Happy Birthday Manas

After the picnic on Saturday we all headed over to Manas', a boy in Lily's class, 4th birthday party. It was at a Tae Kwon Do studio, which I wasn't sure how that would go over with Lily, but all the kids seem to be having a great time!! It was SO cute to watch them all learn basic moves. It was a really fun and different party.

Lily in pink (we had to change after the picnic since her white shirt was covered in orange Cheetos dust) in the reflection in the mirror learning how to roll into a "Hi Ya" kick. (that is Manas in the front of the shot).


My favorite part was when they all got to take turns in little sparing matches. They looked SO cute! Lily did really well. She got paired up with an older boy who was pretty into it, but Lily held her own. She did have a slight advantage though, since her and Grandpa have foam sword fights all the time. :)

Go Lily!

Using her shield and her sword thing!

That's my girl!

They had lots of fun activities including this obstacle course. It almost made me want to sign her up for lessons -- but she has enough going on and probably doesn't need to learn how to beat people up -- she is pretty good at that already. :)

PreSchool Picnic

Saturday was Lily's school's annual picnic and silent auction fundraiser. It was fun, the turnout wasn't as great as last year, but Carys, Matthew and Makayla were there and that was all that really mattered to Lily. :) They had a bounce house slide, DJ playing fun tunes, lots of cheesy carnival type games and the silent auction. I bidded on and won, a photo shoot with Rhiannon! Which is great since I was already planning on having pictures taken with her once the baby is born and great for her (I think), since she is donating her time to me and not some random person. We also went in together to buy mini bundt cakes (YUM!) and got the kids a lunch outing at Mc Donalds with their teachers again. We did that last year and they LOVED it and still all talk about it. A fairly successful day for me (and the school, I hope).

Carys and Lily

Lily and Makayla

Lily and her "Girls Rule" tattoo. She was so sad when it washed off in the bath and said next time she is getting a permanent one. I told her we could discuss that again in 16 years.

The Royal Wedding

I was excited to watch the the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on Friday morning, not excited enough to get up at 3am to watch, but more excited to watch it with Lily. I was Lily's exact age (4 years and 3+ months old) when I watched Diana marry Prince Charles and I loved it! I just couldn't wait to watch and share this moment with Lily. I had been getting her ready all week, by telling her about the key people, teaching her about the London landmarks and English history. She was pretty excited to watch the wedding of a real Prince and Princess. We had plans to go to Jenn's house with Rhiannon and kids to watch the wedding together in the afternoon. But Lily and I cheated and snuck a peak at Kate's arrival and dress in the morning before school. Lily was loving it.

The wedding didn't exactly hold the kids' attention for very long (and who can blame them, there were some slow parts), but they would run in to watch some of the highlights. It was so sweet watching them all gather close to the TV and ooh and ahh over the Princess. I love the above photo since the girls are all into it, while Matthew, who is such a trooper constantly surrounded by girls, seems to be trying to tolerate it all. :)

They even got dressed up in Makayla's finest princess wear for the occasion. :)

Lily and I watched it two more times at home (fast forwarding through the slower parts), she asked me to keep it forever on the DVR. So sweet. It was so nice to share this moment with her. Now Harry has exactly 4 years and 7 months to get married so this next baby and I can have the same experience! :)

Post Easter Egg Hunt

We had our final Easter egg hunt on Thursday with the kids from Lily's class. It was originally scheduled for last week, but got postponed due to weather. Of course, the kids didn't care!! They had blast running around the park and playing together. It is always amazing to see how tight those kids are that go to school together. It is sad that it is nearly the end of another school year.

Lily and Sawyer
(you may remember Sawyer from blog posts from long ago. She used to be in Gymboree and playgroup with us and recently joined Lily's class. Lily has been very excited to reconnect with her -- too bad she is moving back to CA this summer)

Lily, Carys, Sawyer and Logan

Running to find more eggs!

It was another fun afternoon!

Western Day

Wednesday was "Western Day" at Lily's preschool. The kids were supposed to dress up like cowboys and cowgirls. Of course, Lily doesn't have any western wear, but she does have this cute little plaid dress which worked well enough. She was happy and had fun posing for pictures. :)

Bluebonnet Photos

A couple weeks ago we had pictures in the Texas Bluebonnets taken by my good friend and photographer (and Matthew and Carys' mom), Rhiannon. The Texas Bluebonnets are special since they only bloom for a short time once and year and are the state flower of Texas. I've heard that they only bloom in Texas, but I'm not sure if that is 100% correct. Nevertheless, they are pretty and make a beautiful backdrop for photos.

We were WAY overdue for family photos -- the last professional ones we had taken were when Lily was 6 months old. And I am sure this will be our last as a family of 3. :) I am so happy with how they turned out! I think they are beautiful. I had a hard time choosing my favorites from the 40 images I saw (and Rhiannon had to cut them down from over 400 shots!), but I don't think I could go wrong. Now I just need to find space to frame and display them all! Oh and it should be noted that I dressed Lily, but she choose her accessories. Of course, since she had to wear her jewerly, but that is Lily and her girly ways should be documented in our photos.

Easter Afternoon

Chip had to work on Easter and since we celebrated last week with the family, Lily and I had no real plans for Easter Sunday. So when Patti was nice enough to invite us over for lunch, we happily accepted the invitation!

Lily and Emily watching "Tangled".

I made Jell-o eggs!! And pineapples for the first time ever (which were a huge hit), but I didn't get a photo.

After eating, the girls got to go on yet another egg hunt!

Running to get the eggs!

Then we got to take turns cracking confetti eggs on Bryan's head. That was the best part! :)

I love these pictures I got of Lily swinging in her fancy dress!

Time to go. :(
But Lily left with hand fulls of loot -- she got a basket of filled eggs from the hunt and the Easter Bunny left her a basket of toys and candy at Patti's house too!!!

Lily and I are so lucky to have found such great friends here. But hopefully next year we can celebrate with Chip too!!