick cook. Oh well, I have years to convert her.

Yum!

 a morning snuggle

I loved my first camping trip!

A sweet and salty Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day that started and with Anna & Abby crawling into my bed to wake me up. (I know sleeping in until exactly when I want might sound better to some people, but it is HUGE that they were actually up before me.) Abby put both hands on my cheeks, put her face right next to mine and said, "It's your Mother's Day, Mommy!" in her cute little 2 year old voice. Then Anna reminded me that it was actually also her and Abby's Mother's Day as well since she is a Mommy to Anyb (pronounced "Abid," but this is how Anna spells it) and Abby is a Mommy to Julia (both baby dolls).

Besides getting to spend Mother's Day with my sweet little girls and my sweet husband it was sweet with strawberry shortcake :) On Saturday we went strawberry picking. Anna & Abby were excited to put together their sweet treat after dinner:

For Mother's Day Anna gave me a cookbook that she put together at school consisting of all the recipes that she made with her class this year. Today she requested that we try making the homemade pretzels. We did and they were great!

Last weekend we were busy as we had 2 friends birthday parties to go to, Matt raced in a 5K (he got 3rd place for his age group!), and we went to Burke Lake park:

Go Daddy!

 All aboard!

 dinner at their new picnic table :)

Happy Birthday Grandma, Anna, & Abby!

This past weekend we celebrated Grandma's 60th birthday, Anna's 4th birthday, and Abby's 2nd birthday. We had a fantastic weekend. The celebrations began on Wednesday when Nana arrived:

On Friday Uncle Pete, Uncle Dan, and Aunt Bridget arrived and when Grandpa and Grandma arrived, Grandma was greeted with a surprise: we really were making a big deal of her 60th birthday. She had thought Pete, Dan, & Bridget were all arriving late Friday night. But really, they arrived in the afternoon and we all went to Luciano to celebrate her birthday!

 

I like spaghetti!

On Saturday we celebrated Anna's 4th birthday:

 

decorating her cupcakes the day before

we started the party with a scavenger hunt:

listening carefully to the directions

Abby & Teagan enjoying treats from the hunt :)

 ready for lunch :)

The weather warmed up enough for some rope swing rides:

 wee!!!!

 

"Happy Birthday dear Anna..."

 

On Sunday we celebrated Abby's 2nd birthday!!! 

dressed up in some new birthday clothes!

 time to eat!!!

 

decorating her cupcakes with sister :)

  

Abby could not stop giggling while we sang "Happy Birthday" to her:

 

 

Happy Birthday Grandma, Anna, & Abby! Thank you Nana, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Pete, Uncle Dan, & Aunt Bridget for traveling so far to celebrate with us!! We had such a wonderful weekend :)