Balloons and Tunes

Our city's annual Cherry Blossom Festival kicked off this weekend, and one of the activities was a hot air balloon "glow" with musical entertainment. With temperatures in the mid to upper 70's, and the sun shining, the weather could not have been more perfect. Fun times were had by all - picnic dinner, dancing to the music, and watching the balloons blow up and glow at dusk. Claire also enjoyed the giant inflatable slides, and playing with her sweet friend that we ran into, Madelyn.
If I had a better camera, I might have better pictures to show for the event, but these will give you the basic idea.

Emma's 1st Haircut

"After Shot" taken the next day. . .

Although it was somewhat sad to see those first little baby curls go, it was definitely time. Emma appeared to be growing what we, here in the south, lovingly refer to as a "mullet" - short (a.k.a. "business") in the front, long (a.k.a. "party") in the back. Now she is a nice even length all around. Best of all, she still has curls!

Happy Birthday, Jeremy!

Yesterday was Jeremy's birthday, and we had a nice family dinner and cake party to celebrate. Claire made it clear that it would not be a party without Cheese Puffs, so those were on hand as well. We love any opportunity to celebrate with sweets and treats around here.

Happy 34 years, Jeremy! We love you!!

Paper? What Paper?

While coloring a pretty picture the other day, Emma got bored with her paper and decided to move on to her body. She sure did enjoy her herself! As you can see, the end product was quite the masterpiece.

Bobby Goes to Birmingham!!

Please note below as Claire and Bobby strike their very best Vulcan pose. For those of you who do not know, Vulcan is the world's largest cast iron statue.

Old Town Helena waterfall. . .Hotel waterfall. . .Great excitement for a 4 year old.Claire and Bobby were a little unsure about our hotel's indoor pool at first. Unfortunately, Emma was not. That girl was ready to jump in the pool at any given moment as if she had the ability to walk on water.Bobby just had to try one of our favorite Savage's cookies. . .Ready for bed. The girls love being with their daddy!
No comment.

This past weekend, I took the girls over to Birmingham to visit Jeremy. As many of you know, Jeremy has started a new job, and we will be moving back to Birmingham sometime in the near future. We are very excited about going back to a town we love, and even more excited about being closer to some great friends. Hopefully, our current house will sell soon, and we can all officially settle in Birmingham together.
Some of you may remember Bobby the Butterfly from earlier in the year. He is the mascot of Claire's Butterfly class at school, and the lucky "Butterfly of the Week" gets to take him home for the weekend. Of all weekends for Bobby to come visit Claire, he picked an exciting one! Claire had a great time introducing Bobby to her friends, and showing him around the city where she was born.

Sweet Friends

Claire with Maggie and Isabelle
Pictured above, this weekend. Pictured below, Spring 2006.
They are growing so fast!

Doing their "A Tooty Ta" song and dance. . .We meet at last! Emma and Laurel are 2 weeks apart and have never met. As usual, Emma performed what I refer to as her "hair test". Laurel passed with flying colors!Sweet Allen wasn't so sure about cuddling up to these strange new girls. . .Claire offered/gave cuddles anyway. . .Flash forward to a little later in the evening, and you can see they had warmed up to each other quite nicely. These two had so much silly fun!Claire ended the evening with one of her many shows. . .

While we were in Birmingham, we got to catch up with a few of our friends. What I find most interesting these days, is that you will never see pictures of the original friends anymore. All of the pictures now are of their children. I guess they make a cuter bunch, so it easy to focus the camera on them. The only little one that I missed getting a picture of was Maggie and Isabelle's cutie of a little brother, Joseph. I will have to get him next time! That being said, we had a great time visiting with everyone. We can't wait to get back to Birmingham, so that we can get together more often.

Happy Valentine's Day!

There's nothing like a chocolate (or two) for breakfast on Valentine's morning. The special Krispy Kreme doughnuts that Jeremy secretly went out to get us weren't so bad either. We love our sweet treats! :)

Finally!!

Day 1

As you can see in the pictures above and below, Emma was in a state of shock. Jeremy said that when he picked her up, she was stiff as a board. This may have something to do with the fact that I woke her up from nap, bundled her up, and tossed her out into a peculiar winter wonderland.Day 2
We have to get creative when it comes to sledding around these parts. Out come the pool toys and trash can lids!Making angels in the snow. . .

I realize that, at this point, many of our friends and family in the D.C. area would hardly use the word "finally" to describe the arrival of a snow day. However, we here in the south live in great anticipation of such days. They are very rare, and so much fun!! We have enjoyed playing out in the snow with our neighbors for the past two days now. However, as we near the second half of day two, the snow is all but melted. Disappointing for the kids, but it works alright for me!

Owen Love

This past week, the girls and I drove up to Atlanta one afternoon for a little family visit. My mom was down from Virginia babysitting Owen for my sister's first week back at school, and we were all excited for a mini reunion. It was a fun day of cookie decorating with Nanny, and snuggles with Owen. Claire and Emma loved hugging on Owen, and taking care of him in their own special ways. When Stacey and Chris got home from work, we ended the day with a pizza dinner and cupcakes to celebrate Owen's 12 weeks of life! A fun day for all!

Dancing Cinderellas

Claire and Emma in their magical fantasy land.