Christmas Eve 2011

It's almost Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Getting ready to go see The Nutcracker ballet!!

Summer On The Run

     I feel like I need to re-introduce myself. :) haha Kyleigh just finished up her last year of preschool. She starts kindergarten in July -- I'm a little torn between being excited, and being seriously crestfallen. I didn't think the five years would pass by so quickly. I feel like once she walks into those doors, there is no turning back.


     Anyway, I've decided to try and make something of this last summer before Kyleigh becomes an elementary school student. I thought it'd be fun to blog as we go.


     Our first excursion was to the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science. The girls enjoyed this place so much that we are already planning a return trip -- with a few more family members coming along. :) 


     The second excursion was to the North Carolina Museum of Art. For this one, Nate made sure we waited til the weekend. The museum offers an activity tote appropriate for preschool-aged children to help them get into the exhibits. The tote did help Kyleigh enjoy the museum a little more, but I think the most fun we had was imitating the statues. :)


    In between, we've hit the pool and spent time hanging out with my mom. 


     Not sure what is coming next. I have been looking into what is within "day trip" distance from where we live. 


***Trying to get pictures up...but having major technical difficulties!!***

A Day at the Museum of Life and Science

On our way to the Museum of Life & Science, we made a friend...well, not really a friend. This sucker was MEAN!

We came across a grumpy turtle in the middle of the road. I tried to help him across (so he wouldn't get run over...it's not like turtles are fast) but he snapped at me!! It doesn't show, but his neck was freakin long! And he was not happy at all! haha

So I got back in the car and off we went.

Kyleigh playing with a cloud.

Artsplosure 2011

Artsplosure is Raleigh's Art Festival held downtown. Here is how the website describes it:

Artsplosure's mission is to produce high quality annual festivals that celebrate excellence in the performing and visual arts; to promote and bring recognition to national, regional, and local artists; and to bring artists and the larger community together to improve the quality of life and cultural environment.

And this year we went to go check it out. The first thing the girls wanted to do was get face painting...just not on their faces. :)

Arm tattoos

My Birthday & Some Pool Time

So the 14th was my birthday. Nate got the girls together and they all made a cake for me. :)

Blowing out the candles.

My pretty flowers. :)

 The weather was gorgeous and the pool was open so we decided to spend some time in the water. :)

Strawberry Picking!

Since the weather was so nice, Grandma asked if we wanted to go pick some strawberries. So we did! :)

Strawberry pickin' with Grandma.

We found lots of delicious strawberries!

Abby decided to test some out. :)

Me and the strawberry monsters. :)

The girls with our strawberry haul.

No, Abby did not eat any strawberries in the field...what made you ask? ;)

Grandma treated the girls to some ice cream.

We had a great time together! :)

Easter 2011 -- Part2 The Easter Bunny Came!

After much anticipation, the Easter bunny finally came!

And he brought lots of goodies and sunflowers!

The girls may have been a little excited. ;)

Hunting for the eggs!

I see a small yellow one!!

Abby trying to eat some of the candy she found.

Kyleigh in her new ballet tutu.

Smelling the sunflowers from the Easter bunny.

Kyleigh with her flowers from the Easter bunny.

We had some fun drawing on the porch with sidewalk chalk. :)

Happy Easter Everyone!!

After the girls found all of the eggs the Easter bunny left hidden in our apartment, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

A sleepy Abby with Grandma.

Grandpa and Abby. :)

Kyleigh showing off her pretty dress and high heel shoes. :)

The girls playing Barbies together.

Time to hunt for more eggs! Where could they be??

Abby found one!

Abby is checking out Kyleigh's haul while Kyleigh isn't paying attention. haha

Abby found an egg in their house! Yay!

Kyleigh is checking out what all is in her eggs.

Hi Kyleigh! :)

I found another one!

Aww Kyleigh helping Abby find an egg.

Mommy and her girls.

Happy Easter!

Easter 2011 -- Part1 Coloring Eggs

Time to color Easter eggs! Abby is still a little too small to color the eggs on her own, so Daddy had to help. But she is definitely big enough to put stickers on!
And our big girl Kyleigh does it all. :)

Abby is ready to color some eggs!

Kyleigh already coloring her eggs.

Kyleigh concentrating really hard. :)

Which stickers to use???

Nate coloring some eggs too.

Taking a break to smile for the camera!

Showing off her pretty egg.

Daddy's "family" egg. <3

Kyleigh gave her egg a crown. :)

Kyleigh and Daddy coloring their eggs. Lookin' good guys!

Our pretty colored Easter eggs!

Fun Fridays!

    Jill took Abby for a few hours on Thursday and Kyleigh and I went out. We walked through Kid to Kid Consignment store looking for toys. Then we ate at Qdoba and then went to Target. While at Target, we picked up some nail polish so we could paint our nails on Friday. :) We had a fun time out and it was really nice to spend some "special time" with Kyleigh. 
    Friday was a beautiful day. We had the windows open and radios on. The sun and warmer temps do wonders for our moods. :) We actually spent most of the day, after Kyleigh got home from school of course, in the playroom.

    
    While Abby was trying to take a nap (I say 'trying' because she never actually slept), Kyleigh and I painted our nails. :) Kyleigh did my toes. I think she did a great job, too.

    The girls were playing with The Littlest Pet Shop animals and the Fisher Price Little People animals. Abby loves playing with the animals and making the sounds the animals make. It's cute because she pretends to be an elephant, frog and dog. :) Here she is playing with a seal

    The girls have a lot of the dogs of The Littlest Pet Shop toys, and there is one black one that looks like my mom's dog Axel and one that is pretty similar to our Peanut. So Kyleigh decided they were going to get married. :) And all the other animals are watching.

    Kyleigh accidentally popped out one of the eyes of her sunglasses and decided then that she was a pirate.

"Aaaaaargh!!!"

    Since it's Friday and there is still no sign of Nate, I wanted to do something fun for dinner with the girls. First we ordered pizza--something we haven't done in quite a while. Then I decided we'd get a movie off of iControl and have 'Pizza and A Movie Night' and eat in the living room--a treat in itself.

    We ordered Shrek3 Forever After but didn't make it too far in before Kyleigh declared it was going to give her bad dreams. So we switched to Pocahontas. For dessert, we finally dived into the ice cream Kyleigh and I whipped up early this week. It's a coffee ice cream with crumbles from our Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies and it was a hit!

Me and my Abby--who was struggling to run away. :)

Kyleigh has been anxiously awaiting Valentine's Day since she first saw the Valentine's decor in the stores. Now it is almost here. We've decided to bake some cupcakes for her friends for Monday.
First, before we get into what we are baking, look at my nail polish! I didn't realize it when I bought it, but look! It matches my mixer! haha And yes, painting my nails is that big a deal. I honestly don't remember the last time I "pampered" myself this way.

 Now on to what we are baking. For Kyleigh's classmates, we are baking Kyleigh's Cupcakes. They are yellow cupcakes with a chocolate butter frosting. I put the heart shaped marshmallows on and Kyleigh put the sprinkles on.

 Of course, we needed someone to taste test them to make sure they are fit to be shared. Abby took charge of that job. And she takes her jobs very seriously. See?

  She tested these quite thoroughly. :)


Yay for a good weekend!