Dinosaurs At The Zoo?

Yes, there are dinosaurs at the zoo!  No, they are not real!!!  Our zoo currently has a dinosaur exhibit and although the dinosaurs are not real, they are very big, loud and real-looking!  The girls were a little hesitant with some of them, but for the most part, they really enjoyed it!  Now, I'm not going to be able to recall the correct names for the dinosaurs pictured below, so please feel free to make up your own!

This was the first dinosaur we saw.  Anna and Alexandra were not going to take their eyes of of him to take a picture!

Anna wanted to read the info on the dinosaurs, but she was very unsure of turning her back on this dinosaur for the picture!

Baby dinosaurs hatching out of a ball of hay!

Aubrey and the T-Rex!

All of us with the T-Rex!  Once again, Alexandra was not going to take her eyes off that dinosaur!

Aubrey posing...she loves a camera!

An inside look at how the dinosaurs work. Aubrey is making this dinosaur move by moving the control stick. 

Aubrey and Alexandra with the Komodo Dragon...he was real!

This Komodo dragon is obviously not real!  LOL!

My pretty girl...even if she is posing with a giant lizard!

One of her many "looks" that she's famous for.

At this point, Aubrey was saying, "Mom take my picture with this swan."  I've created a monster!

Anna purposefully not looking at the camera.  It's amazing how all of my girl's personalities are so different. 

Dan and Mike's Birthday Celebration!

We had a whirlwind trip to Georgia at the end of March to celebrate Danny's dad and his Uncle Mike's birthday.  Brothers; born on the same day eleven years apart.  One of the cons of living in Florida while the rest of our family lives in Georgia (anywhere from 3-5 hours away) is that we don't get to attend all the family gatherings we'd like to.  We didn't get to attend this wonderful birthday celebration last year, so we made sure to make arrangements to be there this year! 

As I said, it was a whirlwind trip!  We left Florida after Danny got off work on Friday night, made a pit-stop at my parents house (3 hours away) to spend the night.  Got up and left Saturday morning for the next leg of the trip to the big city of Atlanta.  It never fails that at some point during any trip to Atlanta, Danny is going to remind me of why we would never move to Atlanta...traffic! 

Due to traffic, we arrived 30 minutes late, but we were there safe and sound, so I was thankful!  We enjoyed delicious pork bbq cooked by Danny's dad and of course birthday cake!

This picture is a great portrayal of Danny's dad and his uncle's personality! 

They are singing Happy Birthday to each other!

 Can you tell who was excited about the cake? 

Yes, Anna's little fingers did find their way to the icing before the cake was cut!

Sweet Cousins!  I so wish we lived closer to them!  

My girls are always to super excited when they get to see their cousins!

Lydia, Aubrey and Matthew

 

  

Aunt Yvonne and Tesa

Dan and Uncle Mike with the gifts we made for them.

 

After the birthday party, we went over to the Wailes house to spend some more time with them before leaving Atlanta. (I completely forgot to take my camera out of the car to take more pictures while we were there.)  The Wailes got a trampoline for Christmas so they girls were all to happy to try it out.  Danny even got me on there briefly.  Too bad it started raining and we had to go inside!  I was just getting ready to show Danny my double back flip!

We ate dinner with the Wailes and then loaded the car up to go back to my parents house.  We spent the night there again and attended church on Sunday morning to hear my mom sing.  We had a way to quick lunch with my brother, his family and my aunt before loading up in the car once more to make our trek home.

I attempted to get a picture of the girls outside my parents house since the azaleas were blooming.  

Only Aubrey made it into the picture!

Egg Huntin' Practice

What do we do on a rainy day?  Practice up on our Easter egg hunting skills inside!  The girl's had a blast looking for hidden eggs all over the place.  I think they will be ready for the real deal when it comes around shortly!

Aubrey's New Do

I gave Aubrey a haircut a few weeks ago and naturally we had to get some pictures!  I should have measured how much I cut off, but I would guess it was 5-6 inches.

We were at the park earlier in the day having a picnic and she was holding her hair up off her neck.  She then proceeded to tell me how hot her hair was. (This is the child that says it's too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter!)  I asked her if she wanted to cut it when her sisters went down for a nap and she didn't hesitate when she said, "Yes!"

We didn't tell Daddy  we decided to cut her hair and when he saw her he did a double take and asked her, "What did Mommy do to my little girl's hair!"  Needless to say he was surprised.

Aubrey loves her haircut and she loved posing for me to take some pictures of her!

She calls this her "Princess Pose."

 And, of course, we had to get some silly faces in!

 Do you think she likes having her picture made?

Caught, Again!

March 2011
I promise, we feed our children!  But Alexandra loves to get in the pantry and eat whenever she can.  This is how I found her not too long ago!  Yep, helping herself to a couple of sleeves of crackers!  She is crazy about her crackers! Can you tell? So, if she's see an opportunity to get into the pantry, you better believe she is going to take advantage!  At least she didn't tried to hoard these and eat them in the dark pantry this time (see previous post)!

 

Caught!

February 2011

So one day, I couldn't find Alexandra.  I knew things had become quiet, and you all know, that's normally when there is trouble to be found.  I walked around the house and couldn't find her.  As I was standing in the kitchen, I asked Aubrey if she knew where Alexandra was.  I guess upon hearing her name, she thought she should speak up...from behind the closed door or the dark pantry.  I opened the door to find a very proud of herself little girl stuffing her face with Cheerios and Rice Krispies!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

My sweet girls on Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Day was a busy one!  We hosted a little Valentine's play group with friends that morning and the kids all had a blast.  They played, made Valentine's, played some more, ate cupcakes, and then played some more!  My girls love hosting their friends here and we really should have more play groups...I'll put that on my Needs Improvement List...#103!

After our morning play group, we got busy getting ready for our special Valentine's dinner for Daddy!  We made a quick trip to the grocery store to get the remaining items on my list and then we were set.  The girls helped me make heart shaped rice krispie treats that we dipped in chocolate and added sprinkles. 

The dinner menu was one of Daddy's (and Mommy's) favorite, Garlic Cheese grits with shrimp, asparagus, fresh fruit and bread.  Sometimes the girls will eat the grits and sometimes they won't.  This night, they all decided NOT to eat the grits.  Oh, well, more for us.  They were delicious!

The girls helped me set the table with paper hearts and candles.  There's a little story behind the small paper hearts on the table.  A lot of those hearts have little love quotes on them.  I made these hearts for the first Valentine's dinner I ever made Danny when we were dating.  It will come to no surprise to some of you that I kept these hearts and I bring them out every Valentine's day to display on out table.  It has become a special tradition of ours. 

Aubrey made her first Valentine's this year.  Well, not her first, but the first one's that she did completely by herself.  She was so thoughtful to make one for each of her sisters and I think she did a fabulous job!

My little Alexandra giving me some Valentine kisses after dinner!

I'm not sure why, but I have always loved decorating for Valentine's day.  I haven't had time to do a whole lot of crafting lately, so I decided to step it up with Valentine's day.  I follow so many wonderful blogs that have the most amazing craft ideas.  They are so inspiring, so these are a couple of the things I made to bring a little red, pink and white love into the house for Valentine's Day.

 

  My first project with my new Silhouette Machine!  

This machine is awesome and I can't wait to have more time to play with it!

My front door plaque.  I'm very much a copy-cat artist!  I saw one similar to this posted on fb.  

I've been wanting to make one of these for a while, so here it is.  

It was so easy, too!  Be on the lookout for more of these!

Our foyer entrance. The wreath is made with a styrofoam ring wrapped in ribbon with cupcake wrapper hot-glued on!  It was super easy and cheap!  I also printed the Love one Another sign from a blog and framed it in a frame my mom gave me for Christmas.  I used my wonderful JoAnn, Michael's, and A.C. Moore coupons to by the apothecary jar and candles.  I finished the look off by adding M&M's to the jar and placing some greenery on the table!

 I also made a smaller version of the cupcake wrapper wreath to place in the girl's dollhouse in the playroom!

Our morning chocolate chip muffins were displayed on different height pedastals.  I bought the plates and cups at Target (all for around $7).  Instead of gluing the plates to the cups, I added velcro to the plate and cup.  This way, I can change out the plates for different seasons simply by adding velcro dots. 

I also got the red & white pokadot plates so that I could use these for different holidays.  

I can use them for the Fourth or July or Christmas!

This is a better view of the cup beneath the plate.  

Another great idea for this is to fill the cup with decorations to to add a little pizazz to it!

Aubrey and I also made some really cute hearts made out of wax paper and melted crayons that we hung from our kitchen table lighting.  I don't have a picture of these hearts because a certain 20 month old climbed onto the table and ripped them all down while I was blow drying my hair!  Here's a picture of what they looked like, though!

Ok.  Ours didn't look quite as good as Martha Stewart's, 

but they were still cute!

Let's Make Our Bed!

Aubrey has been doing a great job lately of helping me keep her room clean and making up her bed.  Some days, she feels like all her dolls and animals need to be a part of the bed-making process.  

I'm always fast to give her wonderful praise on taking the initiative to make up her bed, 

so anyway she wants to do it is fine with me!

 

This picture reminds me of "Where's Waldo."
Aubrey thought Alexandra would look cute on the bed with all of her dolls and animals as well!

She's a Handy Girl!

Danny and his dad were building an awesome table and chairs for the girls and Aubrey thought they might need her help as well.

Warning:  You will see from the pictures below, that Aubrey dressed herself in her "work clothes."

Aubrey's project was making a path out of the scrap wood.

 She has all of her tools that she needs!  

This is a little scary to me, but sometimes I just have to give in to her dad!

Here's she goes! 

Here is her finished work.  Yes, she did this completely by herself! 

I have a feeling that we will be making some cool things together when she gets older! 

She's so proud of herself...and she should be!

It wasn't all easy to do!  Ha!  

I love this face!

Cereal Galore!

Between the B1G1 deals last week on cereal and the 50%off deals this past weekend, we are stocked up on cereal!  My girls love to eat cereal for breakfast and by the time all 5 of us (most mornings) have a bowl, we go through quite a lot of cereal!

I counted up our stash and we currently have 20 boxes of cereal in the pantry!  I know this seems like a lot, but when you have good sales stacked with coupons, it pays to stock up.  I probably paid anywhere from $1.00 to $1.50 for each box!

Aubrey looked in the pantry and said, "WOW!  That's a lot of cereal!"  Also notice that the Pop Tarts were on sale, too!  Those should last us at least a couple of months!