Hannah's 7th Birthday

Hannah's birthday celebrations spanned the last 3 days of spring break.  The 18th was her actual birthday.  She always opens the presents from us first thing in the morning.  We got her clothes, books, a catch game, a model airplane, a Goldie Blox engineering set, and ROLLER BLADES.  She put them on and pretty much didn't take them off for the whole weekend.

Olive was so excited to give her this present.  It just stuff she found around her room, but the thought behind it is pretty special.  It is a horse that you decorate with hair ties and shrinky dinks because "Hannah likes horses and design engineering.  So she can engineer her own horse!"

The birthday girl got to choose a special restaurant and activity for the day.  Hannah picked Big Biscuit for chocolate chip pancakes and then skating at Skate City.

Steve took off work early so he could come with us.  It was such a fun family memory.  The last time I skated was close to 15 years ago.  I was on the wall most of the time, but I got better by the end.  Although neither girl really wanted to skate with me because I was "slow."  Olive wanted the skate helper to hold onto at first, but we got to try it on her own and she was great!  And of course Hannah was a pro on her new roller blades.

I asked Steve to take a picture of me skating with Hannah and this is what I got:

The next day my family came over to celebrate.  Hannah decorated her own cupcakes.

Hannah's first root beer float.

There was some serious horseplay.

And balloon play.

Then on day 3, Steve's family came in town for Hannah's party at Science City with friends.  We invited all the girls from her kindergarten and first grade classes, but since it was spring break there were a few out of town.  We ended up 10 girls.  Hannah picked out her favorite exhibits and Steve and I tried our best to keep counting heads and make sure we didn't lose any girls.  Science City was open to the public and we didn't have a staff member to lead us around; it was just up to us to guide the girls around and run the party.  If we do something like this again, I'm definitely going to give them hats to wear.  It was a little stressful, but the girls were great about staying together in one area.  When we were at the sand table, all 10 were at the table.  No one tried to wander off.  Plus we had two moms that stayed to help with crowd control and taking kids to the bathroom.  It was a big help!

Kate is missing her legs!

Spring Break

As usual, spring break went way too fast.  We didn't really do anything special, just a lot of little fun things.  It gave us a taste of summer and doing whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.  It was very hard for a certain first grader to go back to school this week.  The real world is tough after playing all day every day.

We started with a playdate at Antioch Park with Kate and Henry.  We took a picnic lunch and it was a perfect day.  They actually played more in the pond and woods than they did on the playground equipment!

Then our neighbor had a bouncy house in her backyard for her 8th birthday.  AND it was a super hero party.  The girls were in heaven!

We made a trip to Chillicothe to see grandparents and great-grandparents and even some great aunts, cousins, and second cousins.  It was our first time back since Christmas so it was good to see everyone again.  Then we left the girls with my parents for a night and Steve and I went to Weston.  I can't remember the last time we had a little get-away.  We did a little shopping around town, ate dinner, and ended up at O'Malley's listening to a man sing limericks.  He reminded me of an older Walter.

This used to be the largest ball of twine in the world or something.  I'm not sure.  But I got a picture with it.

We stayed at Benner House.  Ah, memories.  We stayed there before for New Year's Eve 2012.  It was the last known sighting of Steve's wolf shirt.  Howwwwwwl.

What were the girls doing while we were in Weston?  Stomping in the mud.  Playing with worms.  Climbing hay bales.  They are country girls at heart.

And of course St. Pat's is always over spring break.  I made our traditional green eggs for breakfast.

I wanted to go to the parade since it was a nice day, but the girls were disappointed when they realized we weren't going to BE in the parade, just watch it.  They decided to watch it on TV because "it is like a front row seat" and then put on their own parade in the driveway.  Note: the dandelions are gold coins.

The last three days of spring break were all birthday fun for Hannah.  Post coming soon...

Saturday at the Creek

We let the girls pick out at least one fun thing that we do as a family each weekend.  When the weather is warm, they usually choose something outside.  And their favorite thing is taking a nature walk to a creek.  They prepared a backpack with all the necessary materials: binoculars, band aids, and extra socks.  It was the first weekend that it really felt like spring, so it was the perfect afternoon activity. I can't wait for more adventures this summer!

Olive did not want to step in the water at first because it was "too muddy."  But then she got brave and ventured all the way to the opposite bank by herself.

We were at Minor Park, which is the same place we went for our very first family nature hike.  That time Olive couldn't do much walking.  Oh how fast they grow!  Here was Hannah swinging on the vines four years ago:

And now:

nature teeter-totter

The Cutest Cowgirl

Olive wouldn't let me take her picture when it was pj day at pre-K.  She wouldn't let me take her picture on crazy hair day (although she DID let me fix her hair in 10 pigtails).  So I was very happy when she finally allowed me take her picture for rodeo day.  She was so cute!  They are studying the letter R and she had her first ever root beer float.  It was a great day!

Hannah's Open House

Hannah was super excited about her school Open House.  She loves pretending to be a tour guide and leading us around.  And we love seeing all the things she made at school.  I can't believe next year we'll have two kids at school.

This is her personality t-shirt.  She typed all the adjectives to describe herself.  SOAR relates to the school discipline model because she "always follows the rules."

They used an app to add things to her picture and create a new "relative."  It took me a long time to find hers because she looks so different!

Another app made their pictures look old.  She makes a beautiful old lady.

You can tell she is Steve's daughter.

The class spent a week being design engineers and building projects out of junk.  Of course Hannah LOVED it because this is what she does in her free time at home.  Her group made this water bottle holder so they wouldn't have to go to the water fountain so much.  The water is stored in the "tank" above and then you pour it into your water bottle below.

She writes in her school journal every day.  This was her entry about open house.

Random Pictures From My Phone

Here are some winter pictures off my phone:

My Olive with olives.  She has turned into my shopping buddy this year.

This is definitely from awhile ago because we haven't seen snow in months!

Olive and I volunteer in Hannah's school library every other Tuesday.  After Hannah picks out her book she does a story time with Olive.  I love seeing Hannah with her class because I get to know the other kids that she talks about.  I've also learned a lot about the Dewey Decimal system. :)

A ferris wheel is always a good cure for the winter blahs.

Olive and I spend a lot of time in the pick-up lane waiting to pick up Hannah from school.

I volunteered to help the first grade Jump Rope for Heart day.  

Jumping + cell phone camera = not very good pictures.

We have not seen much snow this winter because it was 70 degrees in February!

I volunteered at Olive's pre-K for Dr. Seuss Day and I helped the kids make some hats.