Friends for over 10 years for the big kids, and they always have fun when they are together.
Telestrations is always fun and full of laughter!
Shipwreck VBS. Molly and Simon moved up to VBX (x-treme) this year for rising 6th & 7th grade. They all had a blast!
King cake, beads, and New Orleans jazz…all the goodies that Mardi Gras has!
I hosted our annual Mardi Gras party last Thursday. While I was in Louisiana last month, I picked up a new Mardi Gras book, so I read to our guests about the traditions of Mardi Gras and then the kids enjoyed making their own festive masks.
Who's behind that mask?
We also had a King Cake bake-off. I made two king cakes from two different recipes. The smaller cake is a recipe I've been using for many years. The larger cake is a new McKenzie’s King cake copycat recipe that a high school friend recently shared. The only difference was the dough; the cream cheese filling, icing and sugars were all the same. Many of the adults at the party tried both and voted. The larger cake was deemed the winner; the dough was more pastry-like and as Chad commented, "It's closer to what I think of when you say King Cake."
Leah loved having her preschool friends over to celebrate. Happy Mardi Gras!
Our playgroup has been a constant in our week for the last 6.5 years. Some friends have gone, and others have joined in, but there has been a core group of us watching our kids grow up together. Two years ago when we were considering whether to move locally or back to the South, this playgroup was one of the reasons why I wanted to stay. I loved that Molly, Leah and I have made such great friends through this group.
With three of the younger sisters heading off to Kindergarten this year, and Leah's preschool schedule changing, we got together for one last "official" playgroup on Thursday. I reassured my girls that just because we will no longer have playgroup every week, it does not mean that we will not see our friends. Playdates and sleep overs here we come!
May 2008. Shortly after it all began.
March 2009. Molly's 2nd birthday
October 2009. Trick-or-treating together
April 2010. Simon and his girls
Summer 2010
October 2010. Trunk-or-treat at Glen Mar
December 2010. Brookside Gardens train display
June 2011. Strawberries at Larriland Farm
September 2011. Leah's 2nd birthday
December 2012. Garden of Lights
March 2013. Molly's 6th birthday
September 2013. At The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore
April 2014. Road trip to Philly
We love you guys!
Like last year, Stacie and I took the little sisters to pick strawberries at Gorman Farm. Here they are finding the perfect ones to pick.
You must taste them along the way, right?
Leah and Matilda were proud of their loot, showing off the biggest strawberries in their bucket!
The strawberries were gone in 2 days! So, next week...strawberries at Larriland Farm?
The girls and I joined some friends at The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. School was closed that day, so the big girls were able to join in the fun too.
While waiting for her friends to exit a cave, Molly practiced some crazy faces.
She's gotten a bit bigger than the last time she took this picture.
That's one excited turtle!
Leah had to practice her oinking while posing as a cute little piggy.
As the kids were checking out the giraffes, this one decided to poke his head around and check out the kids!
Smiles at the end of a good visit to the Zoo.
I took the girls down to Brookside Gardens and Wheaton Regional Park. There are no butterfly pictures because Molly and Leah kept exclaiming, "These butterflies are freaking me out!" But at the park, Molly and Allison loved climbing to the top of this jungle gym.
Before heading home, the girls took a spin on the merry-go-round (thanks to Amanda!). The park also has a train, and picnic grounds. It was a fun day with friends.
Another summer adventure - picking blueberries at Larriland Farm with playgroup friends. Everybody's ready to get started!
Leah wasted no time finding the perfect blueberries.
It's always more fun to hang out in the middle of the blueberry bushes with friends.
This is the way you must eat freshly picked blueberries.
After the blueberries, we moved on to picking purple and red raspberries. Leah took her job very seriously, inspecting her raspberries for the perfect color.
Leah and I picked strawberries at Gorman Farm last week with some friends. She did a great job of inspecting her strawberries to make sure they were only red.
On the hunt for the perfect strawberry…
Strawberry picking is always more fun with a friend. Leah would have stayed longer, but the buckets were full!
I froze one pound of the strawberries for Strawberry Sour Cream ice cream later this week, and the rest of them are gone! Guess we need to take a trip out to Larriland Farm to pick more!
On Good Friday, I took the girls to an Easter Egg Hunt organized by my MOMS Club. Leah was one of the oldest of the youngest group, so she ran full on in search of all the pink eggs.
Leah loved filling up her basket. She eventually had so many eggs that she started collecting eggs to give to the younger toddlers and babies.
The egg hunt for the older kids was a bit more challenging with eggs hidden in bushes and wedged in tight spots.
The girls were joined by some of their best playgroup buddies.
After the hunting was complete, the candy counting began. Leah and Molly brought home 40 pieces of candy each! They'll be eating Easter candy until Leah's birthday!
Molly, Keira and Maya were happy to pose next to the Easter Bunny. Leah is still unwilling to get near large, costumed figures.
Molly was requesting to go roller skating. So I called up some friends and we all headed to the Skate Arena.
Allison & Molly had fun hanging out and hanging on railings and walls.
Matilda had a harder time getting the hang of skating, as did her mom!
The skating rink (also known as the arena at our local gym) uses a section of the indoor track as a practice lane. Simon was doing a great job with his dad.
Jake showed up with his bike helmet and was ready to go!
Molly eventually realized that she could skate better on the carpet, rather than in the rink. All the kids had fun, so we'll definitely try it out again.
It was Leah's turn to take a trip to the farm. Our playgroup headed out to Gaver Farm for a morning of Fall fun.
The farm had so many things for the girls to do, with at least 6 different mazes.
The corn crib was a big hit. Fun like a sandbox, but without all the sand all over!
Leah and Rachel had a great time test driving the tractors.
Leah loved this slide! She probably went down it 15 times, and insisted on doing it all by herself. It is made of ridged tubes, so she'd bump down and laugh all the way.
