A night away

My friend Beth and I decided to take the kids overnight to a local hotel because Matt had a lot of homework to do. We wanted to give him a night without the girls to be able to concentrate on his work and finish it without any distractions. It was the best money we've ever spent!! The kids had SO much fun swimming in the pool and hot tub. Beth bought some special toys for the girls to play with at the hotel and we ordered pizza and rented a movie (Puss and Boots). I now want to do this a couple times a year to have a mini girls weekend! :)

I must be crazy!

Our neighbors, the Moyers, asked if they could sleep at our house during school vacation. Of course I said yes, then added 1 extra neighbor and Acadia's best friend to the mix. 7 girls total! They were amazing and we actually had a LOT of fun. We had dinner, watched a movie and our special treat during movies is always, always popcorn with M&M's sprinkled throughout the popcorn. I sent a text to my neighbor Rhonda and said - I must be crazy, but having this many girls over here makes me want more kids! However, the next morning when Matt and I were both exhausted, we decided that 2 was actually a perfect number for us :)

Painting the kitchen

It's not often that we have a weekend without plans, and add to that - a weekend without plans when it's raining. So we decided to paint our kitchen! We've been wanting to do it for a while since we didn't love the wall paper. We also decided to get new hardware for the cabinets. What a difference it made! 

Mr. Ding-A-Ling

This was the first time the ice cream truck has come to our neighborhood since we have moved here. We were SO excited - the sound of the truck still reminds me of being a kid myself. It is such a staple of summertime :)  The kids picked out a batman and spider man ice cream - they are very into superheros!

Under the Sea

During a sleepover we had with the girls, we were also watching our friend's pug, Ollie. He's adorable and the girls loved him!!

Acadia's birthday - evening

The night of Acadia's birthday, Sissy and Jimmy came over to visit and we dyed Easter eggs. After Sissy and Jimmy left, we ordered Chinese and watched a movie. Then crashed into bed! What a busy day :)

Acadia's birthday parade

Last summer, right after we moved in, I had this idea to do a birthday parade for my neighbor's son, Zach. I asked the Moyer kids (our other neighbors) if they wanted to be in our parade and I got some balloons and we all dressed up, marching along the street with our musical instruments singing happy birthday. This was a WAY bigger hit than I imagined it being, so we have done it for all the neighborhood kids since then, on their birthdays. Well, much to my surprise, our amazing neighbors had a birthday parade for Acadia! Rhonda, our neighbor, called me on Acadia's birthday to ask when we would be home so they could do it. Even though I knew what was coming, I was shocked at how overwhelming it felt to have all these amazing people in our lives marching down our street with their musical instruments and laughter, singing happy birthday to my daughter. It truly made our day!