The Graduate

Madison graduated from her preschool, School for Little People, today. They got to wear caps, sing songs, and walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. Madison loved going to school the last two years and made many good friends. She is going to miss it, but is excited to start kindergarten.

 The kids walking into the sanctuary.

Madison walking across the stage and receiving her diploma from Ms. Whitney.

Ms. Kathy Congratulating Madison.

Kristin's dad (Jim) came down to celebrate.

Madison and her good friend Jessica at the reception.

A big thank you to Ms. Whitney, Madison enjoyed her class very much. We are going to miss her, hopefully Annabel will have her for a teacher in the near future.

A big thanks to Ms. Kathy as well, she went out of her way to make the children feel welcome and loved. We will miss her as well.

First dance class and a picnic

Madison is starting dance in a couple of weeks and is very excited about it.  This week, she got to try dance out because Reagan got to bring a friend to her last class of the year.  Madison loved it and can't wait to start her own classes in June.  

Friday, my work had a picnic.  They had a water slide that Madison played on all evening.

Both girls took a swing at the pinata.

Annabel loved jumping in the bounce house.

And last, the vegetables we picked from our garden today.  I am loving having fresh vegetables.  Now, if our cantaloupe would hurry up and grow.

Happy 2nd Birthday Annabel

Annabel turned 2 today.  I can't believe it, but she really is not a baby any more.  She is outgoing and talks constantly.  We can understand most of what she says now.  She is adventurous and thinks she can do everything her sister can.  She has certainly hit the two year old stage of fit throwing, and I love how she can go from extremely happy one minute to a huge fit the next and right back to happy again.  

Right now, she loves playing outside, reading, painting, playing with baby dolls and playing with her sister.

Here are a few pics from her last year.

Gardening

Our garden is really growing.   So far, we have only picked 2 cherry tomatoes and one banana pepper, but I think we will have lots of produce soon.  

This is definitely an experiment for us.  Earlier this week, we found lots of aphids in our garden, so Jared went and bought ladybugs.  Now we have lots of ladybugs in the garden, hopefully getting rid of the aphids.

In the front, we have canteloupe, jalepenos, banana pepper, tomatos, and bell pepper.

Our first baby eggplant

Cucumber

Jalepeno

Banana pepper

Cherry tomato

Yellow squash

Our cucumber is really out of control.  It is growing up the back fence, and this is about 6 feet from where it is planted.

More baby squash

Zuccini

One of our ladybugs

Sideview of garden

Great Wolf Lodge

Last weekend we went to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine.  We met my parents, sister and Ben, Grandma Nadine and Fred, and Grandma Vinita.  We started the weekend by eating fried chicken for lunch at Babe's (YUM!).  Then we headed to Great Wolf Lodge and got right to playing in the water park.  Because it is already so warm, they had the outdoor portion of the park open.  We started out there, playing in the shallow part of the pool and going down some of the slides.  Then we headed inside where they had a large area for toddlers, a wave pool, a lazy river, and more water slides.  

After this, we headed up to our rooms, ate pizza and celebrated birthdays.  My sister, Annabel and I all have birthdays within about a week of each other.  I can't believe Annabel is already about to turn 2.  She loves Winnie the Pooh (or as she sometimes refers to him "the Pooh"), so that was the theme of her cake.

Opening gifts

Trying to hold all of her gifts.

Madison with my Grandma Nadine and Fred.  Madison got a new book of mazes.  Grandma put it in a large plastic purple envelope.  That plastic case has gone everywhere with us for the past few days carrying all of Maddie's prized possessions.

Annabel with my Grandma Vinita (and her new baby)

Blowing out her candles.

Madison and Grandma

The next morning, we played more in the water park.  We has so much fun playing in the water, I only took 2 pictures (and they weren't very good ones).

Madison going down a slide.  Really, she is there under the splashing water.  Madison loved the lazy river and the wave pool.  She was exactly 42 inches, which meant she was just tall enough to ride the big slides with an adult.  She did go down one once with mom.  She claimed she had fun, but did not go again.

Jared and Annabel playing in the toddler area.  I think her favorite part was sitting on the things that looked like jet skis that squirted water when you pulled on the handle.