Curfew's come to Charlotte!

My sister Emily has been planning her trip to Charlotte for months now so we've just been waiting and so excited to see them and let all the kids play together.

I forgot to bring my camera when we were out and about so these are all from my phone and even some borrowed from Emily's ;)

First day they were here we drove by the Charlotte motor speedway and went to Robby Gordon's Motorsports. Apparently it's not a tourist attraction and they don't let people in, it's just a big ole workshop. Jeremy really wanted to go in but the lady in the front office wouldn't let us in. We were walking around looking in the windows and one of the workers noticed us looking in the windows and probably realized Jeremy is a car enthusiast  and let us in a backdoor to look at the workshop. The kids weren't very interested so I went back out with them and they played in the grass and picked flowers while Jeremy had a little tour. He loved it!

Afterwards we went and had lunch at the food court in the mall and let the kids play at the playland.
Eleanor, Penelope, and Pearce (the PONYtail gang) walked all around the mall like this...

Next stop was Pelican's to get some snowballs!

When we got home the kids played in the sprinkler and then got comfy on the couch with some popcorn and a movie.

The next day we had a change in plans because of some heavy rain.
I needed to go to the church to set some things up for young women so we took all the kids with us and had a play day in the gym.

When we got home it was time to get ready for our crawfish boil. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the actual crawfish when we were ready to eat because I was too excited to dig in! :)

On Friday morning we all headed down to Charleston, South Carolina.
After stopping for some barbecue for lunch we headed to the coast for a boat ride around the harbor.

After the boat ride we had a little pizza party back at our hotel and let the kids swim at the pool. 

On Saturday morning we headed back downtown for a carriage ride tour of the city. It was such a beautiful morning strolling through the streets of downtown Charleston. The homes were so gorgeous. Such a charming place! 

Here are all the kids watching the horses getting ready before we board.

This was one of my favorite houses. There were so many good ones but I only snapped a couple of pictures.

After our horse and buggy ride we headed over to Folly Beach for some fun in the sun.
It was so fun to see all the little cousins play together. We could've done this for days!

Unfortunately we had to head back to Charlotte on Saturday night but Emily, Jeremy, Pearce, and Henry stayed in Charleston until Monday afternoon for some more sightseeing.

On Tuesday morning we just hung out at home and let the kids play all morning since it would be their last chance to play together. Then we picked up some lunch and went to the park for a little picnic and the kids got to run around and play. Such a lovely afternoon and so cute to see the kids have so much fun together.

The infamous "peacemakers"...

And this is what happens when I spoil all their fun and say "no peace signs for this one" ...

What a fun trip!! We really hope they can live closer to us one day!!! 

Mother's Day

Andrew had to go out of town for work on Sunday so we technically celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday. (Even though he was in Bermuda it probably didn't seem like an exotic vacation to him. He was in meetings all day Monday and traveled back home on Tuesday.) 

On Saturday morning I got my hair done. After naptime Penelope and I ran some errands while Andrew took Molly and Eleanor to run some errands. We met up at Chick-fil-A for dinner and then headed home to open my Mother's Day present. Andrew got me an apple peeler and slicer contraption and I decided we should give it a try and make an apple pie. I had never made one before so it was a fun little adventure :) I got a store-bought pie crust and tried to be fancy with the lattice work. I think it turned out pretty good for my first pie. But apparently I'm the only one who likes apple pie so I got to eat it all by myself. :)

On Sunday I got to sleep in a little bit since Andrew didn't have to leave for the airport until about 10 AM. Then it was just like most Sundays around here... Just me and the girls, get everybody ready, napped, and fed lunch, then out the door for 1 o'clock church.  Our Mother's Day treat at church was a huge chocolate covered strawberry! And the men taught all the third hour classes so I actually got to sit and enjoy relief society. 

I think the highlight of my Mother's Day though was watching Eleanor and Penelope sing in Sacrament meeting. It is always so sweet to hear their little voices and see their cute little faces smiling and waving at me. I had to do my best to contain Molly because she was so excited to see the girls up there she wanted to run up on the stage with them.

I really do love being a mom. And I'm so grateful for my girls! 

Unfortunately we didn't get a "Mother's Day shot" but here's one of me and my babies at Laura's wedding in March 

Dan Nicholas Park

Andrew had the day off for Good Friday so we went on an adventure to a cute little park in Salisbury, NC.  When we got there we were greeted with a sign that read, "Your Best Entertainment Bargain!" And I'd say it turned out to be a pretty accurate description :) For 12 bucks we rode the carousel, and the train, visited the petting zoo/barnyard, visited the wildlife adventure (basically a little zoo), and played on lots of playground equipment.  They also have paddle boats, mini golf, and a splash pad that hadn't opened yet. It was a big hit and I'm sure we will be back!

{we heard a real life "hee-haw" from the donkey...it was awesome!}

May Day

It's been a pretty low key week. Here are some of the highlights...

-Eleanor had a doctors appointment for a physical to get ready for kindergarten. Can't believe she'll be gone 7-8 hours everyday! Makes me kind of sad but I'm glad I can give a little more attention to Penelope and Molly. 

-We've been trying to eat more fruits and veggies around here. Unfortunately only a few minutes after I had so lovingly chopped up a big ole watermelon we had a little accident. Molly is always a happy helper. 

-Also in the happy helper department is Penelope. We've talked about going to disneyworld this fall and Penelope always asks me if she can help to earn money. She is such a sweet little thing. She also comes up to me randomly and tells me she loves me. She also thanks me for cooking for her and washing her clothes. She totally gets it. She's always been our "emotional" one and I really enjoy this side of it :)

-Park loving

-A little home decorating shopping at tjmaxx. And no I didn't buy that thing. I'll do whatever it takes to go to one of "my stores" with all three girls so if they want to pose and have their picture taken with a sunshine face, then so be it :)

-Pony obsession. I've got dozens more pictures and videos like this on my phone and camera done by Eleanor and Penelope. 

-And speaking of MLP...Penelope likes to do her hair like rainbow dash. Also, you might notice the lovely scribbling on the wall in the background. That's Molly's first official work of wall art. Oh and there are a couple of pictures of MLP taped on the wall just in case the dozens of actual my little ponies all over the floor aren't enough :)

-Cabbage patch kids. They weren't interested in eating any of the cabbage I was chopping up but they sure enjoyed using it for hats. 

-And this is how Molly feels about bubbles...

Trying something new

I've been trying to find a better way to "blog" because I want to record a better family history. I was looking for an app that could somehow tie together a daily journal and picture. Then I realized that's basically blogging. So here I am in the blogger app giving it a try!  Since most of the pictures I take are just on my phone, the quality won't be that great but I figure it's better than nothing and I'll be glad I documented what we were up to. This will be a good way to do something with all the pictures on my phone and keep a journal along with it. 

Andrew has been out of town sooooo much lately. In April he was gone 17 nights! (Which means we probably had fast food about 17 times.) I'm beginning to go a little crazy! And the poor girls are probably feeling it too! Freddie and Amy drove up last week to see us during their spring break. It was fun to have them here for a few days and really nice to have some help. 

Here are a couple of pictures of what we've been up to this week. 

Breakfast time ....

Discovery Place (We get in free with our Children's museum pass. We took Freddie and Amy with us last week and had such a fun time that we went back again on Monday. We also watched Turtle Tale 2 in 3D and a penguin documentary in 3D. They were just 15 minutes each so it was doable for all the girls.  And I even enjoyed them :) ...

Water table ...

Taking a break for some lunch (ie granola bars, chips, applesauce pouch, and water fountain) ...

Molly Playing/building with some fun magnets ...

Penelope Building a car to race (She was getting a little frustrated they didn't have all the right parts to make it exactly like the picture) ...

Headed to church- Andrew was out of town that's why I'm making a silly anxious to tackle church alone face ;)  ...

It was ward conference and the stake president wanted the ward mission leader to speak (aka Andrew) but luckily for Andrew and unluckily for me he'd be out of town.  And also unluckily for me I had a training meeting with stake YW pres after church that lasted way too long.  Eleanor and Penelope entertained themselves just fine but Molly was a pretty big mess.  While I'm at it I should probably document the anatomy of a typical Sunday these days. We have 1 o'clock church, but Andrew leaves around 10 for meetings.  I try and put Molly down for an early nap around 11 and cross my fingers she actually falls asleep. Then around 12:30 I have the girls load up in the car and I wake Molly up, throw some clothes on her, buckle her up with a sippy cup of milk and some semblance of a lunch that fits in a ziploc baggy and we're off to join Andrew at church. Not quite sure that really qualifies as a day of rest. 

Molly has loved playing the piano ever since Amy (aka Mimi) was here. She heads to the piano and says "Mimi". It's so cute. She really loves Amy!

And that's about it. I guess I'll go ahead and post this and see how it goes. Pretty easy so far. I really hope it works. I want to be better at recording little moments. Seems that the days are just speeding by and I am forgetting all the special times we have together. Even though sometimes it seems a little crazy I really love my girls and I'm so glad I have them by my side basically all the time! 

I'll record everyday stuff from iPhone pics while on my phone/iPad and for bigger events or when I get out a real camera I'll make separate posts for those using the computer. Ciao for now :)