Super Saturday

After a long and dreary February, we started March off on a high note!  If often feels like we spend our week counting down to the weekend and beginning Friday afternoon, we packed a lot of activities into this one. 

For the last several years Gavin has loved Toothless and the How to Train Your Dragon movies.  Of course the fact that he loves Toothless means that Luke also loves Toothless.  We have been watching the trailer to the new movie and getting excited to see it, so on opening day, Luke and our crew joined up with Gavin and his crew to go to the movie.  The show was fun and the kids all definitely loved it.

After the movie we all did a little shopping and then we decided to invite Juniper for a sleep over since she and Ruby had big plans for Saturday afternoon.  Both girls were so excited because it was their first official sleepover so it took quite awhile after we got home before they were settled and finally asleep.   When they first got it bed there was a lot of giggling and chatting but I had a hard time breaking up the party because it was just so cute to watch them have fun together.  The next morning the girls were adamant that they stayed up the entire night, but luckily I have proof that they did finally fall asleep.

Saturday morning we got the kids up and going early and headed to Home Depot to make their kids' project for the month of March.  This time it was a clock tray.  With practice, the kids are getting better at using a hammer and I don't completely fear for my fingers while holding the wood in place  All three kids painted theirs totally differently and it was fun to see how the finished projects really reflected their individual personalities.

Tim and Luke hustled and left the project a little bit early, then the girls and I followed to the rec center to watch Luke's basketball game.  I love watching him play and think the games are so great.  However, the girls weren't quite as entertained and we ended up taking multiple potty breaks and repeatedly answering the question of "how much longer"?

The girls had good reason to be so anxious to be done with the game...we had big plans that afternoon and tickets to attend the Fairy Tea Party.  From the minute I told the girls about the tea party they have been so counting down the days.  The tickets said to wear your "fairy best" and Ruby and Juniper took that direction very seriously.  The night before we had a mini fashion show so the girls could try multiple different dress choices.  They walked the runway, curtsied, went up and down the stairs, and ultimately, the ability to twirl in the dress seemed to be the deciding factor.  After the basketball game they each put on their fancy dresses and crowns and we headed out again for the main event.  On the drive there we talked about manners and how they could be polite at the tea.  By the time we made it to the tea party, the girl were ready  for the party and twirled and curtsied their way in as if they they were, in fact, real fairy princesses. 

Grandma was able to join us and we loved having her there.  

After an initial welcome from one of the fairy princesses, we watched a ballet performance, ate and drank "high tea" and the the girls promenaded for the fairy king and his court.  For two little five year old girls, the afternoon was completely magical.  And as always, I feel completely blessed to be able to watch the magic through their eyes.  

  

Juniper brought a fairy plate as a gift for the fairy princess.

This fairy princess was Ruby's favorite

We even spied a dragon...

The girls took advantage of every dancing space they found

Each girl even got to take home a free book. 

By the time we left, their manners had begun to fade and the posing began.

Family Pictures - September 2018

I just realized that I had not ever posted our most recent family pictures - not sure what happened there because I absolutely love them.  Even though they were taken several months ago, I wanted to make sure I had a good record because they turned out so awesome.  I had originally scheduled for my friend Kim Lloyd to take pictures of Ruby since she was turning five years old (she also did her four year old pictures).  We had the date and time arranged and then I decided to try to make it  work for full family pictures since Erika had plans to move to Mexico a few weeks later.  I figured out clothes and a location and then right before the big day I got a little panicked because I realized that Jami is really the only person that has ever photographed our family and she is a genius at making us all look good.  I knew Kim was a great photographer, but I was still a little stressed to work with someone new.  I shouldn't have worried because it all worked out great.  She  made everyone feel so comfortable while shooting and I absolutely love both the individual and the group shots.  These pictures mean so much to me and I'm grateful that my family is always so willing to cooperate and make family pictures a fun experience.

I love seeing photos of this little miss.  She loves playing model and I feel like her personality was captured so well.  In order to get these gorgeous curls, Ruby had to endure me twisting Zulu knots into her hair and then wore them around for the day while her hair dried.  We both loved how the curls looked and were amazed that they still looked good the next day.

Ruby, 5

The shots of the two of them together are some of my favorites!

This kid and his missing front teeth is THE BEST!  I'm a little heartbroken that his adult teeth are almost in so I'm so glad that we got these shots to remember his little toothless grin.  

Luke, 6

These three "big kids" are always so great to humor me and wear whatever I ask.  Over the many years of family pictures they have definitely learned how to pose for a great photo. 

Brycen, 16

Erika, 21

Taylor, 24

So Luke is very particular about his clothes and has very strong opinions about what he wears.  We had originally planned for him to wear this shirt in pictures, but then ended up using a very different color scheme.  He was so sad that he wouldn't be wearing it in the family pictures that we finally agreed he could change and wear it for a few shots of just him.  Man I love his style. 

We may not look too much alike, but she is definitely her mama's girl. 

What more could a girl want?