Summer kickoff!

The "official" start of summer on Memorial Day weekend was good enough weather to launch the boat for the first time this year! We were all so excited, but I don't think anyone was more excited than Khloe. This outdoor girl has talked about boating constantly for 9 months and has hardly been patient about it. She's almost as bad as her father... almost. When we picked up Khloe from her Sunday School class her teacher said "You must be going boating today because Khloe has talked about it all day!" That made us very happy! Khloe loves to go fast on the boat and Kayla loves riding in the front hanging on for dear life screaming with every jump of the boat. Both girls are fish and love to get out and swim and snorkel.

 Saturday was a beautiful warm day... but the water is still FREEZING!!!

Boating is still magical to this little 4 year old... it never fails to rock her to sleep, even on the first boat ride of the season. For 7 years I've had the privilege of having both of my girls fall asleep in my arms and taking naps on the boat. This might be my last year... and I will miss this so much!

 Boating... beach... friends... ThumbCoast... dinner... life in Port Huron in the summer is rough.

Day two on the boat... and another sleeping girl

 

 I have PTSD from a hammock experience back when I was 12 years old and I have never recovered. In fact I haven't been in a hammock since then, that's how traumatic it was, and have had no desire to be. Until my mom put up a hammock in a secret hidden garden spot in her backyard last year. The girls love it! When Khloe asked me in her sweet little voice to lay with her in it I thought I should probably take advantage of this quiet moment with my girl. Turns out, it was the best thing ever and long after Khloe had gotten bored and was ready to move on, I wasn't. 

1999-2015

That's sixteen years of wedded bliss! Aaron and I had a wonderful relaxing fun weekend; one night that included the girls and one night that was just for us two. On Friday night, our actual anniversary, we planned a special night with the girls looking through our wedding album and letting them try on my wedding dress. (I may or may not have tried it on too and may or may not have fit in it). Kayla was in heaven! She couldn't get enough of it. She practiced walking down the aisle with her Daddy while I played the wedding march song, Khloe was the Maid of Honor (who did not really care to do a good job, or the job at all) and I had to perform the ceremony... several times. Khloe had her chance too but was quickly over it after one time. Kayla says that she will wear my wedding dress for her wedding one day!

 We kicked off our anniversary weekend by running our first ever 5K together! We ran it together the whole time and both crossed the line in 31 minutes.

Kayla ate up every moment and every detail of wearing a wedding gown and marrying her daddy! I have to admit, it was a quite fun and exciting to get it out and see it again and watch my girls try it on. 

One of our top 5 dining experiences ever! Mulefoot Gastropub!

Mother's Day

Love my angels!

Thank you for a wonderful special day!

Big four year old!

And just like that, she's four!

Normally I get sentimental and reflect on how time flies, but not for this birthday. She just seems four. Four just makes sense for this girl that already seems like she's eight going on sixteen. She's into Kayla's size 5T clothes, which seems like JUST YESTERDAY that Kayla was wearing these clothes! Literally, just YESTERDAY!! It's clear, she's growing! She's gotten so tall lately.

Wearing her new Cinderella dress for her birthday party

The BIG birthday girl! She was so happy and so proud to be having a birthday, to be the center of attention, and to be FOUR!

 Opening presents from aunts, uncles and cousins - thank you everybody!

 Yay! Even Keekee made it home to celebrate with us

 The morning of April 19 -she's officially four!

 We hosted a fairly simple, easy, low-key birthday party with family. Khloe requested a Frozen party (or depending on the day and her mood, a Peppa Pig or Sophia the First party) so we bought Frozen supplies and found a Frozen birthday cake at the store... That was until she saw the BARBIE cake and had to have that! Well, it's her party, let her have what she wants! Kristi and I went to the store to pick up the cake Daddy had ordered and was not expecting THIS! A tall cake in a big heavy box!

The specially requested Barbie birthday cake

Almost four!

What's our three year old, soon to be four year old, up to these days?

She can now pump her legs and swing herself! This has tremendously freed up hours of our lives! She doesn't even want you to touch her or help her, but she DOES want you to be with her so she can show off her new talent.

But, as it turns out...

That freedom lasted just a few days because then she discovered she can do MOST of the monkey bars by herself but not ALL of them so she needs our help to do those now and constantly wants us to be outside helping her with the monkey bars. Freedom given, freedom taken away.

She LOVES to play with all the neighborhood girls! She talks to them and interacts with them as if she is their age, not four or six years younger.

Khloe is, for some reason we can't figure out and will probably never know or understand, is drawn to gross, ugly, smelly, and scary things. The more, the better.

She LOVES to be tickled! She begs for it. She'll lay down on the floor and ask for you to tickle her! Her laugh is so wonderful and fun to hear!

Calls all little animals or babies "the sweetie".

Any situation ever:

Me: Can you reach it? Can you do it?

Khloe: Of course I can!

Kayla: I can't reach it. I can't do it.

Khloe: Don't worry Kayla, I can!

Her and Kayla play pretend, play house, or dress-up quite often and role play different characters and situations. Our favorite is when Khloe says, "Pretend like your my sister and you're older than me."

Some of our favorite words and phrases are:
Hand sanitizer is "hana-tizer"
American Girl doll is "Ameri-cunna doll"
Thing is "thlang"
Miss is "mitt". While playing pretend play, she says things like "here you go mitt!" or "mitt what would you like?" or "Can I help you with that mitt?"

Some of HER favorite words and phrases are:
Adding the word "dude" to the end of most sentences, or calling people "dude"
For real
Literally
That's a bummer
Ooh! Ooh! Fix it Felix! Ooh! Ooh! Fix it Felix!
No

That's our Khloe!

Spring Break

Ten days off school provided lots of opportunities for Aaron and I to take some time off work and have fun family time and outings. We visited lots of parks, took lots of bike rides, hikes in the woods, went to the Michigan Science Center and saw the new Whales IMAX, did a Lowe's Build and Grow workshop, had family movie nights, and Kayla had LOTS of sleepovers!!

"Take a picture of me here!"

 "Now take a picture of me like this"

 "My turn Mom!"

 "Now take a picture of me like THIS!" Oh my, haha.

 Couch potatoes

We went to the air pressure show on the Science Stage and sat in the front row. Each experiment required volunteers from the audience and for one of them, Khloe raised her hand that she wanted to help. They asked for kids to keep their hands up that had April birthdays and so Khloe was chosen to go up on stage! She was so excited and ran right up there. I was cracking up so much... a bunch of older boys... and a 3 year old girl! She listened to directions carefully, followed all the rules and did just as she was supposed to for the experiment. It was so cute and I was impressed!

This girl loves to ride her scooter!

Movie nights always require LOTS and LOTS of blankets and pillows and cushions (like an absurd amount that you wouldn't even believe) and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of popcorn!

Kayla loves to be super cuddly and warm and snuggly in her softest pajamas while Khloe prefers as much exposed skin to the air as possible.

It's been awhile since these girls have swung a hammer, but we were back at it again at a Lowe's Build and Grow workshop building planters.

Two planters - check!

A mommy-daughter adventure in the woods is the perfect way for us to spend our evening each week while Kayla is at gymnastics 

Happy Easter!

 From these angelic bunny beauties!

 We are so grateful to get such beautiful fun clothes to borrow from Cassidy, and this red crushed velor long red coat is no exception. Khloe wore it all winter to church and I think Easter was going to be her last time to wear it so we had to take a picture of her in it! It's such a gorgeous coat!

Relaxing after Easter baskets, church and a wonderful brunch with Grandparents prepared by Daddy.

And more fun Easter costume accessories for piano lesson :)