Preschool Graduation!

It is official!  Hazel has completed preschool and is ready to start Kindergarten!  A few selections from the evening's program (Hazel is third row, second from the right):

A little post-graduation cake!

The changing of the guards.  Lisey starts here in August!

In Which Stephanie Wears Us All Out With Organized Activities

Two weeks ago, I got a text from Steph asking if we wanted to spend President's Day Weekend with her and Sarah Kate in Hunstville. She explained that Richard was going skiing and Sarah Kate was off school on Monday. Since we didn't have any plans, and since Hazel was off school as well, we decided to make the drive. We left on Friday after Hazel got out of school and arrived late Friday night. Little did we know how much fun stuff Stephanie had planned for us to do!

Saturday morning, we gathered everyone and all tromped to downtown Huntsville, where we painted some pottery at a cute little studio called Doodle Bug.

 Lisey's pottery turned out like most of her paint jobs, every color of the palette, all mixed into one brownish-grayish color. But she was proud of it, so who were we to argue with artistic genius?

Hazel painted a peace sign and Sarah Kate painted a really neat plate. We can't wait to see them once they're fired.

We worked up quite an appetite with all that creative inspiration, so we got some burgers for lunch. While we were at lunch, Steph suggested that since it is my birthday on Wednesday, she would take the girls back to the house for quiet time, while Glenn took me out to a movie. Such a treat! And I got to pick the movie too! We saw Argo and we loved it. After the movie, we headed back to Steph's where there was quite a surprise waiting for us. Literally, the girls had organized a surprise birthday for me! Complete with Twister:

And Just Dance on the XBox Kinect:

 

 And of course, cake and presents:

 

 

 Lisey helped me open my presents.

 And because Steph can't bear to leave anyone out, everyone got presents!

  

Look, Mom, AS SEEN ON TV!

And what is a party without silly hats and mustaches?

 You would think that all that partying Saturday night would have worn us out, and you would be right, but we had big plans on Sunday. We got up early and headed to the US Space and Rocket Center, which we had always wanted to visit, but somehow had never found the time to. Glenn was very excited.

 

 The Saturn V Rocket that you can see from the interstate. It was neat to finally see it up close.

 Sarah Kate and Lisey and I are ready to head into space, but why does Lisey look so shifty?

 I can't remember which number it was, but it is another Saturn class rocket, I think. Glenn wants to know what genius came up with the idea of riding an explosion into space. We found out at the Space and Rocket Center that that genius was named Werner Von Braun.

 I just liked it because I really liked the movie Apollo 13. Alas, we did not see Tom Hanks anywhere.

 Hazel thought the rockets were pretty cool.

 

And Glenn found this Command Module to play in.

 Oh no. He's pushing buttons...

 Gah! What did you do? What is all that beeping? Why does that sound like an alarm going off?

Lisey thinks maybe she would like to walk in an astronaut's footsteps one day. But her feet need to get a bit bigger first.

So, after such a big day, what do you think we did on Monday. We hung out around the house and played with Sarah Kate's toys, of course. Lisey especially liked the drums.

But all that drum-playing can make a person hungry, so we headed out for sushi.

 Aunt Stephanie got Hazel special chopsticks for her sushi, and she's pretty good with them.

 In fact, she is better than Glenn with her chopsticks.

Lisey doesn't believe you need chopsticks, especially when you are not going to eat any of that icky sushi. She'll stick with noodles, thank you very much.

Needless to say, we were completely worn-out by Tuesday morning, when we started the long drive home. We had an awesome time, though!

And We're Back!

So, it has been a very long time since we updated the blog, and I think it is time we got back to it. The last post was over a year ago and it is a shame, really, because 2012 was a really great year for us. I'm hoping that 2013 will be even better! I promised my mom that I would get back to blogging and keep the blog updated, so let's give it a shot, no? Let's start with Christmas.

This year, Christmas brought snow with it. Lots of snow. We spent a lot of time at Grammy's house, playing in the snow with our cousins. I left all those pictures at Mom's though, so I will start by posting photos from our Christmas at home. We spent Christmas Eve at Grammy's annual Christmas Eve party, and drove back home just in time to put out some cookies for Santa before we went to bed. Christmas morning, we woke up and found that Santa had indeed visited, and he must have liked the cookies we left for him, because he left us some great gifts!
 

 Hazel waited as patiently as she could for Lisey to wake up, then she ran downstairs like a shot!

 Santa went overboard this year and filled the stockings with so many gifts, they wouldn't all fit in the stockings. Oh, and he brought the girls a Barbie Power Wheels Jeep.

That Santa! He must have been watching our weather forecast, because this came in handy the very next day.

 As usual, Glenn had some crazy gift packing ideas.

 Glenn shows some appreciation for an awesome gift from his oldest daughter.

 She got him a Warrior Dash track jacket because we are all so proud of his skill in the mud races.

 Apparently, there were some holes in Glenn's toolbox, which his dad was happy to fill for him.

 I'm so glad there are at least 10 years before I have to worry about Hazel driving.

 The girls and I decided to make boxes to keep our hand-made ornaments in. So we found some boxes in Grammy's garage and covered them with wrapping paper and Christmas stickers.

Lisey doesn't have many hand-made ornaments yet, but Hazel reminded her that she will be starting preschool in 2013, and you get to make ornaments in preschool. So we made Lisey a box too.

 Our finished products. We are quite proud of them.

We had an awesome 2012, and a really great end of the year celebration. We don't know what 2013 has in store for us, but we are really looking forward to finding out!

Birthday Season, Part 1

Every fall, we celebrate three birthdays in the span of 6 weeks. It is always a crazy time in our house, and this year, it was made more so by the start of preschool. For Glenn's birthday, he said he thought he might like to visit Huntsville and hang out at the lake house with Steph, Richard, and Sarah Kate. So we headed down for a four-day weekend and a birthday celebration.

We started off the weekend by riding Sarah Kate's zip-line.

The girls really enjoyed it, and it was great exercise for Daddy, too!

Even Mommy got in on the action.

After a spin on the zip line, we headed down to the boat ramp and threw rocks in the lake. The girls thought it was more fun to jump and splash and play in the water, though.

Hazel slipped on the algae on the boat ramp, and had a blast falling into the water.

Lisey had to follow suit.

Then it was finally time to get on the boat. Safety always comes first. Thank goodness Aunt Stephanie has Hazel- and Lisey-sized life jackets.
It was a beautiful day for a boat ride.

Mommy and Lisey thought so too.

When it got too hot, we stopped the boat and took a dip in the lake. Hazel thought Daddy was taking too long to get in the water.

Lisey loved swimming in the lake.

And Hazel learned that she could swim on her own in the life jacket.

Glenn got to try wake surfing.

And wake boarding.

And Mommy found out that knee boarding is harder than it looks.

The whole family got a tube ride too.

It started to rain, but Hazel had a blast playing on Aunt Stephanie's iPad and snuggling with Minnie.

Then the big girls came to take her out to play in the rain.

When they got back, Hazel helped Aunt Stephanie and Mommy prepare a special birthday dinner for Daddy.

The big girls baked cupcakes for "Uncle Glenn's" birthday.

And by the time we left, Hazel was riding the zip line all by herself.