flying through spring!
my brain is about to overflow with spring blog posts i would LOVE to write... we have been blessed with celebrating easter, birthdays and mother's day, cheering on our soccer players, venturing to the beach, making discoveries together as we school at home, and a quick vacation thrown in there. i "need" to just take a week's vacation somewhere in solitude to catch up on all i would like to share on here! but since we all know that is a big fat joke, i will just jump in head first and start back at the beginning of spring!
as a part of our botany studies this year, we sprouted bean seeds. we measured the growth each day (or um, every other day), and the kids thought this was the greatest thing ever. i love how science can also be a lesson in life... caroline's bean did not fully sprout (it broke as we were measuring it early on), but she took the disappointment in stride and quickly forgave mommy for breaking her sprout. aren't these the cutest little bean sprouts?
speaking of sprouting, by the beginning of march, hallie was starting to pull up on things (10 months old). she wasn't yet crawling, though she had a knack for rolling in a big circle to get to wherever she wanted to go. :) this picture is from the first time she actually pulled up on something.
right as february was fading into march, we had some precious friends come stay for a week! katie braved flying alone with her two sweet kiddos, as well as one baby on the way! my goal was to let her relax as much as possible, and while i am pretty sure i failed in that task, we still had a wonderful visit. :) we were determined to get to the beach at least once, and we picked the coldest and windiest day to go.
when we weren't shivering at the beach, we were hanging out in our pjs, playing legos and reading books.
we also managed to visit the neighborhood park a couple of times. sweet little piper was so unsure of my kids and all of the unfamiliar surroundings... but by the end of the week, she was coming out of her shell just a little.
i did a terrible job of documenting katie's visit, but we did squeeze in this picture of the two of us before we headed to the airport. i could spend 24/7 with this girl, and it would never get old.
the beginning of march also signaled the start of another soccer season! the girls met some sweet friends right away, and they looked forward to every practice and game together. hopefully more about soccer soon!
brian's grandmother celebrated her birthday in mid-march, and we all went out to dinner to celebrate. mama h LOVES peacocks (it's a family name), so we all ended up giving her peacock gifts! our gift was two limited edition, original pieces of peacock artwork by ethan and caroline. :) ethan's pencil sketch is on the left, and caroline's self-portrait with a peacock (done in colored pencil) is on the right.
by late march/early april, hallie was finally crawling! i snapped this picture on april 1, which is my busy-mama method to documenting milestones. (yes, ethan had this perfectly filled out calendar with all the details... down to when he tried new foods. i also have a calendar for hallie. it is nice and blank.) so by 11 months, hallie was for sure crawling. maaaaybe 10 1/2 months.
the kids have been loving helping me with my scentsy business. from labeling catalogs and bars to helping "organize" my inventory, they jump at the chance to be a part of the good-smelling action. when a box arrives, it's like christmas... choosing their favorite new scents and seeing what friends ordered.
caroline's BIG news for the spring is that she is READING! really really reading! it is so amazing to be with these kids every step of the way... from just learning their phonograms to sounding. out. every. single. word. so. slowly. that. you. forget. the. beginning. of. the. sentence. to taking off and reading these sweet little easy readers with no problem at all! this was taken back in march... now she is reading pretty much whatever she tries to read. it's a whole new world!
caroline has been just as excited about getting to scan her books into delicious library! she has watched ethan scan his completed books for the past year or so, and it was a pretty exciting moment when caroline finally scanned her first book into her library. :) (this is a great way to keep up with the books they have read, in addition to the really cool scanning part!)
the benefits to reading are obviously endless, but one of MY favorite perks is this. i pray that my kiddos will be sharing lots and lots of books in the years to come.
we had a wonderful easter weekend celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. i am hoping to post pics from our weekend here eventually, but just in case it never happens... here's our family picture from easter sunday.
caroline's OTHER big news for the spring is that she finally got a much-needed haircut! since originally cutting her hair back in 2011, there hasn't been much body to caroline's hair. i always thought that maybe giving it some layers would bring back some curl... but ain't nobody got time for truckin' the kids to the hair salon. enter: my awesome friend kim. oh wait, first, here is caroline's hair before:
ok, now enter: my awesome friend kim. she is not only hands down THE best hairdresser i have ever met, she is so amazingly wonderful and comes to my house with her scissors and her skillz. so i can stay in my pjs, hallie can nap, and i can make my dear friend a cup of coffee while she works her magic. i am liking this concierge hairdresser thing. :)
i didn't get an "after" picture the day that caroline got her hair cut, but i did snap one real quick this morning... her curl is definitely coming back a little. it will be interesting to see what happens with the heat and humidity this summer!
within a couple of weeks of crawling, hallie was cruising all over the place! her favorite spot in april was at the piano. as you can see, she thinks she is big stuff!
soccer continued through the spring, getting warmer and warmer each week.
but the evenings were still nice and cool for bike rides around the block.
and by the end of april, we made it back to the (much warmer) beach!
this was hallie's first time to really experience the beach, and boy, did she eat up the sand!
she literally ate up the sand.
she even thought she'd show off about how she can stand up all by herself!
the big kids had a ball, too! looks like it will be all smiles this summer at the beach!!
after our day at the beach, we hurried home to get ready for our final night of kids'quest catechism club! the kids have been anticipating shopping at the kids' quest store with their hard earned points! i am so thankful for this awesome group of teachers and kiddos (minus some friends who were not there that night).
isaiah and ethan are excited about all their loot! (and the silly boys put back the flower sunglasses after this picture, don't worry!)
we celebrated my mom's birthday a couple of weeks ago. brian's parents joined us for lunch after church at a mexican restaurant, where the staff shoved a sopapilla in the birthday girl's face!
these kids thought it was HI-larious!
instead of cake, we walked over to try a new frozen yogurt shop! thumbs up all around!! we are so so very thankful for gram! i don't know what we would do without her!!
hallie says, "yay for frozen yogurt!" she is loving being 1 and trying all kinds of new things. :)
i think i have crammed as much as i can into this post! there is much more to share, which will have to wait until another day. these silly girls are ready to snuggle up on the couch and read, which sounds mighty nice to me, too. i mean, how can you say no to this???
see ya soon!
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