Heartin' Harlie

Claire and I were very excited to participate in the We Heart Harlie and Friends Day.  It was awesome to see the community come together to support these beautiful girls and their families with all kinds of fun activities.  Claire was psyched for her first Kids Fun Run.  

I was a proud mama watching her race around the parking lot - she had a huge smile on her face and really seemed to have fun.

Check out that stride!

We had lots of fun (and lots of cotton candy) - I am honored to be a friend of Christy's (Harlie's mom) and have learned so much from her.  Thanks for letting us be a part of such a special day!

Easter 2014

Time to play catch-up...Here's Easter in a few pictures....

Fielder and Claire got baskets from Auntie ML...he was VERY excited about the chocolate!

meeting the Bunny at the Y egg hunt

If you blinked, you'd miss the egg hunt for the 4-6 age group.  Claire had fun grabbing as many eggs as she could (Fielder was happy with his 2 that he found!)

Easter morning with Daddy

The Bunny brought Claire a nightgown with a matching gown for her bear.

Opening cards from Mimi and Papa...love that look of shock when she sees the money inside!

After the egg hunt and breakfast, we rode bikes over to the playground to burn off some of the candy and cinnamon rolls and try out Fielder's new soccer ball.

Easter on Parade

Claire had planned her outfit days in advance and was so very excited to wear her gloves.  She woke me up at 6am I think, all dressed but looking for those gloves!

After the parade, Rob and Fielder joined us at Mimi and Papa's house for another egg hunt and dinner.

Family Dinner Night

This is why I just can't let myself get behind....I've missed a month and can't really even remember what happened!  Let's start with our new house/Easter gathering with family.  We finally got a new dining table big enough to fit the whole crew and invited everyone over to dinner.  Mom did some egg decorating with kids, we rode bikes in the cul-de-sac, and the kids played (LOUDLY.)  

 Uncle Andy, the Easter Bunny, hopping around with Fielder and Samara!

Growing up...

Most days Rob and I agree that we'd like Claire to slow down on the "growing up" and Fielder to hurry up and be 4 already.  Or maybe 6.
Today was a big day for Claire - she lost her first tooth!  We've been expecting this for so long - she's had loose ones for months now.  She already has her permanant teeth coming through so she really has a snaggle-tooth grin right now.  She's got it all set up for the tooth fairy so let's hope the tooth fairy doesn't accidentally fall asleep and forget to come!

I took Fielder to get a haircut yesterday which he desperately needed.  It was the first time he sat in the little police car chair and I didn't have to hold him.  But he hated every last second of it.  He sat there screaming with a hair-covered-lollipop in each hand and begged me to get him down.  He kept saying that it hurt, Mommy save me, all done, no thank you....and then when she's done, he says "that didn't hurt." Like it was just no big deal.
I had to take him home without a shirt on because he was so covered in hair, but he looked so darn cute and so grown up.  In the car he said "haircut fun, lollipops goooood."  It's hard to get a picture of the boy, but here's the new do...

Lunch Date

I've been wanting to have lunch with Claire at her school and just hadn't done it yet.  She asked me to come last week so I figured I better do it while she actually wants me to!  (When does that happen that I will become way too embarrassing to be seen with?  I'm hoping not for a couple more years...)
Fielder and I picked up Happy Meals and went to the school.  When parents come, we sit on the stage to eat.  Claire sat up there beaming and trying to catch her friends to wave to them.  Fielder even sat nicely in his chair and ate his lunch...except then when he was done he wanted DOWN and wanted to run all over the place.
It was a really fun thing to do with her and I promised her I'd come back one day when I could get a babysitter for Fielder.

Girls Night Out

I was so excited to get an email from Alison that they were coming to town for a short time to apartment hunt....YES, that's right, they're moving back!!  (At least temporarily.)  Anyway, of course I wanted a chance to see them and meet baby Jenna!!  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of me holding her.  Fielder actually let me hold Jenna for quite a while, but mostly because Aunt Alison accomdated him with letting him see her feet.  I don't know what it is with this kid, but he loves feet.  Anyway, we had fun catching up, having a tea party, and a pizza dinner.  It happened to be Claire's "half birthday" which I had used as a reason to take her out that night - she just didn't know that Katie was going to come too now! 

 Fielder was not happy when we all left him behind with Daddy, but the girls were super excited!

 We went to Build A Bear and the girls made matching bears.  I think they are making the bears smart by holding the hearts to their foreheads.  Or something like that?

We also had ice cream and threw pennies in the fountain.  I had a blast taking the girls out on the town!  I loved hearing them giggle and make jokes in the back seat.  Katie kept saying "that is so gem" - I don't know what it means and I don't think she really does either, but it was meant to be a good thing!  :-)
When we got back to the hotel, I realized my cell phone was dead and I didn't want the front desk to call the room in case Jenna was asleep.  We had a few silly minutes of trying to figure out how to get in touch with Alison - I called Rob, he called Matt, Matt called Alison and meanwhile both girls all of a sudden have to go potty immediately.  It was pretty funny and luckily Alison found us in the lobby.
We can't WAIT to have Katie and Jenna back in town!!!

March Madness

 March was madness indeed.  We finally OFFICIALLY moved into our house on Feb 28, but we are still in the process of getting settled (and it's already mid April!)  Obviously I'm behind on the blog.  March brought even more cold weather (OVER.  IT.) and of course for Rob, basketball!

Let's start with St. Patrick's day.  Not my favorite of all the holidays, but I tried to make it a little fun.  Claire came downstairs in the morning and immediately blamed the decorations on "the leprechaun."  Then she found the leprechaun had also turned our pancakes and milk green!

I loved Claire's St. Patrick's day outfit.....EXCEPT for the fact that it was also school picture day. Awesome.   

To say Rob was excited about UVA's basketball season is quite the understatement.  He went to Greensboro for the tournament and of course came home a very happy man.  I believe he and his brother said something along the lines of "besides getting married and the birth of our children, this was the best day ever."  (Can you hear my eyes rolling?)  Uncle Jake even made the newspaper!  Even though they didn't win the sweet 16 game, all the Barnes boys were super excited to be UVA fans!

March also brought a surprise visit from cousin Katie and our FIRST time meeting cousin Jenna!!  (A separate post for that.)