Last Friday we joined some friends at the mall to celebrate Jax and Lilah's 3rd birthday. The party was a blast...the girls had their first experience at Build-A-Bear and loved it. Vivian was especially into it and has carried her bear around everywhere since then :)

First, we stuffed our bears that Kristin had given us with the invitations.

Never knew that one of my mothering skills would include knowing how to pick out clothes for and dress a bear :)

Vivian went straight to her choice of bear clothing: a Cinderella dress. She wasn't at all swayed by anything else.

Introducing (from left to right): Girlie and Vivi Cinderella Bear

Kate made herself right at home and climbed up on the shelf with the bear beds. At one point she was laying down on them and pretending to take a nap!

Vivian found the cars...she's letting her bear take a nap behind her while she gets the seatbelts ready.

This is most of the kiddos at the party...I think we're missing Cohen in this picture. The birthday boy and girl are sitting in the front.

After our bears were finished being built and paid for, we walked down to the food court area, where a big lunch party awaited!

It was a bear picnic! Those are grass placemats under there...awesome :)

Ansley and Julia got started on their lunches right away.

There's Jax and Lilah!

Daniel really liked his cupcake! He was concentrating so hard :)

Sweet profile of Julia

Happy 3rd birthday, twins! We love you!

Carissa sent this to me last night. It was taken when Keegan and Carissa took her to the park right after I had Kate. An old picture, but new to us...a fun surprise! Thanks, Carissa!

Love and miss that baby face :)

We love Spring!

Happy 80th birthday to my Granddaddy today! On Saturday we drove to Greensboro to meet him and Grandma Carolyn for a dinner celebration at Carrabba's. Even Stephen came from Richmond! It was a short get-together, but we enjoyed our time and we were glad to share a meal with them. We hope you have a great day, Granddaddy. We love you!

I haven't mentioned much about preschool on the blog, but Vivian and Kate are still enjoying their time there. They both still go two days each week. I went in with my camera last week to sort-of show you what it's like for them...

Vivian's Playful Puppies class

I think when they are all there, there are 13 of them!

Kate's Dancing Ducks class

The little girl in the blue shirt in the front (Alyssa) is the friend that Kate plays with the most, so I've heard :)

She's growing so fast!

I'm getting spring cleaning fever a little early this year :) I did this about a month ago with the help and motivation of my organization guru friend Kristin. Check out how awful the girls shoes were in this cabinet in their room (I'm embarrassed):

And after:

Wa-la! And after a month, it still looks this way, I promise. It's a relief to do things like this, isn't it!?

Like I've said before, one project at a time... :) I have about 10 more like this one on my list!

After we got back to Jonathan and Joy's house from the museum and lunch, the littles took a nap, and Seth and Vivian got to make cookies with Joy. She found a recipe for cookies that uses verses in the Bible to hint at what ingredient to mix in next (for example, "how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey on my lips" psalm 119:103). We looked up the verse, read it, and they had to guess which ingredient to add. They took turns pouring them in. Very cool idea! And the cookies were a treat for everyone! Try it :)

Going to be friends for a long time...can't wait to see them again this spring or summer!

Here are some more pictures from our trip to the children's museum in Rocky Mount, NC that we visited last weekend (the weight lifting and astronaut pictures are from that day). While Aaron went fishing with his friends and brother Ben, we spent the day with Joy and her boys, Seth and Joel. The girls had been looking forward to this!

Some of these were taken with my phone, I'm sure you can tell...

Playing dress up

Doctor Kate checks Mrs. Joy's heart

Vivian thought it was funny to pretend the crocodile was biting her head :)

Handsome Joel had fun playing with the bigger kids

Concentrating at the Farmer's Market

Working out on the exercise equipment...I thought this was a cool part of the museum! Maybe one day I'll join a gym so the girls can know what these toys represent in the adult world! haha

Brothers tried to coordinate together on the eliptical...it worked for a few seconds!

I was impressed with the museum and the kids enjoyed it...thanks, Joy, for showing us around Rocky Mount!

My mom got a new job in December at the Girl Scout Council! She's been volunteering with the group for more than 25 years and now she's getting paid for similar things she's done before with them...woo hoo!

On one of Vivian's "special" days (Fridays) recently, I took her by the council office to see where Gramme works. Now she can picture what we mean when we say, "Gramme's at work!" (because they ask all the time, "where's Gramme?" :))

Seth

Vivian

Kate

Last week Mama Dot and Uncle Stephen were visiting at the same time, so we spent two afternoons over at Gramme and Papa's house. One of those days we took Angel for a walk in the woods.

Kate wimped out about halfway through and asked to be carried. Uncle Stephen to the rescue!

The older one was heard saying several times, "It's okay Mom, I got it" or "I don't need any help." And is it just me, or does that hoodie makes her look too grown up , too?

My brothers and I used to climb this tree. Some of the branches have since broken off, but it's still fun to see the girls sitting in our old "funny tree."

We know that Aaron bears the responsibility of being our kids' first glimpse into what the Father is like. His sacrificial and unconditional love, his kindness, his justice, his provision for our needs, to name a few characteristics.

And today I thought to myself: the extent to which these girls adore their daddy is such a blessing for me to witness. How much more of a blessing it will be when I can see their adoration and worship of the one true God grow! It leads me to pray more earnestly!