Emma's 5th Birthday

To celebrate Emma's 5th, we had a petting zoo come to the house complete with a Thomas train. The train got the festivities started by riding the kids around the neighborhood. It was really cute.

Emma enjoys the train with some classmates.

Hannah takes charge of Jake while they ride around the neighborhood. What a great big sister!

They also brought ponies to ride and even Jake took a turn. I'm sure my neighbors were thrilled about the "gifts" the horses left in the street!

Jake finishes up his turn with Daddy's help.

Emma actually got the first ride on the smaller, white horse. Perfect for 5 year old princesses.

A quick shot of the trailer holding all the animals including goats, a calf, and a llama. And yes it is true that llama's spit. This one demonstrated her abilities quite well, but thankfully it wasn't on any of the children. One of the handlers was lucky enough to deal with that!

Next we move on to turtle races. Jake was fascinated with them while in the bucket.

Jake watches as two of the turtles battle it out.

I think it was a tie!

Then they also brought some caged animals. Here Emma cuddles with a ferret.

Jake gets a closer look at the rabbit.

And then the ducks.

Feeding the animals in the trailer was fun. Hannah shakes a little goat spit off her hands!

Jake thought the tickling tongue was quite funny!

The new 5 year old has a blast feeding the baby goats.

Hannah gets a turn bottle feeding the calf.

 

Then Jake gets a turn too -- sort of.

After the animals got packed up we headed inside for lots of hand washing and then ate pizza and Hello Kitty birthday cake.

Emma gets ready to blow out her candles.

She did it!! Well we say this every year for every birthday, but I can't believe Emma is five years old and will be heading to Kindergarten next year. The years keep getting faster and faster, but Emma is her same sweet, sassy, funny self.

Happy 2nd Birthday Jake!

So this is the face that greeted us when we went in his room to sing Happy Birthday. I guess we must have startled him because he cried and screamed at us, "NO Happy Birthday!!!" Welcome to the Terrible Two's!

Aaahh - here's the sweet boy we love. We got him settled down and all ready for his Birthday cinnamon roll breakfast.

Way to go, Jake! With no practice, he blew out the candle the first try.

Eeww -- he got a finger full of wax rather than icing! Not what he was expecting.

We started our evening birthday celebration with pizza -- Jake's favorite. Here he is clowning around at dinner.

We finished that off with an Elmo b'day cake - Jake LOVES Elmo - that was delicious.

Here is the precious look on his face when he saw his cake for the first time.

Getting ready to blow out the candle.

Gettin' down to some dinner music (90's Rock I think)

Can't believe our baby is two!

Jake's Present ---- A train table and set that I put together all by myself (yes, I am very proud of myself!) I hid it upstairs in Paul's "man room" for the week so I could work on it when I had time.

Here he is catching a glimpse of it for the first time. He was very excited and ran over to investigate.

He can't wait to get his hands on it as the girls look on.

Love this one.....he is showing his surprise when he discovers it makes noises when the train rolls over certain parts of the track. Very cool!

Deep in concentration

Chooo Choooo!!!!

Woah!! It makes noises over here too!!!

A boy and his toys. I love the simplicity of little boys!

Jake opens a present from Mimi......

a counting, croaking frog book. Fun!

Jake rips into a package sent from Grandmama and Bobo

Alright!!! A train with stacking blocks! I don't know who is more excited....me or Jake. Now he's got a train to play with downstairs too. We all must have been on the same brain waves.

Easter 2009

We decided to get up early and go to early church to try and avoid the Easter crush. Afterwards Paul had the great idea of driving over to a different area of the subdivision to take some family shots. I think they turned out pretty great!

What a beautiful sight -- how blessed we are to be together!

Me and the girls

My little buddy

Paul and Emma

The Three Musketeers

Leave it to The Sisters to have some fun!

My Three Angels

I love this one -- it seems to just capture childhood.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

We managed to prolong the dyeing of eggs until the Saturday before Easter. Fortunately this year there was no crying during the process -- only after when Emma dropped and cracked one of her eggs. Oh what fun!

Hannah puts the finishing touches on her dye.

Emma then tries her hand it -- she chose yellow.

A pretty green was her next  choice.

Jake got to try his hand at dyeing this year as well. He actually enjoyed it.

Paul helps a little with the process.

Ta-da -- Jake especially enjoyed putting stickers on his eggs

Spring Creek Ranch Egg Hunt

 

Here's a group shot of the neighborhood children (including Hannah and Emma) before the hunt began. Jake didn't want any part of this process!

Emma gets busy filling up her basket

Partners in crime!

Poor, Jake. He was really feeling poorly this day, but we hated for him to miss his first egg hunt so we thought it was worth a shot. As you can see it did NOT go over well. He cried the entire time, so he and I left so the girls could continue to enjoy the fun with Paul. Maybe next year!

What Sisters Do Best.........

.........First......
Use your little brother as a sticker canvas; Somehow Elmo managed to escape unscathed.

Jake's such a good sport!

What a mess!

.....Second........

Transform a rolling suitcase into a ride! (Yes, that really is Jake's head sticking out of the suitcase!!)

Good thinking, Emma! (Says Jake)

Partners in crime

One Last Snow (I Hope!)

Just a few quick early morning pics of - I hope - that last snow of the season. This Georgia girl is ready for some warm weather, but it sure is pretty.