Our Summer: The Beach

It's been a long time since my last post. I have been neglecting to post pictures of the summer, and now that I'm so far behind it makes it a little more difficult to remember what all has happened.
We officially started our summer with a vacation to the beach. Adeline and Maylen had a great time playing with their cousins on the beach. It was definitely a fun trip for the girls-- not so much for me. Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Last week of Mother's Day Out

Where did the time go? How did it go by so fast. I think time has somehow sped up since having kids. My precious first daughter, Maylen had her last Mother's Day Out Spring Musical and very last day of Mother's Day Out this week. And I'm a so emotional about it all! It just seems like days ago that I took her on our first outing of her life to Panara Bread when she was less than 2 weeks old and a lady stopped me to ask me how old she was. I remember the lady telling me that the time goes by so fast and it would be hard to remember her being that little. Well, she was right-- it does go by so fast. I also remember taking Maylen to her very first day of Mother's Day Out and then shedding some tears that I had taken my daughter to be cared for by someone else for the day. Now 3 years later and many special memories, and so many things learned and accomplished, Maylen is ready for school! I am so emotional about how fast it has gone, how much she has grown, how our lives will never be the same. I am already missing the time when she'll be at home and we'll all get up and have cereal together and talk about what we want to do that day. I'll miss the playdates with preschool friends and quiet afternoon naps. I'll miss her sweet friendships with the other girls at school and how precious they treat each other. I'll miss sleeping-in until 8:00 and then being in pajamas for an hour. I'll miss that she can't just be my little girl at home thinking that I know everything in life that she needs to learn. I'll miss her going to MDO and being so proud of the coloring pages and finger painting that she has done. I'll miss just knowing that she will be with me and not have to go off to school. We often tease her and tell her not to grow as she pretends to grow right before our eyes by standing as tall as she can and then up to her tip-toes. I love her so much and wish that I could just freeze time for a little while to enjoy her.

Here's Adeline singing with her group. I'm so glad she has another 2 years at Trinity MDO. It's such a wonderful preschool!



Maylen with her age group on the top left corner.



Maylen with some of her wonderful friends that she made and became so close to while at Trinity. Ellie, Riley, Bella, Maylen, Ava, Lindsey, and Finley



Crazy faces.



Sweet friends: Riley, Lindsey, Finley, Maylen



Maylen, Ava, and Abigail -- Abigail was the first little girl that she would come home talking about when they were only 2 1/2.



Adeline is such a sweet girl, and still my baby.



Walking up the side walk in their Ice Cream dresses for Ice Cream Day.



Adeline was so pooped when I went to get her that afternoon.

Maylen's Dance Recital

Maylen had her dance recital on Saturday with a tap, jazz, and ballet numbers. The girls were adorable in their tutus preforming their routines! I wanted to post the pictures right away from Maylen's dance recital and hope to soon upload the video. I was SO proud of how well she did, especially since I knew she was nervous and it is a real stretch for her to get up on stage in front of people. I kept telling her how proud I was. It was just too cute!



Maylen kept her eyes fixed on Miss Tammy the whole time. She wanted to make sure she followed the steps (and I think it made the audience disappear).



"I can mash potato, and do the twist"



Maylen took dance with some of her favorite girls from MDO (Riley, Bella, Maylen, ?, Ava)







Adeline, or course, wore her ballet costume to the recital too! She wanted so badly to be up there with the bigger girls dancing. She did attempt to run to the stage a couples time and start dancing. I had to finally take her to the back. Adeline and Maylen are so different when it comes to being the center of attention!



At the end of the show I let the girls dance around on the stage. I didn't know if I would ever get Adeline off of the stage. She had paid close attention and was trying out all the new moves!



Maylen's friends from Dance and MDO (Ava, Maylen, Riley, and Adeline)

Mother's Day with my girls

For Mother's Day, William gave me a very sweet card that he had made and some flowers. He also made me brunch with crepes (per my request). The girls both made me gifts in Mother's Day Out and gave me cards with their pictures. While we were waiting to eat, I read books to the girls.



Adeline wore the dress that was mine when I was 3! My mom said she saved a lot of the dresses that she made, but so far this is the only dress that she found that was mine.

Spring Flowers and Little Girls

It's been a while since I have updated. It seems that life is just too busy to update more than once a month lately. This spring I was so please with how the hard work that I (and William) have put into the yard and flowers has paid off. We had a beautiful spring in Memphis this year. Before we got the notorious April showers, we had really nice weather and the azaleas, dogwoods, and roses were all in bloom at once, which made for such nice drives around town. I managed to take a few pictures of this prior to what felt like 2 weeks of non-stop rain. I think it rained-- no, poured everyday!

This is a cutting from our rose bush. I don't know what variety it is, but the blooms are a large peach color.



Adeline was standing in front of some of the azaleas and climbing rose bush. (I pruned the large rose bushes along the back fence quite a bit the last two years which has produced more blooms this spring than the previous 4 years combined).



Gotta love little girls being sweet when taking pictures!









Evie, my niece, came to play with the girls one day. They were so cute in their princess costumes and holding their look-alike dolls.



I couldn't resist taking this picture of the girls one night before bed. They were giggling and telling each other something silly when I found them.

Easter, Egg Hunting, and Baby Silas

We went to the Mednikow Family Easter Egg Hunt and lunch at the Mednikow's House. They have an incredible lunch and hunt for the family. The girls had a great time eating and hunting eggs. It was such a nice warm day for the event, too.






For Easter this year I wanted to make both of the girls French Hand-sewn dresses. I bought the laces and fabric and then started constructing the dresses based on an idea I had, and I modified a pattern to fit what I wanted. I used a basic yoke pattern to work from. I was really excited with how they turned out. I finished the dresses at about 2:30 am, Easter Sunday morning. I wasn't able to get good pictures because by the time we got back to my mom's house for Easter lunch it started to rain. I got a few pictures inside, but I hope to take better pictures outside while the azaleas are still blooming outside.





Easter Sunday at my mom's was a fun time for the family to get together for lunch. Baby Silas, my brother's new baby, was passed around while he slept. The girl's were so excited to get to hold him.

Princess Birthday Party

We had the girls' birthday party on March 28. Maylen had asked for a "sweet and sassy" style party, so I had tables set up for the girls to come and get manicures, make up, and their hair up-do's! Then we played music for the girls to "dance" to. My sister decorated a cake for both girls of their favorite princesses. Maylen had an Ariel cake and Adeline had a Cinderella cake. The girls loved their cakes and were so excite about their party. All the little girls looked so cute dressed up in their princess costumes. It definitely was a girly party. I hope they will be able to remember it as a special way to celebrate their 5th and 3rd birthdays!