Princess Festival 2011

We did it again...  For two reasons, Ada had a blast last year and because it's a fund raiser for Quiet Way which builds wells and schools in Africa... and I have a tender spot for those kind of organizations (my sister and I were volunteer teachers in a school in Kenya 10 years ago... wow...10 years went by fast!).  This time we went with Becca, Grace and Sophie.  It was hot, but the girls never complained... they just played.  Way Cute!  And I don't have a picture of it, but there was one thing that Ada did that I thought was way cute.  All through the garden they have different princess shows... The Magic Flute, The 12 dancing Princesses, The Arabian Nights, Cinderella, Princess Mila, Snow White, etc... Well, we got to the Snow White one about half way through it.  We were walking behind the stage when Snow White comes out on the one side of the stage and the Prince runs off the other side of the stage yelling, "Snow White where are you!?" And of course... Ada yells to him, "She's over here!" Snow White was creative and just tells her, "I don't think he heard you. That's okay."  And after the Snow White show she and Sammy went with Daddy to get the characters to sign her book while I waited with the baby out of the way... they asked Ada what her favorite part of the show was and of course she says, "Where Snow White ate the apple and she died!"  Nice.

Getting signatures

With Princess Aurora

At the "tea party" with the mad hatter

I love these cups... as Jer said, they would make awesome pots for plants

Playing croquet (or hammering in Ada's case) with the Red Queen

The Princess and the pea

Lunch break

Yeah... so this was one of my favorite comments... Ada handed her book to Jasmine to get signed and immediately asked if she could go jump on their cushions

Making cheeser eyes at me

Giggling because the face paint tickles

Love my cute girl!

Admiring themselves in the mirror

Ada, cousin Sophie, and cousin Grace

Taking a breather before the Cinderella show

Sammy trying to grab my camera from me

Our three princesses

At the Cinderella show

Ada's favorite!  Rapunzel.  Ada was in raptures.  She asked Rapunzel to dance with her, but unfortunately there was a line of people behind us and we had to try to get her to hurry a little.

Sammy's favorite part... taking a little swim in the 90 degree weather before heading home

Wendy was so fun!  Last year Ada would only talk to Captain Hook and Peter Pan but ignored Wendy and Tink... it's a little ironic because this year the same girl played Wendy and Ada ran and played with her for a good 20 minutes or so, she also told Captain Hook that he wasn't bad and he tried to convince her that he was scary... She finally gave him a little and told him that he could be a little scary.

Ada and some of the other little girls were trying to pull Wendy into the water coming from a pipe up above... You could tell that she didn't mind getting wet but was trying hard not to get soaked... So she kept yelling that she'd been captured and running off or chasing the girls around the water area.  I think she was pretty lucky actually... of all the characters in the Festival she got to wear the lightest dress... (everyone else was in prom dresses or velvet coats) and she got to play with the kids in the water on this really hot day. 

Summer is official

When most of our recent pictures are of swimming you know that it's officially summer...

Evelyn dozing in her swing

Ada and Sammy "hanging" on the curb

Bird watching

Swimming at Grandma and Grandapa Wilcox's house

The Highland Splash pad

Cold Sammy cuddling with mommy

Bug eyed (binoculars that Ada wanted to make for Sammy for his birthday)

And while Jer and I were reading, they decided to make a "library"... with all the kids books they could find from every corner of the house.  (I did make them clean it up eventually)

Two weeks

I can't believe that our little girl is two weeks old now!  She's such a sweetie!  Only cries when she's poopy or hungry... She's started smiling at me in her sleep.  And I love to cuddle her!  She so soft and just melts into me which makes my heart melt.  She's starting to really make the effort of holding up her head on her own.  She lifts it and then her eyes get really big as she tries to hold it there... finally letting it flop over because it's too heavy.  She stares at me with her big dark eyes.  And holds my fingers in her little hand.  Ada and Sammy both love to kiss her and see if she's awake.  Daddy loves to nap with her on his chest.  And my only fear about having a new baby was that I've had two really good sleepers in a row... I knew that there was no way I'd have three... but she is!  The last couple of days she's done her nights in two 5 hour stretches.  What a good girl!  We love you Evelyn girl and hope that your tummy feels better soon!

Thank you Jenny!

So a friend of mine sent me all these cute hats and things to take pictures with... and I have a handy model to use now too... Some of the pictures have background malfunctions... but mostly I'm trying to show off the hats... and my baby too.

The first picture with all my kids together

Wrestling

Ada and her town

This one is Jer's favorite of all the hats that Jenny sent.  It reminds me of one of those men with nightshirts and tasseled caps.  So cute!

This one's the twin of it.  Also way cute!

And Jenny, how did you make the band wave?  That is amazing!

This one's my favorite hat for Evelyn, the coloring is just right and it makes her look like a doll.

Then, these ones are just cause I was already taking pictures... might as well keep going!

My mom made this hat.  She made it for Ada, but now of course it's much too small... so now another granddaughter can use it!

And I've been wanting one of these!  I've seen them before, but I'm still working on using it in photos... she wouldn't cover up herself and kept moving her legs where I didn't want, so to keep her modest we had to shoot her from an angle that wasn't exactly ideal.  We'll keep working on it!

Thank you Jenny!  I love each and every one of them!