Happy Birthday Leeza

 I always let the girls choose their birthday cakes.  So my princess choose a Princess cake.  The pink castle is actually a doll case for the 4 princess dolls on the cake.  Tinkerbell was the choice for decorations.

 Getting ready for the cake!

 Blowing out the candles.

 Grandma came for Leeza's birthday.  The girls had fun with Grandma while she was here.

 Sasha is in there somewhere inside the balloon mass.

 Leeza likes getting presents and loves jewelery.

 Lots of balloons were blown up by grandma while mom was out in the garage putting together the Barbie Jeep.  We finished around 11pm.

 Tinkerbell rules the decorations this year.

 Lots of presents for Leeza

 I still get Sasha a few presents for Leeza's birthday.  They are on the right of Leeza's

 I tried a new type of pinata. This one you are supposed to pull the strings and one of them lets loose all the candy.

 Grandma helping Leeza with some presents.

 Leeza got to try the pinata first.  She pulled a few strings no luck.  Then Sasha had a turn- no luck.

 So then I gave Leeza the baseball bat  and let them whack away.  Finally, I went and just ripped the bottom open.

Grandma watched from a safe distance. 

Easter

Normally we have an Easter theme, but this year it was just whatever I thought was cute.  Not too much candy and NO marshmallow peeps(they make Leeza sick).  I miss my peeps.

My Easter girls.  Leeza is still working on those bangs.

Ready for the Easter Egg hunt at the zoo

First we had breakfast.

And we did a little craft and got to pet some animals.

Then it was pictures with the Easter bunny.  No tears or fears this year. 

Petting the fluffy bunny.

Thenit was off to the Easter egg race.  Racers on your mark

And off they go.  My two don't get the idea that you are supposed to run.

There is a 3 way tie for last place until disaster strikes.  LEeza drops her egg.  Sasha stops to see what she is doing.  The other girl keeps going and my two finish in last place, but they had fun.

The easter eggs are empty except for a few that have a bell in them.  The big kids run and gather dozens of eggs before the little kids can get any.  The zoo people just keep putting out more eggs until all baskets are full.

Gathering eggs is hard work. 

Sasha did manage to fill her basket.

So did Leeza.

They were happy with the eggs they found.  They turned the eggs in and got a prize bag.

 Then we went back in the zoo to ride the ponies.  Leeza is good at riding the ponies.

 Sasha is starting to have fun.  She is a little hesitant to ride in the past, but this time she was smiling.

Around and around they go. 

One last picture with the Easter bunny.  Easter at the zoo was fun.

Spring time

 What fun would nice spring weather be if you can't get muddy?  Notice Ms Leeza perfectly clean and no mud on her!

 Sasha trying to clean the mud off in the grass.

 New swimsuits to try on.  After this picture, they swapped suits.  I picked Tinkerbell for Leeza since she loves Tinkerbell, but now that is Sasha's suit. 

Leeza's bangs will grow out someday.  Summertime here we come!

We love you Grandpa

We will miss you Grandpa.  A few weeks ago, Grandpa was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer that had spread to his brain and many other organs.  He tried 2 rounds of chemo and 3 weeks of radiation, but decided that the life chemo offered was not worth it.  He died quietly in a hospice with Ma, Dan and Kelsey there.  I was able to go out and see him and I had hoped that he would get well enough for the girls to visit him once last time, but he went quickly which is what he and Ma had hoped for.

My favorite memory of him will be when he came to help build the girls swing set a few months after they came home. The set had a thousand pieces or at least it looked like it did.  He spent all morning laying the piecies out in order. After lunch, the girls went out to "help" him.  As he was working, behind him the girls happily rearranged every single piece into one big long line of pieces.  Eventually, Grandpa turned around and saw what they were doing.  He didn't say anything, but his look said it all.  He went back to what he was doing.  In the end, it took about 2 1/2 days to put it together.  He probably could have done it in less than 2 days without his helpers.  I hope the girls remember working with him putting the swingset together. 

St Patricks Day Parade

We went to the Decatur St Patrick Day parade.  On the way, we met Melissa and Hailey.

The girls are watching for the candy that some floats threw to the kids.

Fire trucks can be very noisey.

I'm not sure what Melissa is pointing at.  The girls had a good time and collected a bag of candy each.  They now ask about the parade every time we go through Decatur.

Swimming 2012

 The girls are taking lessons again.  They are to the point where they need to be off the floats, but the YMCA keeps kids under 6 in floats so it is more fun time than learning a lot of new swimming.

 Sasha loves to jump in the water.  Leeza likes the swimming part best.

Well, maybe Leeza likes the cute instructor best.  She is a little boy crazy(and only 4). 

The Haircut

 Leeza had cut Sasha's hair once before, but it was fairly easy to find with a good cut.  They had scissors taken away from them as punishment.  I was just letting them use scissors again(supervised of course).  one Sturday morning as I was getting ready, Sasha asked if she sould use the scissors.  She promised to ONLY cut paper.  About 10 minutes later this is what I found in the play room.

There were clumps of hair on the bed and Leeza's bangs were scalped!  No bangs at all.  Plus a few chunks of hair were missing in various places.  Sasha had one piece cut out of her hair too, but Leeza's was bad.  Leeza immediately threw Sasha under the bus and said Sasha did it!  Leeza was proud of her hair cut!  Oh my! 
I decided to try to fix it a little and went to the supercuts place by Walmart.  If you can believe it, the lady made it worse!  She didn't cut anything straight and just chopped away.  I had to recut it afterwards to make it look not horrible.  She even hacked Sasha's hair up and hers is easy to cut.  It will be a long long time before the bangs grow back.  They are cut to the scalp.