Happy Birthday, Brent!

Brent's birthday was on a Saturday this year.  We kept it low key but had fun shopping with him for new dress shoes, . . .

 . . . getting our favorite coffee at Central Market and . . .

 . . . having some yummy Barbecue Pops and Little Bubba smoked for dinner.

He was excited about his Poco Playa shirt and barbecue sauce from Momo.

We ended the celebration with ice cream cake.

Spring Snapshots



Spring really flew by for us and I didn't realize how much we've done until I sat down to catch up the blog.  Get ready for a lot of pics showing the end of April and May!  The weekend after Easter, we welcomed Nonnie and Pops home.  They were in Paris and on a Viking Cruise for two weeks and we were excited to have them back.

Abby and Caroline went straight for treasures in the suitcases.

They were delighted to find rainbow beach hats, ornaments, stuffed animals, books, paper dolls and saches from Paris.

Caroline's absolute favorite thing was Swiss chocolate.

Having them home meant that it was time for some slumber parties.

 Check out Caroline's dance moves at dinner in this video.

One night, Nonnie and Pops took them to see Willy Wonka at our church.  The children's art department presented it.  The girls love the old movie with Gene Wilder and this musical was a hit with them.  Brent and I really enjoyed some dinners out alone!

 

I enjoyed lunch with Abby at school one day.  Can't believe we are nearing the end of Kindergarten.  She has made some great friends this year.

She also went to a science birthday party for a church and school friend down the street.

A scientist came and led the kids in some fun experiments.

Ms. Linda sent me this pic of Caroline reading the alphabet book to her class.  She was chosen as "teacher for the day."

A few weeks ago, she also got to celebrate her birthday in the classroom.  Ms. Linda made sure all the kids with summer birthdays got their own special day to share treats before school ended.

She was so excited about this day! She wanted to dress up and paint her nails for the celebration and had fun picking out some bracelets from the birthday box.

While Abby was in dance class on Tuesday evenings this year, Caroline had picnics for dinner in the waiting area.  This night, she brought all of her pets and her doll.

She also had fun learning to take selfies during these times of waiting.  

One Wednesday in May, we met her friends and their moms for lunch at Central Market.  They had a ball on the playground.  This was before the floods came.

Abby has had huge developments in her mouth this spring.  Two "big" teeth came in behind her baby teeth.  They are a little loose and she is dying for one to fall out.  She has her tooth fairy pillow ready.

Brent has had to travel this spring for work some.  I was lucky to have Barbie and Dorothy keep me entertained during dinner one night while he was away.

Nonnie helped give me some breaks and time to get some runs in while Brent was out of town.  One afternoon the ice cream man passed me on my run and I called to give her a heads up.  The girls got Brent's change jar and were buying treats when I returned.

Caroline gets quite a bit of one on one time with me this year while Abby is at school.   I took Abby one afternoon for some alone time with Mommy.  We got ice cream and then hit the library for some books and movies.

We all enjoyed an outing to Art in the Square one weekend.

Posing by Alice in Wonderland Statues

Spring means we start shucking fresh corn.  Caroline loves to help with this chore and . . .

 . . . Abby loves to help set the table these days.  It is nice to have such good help as they get older.

One day it started to rain, and it feels as if it hasn't stopped in a month!  We spotted this rainbow one day after a storm.

Abby was thrilled the sunflower seed she planted at school sprouted. 

Brent was late one Friday night, so we made the best of it and enjoyed a girls night out at Café Express and then did some shopping at Trader Joe's.  Abby and Caroline were glad to see little carts are now at this store.

GiGi and PawPaw came to visit the weekend of Caroline's Spring Show.  They babysat one night while Brent and I went to a wedding shower.

They had fun at Kincaid's and Yogurtland.  We also celebrated Brent's birthday that weekend at a pizza place with Gary and Lin, but I forgot to get a pic.

 

A jogging stroller came into the shop where Nonnie volunteers.  She bought it for me and now I can run before Abby gets home.  We usually end up at the pond for a visit with the geese and then swing and practice the monkey bars.

We all had so much fun releasing what seemed like hundreds of ladybugs in our yard.  We went to Calloway's for a few shrubs and spotted them at the checkout.  We unanimously voted this should be a spring tradition. 

The girls want to learn to do a cartwheel and I am not the person to teach this!  We started tumbling three weeks ago and they love it!

Caroline completed a session of swim lessons and earned her level 6 dragon.  She was very proud and has been invited to do the Dragon Challenge.  She will do this next week everyday.  It fell at a great time since her school is over.

We said goodbye to Museum School a couple of weeks ago.  It was bittersweet.  While I am not going to miss the drive to Fort Worth every week, the girls really learned a lot and enjoyed the classes. On the last drive over, Caroline said, "Where am I going to learn so much about animals now?"  In the pic below, she is finding out which bird had a wingspan equal to hers.

Last Pic with the Turtle

One night last week, I went to a cooking class with some other Mom's from Abby's school.  A friend bought it at Auction night and invited me as her guest.  I had a great time and we got to eat the delicious dinner we made at the conclusion of the class.  While I was gone, Brent took these little cats to Walmart for a hitch and ended up with some new pool noodles.

 

Last weekend, Brent went to the deer lease to pick up his smoker.  The girls and I enjoyed dinner at Rockfish with Nonnie, Pops and Little Bubba Friday night and then had some fun in Frisco on Saturday.  Caroline made herself comfy after dinner.

Abby discovered she likes catfish.

While at the Square, why not shop?  Abby mentioned looking for something new to wear and Nonnie was off!



 

Caroline was ready to sport her new shades on the way home.

We went on a walk at Little Bubba's to check out the rising water.  The rain has been absolutely incredible.

The girls really like Pei Wei noodles and they especially like eating them with chopsticks.

I mentioned I found a piano teacher for Abby and Nonnie and Pops were on it!  Next thing I knew, a piano was being delivered.  Abby's teacher will come to the house every week and Caroline is going to take at a studio where they focus on playing by ear.  She loves music and is excited to try it out.

 Momo had some fun playing Chopsticks.

Abby's school lucked out and had field day last Friday.  The rain held off for most of the day and she had a blast.  A fourth grader led her group around to the different games.

 Her favorite game was throwing wet sponges over a volleyball net.