April

 Spring school pictures turned out SUPER CUTE! 

Time for that dreaded second grade bottle project.  Syd picked brave little Ruby Bridges - she was one of the first black kids in the south to go to a white school after segregation ended.  She endured some awful things.  The girls and I watched a movie about her, which is always eye-opening.

The entire thing requires the use of a hot glue gun, so that means I basically put it together (and yelped many times due to burned fingers) while Syd supervised.  I know it's not meant to be a parent project, but I don't know how else to do it.  It's frustrating.  Look at her cute little braids!

A mini Ruby look-alike, for sure.

Remember Millie's bottle project when she had Mae Thompson?

Syd was proud!

JKK's belated bday gift from me was a weekend away at a cabin on Beaver Lake.  It had the most gorgeous views and a great balcony to enjoy it.  Nana kept the girls, as per tradition on Easter weekend, and it was nice to get away.

This massive charcuterie board was very much enjoyed.

And wine!

And even a quick breakfast trip into Eureka.

Reading and relaxing

Meanwhile...

Hoppy Easter!  We came home in time for brunch with Nana and the babies.

It doesn't matter how long we are gone, we always miss them.

Family bike ride

We tried out the new pub track.  It's basically a super wavy circle track.  I didn't like the feel of it, but man, Syd LOVED it.  Mills, not as much.  

Always finding snapchat pics on my phone from this beauty.

Cute drawing, Syd.

Whitney turned 40!  We celebrated with a big group of girls and it always ends up the three of us: Whitney, KK, and Katie.  Thanks to the Little Gym for introducing us to each other all those years ago!

She loves me.

Feels good to be back at the trampoline park!

...and back to life in general.

Now that spring is here, time to get back on the golf cart with our friends for some rides around the old hood!

Louie loves to come too.  He's very flexible and just smooshes in where he can.

I remember being terrified for them to go down this slide alone.

One hug...

...but not two.

So we've known for months that Millie has a big space camp trip coming up in April.  I am all set to chaperone and we will be gone for a few days.  This obviously gives Syd a bit of anxiety.  She doesn't like when I leave.  Thus, the day before I left, I let Sydney play hooky from school and we spent the day together.  It was so lovely.  We walked the Crystal Bridges trails, had lunch, visited the new exhibit, and enjoyed some one-on-one time together.  We saw salamanders sunning themselves, groundhogs frolicking, and so many beautiful flowering trees.  Those CB trails are gorgeous this time of year!

And then it was time to go to space camp!  I was so excited to get some one-on-one time with my big girl!  The camp is in Huntsville Alabama, so our bus left at 2am.  The plan was for everyone to sleep on the bus and get there around noon to start our first day at camp.

However, Millie and I had the hardest time sleeping on the bus. Gah!  That first day was a bit rough.  

Breakfast stop.

We made it!

It was so hot and humid, being that far south!

Look at this ponytail.  It was cute to hear her friends saying "wow Millie you look so different!"

Lots of big rockets

Shaina is a sweet new friend this year

SO MANY COOL THINGS TO SEE AND HEAR ABOUT - I enjoyed that part more than Millie, but she was a pretty good sport.

Meanwhile...Willow had her kittens!  It was all very exciting for Nana and Syd.  I think it definitely helped distract Syd from us being gone.  JKK had a heavy work week, so Syd got to spend a lot of time with the kittens!

Back to space camp - we watched the coolest planetarium movie!  There was real footage from the new Mars rover.

And we basically have to come to terms with how we are just a speck of a speck in a trillion specks of a trillion galaxies.  It's hard to wrap your mind around.

Thankfully the lectures were broken up by cool rides and things to do.  This thing goes every which way and sort of scrambles your thoughts.  The instructor asked us all sorts of questions to try and get us to focus while our bodies were on the craziest coaster ride.  I got to do it too!  

I saw this and died laughing because yes, we used to ride these at amusement parks when I was little.  But also, we got to ride one at space camp!  It pulls a lot of G forces on the body.  Made me feel a bit sick.  Millie wouldn't even ride it.  We had seatbelts tho, unlike the rides from the 80s. ;) (sidenote: the drama really picks up in 4th grade, which I got to witness.  Personalities are really coming into play and you can see the bossy/leader kids and the smartypants kids and then the sweeter ones, like Millie, who don't enjoy being called a baby because she wouldn't ride the ride.  It's hard being a kid, but also hard on the parents not to step in.)

Day 2: nine hours of sleep and feeling better (but still with the puffy eyes)

How neat is this?

wind tunnel

Ready for another ride

This one replicates how it feels to be outside the vehicle in space with no gravitational pull. It was all wobbly and she had to pretend to repair the side of a spaceship.

We built and launched rockets!

We posed with real rockets!  We learned the breakdown of where the people sit, where the fuel is stored, where the boosters are, etc.  There was a trivia game on the last day, so we had to pay attention!

Back at home, Syd got to go to Sawyer's house after school and that was a real treat!  

Ready for the last day!

Dylan and Millie were bunk mates, of course.  It's good for Millie to be around Dylan because she's so independent.  She packed for herself, takes care of herself, and is very self-sufficient because her parents both work and she is on her own a lot.  

Friends since kindergarten!  Millie, Shaina, Dylan, James, then Kaden and Cole on front row.

Lots of time on the bus ride home to complain about being bored!

We got home around 8pm, snuggled with our family, then up early Friday for school because it's class picture day!  Mills was dying.

We couldn't wait to get our hands on those kittens!  Straight to Nana's after school.  So tiny!

Willow has turned out to be the best little momma

First farmer's market of the year.  Syd purchased an interesting bow for herself.

Don't mind if I do...

Wait, what?!  Where's spring??  Reminds me of the time we got snow in May a week before Syd was born.

My heaven

Their eyes are opening!

There's the sunshine!

Look who came to visit: Aunt Midge!

We picked a very rainy Saturday night to go out with the boys - JKK and Stevo.

Looks like Stevo is wearing a hat ;)

Aunt Midge is in luck: there is a gluten free bakery just around the corner!

Look at the size of that muffin - Piddy Poundcake can handle it.  Still just missing that one top tooth!

Many puzzles worked, but this one was our fave - full of pop culture references.

Aunt Midge got to see little miss picky pants in action - Midge braids, Piddy takes it out, repeat.

Kitten visit!  Sydney H. has her eye on a few...

Oh heyyyyyy, look at our guy driving home the new RV!  Wheeee!  Can't wait to go camping.

Classic Midge and Lily

Millie was at a sleepover, so Syd got to hang with us at brunch.

Thanks for the fun, Aunt Midge!  See ya soon...

Lily: the only way she will drink water.  

Lily: her favorite spot.

Lily: spoiled by her big sisters.

In this crazy weather month, we had one of the worst flooding days I've ever witnessed.  It was quite scary driving the girls to school and many were stranded that day.  Thankfully, we were all okay and it had subsided by the time I had to pick them up!  To be clear: I never would have left the house had I known it was this bad.  Turn around, don't drown!

We try to see those kittens as often as possible.  Look at the three orange ones!  We named them all after snacks: Pringles, Popcorn, and Cheese Puff.

M&M

Guacamole

Slim Jim and Olive round out the bunch (6 boys and only 1 girl)

Millie has been quite the trooper with dance lately - so much dance to prepare for the upcoming performances and recitals!  She's a beautiful dancer <3