Art & the Park!

Saturdays start with ballet.  Here is Elaine practicing her moves.

This made me laugh because Elaine is at the front and center, checking herself out in the mirror.

We went to the Urbandale library next where they had an Art Day event.  

Here they were making "bugs" out of a balloons and various art supplies.

Watercolors!!

I loved all the color on both of their pages.

Coloring on the wall?  Awesome!

A wood sculptor shares his craft and technique.

Next a woman using a loom helped Elaine with a yarn craft.

Sunday as I was getting cleaned up for the grocery store, I got some shoe suggestions from Maddie.

After naps it was straight to the park!

I love watching them help each other.

And taking turns.

We took our afternoon snack with us but the girls said the picnic table was dirty so they opted to eat in the wagon.

More fun on swings.

Here Elaine and Maddie are spinning their new little friend!

And of course, all cleaned up from their weekend of fun with mommy!

Some days...

Some days I feel like a balloon that has slowly deflated throughout the day.  And seeing my family's faces when I get home is like a straight shot of helium to my spirit.  I feel complete again, through kisses, hugs, and laughter.  How, oh HOW did I get so lucky?

Happy birthday Georgia!

What a great weekend full of fun!  We went to Karri and Brian's daughter Georgia's second birthday!  Elaine had a great time playing with all her friends!

Maddie and the birthday girl!

All the kids in front of the rainbow balloon wall.

Make a wish Georgia!

She was so excited she figured out how to blow up balloons.

Heart officially melted - Mason and a little dog on my lap.

Sunday morning we went to see daddy at the Botanical Garden.  This is an Inside Out exhibit.  She loved it.

She finally got her bug catcher.  She's consistently asked for it in the gift shop every time we go.  It's the first thing she picks up and the last thing she puts down.  So, we caved.  We caught our first bug, a boxelder.  She read to him...

And she danced with him.

Then she helped me make lasagna roll ups.

Then we potted seeds for our garden.

We also made a trip to the library, where Maddie wanted to do puzzles and Elaine picked out a lot of books!

Maddie "read to me" before she went to bed.  She melts me!

Platteville and "The Rose Hotel"

We had a great weekend in Plateville Wisconsin, visiting For Eric's cousin Molly's baby shower!  First order of business?  POOL!

For being good girls on the drive, they get ice cream!

Elaine got to come to the baby shower and she was first in line to decorate a onesie.

"It's a fruit!"

She loved rubbing Molly's belly.  It was pretty sweet.

Helping open her gifts.

Quinn showed her some floor hockey skills!

Grandpa Mike gets in on floor hockey with her!

Molly and Eric have birthdays a day apart so they shared a birthday cake!

The girls got some great Henry time!

Maddie will love any baby she can get her hands on!

After we got home it was so warm, we went straight to the park in t shirts.  Birthday boy is great at throwing those girls in the air!

We love our daddy!

Happy Easter!

This morning we were up at our normal time, 6:30.  The girls were thrilled to put on their matching Easter dresses!

Of course Elaine tried to pick up her sister.

9:30 church - we arrived early to get seats and daddy showed the girls all the pretty flowers.

We brunches at Christopher's, they had quite a buffet!  Breakfast, pastries, mountains of shrimp cocktail, cheeses, pasta, fruit, prime rib, turkey... The list goes on.  Wish we had gotten a picture of the Easter bunny ice sculpture but the real Easter bunny paid our table a visit so that was a highlight.  Maddie refused to take a photo with him but then cried when he left.

Our happy family!

After naps, the Easter bunny had left eggs and baskets.  Elaine enjoyed her Carmel egg.

Maddie felt very differently about the caramel egg.

The sun came out in the afternoon which made for a perfect egg hunt!

They found all of them in record time.

Some puzzle gifts combined with Easter pencils = drum set.

First puzzle complete!  Happy Easter!

St. Patty's and Easter prep!

Highlights from the last week!

With our friends at a St Paticks party!  Here are the girls with Grant and Sawyer.  Elaine  will be doing soccer with Grant in June!

Saturday morning we went to a church garage sale and got a few things.  Our favorite purchase was a 500 piece puzzle.

Elaine and I worked all afternoon and finished it just in time for bed Saturday- I forgot how much I love a good puzzle.  Here she is mid puzzle.

Sunday Maddie got her nails painted for the first time.  She never had an interest - until she saw Elaine get hers done first!

They find little spaces to play pretend together.  This inside our pantry, reading a couple garage sale books.

Sunday after daddy got home we dyed eggs!  We checked the eggs frequently to see their progress!