More April fun

 Emily's friend Gabrielle and her mom invited us to go to a Dinosaur Exhibit in Fort Smith.  I thought it would be a fun outing and Ashton was coming too!  I dropped off Ella at my parent's house b/c I know she'd be scared of dinosaurs.  It was fun for them, but kind of expensive.  Emily rode down with Gabrielle and Ashton, so that was really fun for her!  Then, we stayed later to eat dinner with Cita and Poppy.

I have been waiting for this day to come since I heard Mary Poppins was coming to town!  It is one of my favorite kid's movies.  The price was a little expensive for a kid's show, so I had to really think about going.  I decided to get tickets before they ran out when Roy and I saw Rock of Ages in Nov.  I ended up getting my mom a ticket too as a Christmas present.  It ended up being her Mother's Day present too since she was leaving town to visit my brothers.  We took Cita out to lunch before it.  I was concerned about how Ella would do, but she was mesmerized by the whole thing.  It was a truly amazing experience!  Seeing Ella clapping at the end was so cute!  Ella loved the "Fly the Kite" scene.  Emily, Cita, and I LOVED the "Step in Time" part.  Wow!  I also love the "Jolly Holiday" one.  I really loved it all!  I absolutely love musical theatre and I'm blessed that we are able to see Broadway shows here. 

Easter/April

 Emily had her 2nd dance competition in April.  I liked this competition MUCH better than the last one.  The dances/costumes of other dance studios were much more age-appropriate.  Emily's dance studio did great!  Her "Teenie Team" only performs one dance.  They won First Place in their age group and Elite Gold ribbon.  So proud of them!  I can't believe how much she has learned all year compared to last.

Easter came upon us quickly this year it seems.  Ella had a rough night before Easter (bad cough) and wasn't feeling well on Easter Sunday as you can see in the pic.  We decided to let her stay home or she'd be coughing the whole mass, so Emily and I headed to 9 am mass.  She was disappointed the Easter Egg hunt was cancelled at church b/c of rain the day before.  We headed home to get ready for our company.  Roy's parents, sister + family, and my parents came to OUR house for Easter.  We had a great time!   The girls and their cousin got to hunt Easter eggs in our backyard.

Dallas: Spring Break!

The girls loved the hotel! 

 The dolls were excited to be in the hotel too!  :0)

 At the American Girl store!  Emily and Molly below are her favorite historical character dolls.  She has the "Emily" doll and she had to go to the doll hospital while we were there.  Her hair has become unglued and we had to talk Emily into putting her into the doll hospital b/c it takes 3-6 weeks to get the dolls back.  Emily doll got a hospital gown on and was sent to the hospital.

Eating brunch with their AG dolls and Ella's Bitty Baby.

 Ella had a blast playing with the Bitty Baby/Twins section!

Girl of the Year doll: McKenna

Happy St. Patrick's Day in Dallas!

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I was ready to get out of town for a long weekend, but last weekend was Roy's weekend to work.  So, I talked my parents into going to Dallas with me.  Emily's main request for Spring Break was to go to the American Girl store in Dallas.  She has been saving her money since Christmas to get an outfit and her doll's hair done.  I actually wanted to go to Dallas too, so when I want to go somewhere I try to make it happen. :)  I got a great deal on a hotel thru priceline right across from the Galleria.  Somehow we were upgraded to a suite as well and we were SO excited to have a huge room! 

I got her out of school a little early so we could be ready to go and pick up Cita and Poppy.  We were a little behind schedule, but made it to Dallas Friday night around 9pm.  The girls did great on the trip down there!    We got up and got the dolls ready for the American Girl.  The girls were priceless running around the store looking at all the dolls.  I was a bit overwhelmed!  We first went and had brunch with the dolls + Cita and Poppy both came too.  I gave Emily the choice between brunch or lunch and she loves eating breakfast, so that's what she chose.  Emily ate eggs and bacon then Ella got the Bitty brunch with blueberry pancakes.  They also shared a strawberry smoothie. They both gave their dolls a bite of all their food.  :) 

Then, Emily and I got in line to get her doll's hair done (long wait).  She chose the birthday tiara braid hair style for her doll "Grace".  It really turned out pretty!  We picked out a little t-shirt for a couple of her friends who love AG too that said "American Girl" Dallas.  Emily also picked out the ballet outfit for her doll (plus gave me hints for her birthday). 

Poppy was out to lunch with our cousin Phillip, who lives in Dallas.  So, Cita and us girls went shopping in the Galleria.  We enjoyed watching the ice skaters.  We had a couple of snacks there (cookies and nachos at La Cocina).  I decided we better shop for Easter dresses while we were there.  We had luck at Macy's.

We were tired and decided to go back to the hotel to rest a little.  Poppy and cousin Phillip wanted to meet us for dinner later, but we had a little time to go to the pool in the hotel.  The girls really enjoyed swimming with us!  It got a little crowded in the pool, so we decided to get ready for dinner.  We ate at a really good Mexican restaurant, Mariano's!  I will definitely go back there.  Then, we hung out at cousin Phillip's house.

I was wanting to go to Legoland while there but they were sold out of tickets for the whole weekend.  I also wanted to go to the zoo, but the next day was cloudy/rainy.  So, we ventured back home on Sunday.  We still had a great little mini vacation though!  We'll be back to do more things next time.  We stayed at Cita and Poppy's for a couple of hrs before heading home.  We let the girls play at the park (where they each got ice cream from the ice cream truck).  I'm glad I let them do this b/c it was the only time that they were able to play/slide all week. 

Spring Break "stay"cation was good and just what I needed even though it was rainy.
Monday- we took them to their favorite donut place, then to the library for storytime + craft, then her friend Gabrielle came over.
Tuesday- Emily went to Lily's house for the 1st day of Spring activities!  Then, her friend Ashton spent the night!  They danced (Wii game), played with their AG dolls, watched a movie, pizza, it was fun!!!
Wed.- danced outside in the rain (with umbrellas and rainboots), painted pottery (had a Living Social deal that I got way back in Nov and just now had the time to use it and what a great day for it), they had a choice of lunch and chose Jason's Deli, watched the "Muppets" at home, gym so mommy can workout, Sam's
Thurs.-brunch at Briar Rose (had a Living Social deal), Boingo Bounce with Julie and Hayden, then Chick-Fil-A for lunch with them, shoe shopping for Easter, cook-out at Lily's
Fri- picked up cousin Ava, Chuck-E-Cheese, had BBQ, watched "Winnie the Pooh", played
Sat- Kennedy's 1st bday party!

What a fun Spring Break even though every.day.it.rained!

New milestones

Very excited before

Brave girl!

 She loved her new flower earrings!  What brave girls!

Emily lost one of her top teeth weekend before Valentine's Day (Sat. morning, Feb. 11).  She got a 1 dollar bill from the tooth fairy.  She also lost a bottom tooth the Friday after Valentine's Day (Feb 17) at school and came home from school with a tooth box. :)   The other top front tooth is now loose!

She also got her ears pierced with her cousin Ava.  It was a fun day and it was so sweet that they wanted to do it the same day.  They got pink flower earrings.  We took them to Olive Garden for an early dinner after (Emily's request).  Then, I took Emily to see The Lorax!  It was a fun day!!!  I took Emily and Ella for a late breakfast earlier that day at IHOP where they were serving a neat breakfast based on Dr. Suess' The Lorax.  What a fun girls' day!!!!!!!

Daffodil Festival

This reminds me of Little House on the Prairie.

We went to Little Rock last weekend for Zac Brown Band.   I've always wanted to go to the Daffodil Festival on Wye Mountain and it happened to be the weekend we were going to Little Rock.  It was a little farther outside Little Rock than I thought, so we were starving at this point.  We did get some gorgeous pictures,but with so many people around it was hard.  These were some of my favorite.

Feb.

 Happy Valentine's Day!

 Emily was in a school program a day before Valenitine's Day and the only day it snowed.  They only had one performance during the day.  It was really cute!  She was a dancer and said a line.

Busy month!

 Cheer clinic at FHS!

 Cousin Ava's Build-A-Bear party. She turned 5!

It Spring Break and I finally got a break to catch up on the blog.  I got a new job over a month ago and have lots of paperwork between now and then. 

Emily is on a dance team with her dance studio.  She's on the "Teenie Team" which consists of 6 kids, ages 5 and 6.  They don't travel for competitions, but they do one dance at the Bentonville competitions.  They also performed at the mall once too for fun.  The end of January marked her first dance competition.  They were running an hour AHEAD of schedule, so we had to hurry up and get up to Bentonville.  They did great and won a "Gold" for their dance!