Happy Birthday, Josh!

We returned from Spring just in time to celebrate Josh's birthday!  The Anderson Family has enjoyed spending time with all sides of the family for all these summer birthday parties!

More Sweets for the Sweet

Happy Birthday, Carter!

 Two weekends ago, we celebrated Carter's second birthday in Katy.  The girls were greeted with lots of hugs and kisses.  He loves to say "ab-by and Nanonine" which thrills his cousins.

 They chose to wear their Minnie dresses for Carter because he likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

 

It was a train party and Aunt Haley made a "Toss the Coal in the Hole" game.

 Carter could not wait for his cupcake.  He kept running over to the food table to try and sneak a lick.

 The girls were very excited for him to open their presents; his own deer head for his big boy room and the movie Frozen.

 

 

 Carter was excited to play with his new toys and was such a gentleman to share.

 Investigating His New Playhouse

Abby and Caroline got engineer hats in their favor bags.

 Back at GiGi's and PawPaw's, they had fun in the backyard.

 Caroline is still in Little House on the Prairie mode and picked berries to make jam.  Carter helped.

 

Caroline is always ready to put on any costume.

 PawPaw bought a harmonica recently. Abby had fun trying it out.

 The "Tickle Monster" (a.k.a. Uncle Gary) was there to provide lots of entertainment.

Three Ring Circus

While Brent and I were tending to the three ring circus at our house Saturday, Nonnie, Pops and Little Bubba took the girls to the real circus with the tickets they earned through the library.  They logged 25 hours this summer!  I was grateful they had a long outing as we had a cleaning crew, movers, appliances delivered, cabinet workers and duct cleaners in the house from 8am until 11:30 pm.! It was a long day!

They both wanted cotton candy, which came in these enormous hats Pops and Bubba are wearing.

Abby and Caroline made sure their ears were covered as they waited for the lady to be shot out of the cannon.

The elephants were a favorite this year.

After the circus, they enjoyed dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse.

 

We thought ahead this time and got reservations for them to eat in the caboose.

Happy birthday, Jake!

Last week, we helped Cousin Jake celebrate his 21st birthday at a pizza place.  The girls discovered a new favorite cheesecake flavor.

 

Home Away From Home

We just moved back home this past weekend after living with Nonnie and Pops for about two weeks.  I am happy to report our house is almost finished with repairs from our air conditioner leak and other updates we decided to tackle while it was already a mess.

 Nonnie and Pops have a new sea saw in the pool.

 The girls got "glamicures" our first day there.

 We stayed busy with our regular swim lessons, shows at the library and church functions.

 This was a ventriloquist at the library.  She was amazing!  The girls laughed until their faces were red.

 A group of youth at our church performed Annie one night.  It was fun for Nonnie and me to see siblings of kids we taught.  We had an afternoon movie session and watched the old movie Annie before going to the musical.

 

While Abby was at a Farewell to Preschool swim party one day, Nonnie and Pops took Caroline for yogurt.

Ready for football season and the park.

We stayed at Little Bubba's one night and rode around in the truck looking for bunnies.  His neighborhood is covered with them.

 We also hit the playground.

 Our church has had "Sunday Fun Days"  all summer. Last week, we stayed after church for pizza and Bingo.

 

 The girls both won a few times and had fun with their prizes.

 One day, we went shoe shopping.  The girls needed new tennis shoes for school.

Abby had fun with this marionette in Whole Earth.

 We stopped in Starbucks for a treat.

 The weather has been amazing this summer.  We have had several weeks with temps in the 80's.  One day, we took advantage and ate lunch outside at Sonic.

We spent a morning at our house while the carpet was being installed.  The girls made snow angels in it.

 Last week, I took them to Chuck E. Cheese to use leftover tokens from a birthday party.

 They really got into the tickets and won 164! They had a little help.

 We thought this was a lot of tickets, but Chuck E. Cheese really makes you earn the big prizes.  They had saved some for a year and were tired of saving so we ended up with two tops, stickers and Smarties.

 Little House on the Prairie has provided so many story lines for pretend play.There is an episode where Laura finds Fools Gold in the creek.  Pops got into this one and hid gold in the tub of sand.  The girls had no idea and were super excited when they started playing in it one day and found gold.

 

   Dancing with Nonnie

The girls earned a kids meal at Café Express through the library.  It is a new favorite place. While we are glad to get back to normal, we enjoyed our two weeks of special outings and staying at our home away from home.