This year for Spring Break we took the girls on a Disney Cruise. We left early Monday morning for Orlando, drove an hour to Cape Canaveral, boarded the biggest ship I’ve ever seen, and spent 4 days cruising to the Bahamas and back. It was pretty amazing. The general theme of the week of Princesses – we all got our fill. Lauren was in dress up heaven, and although Sophie is getting a little old for princesses, she got into it on board (how can you not?).
It’s been 7 years since this amazing girl was born. Some of the days have felt extremely long, but most have gone by in a flash. It turns out she’s a stubborn, empathetic, happy, smart little girl who has given us 7 adventure-filled years.
On her birthday, Dave and I went into her classroom in the afternoon to read a book to the class and then she gave all of her classmates bubbles to take home.
This winter the girls started an indoor climbing class at a local rock climbing gym. Sophie loves it, and Lauren likes it, but “it isn’t really her thing” (in her own words).
Shortly after Lauren’s birthday she started taking violin lessons from the same teacher that Sophie and I have. Right now she’s learning how to hold the violin and name the different parts. Sophie is also being very “helpful” when we all practice at home. This month Sophie will get “certified” from her school, which means she plays a scale and song that she’s memorized for the director of the school. She’s nervous, but has been playing her song for months now, so is prepared. I can’t wait until all three of us can play a song together!
On the 26th all of our Christmas decorations came down and we were in full birthday mode! My parents were here for a few days and we had a little family party for Lauren. And then on January 3rd, when the kids were back in school, Dave and I went in to her school and celebrated again with Lauren’s class, where she did the traditional Montessori birthday walk around the sun (a candle) holding a globe. And for the third and final celebration she had a party with friends at the Mud Room, a paint-you-own-pottery spot in Ardmore. We had 22 kids and no broken pottery – amazing!
The year we hosted Christmas for the first time! We had a relatively quite morning with Mom Mom, Pop Pop, Dave, me and the girls. And around 1pm a crew of both Sharps and Rainers came over for a total of 26 people. We successfully we pulled it off! Here’s what the house looked like before the madness:
