Horses!

With the money we raised from cookie sales, our Girl Scout troop decided to have a horse back riding experience. They groomed, cleaned stalls, rode horses, and had a picnic. They all had a lot of fun and Leah is already begging for us to sign her up for horse back riding lessons. We told her we would consider it in the fall (I don't want to sit in a hot barn all summer!).  

 She actually really enjoyed cleaning stalls and raking up the poop. 

 We had a fun picnic lunch! Leah and the other girls made the horses "burritos" which consisted of dandelions wrapped in leaves and grass. The horses actually seemed to like them.  

PCCS Art Show

 This was the second time that Leah got into the PCCS Art Show. She loves art, and obviously has some natural talent. I love that she got in for her "Stacked Birds" because the theme of her nursery was birds that looked just like what she drew. It made me get a little misty eyed to see it come full circle like that. 

 Juliet really hopes that she gets in one day, too. We saw a lot of amazing art here, and Leah was inspired to draw some pictures of her Beast, Brain. So I said we would take a few pictures of him so that she can look at them as she works. I love this series of pictures. She has such a special love of our boy. 

Ollie+Leah+Brain

Leah loves animals. Brain is her ultimate favorite, but she loves Ollie a lot, too. This is one of my favorite recent pictures with them all cuddling. Poor Leah was on her second strep throat in this picture. Poor Girl. Fingers crossed she doesn't get it again! 

Happy Birthday, Jelly Boo!!

 Juliet had a very nice birthday. Leah and I played hooky and we had a fun day all about Boo. We woke up and went to Toys R Us so Juliet could pick out a Baby Alive. She had been talking about one for a few months, and was thrilled to have her choice of the entire Baby Alive aisle. She picked out one that crawled and came with a carrier. Then, we went to Target and spent her gift card from Miss Melissa. Then, we picked up Happy Meals and went to her babysitter's house where she had lunch with her "birthday twin" Gibson and played there for a bit. We came back home and she took a nice nap while I made her favorite chocolate cake. After Daddy came home, we went to downtown Plymouth and shopped at a Crystal Store and then had dinner at Bario. Juliet ate her weight in chips and cheese. We came home again, opened a few more presents, sang "Happy Birthday", and ate cake. Then, we watched Sing. What a perfect fifth birthday for Jelly Boo. 

 Juliet,

Happy FIFTH BIRTHDAY! I can hardly believe it. You love dolls--baby dolls and American Girls. You love to accessorize them and mix and match their clothes.

 Your favorite foods are cinnamon sugar bagels, chips and cheese, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, popsicles (raspberry and lemon lime), raisins, fruit, and cottage cheese. You typically drink chocolate milk, "cow milk", or water. Unlike Leah, you enjoy trying new foods. 

 You love to draw and write. One of my favorite things you do is draw pictures for us. On them, you will write J+M, J+L, or J+D (depending on who it is for). You used to rush your pictures, but now you often take your time. We love what you come up with. Lately, you are more into writing. You wrote a school paper yesterday, made three copies, and hung one in every room. The paper says, "The school is good but it needs to be better". That's some great journalism right there. You are doing really well at mastering all of the "sight words" introduced this year. You are also doing great with 1-20 number identification. You tend to get bored of counting after about 30 or 40 and purposely mess up after that to try to get a laugh out of us, and just be done. Your teachers claim you can count to 100, but I've never seen it. You've just started showing an interest in learning to read, so we've been practicing that a little bit, too. 

 You love God and Jesus. Real Life Farm's bible story time has had a great impact on you. We can't get you started on religion because it ends up with you yelling "GOD MADE EVERYTHING!!" That means God made coats, people, and countries. Nothing else contributed to these things. Only God. Leah sometimes parrots Daddy's view of religion which makes you so mad. You love God and Jesus. You love the 10 Commandments. When someone breaks one, you let us know. You ask to go to church often. We said we would go for your birthday, but needed to reschedule because it was also Mother's Day. Maybe we'll get there soon. You hate Donald Trump, and asked if we could move to Hawaii, because there is no way that Donald Trump would ever go to Hawaii.

 You love to sing and dance. For a long time, you loved Glee and made us watch an episode every day. Then it got a little too mature, and we had to stop. You love to watch series of shows in order. So far, that I can remember, you've watch the entire series and loved Mia and Me, Sophia, Shimmer and Shine, and Elena of Avalor. Currently, you and Leah are watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch on Amazon. Both of you like it a lot. You love to make up songs and call them "Juliet originals".  You love musicals and love to sing along with the Evita, Matilda, and Beauty and the Beast sound tracks. 

 You love school, but really cherish your "stay at home days". Leah and I love to get out and wander Target and other stores and then go out to lunch. But you really prefer to stay at home if possible. That's really interesting to me because you are so social and outgoing. Your teachers and baby-sitters love to tell me the adorable comments you make throughout the day. You love your friends and love to play with them, but are always excited for Saturday and Sunday when you can stay at home and play with your toys. 

 You love to play with Leah. You are very generous and giving to her, and often let her "convince" you to go along with her plan. When you put your foot down, though, it gets pretty funny. You get mad that you always give Leah what she wants, and she gets mad that you are suddenly not giving her what she wants, and you both stomp around and yell. Typically, you both play well together and are the best of friends. 

 You love to play outside on the swings, seesaw, and with our fairy house. You love to dress yourself and come up with really exciting outfits. When you get your own choice, you love to mix and match skirts, leggings, and cardigans. If you had your ultimate choice, you would wear a maxi dress everyday. You love to brush your own hair like Marcia Brady and put on headbands all by yourself. If it can be avoided, you ALWAYS try to get out of brushing your teeth. 

 You are my favorite girl to wake up. You always wake up smiling and happy. Leah takes a bit longer to wake up, but you are typically ready to go. 

 I made a mistake on your chocolate cake. You didn't want M and M's. You wanted chocolate chips. 

We love you very much. We couldn't imagine life without you!

Love you!!

Geer School

 Leah was very excited to go back in time to the one room school house in Plymouth. She wore one of my old dresses that I found downstairs. I bought her a bonnet and a pail for her lunch. She really wanted an authentic experience, so I had to pack a different lunch than I typically do. She was insistent that she couldn't bring a Yumbox because Yumboxes didn't exist back then.

 There was an outhouse which she worked hard to avoid using. They did a lot of fun crafts. Leah was thrilled to come home with marbles and a quill. 

 Even more exciting is that she will get to do it again next year. Technically, it's a second grade trip. Because she's part of a split, she will get to do it twice. That is excellent news because she thought it was one of the best trips ever. 

Squinty Eyed Easter Dinner Pictures

 I tried to get some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses. We were pressed for time, and had to be fast (it didn't really end up mattering since the restaurant had lost our reservation). Here they are in all their "It's too bright---I can't see!!" glory. 

We had a good dinner at Black Rock. Then we came home and went for a long walk. It was weird to go to school the next day--we were all dragging.  

 We had promised them we were going to paint eggs. We boiled them and then they sat in our fridge for like 12 days. The girls and Daddy painted them, I took a picture, and we threw them away. 

Professional Pictures

 This was the third year in a row we had our pictures taken in Cozumel. It's my favorite place to have pictures taken, because it's one of my happiest places. Chris always grumbles, but I've stopped making him do Fall pictures in 30 degree weather, so it's a pretty good trade off if you ask me. 

 This is one of my favorite pictures. Leah was showing off her dance moves, and Juliet wasn't about to be left out of that. The look of concentration on her face is adorable. 

 This year Leah was really into posing different ways. She posed like this on her own, and I love it. Framer, for sure. 

 We tried lots of different family shots, and they all kinda sucked. I felt like Chris and I looked greasy in most of them. This was the best we got. I'll take it.