Spring blog post catch up... here we go! First up - G. Betty's 80th birthday

At the end of April, our family headed to the east side of the state to celebrate my Grandma Betty's 88th birthday, my mom's 60th birthday, and to have a visit with my aunt and uncle who were visiting from Santa Fe! We haven't seen Uncle Paul and Aunt Mary-Margaret since our wedding about 8 years ago. This was their first time meeting Camryn and Taylor, which was extra fun.

Jeff, Jen, Tess, Mem, and our family stayed overnight at a hotel during the visit. We got there on Saturday afternoon, and had lots of time to hang out at Grandma Betty's apartment.

At the hotel the next morning, we had a fantastic breakfast, and time to play in the pool there, too. :)

There was a big celebration brunch midday on Sunday - a whole birthday party planned by my mom and aunt and uncles. My uncle made a CD of songs from the year she was born, there was a trivia game about facts about what life was like in the 1920's (which I did horribly at :)), and cake and presents. :)

After food and fun, we went outside in an attempt at a family picture. After the long day, and no nap for Camryn, it was a little work to get the kids to cooperate for a family picture afterward, but it was still great to capture all of us being together! :)

And on the drive home, Cam fell asleep pretty fast. :) Tuckered out girl from all the fun. :)

It was a great birthday/reunion/family visit! :)

Life since Spring Break :)

It's May! 25 more teaching days until summer break - the end of the year always seems to come up so fast!

~ Life since spring break ~

It finally warmed up enough for ...
popsicles and the water table...

sprinklers...

snacks in the driveway after school...

 playing "quicksand" - a game Tay learned in her Strong Kids class

shorts (this picture of Cam cracks me up, big kid checking out the airplanes)...

 planting seeds (these were special seeds we got from a birthday party last weekend - more on that in the next post!)

checking out the ducks at 'dr. stan's' office

and trips to get ice cream at Kilwins

and Captain Sundae :)

Taylor had her last Strong Kids class

She also had her Kindergarten Screening night! She was so excited!

We had Family Literacy Night at my school, and I was a reader (don't mind my horrible posture....goodness!) and I read three stories with my favorite fictional characters - Tacky the Penguin, Pigeon, and Elephant and Piggie

After, there was a puppet show, and Taylor sat in the front row with Ty.. and had her hand on his back. She loves to do anything with Ty!  

 Ha! :)

We had a couple visitors with a birthday gift for Cam

Tons of silly or sweet sister moments
Jumping on our bed

After bath time

This was a series of pictures after a bath one morning when I was home with Cam because she was sick... trying to get her to smile :) Finally got one at the end :)

Love her little face :)

Reading bedtime stories in bed - Taylor was 'reading' the book to Cam :)

Putting on their shoes together - finally getting more independence out of these two :)

This might be the best toy ever - the little capsules that you soak in warm water and then a little foam character starts growing. It takes a while, the girls were SO quiet and attentive waiting to see which sea creature theirs would turn out to be, and then they had a little toy when it was done!

Coloring on the floor together (LOVE sunshine!)

And Ryan got our fire pit all set - can't wait for fires and, of course, s'mores this summer! :)