Stolberg Family: June 2013

Bucket O' Mud

Simple enough. Daddy and I asked the girls to plant a few flowers around the playhouse while we worked to stain the deck. The girls were busy digging and giggling and planting and being productive.....or so we thought. Turns out they shoved a few plants into the ground and then decided to make a big bucket o' mud. They filled it with scoops of dirt and tons of water and then took off their shoes and stomped around in the tub. They were DIRRRRR-tee! They did help clean up and got cleaned up themselves and we did get the deck stained so I guess it all worked out in the end.

Fly Fly Little Wing

A little less than a week after they hatched, we let our little family of butterflies go. It was a nice, warm spring evening and I think they needed to be released. It was exciting scooping them out and gently guiding them into the air. One of them, Ellie I think, stayed around in the backyard for awhile and we all enjoyed watching him/her come in/out of the yard for awhile.

War and Peace?

Hmmmm.

Not quite sure what was going on here but for the better part of two days Avery carried this gigantic book around - War & Peace! She would look at a page for a few minutes and then flip to the next and she did this for long periods of time. She said she "always wanted to read War & Peace". Um, hm, ok? I'm sure she has gotten more out of it than I ever did!

Emerging

This is the day our butterflies hatched. They had been in cocoon for about a week and we had been watching diligently. The girls were really excited and it really is a fun process. They named each and every one - I can't quite remember all of the names but I think Lily & Victoria were definitely two of the five.

Home Again Home Again

Fortunately the fluids kicked in quickly and we were discharged the next day at noon. She even took out her own IV. She was ALL smiles when the doctor said we could go home. So, once we got home I ran out and got her a new set for her baby dolls - something she has wanted for awhile. The girls set up house and played all afternoon into the evening. They were super sweet together and it made for a very peaceful, restful day of recovery for us all.

Baby doll central.

Wearing the princess crown her sister made her when she was in the hospital.

Loves.

The best plans....sometimes fall apart.

So, like I said we had the best plans...and then Avery got sick...AGAIN. Went to visit our family doctor on Friday morning and by that afternoon we were headed back to the hospital. She had the flu and just couldn't stay hydrated. Back on fluids. Admitted again.

She LOVED the ipad they brought her to play with while we waited and it was an AWESOME distraction while she got another IV for fluids.

We were super hopeful that she would be able to go home but when she didn't keep her orange slushy down at 11pm they kept us for a night of monitoring and fluids.

Her bravery always astounds me.

Hanging out in our ER room.

The best plans...

So....we had the best plans. Daddy was out of town for the weekend on a dirt bike trip which he was crazy excited about. He left on Thursday night and the girls and I sat down and we each wrote out a bunch of fun things we wanted to do that weekend together. We got things rolling right away by taking a trip to Red Mango for our dessert. SUPER yummy night and we all snuggled on the couch to watch a movie.

Off to a sweet start to our girls weekend.

Avery's Zoo Field Trip

I was lucky to chaperone Avery's zoo field trip - the ONLY BIG downside was the crap, winter, freezing cold, windy weather. It was April 16th and it was like 20 degrees out and crazy windy. We had fun with her friend (and our neighbor) Olivia and got to see all of the animals, albeit quickly!

Avery's fav, the Ellie.

Puppet Playdate

This was super cute. Alexandra had a friend, Sylvie, over to play and they each made Star Wars themed puppets. Alexandra made Darth Vader and Sylvie made Yoda. The girls proceeded to have pipe cleaner light saber battles. :)

End of winter...

In an attempt to usher winter out the door I took down the last of the winter crafts from school that have been hanging on the wall. I did this on April 5th. Avery had made the snowman on the left in Kindergarten and Alexandra made the one on the right during the Christmas season in 2nd grade.

Footnote - taking these down did nothing to usher out winter. Winter held on and on and on....until May this year.

LOVE

Love this picture - Easter smiles.

EASTER 2013

Ahhhh, another beautiful Easter Sunday. We have been blessed with great weather for a few years now....no exception this year!!! Started the day with our annual photo hunt. The Easter Bunny always leaves a series of clues that lead us to our Easter baskets. They girls always have a ton of fun. This year the big hit for Alexandra was the red light saber, the Darth Vader light saber. She has played with that things non-stop! We had a lovely brunch and egg hunt at grandma and grandpas house too - more treats and goodies! Another beautiful day.