My family: April 2015

Friday, April 24, 2015

Spring Break

We celebrated Spring Break with a trip to Maryland to see my family. We were able to visit my grandmothers cemetery plot. Sophia blew bubbles for Gram and left a dandelion. Isabella left a letter and drawing for Gram. Pap removed the flowers he had cut from their yard and left the Easter card we sent in the mail. Gram has a pretty plot near a quiet road. I enjoyed hearing the birds chirp and feeling the breeze, I know Gram would have enjoyed those things too. The girls cleaned off a few gravestones and cleaned up flowers that had fallen. I miss Gram but I do believe she is happier now.

Sophia sends bubbles to Gram

Isabella leaves papers for Gram

Pap removed the old flowers from Grams marker

After the cemetery we enjoyed sitting on Gram and Paps porch. Baby Olivia was all smiles for her cousins! I loved spending time with my family catching up. We also celebrated my Grandfathers 90th birthday!

Sophia, Olivia and Isabella

Grammie and Pap with the girls

After spending time in Bowie we headed to Ellicott City for fun with PopPop and GMom. We packed a lot of fun into a short visit. We walked to the water in Ellicott City, visited the B & O train museum in Baltimore, walked the Labyrinth in Marriotsville and toured the Catoctin Zoo in Thurmont.

Being Safe on the rocks

PopPop and the girls at Oella

Sophia found Elsa at the train museum

Isabella & PopPop build a circuit

Checking out the cool trains!

Walking the Labyrinth

Fun with cousin Chase

A Sophie monkey at the zoo!

Isabella fed Alpacas and Deer

Sophia giggled when they ate out of her hand

Is your Momma a Llama?

checking out the wolves

Happy Girl

Seeing family and visiting around Maryland was good for my soul!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Happy Easter 2015

Our Easter was spent in Richmond as a family of four. We started the day with church and an Easter Egg hunt after mass. The girls had fun hunting for eggs at St.Marys. Later in the day, we savored the beautiful weather and another egg hunt (in our backyard). Happy Easter!

Easter 2015

Sophia

Isabella

Happy Sisters ready for church Easter Egg hunt

Checking out their eggs

Heading home from church

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Princess Crown

Our sweet little Sophia loves to eat sweets, but unfortunately her teeth do not like them. Sophia was unable to complete sedation dentistry in January thus needed to have general anesthesia to complete the dental work. We found Sophia grew more anxious in the months, weeks and days leading up to the surgery. Her wonderful preschool teacher sent home lots of books on kids going to the hospital. The teacher even had the class make a get well card! The morning of surgery Sophia smiled to see a rad wagon would take her to the OR, just like in one of the books we read. After surgery Sophia was eager to wake up and get out of the hospital as fast as possible. We are all relieved that the experience is over.

The sunrise from the hospital window

Headed off to the OR

Recovering at home

Inspecting the Princess Crown

After inspecting her dental work, Sophia exclaimed that she loved her new "princess crowns" and wanted a whole mouth of them to shine. Thankfully, we were able to get her to understand that less is much better when it comes to princess crowns.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Swinging into Spring

Spring is here and we love to be outside. The warm sun, slight breeze and the sings of spring bring happiness to our home. We have enjoyed watching our bulbs emerge from the cold ground and turn into beautiful flowers. Its in these signs of Spring that I am reminded of my grandmother and her love for gardening. I don't have a green thumb but I try to pass on the love of gardening to my daughters. They enjoyed digging in the dirt to create planters for our deck. This past month we enjoyed not only being outside but also preparing for Easter. We are all happy to see signs of Spring around us.

Cruising around the house

The girls spotted a sign of Spring in our yard

The girls ready to play after church

And also ready for hugs

Ready for fun on the swings too!

Synchronized Swinging

Sights of Spring in the front yard

This girl is READY to color some eggs!

Isabella was a gentle egg dipper this year

Action shot

Happy Easter Egg Day

Pretty Easter Eggs

Palm Sunday at Church

Palm Crosses

The girls filled the planters and enjoyed all the dirt

Thursday, April 2, 2015

March Memories

Isabella's birthday celebration continued into March. Isabella wanted to spend her birthday money at Claires and picked some fun clip on earrings. Being a sweet big sister she used some of her birthday money to purchase Sophia a gold Tiara. Bella has such a giving heart.

March was also fun at school. Sophia celebrated Dr. Suess and enjoyed dressing up for Wacky Wednesday. Isabella was a ladybug in her schools first grade "Going Buggy" performance. Isabella also joined the running club at school and is eager to attend despite having to wake up much earlier for school.

The weather warmed up this month (yay!) so we have been enjoying the outdoors. We even found an Opossum enjoying our backyard. Sophia and I enjoy playing at the church playground while Isabella is in faith formation class. I love to see Sophia's joy on the swings. I am impressed how much our little Catholic Isabella is learning from the FF classes.

As always we enjoy our family movie night (FMN) on Friday evenings. Our joy is being together as a family. March would not be complete without a little St. Patty's day celebration. Corned beef and Leprechaun traps are the perfect way to celebrate our Irish heritage.