First Swim Lesson!

Today the girls went to their first swim lesson on base at the indoor pool.

They couldn't wait to get in the pool and get started.

Madison was so excited! She can't wait to swim!

First they worked on their floating.

Then they worked on kicking their feet.

Time to swim on a noodle.

By the end of the first lesson they were both swimming around the pool on their noodles without any help. Way to go girls!

Trike-A-Thon Prizes!

A little over a month ago the girls participated in the Trike-A-Thon at school. The class raised $1044.00 for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

The girls got their Trike-A-Thon prizes today at school. They couldn't wait to get home and show me.

They each got a cool Trike-A-Thon t-shirt.

Madison got Pedals the Bunny...

and Jocelyn got Bikewell the Bear!

They each also got these cute bear backpacks.

The girls couldn't wait to go on a bike ride with their new stuffed friends.

Off she goes with Bikewell the Bear in the back. ;)

Granny Green

We just recently met our sweet neighbor two houses away. She stopped the girls and I on our walk the other day and invited us in. She is an 85 year old woman that has lived in that house for over 50 years. Unfortunately her husband passed away over 20 years ago. She said that she had baked us some cookies and came over to visit us on Easter weekend, but no one was home. I told her that we had been in Florida for three weeks and were so sorry that we missed her visit. She told us to stop by anytime. The girls really liked her and decided to call her "Granny Green." Today Madison drew a picture of Granny Green and her house and wanted to take it to her. So when we went for our afternoon walk and noticed that Granny Green was in her backyard working in her beautiful garden, Madison immediately hopped out of the wagon and ran to give Granny Green the picture she drew. Granny Green invited us inside and surprised us with...

these adorable baskets filled with Butterscotch Cookies. One basket for each of the girls.

She painted the white basket for me. She is a very talented artist. She has painted and made almost everything in her home. The girls ate several cookies before running to play in her flower garden. Granny Green and I just sat and talked while the girls played. I think she enjoyed having someone to talk to and really loved watching the girls play. We then brought her over to our house to show her around. Granny Green's best friend built and lived in our house, so I knew that she would be curious to see what it looks like today. The girls gave her big hugs and kisses before she left, which made her day. We are so blessed that we have met our sweet Granny Green.

Flower Girl Baskets

My dear friend Maura is getting married and she asked me to make three flower girl baskets. I did some research online and sent her some pictures to look at.

She really liked the idea of doing a heart shaped flower girl basket. I could have ordered these cute heart shaped baskets for $20.00 each, but I still would have had to embellish them with her colors light pink and white.

After searching several stores for a heart shaped box or basket that I could use, I found these white heart shaped baskets for 2 for $1.00 at the Dollar Tree. Needless to say I bought them and began thinking about how to make these boring baskets worthy of a wedding.

When I got them home I took off the ugly plastic handles and made pretty pearl handles using a white pipe cleaner and 10mm pearls.

Then I weaved white tulle through the basket, which I also picked up at the Dollar Tree.

I then covered the heart shaped basket with pink and white roses that I found at the Dollar Tree.

Unfortunately the Dollar Tree did not have enough flowers to make all three baskets, so I needed to come up with another idea. One of the flower girls is going to be wearing a different dress than the other two flower girls, so maybe she will use this rose covered heart shaped basket.

I bought some white and light pink ribbon and decided to weave it through the basket.

It turned out very sweet, but I still need to add bows or flowers to cover the part where the handle meets the basket.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestion for the flower girl baskets please let me know. The girls and I are looking forward to going to Washington DC for Maura's wedding the first weekend in June.

Sprouts!!!

The girls were soooooo EXCITED this morning when they checked our pots and discovered that our seeds have SPROUTED!!!

We have some daisy sprouts and...

some Marigold sprouts!!!

Madison also has some sprouts coming up in her Thumbelina flower pot.

Love Letter from Clay

Much to my surprise there was a love letter from Clay waiting for me in the mailbox today. What a sweet and thoughtful husband I have!

Only 2 months left until he comes home!!!

Thunderstorms and Tattoos

The girls and I have had a very uneventful weekend. It has been raining off and on all weekend. Needless to say we stayed inside most of the weekend and just caught up on cleaning and laundry.

The girls made several crafts this weekend. They can't wait for the rain to stop so that they can go outside and hang up their bird feeders.

Madison even found a tattoo from Valentine's Day that she had hidden in her treasure box. She was so excited to put the tattoo on, but minutes after I took this picture she took it off. Hopefully I don't ever have to worry about her getting a real tattoo since she wouldn't even keep the fake one on for five minutes. ;)

This afternoon we snuggled in the playroom listening to the rain fall and watching the movie Ponyo. The girls really enjoyed the movie. But I must admit that I fell asleep for a few minutes during the movie. Jocelyn noticed that I had my eyes closed and immediately woke me up so that I wouldn't miss the movie. Thanks Jocelyn! ;)

Garden Art!

Although we liked our watering can, we decided to personalize it.

Madison added her pink hand print to one side and...

Jocelyn added her purple hand print to the other side.

Then we painted their names under their hand prints.

The girls love watering our seeds with their personalized watering can.

Our pots look pretty plain since our seeds haven't sprouted yet, so I found these cute wooden butterflies to add to our pots. The girls had fun decorating the butterflies with the bingo daubers.

Look at my Butterfly!

Madison loved putting the butterflies in the pots.

The butterflies turned out really cute!

The wings are on springs, so when the wind blows the butterfly's wings flutter.

Now we just need our seeds to sprout and start growing.

Earth Day!

The girls and I decided to plant some seeds today for Earth Day! I went to Home Depot while they were at school and took advantage of the Buy One Get One Free Seeds.

Madison was so excited to see all of the seeds I got. We planted Sweet Peas, Marigolds, Zinnias, Daisies and a Spring Mix.

Madison doesn't like to get dirty, so Jocelyn made the holes in the dirt. Then Madison put the seeds in the holes and I covered the seeds with more dirt. Great teamwork!

Then Madison watered the seeds!

We can't wait to see if our seeds grow!

Picture Day!

Today is Picture Day at the girls' preschool.

Jocelyn only let me take one picture of her. She wasn't in the mood to get her picture taken. Hopefully the photographer at school has better luck than I did.

Madison on the other hand wanted me to take a lot of "practice" pictures. So here are the many faces of Madison:

The school photographer is going to take individual pictures of each of the girls as well as some pictures of them together. Madison is also getting her graduation (cap and gown) pictures taken today too.