The faces on these determined children crack me up!

William is turning *6*

Today, William had a surprise birthday party! He came in the house, we yelled "surprise!", he looked around and soaked it all in then said "what are you all doing here?" in is sweet and somewhat frightened voice. He wasn't really sure what to think but, he got into the swing of things pretty quickly. The party was Pokemon themed since that is W's current top interest.

On another note, we have sort of been on blogging hiatus this summer. The summer has been full of fun activities including swimming/swim lessons, horseback riding, nighttime walks, soccer camp, short trips, and lots of playing. We are looking forward to the school year starting. William and Lauren have all their school supplies. They have both been through their supplies over and over again and packed their backpacks over and over again--I'd say they were excited (about the supplies anyway)!

Carnevale di Venezia

L participated in her second performance last weekend. She was sooo...excited about this show. Her excitement came not from the actual ballet, but from the opportunity to wear make-up on the "big stage" and to get flowers after the show. After her first show in December, she was given flowers by her Grandparents. She still has one dried flower that she smells and touches every night before bed. L is very specific about the color of flowers she can be given...PINK! She was a little disappointed that she wasn't wearing a beautiful ballerina outfit like the older girls. She sure was a cute Jester, though.

The show was a great success. L was perfect, of course! Her classes role was small, maybe about 7 minutes. But those minutes were worth the more than $140 dollars her family spent on tickets to watch. I watched her on stage and watched the older, very talented dancers. I can clearly vision L moving so gracefully and skillfully on the stage when she is a older!

Easter

William was excited to see Pokemon Black for his DS in his basket when he woke up Sunday morning. He opened it and started playing right away. He also loved his first Bible. He carried it to church that morning and then after church read to me the verses that they read in Sunday School. I was so proud of him.
Lauren was sleeping when William got his basket. But, William couldn't stand it, he really needed Lauren to get up and see her basket. So he brought it to her and woke her up. She has been carrying around her Little Bible and Princess Gigi books and blanket everywhere we go ever since.
After church we hunted for eggs at Grandma's and Grandad's house and then dyed Easter eggs.

Short trip

We took a short trip to Tybee Island and Savannah. The first stop was Fort Pulaski. W and L really enjoyed the fort and the tunnels. W was really cute...he wanted to stop and sketch some things in his notebook. You can see him sitting on the hillside "sketching". L loved ALL the things that I found scary...the railless bridge, the narrow walkway on the steep hill that dropped straight into the moat, the railless second level of the Fort! She loved all those things and is much to fearless! William enjoyed hearing the history of the fort and he was pretty convinced (not by me) that the odd smell in some of the tunnels was from dead bodies. I assured him it was from all the rain and the water that must have collected on the floors. I think he liked his story better.

Please do take note of the scary edge on the second level of the fort...we didn't stay up there for long!

We stayed in a hotel with an indoor pool. William has had the itch to get back in the water since finishing his first session of swim lessons. He had loads of fun playing with other kids in the pool and even learned to swim to the bottom of the pool to collect his diving sticks. While in Savannah, we rode the trolley all around town, getting of and exploring the locations that were of interest. Our first stop was The Pirate House...a restaurant, lunch was a must. Next we went to the Jepson center for the arts. They have an ArtZeum for the kids to have some hands on learning. I think our favorite part was the sculpture wall. William creatively sculpted a face and L had to have everything off the wall so she could serve cupcakes.

After the ArtZeum, we went to Factor's Walk...where again, L loved the dangerously steep stairs. Then, we went to the River Street. W and L really liked looking at the boats. But, their favorite thing really had to be the candy store!