My Little Gymnast

Grandpa Pete made Annabelle a balance beam. Now she can practice the "valance beam" before she starts gymnastics.

Fun with Grandpa

The girls had lots of fun helping Grandpa plant potatoes and beans.

Annabelle dug holes and put the potatoes and bean seeds in them and then she covered them up. She also watered them to get them growing. She did enjoy digging her feet into the dirt.

Ariel found some tulips and played with those. She also enjoyed playing with the dirt and "helping" with the planting.

I love that my girls get to spend time with my grandma and grandpa.

What a beautiful afternoon we had being outside!

A Perfect 10

We signed Annabelle up for gymnastics for the summer. She is so excited and really I am too. I figured she would need some leotards so I looked online and they were pretty pricy. I remembered that my friend Shari had gotten her daughter's dance things at Bumblebee's. So this morning Annabelle and I headed out there to check out what they had. We found some great deals. She got 2 leotards; one was $3 and the other was $3.50. I will check back there in a few weeks because it would be nice for her to have a few to rotate through.

The leotards were a hit and she has been wearing them since we got home. She is currently sleeping in one right now.

Annabelle comes up with these moves all by herself. I think she is going to be a natural.

I think she will stay in gymanstics as long as she wants, but at least until she learns how to do a back walk over. This is an essential skill every girl must have. I did not have it and it held me back. I will now need to live through Annabelle is this area.

Ariel tried on the second leotard so we could see how it looked.

Girls Night

So I'm not sure I have left my girls at night to go hang out with friends. My friends from work were going to get together downtown and at the last minute I decided to join them. We had a fun time; it was nice to hang out with everybody outside of work.

Not my best picture, but it was dark and the flash was super bright

A Diva in the Making?

This is how Annabelle fell asleep last night.  

Tubby Time

Tubby time at our house is always very exciting. I never have to bribe or fight to get either Annabelle or Ariel in the tubby. I think it's because Annabelle gets a popsicle every time she takes a tubby (yes, anytime: morning, noon, or night) and Ariel gets to try a lick. I have also found that brushing teeth in the tubby works out great.

Princess Power

My sweet little girls love to play together. Annabelle loves to be a princess and now Ariel gets to be a princess too. When they grow up they are going to be police officers and fairies.
I am so glad they have each other. I love having sisters and I hope they will enjoy this special built in best friend that the Lord has blessed them with.
Take a look at the fun they had playing princessess together.

Pizza Bites

One of our new favorite quick and easy meals is PIZZA BITES.
It is easy, quick, and can be made for everyone's taste. Give it a try!

Here is what you need

A tube of pizza crust (the Pillsbury really does taste better than the Meijer)
Mozzarella Sting Cheese, cut into chunks
Whatever pizza toppings you like
Oil
Italian Seasoning
Parmesan Cheese
Pizza Sauce

Here is what you do

Preheat the oven to whatever the package of pizza crust says
Open the dough and roll it out to a pretty decent size
Cut it into a bunch of squares - I think I usually get about 24 or so from one crust
Place a pepperoni or whatever topping you like in each square
Place a piece of cheese in each square
Fold up each square so everything is covered
Place in whatever kind of pan you want
Mix a bit of Italian seasoning and some oil
Brush over the bites
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top
Bake for 15-17 minutes
Dip in pizza sauce

Super Yummy. I hope you try them!

We really like them with yellow peppers! Actually we pretty much like anything with yellow peppers.

Happy Easter

We had a lovely Easter.  The outfits were perfect, the egg hunt was fun, the meal was tasty.  

It is so easy to get caught up in these aspects of Easter and forget the true meaning and why we, as Christians, celebrate this holiday.

Throughout the day Annabelle kept reminding us about the real meaning of Easter.  Every few minutes she would ask us, "Why did Jesus die on the cross?"  We would try to explain it to her, but she just didn't understand why someone would die for us.  As a 3 year old it would be hard to understand, but when you take a moment to think about it, it is pretty amazing that somebody loved us so much he would die for us.  Not just us who are Christians, but all of us because we are all created by Him.  

This reminds me of a conversation in the book The Shack. 
Jesus tells the guy to choose two of his children to live and the others have to die.  The guy says he can't choose because he loves them all so much.  Jesus says that is the same with him.  He doesn't want any of his children to not be with him for eternity.  

When you think about every single person being a child of God and how sad he must be when they choose not to follow him, it really makes you think of people differently.  

*I may have gotten the details wrong on this part of the book, but that is the jist of it.*

Since Easter is such a special day, I think it is important to take the time to dress up and acknowledge that it is not an ordinary day.  Jesus rose from the grave and now he lives and one day we will get to live with him!

Mini Vacay

James and I wanted to do a little something for spring break, but we knew that traveling with two little ones would not be fun.  So we thought we could handle a couple hours in the car.  We headed to Detroit and Ann Arbor.  I found some fun things for us to do.  

We went to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.  It was sort of an interesting place, but Annabelle enjoyed it.

We also went to the Hands On Museum in Ann Arbor.  
Both girls had a lot of fun.

      

I think Annabelle's favorite part of the trip was swimming in the hotel pool.  

We had a lot of fun, but even the 2 1/2 hour drive was a bit long for our girls.  I think next time we might just venture to Grand Rapids.