Cherry blossom festival

We made two trips to see the Cherry Blossoms this year but our second trip down was the best! Nanny was in town and it happened to be peak time for the blooms! It was gorgeous!!! 

My birthday and a few randoms

We celebrated my birthday on Tuesday. It was a low key day but Bryan and I have a babysitter coming tomorrow so we can have a fun date night out! Bryan bought me my favorite cake (strawberry cheesecake!) and my sweet little family sang me 'happy birthday' and it was the best moment of the day! One little side story, Kade was sooooo adorable about my brithday this year. He kept wanting to know when the party was starting, got sad that there weren't presents for me, wanted to know what party games we would be playing, asked where the decorations were, ect. Bless his little heart, he is the sweetest little boy there ever was! I had to explain to him that birthdays are different when you get older and that all I wanted for my party and presents was to sit and have cake with them. That made him happy! 

Deeeeeeeelish! 

Their sweet little voices singing to me is something I hope I never forget. They were just SO precious! 

I treated myself to a special trip. We dropped meme and Gdad off at the airport and we made a detour on the way home... There are TWO hobby lobby's in the entire state and we don't have one near us so we stopped by the one near the airport. That and a sonic drink was a treat in itself! While we were in the store I told the kids all I wanted for my birthday was for them to be nice and quiet in the store! And they were!!!! Minus a few times they belted out 'happy birthday!' And that was OK! Haha! 

And a few randoms.. 

Bryan couldn't resist..

Kade's class had a mom there giving "mini makeovers." She painted the girls nails, had fun hair gels for the boys, etc. it was just something fun for them to do. Kade was not interested in participating but the moment Ella saw what was going on she was ALL ABOUT IT! She got ever color hair gel, nails done, and asked for every single hair clip she could have. When I asked her for her picture she started throwing her hair around and running her fingers through her hair like Elsa does on Frozen. Oh Lawdy Lawdy, this girl!!!!

Meme and Gdad visit!!

Last week Meme and Gdad made it to Marlyand for their first trip since we moved! We were so happy to have them here and to show them our new home! They spoiled the kids and loved on them the entire week, we are currently in grandparent detox mode, hahaha! The weather was a little crummy but we did have a few gorgeous days. 

Ella spent this entire dinner looking for mermaids, she was a little disappointed when she didn't spot one. 

We went to the spy museum one day. We hadn't been and it was a lot of fun! 

After tball practice on Friday, Bryan got the outdoor movie stuff going and we had pizza and s'mores! The weather was PERFECT! 

I bought a groupon for a cherry blossom cruise on the Potomac. The cherry blossoms haven't bloomed but we still thought it would be fun. We looked at the weather and decided Sunday would be a good day, 65 and sunny outside.... Well it was NOT warm and sunny. It was rainy and cold and it SNOWED the entire time we were on our cruise. March 30th and it was snowing hard... Who would have thought?! 

And no trip to see us is complete without a day in Annapolis. We had gorgeous spring weather and we were so happy to show Meme and Gdad this little town that we love oh so much! 

T-ball!

On Monday, Kade had his first tball practice! He was SO excited!! His team is The Braves and he had so much fun at his practice but all the little boys were hyper and so silly! Their coach was very patient, haha! We are excited to watch him play this season!! 

 

Ready to go! 

Little sister had to be in a few pictures too.

5 on Friday

1. SPRING!!! Yesterday was the first day of spring and we have a few days of spring like weather! I'm not a hot weather person, so I have never wished for warmer weather in my life. But this winter has been rough! 

2. This goes along with number 1 but we have been loving playing outside again. I enjoyed some magazines while the kids napped yesterday. And then we had some fun playing with sidewalk chalk. Ella was not happy so we will have to try again and hope she isn't a sad butterfly next time. Haha! 

3. Frozen! We are totally part of the Frozen frenzy! We love that movie! Ella has been singing 'let it go' and 'do you want to build a snowman' for months now! Bryan learned Let it Go on the guitar and piano so it is requested nightly around here. When the DVD was released Tuesday we had to go pick it up! We watched in the car while we waited to get get Kade from school and then again once we got home. 

4. St. Paddy's Day. We were snowed in this St. Patricks Day. I have to say that is a first. In the past few years I have memories of picnics at the park with friends on this day. We tried to make the best of it but we are all so over snow this season that there was whining from everyone. We did sport our green, and  gathered up snow to make some green snow! 

5. Snow plows. Watching the garbage trucks has always been a highlight around here, after this season we can throw in watching the snow plows. Since it seems we have had a weekly snowstorm, we have had plenty of time to watch them clear the streets! 

All about Ella

It's no secret that Ella is our family comedian. She is talking nonstop these days. Most of the time it is just bossing us all around. She thinks she is something else! She is very strong willed but at the same very hard to discipline because she is so funny. She knows exactly what she is doing when she cuts her little eyes at us as we are disciplining her. It gets us everytime and it takes everything in us to not smile. 

Her imagination is HUGE. Everything is a castle or a pretty princess. But don't let that girly side fool you, she knows every Super Hero and can tell you all about Captain America, Dusty from planes, or the Ninja Turtles. That's what happens when you have an older brother!

She always requests the purple (fill in the blank) on everything. Purple is hands down her favorite color. When I fix her hair she tells me how she wants it done that day. And each hair style revolves around a princess, as do the colors of bow I put in her hair. This morning I put pig tails and she said said it was a Repunzel hairstyle, although it wasn't Repunzel like at all I don't dare correct her because the last thing we want is to start over. :) 

Yesterday, I told her we were meeting some friends for breakfast and she frantically ran to the bathroom. I heard every drawer and door open and close and when I asked what she was doing she replied, "I CAN'T FIND MY MAKEUP!" Which to clear the air she doesn't have so I have no clue where she came up with that! Thankfully she settled on just bringing "wipstick" aka Chapstick with us. 

And to finish I have to write down my favorite Ella story to date. I was cooking dinner and she brought me her Tinkerbell wings to put on. After they were on I heard a lot of grunting, jumping, and tiptoeing going on. After a while Ella came back in the kitchen and let out a huge sigh, hung her hear and shoulder and said "I can't fly, I just can't fly..." I doubled over I was laughing so hard. 

Don't ever lose your spirit Ella Claire. You are going to do big things in your life, I just know it! 

Bipolar weather

We are very used to crazy weather. Texas weather is pretty bipolar. Up until this point we have talked about how consistent the seasons were here. 

Enter Spring. And now, it's all over the place....from 70s to snowstorms. The only way we are handling the snow at this point is knowing that a warm up should be quick to follow. We had almost a week of gorgeous spring like weather! We spent it outside every chance we could get. Play dates at the park, bike rides, baseball in the backyard, hikes, tourist days in DC... it has been glorious! And it all came to an abrupt end as it is currently snowing and we are expected to get around 6 inches. 

You have to take the good with the bad and we are trying to make the best of it. I have some projects tomorrow that involved making green snow for St. Patricks Day. So we will see how that goes! 

Two weekends ago we hiked nearly 5 miles over the course of the weekend and these two did awesome! 

On Saturday we met Matt at Arlington cemetery. He is heading home in a few weeks and we wanted him to give us a tour of the cemetery before he left! He does color guard in the Army for funerals there so he had a lot of insight! 

These are from a week or so ago... During our last snowstorm. I think we can only handle so many more games and puzzles before we lose our minds :) 

I was cleaning up the house and K called me over to show me he did his States map puzzle all by himself! He was so proud!!