spring time

We've got some catching up to do. Let's go all the way back to Spring Break. Olivia's new school is different in that they have a two week Spring Break, instead of the standard one week. Since we did not have any vacation plans my Mom offered to take her to Florida to visit some family friends. She was excited to get out of town for part of her break since all of her friends were still in school for another week. So she headed off to St. Augustine for a week of sun and fun.

During her first couple of days she visited a marine museum, ate some delicious food and did some shopping. While in Florida they stayed with my Mom's dear friend, Deb. She used to live in Fort Wayne but moved a few years ago to be near her daughter, Korrie who just so happens to be Olivia's godmother. 

During the weekend they drove to visit Korrie and her family. Since they moved to Florida we obviously don't get to see them like we used to, so Olivia was excited to spend the evening with everyone. Wish we could have been there as well. 

One of the highlights of their trip was visiting the town of Saint Augustine, which is the oldest city in the US. It served a little history lesson for Olivia. She enjoyed seeing the old buildings and learning the history of the city. 

The rest of the week was full of swimming, site seeing, visiting an alligator farm and of course, eating more delicious food! She really enjoyed her little getaway to Florida but was ready to get home to her family. Once she got home she still had another week before returning to school!

Cece may not have been able to go to Florida, but she did get to have some fun of her own. Her babysitter, Holly promised her a solo sleepover while Olivia was out of town. They had a fun evening together which involved Cece falling asleep quite early! She also got to see a movie before her sister, which is always something that makes Cecilia happy. 

 

Cece was able to spend some time with her Nana once her and Olivia returned from Florida. Olivia was busy with something one of the days so Nana took Cecilia to the Botanical Gardens to enjoy the butterfly display. Cece really enjoyed this. She was a little freaked out by the butterflies landing on her head and shoulder, but she was fascinated at the same time. 

Once Spring Break was over it was back to business as usual. First on the agenda was dance competition #2 of the season. This was a new competition that we had never been to before, so we did not really know what to expect. What we did know is that we were balancing soccer and dance on the same weekend. Yep...Olivia had a soccer tournament and a dance competition in Grand Rapids on the same weekend. We found a way to make it work with her only having to miss one soccer games.

Olivia danced her heart out once again. It is so neat watching her grow into a more polished dancer. She improves more and more every year and it makes me so proud watching her do something she loves. The problem is that she loves both soccer and dance. It is becoming hard and harder to balance both activities, but I try to make it work for her. I will continue to do so for as long as it is possible. 

So aside from Christmas, Easter is the girls' favorite holiday. They love everything having to do with eggs. Coloring eggs, hunting for eggs, decorating eggs...they just love it! So to get things started we had an Easter craft night at Nana's house. We kicked things off with dying eggs. Cece is finally getting to the age where she takes her time with her crafts, instead of finishing things in 10 seconds.

Next it was onto cookie decorating. The girls took their time and created some beautiful Easter cookies. But the thing they were most excited about was the egg hunt. There were lots of treasures and money hidden inside the eggs carefully placed around the house. Cecilia made sure that the eggs were evenly split between her and Olivia.

 

Finally the evening wrapped up with the girls opening their Easter baskets from Nana. Lots of little goodies making for two very happy little girls. This was a fun way to kick off our Easter holiday. 

The next morning we headed to church for Easter service and to listen to Olivia do two special readings. I love when Olivia reads at church. She speaks so clearly and sounds so grown up. Makes me happy! Immediately following service the girls headed outside for the annual church Easter egg hunt. Well, it's not so much a hunt as a dash to pick up as many eggs filled with candy as possible. All I know is that we left church that morning with more candy than we typically get on Halloween!

Later that afternoon we headed to The Forte's for our annual Easter dinner. Our family friends include us in their family celebration and we love it. Not only is the food amazing, but the girls get to participate in their family egg hunt as well. They are so generous with our girls and fill the eggs with money and always have a special Easter basket for each of them. Just another reason why our girls love Easter so much!

As if they hadn't had a great Easter already, they still had Easter baskets to open from us. We kept it simple, knowing that they were already getting so much from everyone else. But how do you not spoil your kids at Easter? It's just a super fun holiday to celebrate!

The next weekend we were back at it with soccer. We had a short break during Spring Break but then we participated in the annual Shoot for a Cure tournament. The club we play soccer for hosts this tournament every year in support of breast cancer. It's a great tourney and lots of fun to play in. The girls started off strong but the weather took a turn and caused the remainder of the tournament to be cancelled. The girls were bummed as they were on track to do quite well. Oh well, what can you do. Fun was still had, which is all that matters.

Spring time is the best time. Know why? Because that means summer is right around the corner!