StL Weekend Surprise

All of the sisters COMPLETELY surprised my mom this weekend for her birthday.  Megan and I flew up to St. Louis.  She left the boys at home and brought sweet baby Anna.

On Saturday, we had brunch at Aunt Shanny's, and even did a craft. 

A Valentine Wreath

Then we went and saw Les Mis and out to dinner. 

It was wonderful, and the first weekend in a while I have been away from the girls in a while.  It was good to kiss their sweet faces when I got home.  Lovely Weekend.

Fun Weekend

Our house got a manicure- fianlly!  Looks fantastic.

 

 

An Aldi run.  Haven't been here since I went back to work!

 

 

Trying out their costumes.  Elia kept saying RRRRR matey!

 

 

We went to our fave mexican resaurant with John and Sam.  Its the one with the playground outside so you can eat in peace while the kids run themselves ragged.

 

 

A St. Louis- San Fransisco playoff series is proving to be very interesting.  If you look really closely to the right of the tv I put out the girls' little fred bird.  And I'm wearing as much red as possible!

 

 

Car Washing

 

Sometimes we get crazy on the weekends and wash the car.

Labor Day Weekend

One of my teacher friends posted on facebook that as a teacher, Labor Day weekend is like the eye of the storm, craziness last week, a great relaxing weekend in between, and followed by a short but crazy packed week!  Its so true.  It was a fabulous 3 day weekend.  While I spent some time up at school on Saturday, Chris took the girls and Daria for a walk and then Saturday night we had another movie night.
Sunday was as usual- cartoons, church and lunch.  We went to the McBrides for a barbecue and it was great to catch up with them.

Monday Chris had to work (grrrrrr) so I did all the fun SAHM activities I could think of. We went to Tom Thumb and got lunchables,

 

went to the pool, read tons of books, and of course we baked.

We used a cake pop mold to get this shape.  (thanks Aunt Col!)

 

And decorated!

 

 

It was a swell, swell weekend!

Weekend Shenanigans

Saturday started early with a garage sale at the McBrides.  She was wanting to have a sale and I had a lot of junk to get rid of so I brought all my stuff over.  I made cloud dough, a pinterest find, to help entertain children.  Chris had to work so there were only 3 adults to corral 5 kids.  The cloud dough was a hit but only lasted an hour before most of it got dumped in the grass.

We came home, rested, and then had a barbecue with the Carses, McBrides and Kiowskis.

For some reason a table full of children eating makes me so happy!

Then Sunday was as usual- cartoons, church, and lunch.  We took Daria to Lake Lewisville to meet Matt and Sarah's dog JuJu for some playtime at the lake.  Fun times!

Good Weekend

We spent the better part of Sunday cooking.

Elia and G helped Daddy...

...make thisdog pen!  (the right section is going to be the gate and is not secured here- it is just leaning right now)

And got this off Craigslist.

We are hoping to pick her up from the vet Wednesday evening.  Names in the running are: Daria, ElDara, MoCa, CaMo, and Elia has suggested Chips.

Lovely Weekend

We got to see family, go to a birthday party, and I went to a consignment sale.  I had Monday off so I took half the day to drop off my resume at some schools around town.  Then I was home for nap and to take the girls to the park.  Spring Break is in 3 weeks!  I think I can I think I can...

Showing off their new dresses!

Low Key Weekend

We did absolutely NOTHING this weekend, and it was great.  We only got out of the house to go to church, the park and of coure to ride bikes.  We went to the dragon park, which both girls have been wanting to go to, but besides the cool dragon head there, the actual park was pretty lame.  And almost as soon as we got there Elia had to go potty.  Le sigh.



Picture found here.

This was Elia's first successful pedal pushing bike ride!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend was so great!  We went to the pool (for the last time this season!  :/), the park, and had friends over to bbq.  The weather was amazing on Monday especially- the girls were cold playing outside!!

G rode her bike to the park- she hasn't gotten on that thing since June!  Too hot to take it outside.  She was pretty unsire of herself on the way to the park, but did awesome on the way home.

 Haven't been on swings at the park lately either because of the heat!!  They could have stayed on them for hours.

  

 

  

  Monday we were literally outside the entire day- for dinner too.  I made some pink lemonade pie- which the girls gobbled.  Every weekend should be 3 days long!

Fearless

Elia is fearless. She has learned to swim so well this summer (almost as well as G!) and it is because she has absolutely zero fear of the water. Gianna can swim very well but she gets nervous when she knows the water is over her head and clings to me. Elia fights me to get out of my arms and laughs when I frantically pull her out and she has swallowed a ton of water.

We went to the pool Saturday morning and G was practicing her "humpback whale", which is just falling flat on your back in the water. She is really good at it. Elia wants to be just like G so she tried it too. She was only taking a step back in the water and so on her second try, her face came too close to the edge of the pool and she scraped and bruised her nose. I think it could have been way worse (like hitting her head on the way down or hitting her chin really hard) but it is still really sad to look at.

The weekend was great otherwise. Uncle Patrick stayed with us for a little while en route to UD and they made some corn-hole boxes for his Old Mill apt. We got to go on a little date- to finally see Transfomers 3. Oh! And I made this, this, this, this and this. Pinterest gave me all my ideas, and now I have a freezer full of meals for a few weeks that will help me get through the hustle and bustle of the new job.

Good Weekend

Not too exciting of a weekend over here... its been a while since we have done nothing, so it was good. I got my first paycheck on Friday, and that was SUPER exciting. We celebrated by buying us some bikes. Now, if you are an avid mcrowles blog reader you might be asking yourself, wait, don't they already own bikes? I swear there have been posts involving bike rides! Well, we were holding them for our friends who were doing a Peace Corps trip for the past 2 years in Fiji. They wanted them back so we sent them a few months ago. And now that the weather is nice, we want to get biking again! We bought a 2-kid trailer a few years ago before Elia was a twinkle in our eyes, so the 4 of us can get around. Daddy took them on a ride while I stayed home and cleaned the. whole. house. Chris worked Sunday night so I took the girls to the library, Wendy's, and the park. Fun was had by all. (except for Chris when he had to work) So that was our weekend. Next weekend is going to be so great with Easter, and we are going to Dollar Days at the Horse track. Here are some pics from the weekend!

Riding in style.

At the library. Elia took apart a puzzle and put a piece on each stool.

At the park. Elia thinks she is so cool when she is on the big girl swing.

Birthday X 2!

This Saturday, we had 2 birthday parties to go to. They were very different, but both REALLY fun! I didn't bring my camera for the first one. The first one was for Isabella, one of my new teacher friend's daughters. It was at Pump it up Frisco. I honestly don't know who had more fun, the girls or Chris. Adults are allowed to jump on all the blow up structures so he was in on the action from the start. Gianna and Elia ran around and climbed and jumped and generally ran themselves ragged.

Exhausted, both of them!

The second birthday party was for James and Aiana, one of my pta friend's kiddos. I got pictures of this party, and I am so glad I did! She is homeschooling little James, and right now they are working on a farm unit, so that was the theme of the party. When she went to buy stuff for her unit on the farm, she went to a feed store and her kiddos fell in love with these baby ducks. So now she is raising baby ducks, and it fits right into her theme. Gianna and Elia loved to watch them, and they were pretty cute.

She had a few activities set up for the kiddos.

Getting pigs dirty, then washing them and then drying them:

Hauling and planting "flowers":

And of course, birthday cake and cupcakes. So cute!

These parties gave me a lot of ideas for the girls birthday next month. So far, all I can tell you is its going to be Minnie Mouse themed. Elia (and G) will love it!