Easter

Lots of Easter activities!

First we did and Easter egg hunt at church with playgroup:

At Funschool Camille got to see some baby chicks and have ANOTHER egg hunt:

 Aunt Sara drove through Ames on her way home from college and colored eggs with our family:

 Easter morning silliness!

 Then we headed to Carroll for dinner and another egg hunt at Grandma Eileen's.

 Emma and her baby boy cousins, Tate and Corbin

Haircuts

Both of the big girls had hair that was getting crazy long! Usually we hold out until Aunt Kristen can cut their hair, but it was going to be too long until she was back in town.  I decided to try it out...and it didn't totally ruin their hair!!! Before and after pics:

Spring Break

For Spring Break our family headed to southern Iowa to Rathbun Lake. It was a little chilly, but we had a great time.  There is a nice indoor big indoor pool and lot of outdoor activities as well. Here are some pictures of fun!

Being silly in the hotel room :)

 We went geo-caching around the lake.  Hannah LOVED it!

Can you see the deer?

They had all sorts of activities scheduled.  Here we went on a "Nature and Photography Walk."

And the girls learned about tracking animals.

We will have to go back again sometime when it is warm to enjoy even more of the outdoor activities!

Cherry Pies at Work

At Nate's work they have an annual dessert competition (which was way back in March and I'm just posting :) It is a competition about the dessert AND the creative set up.  Some departments go all out.  Nate's accounting department is usually one of the more laid back departments, but that's not Nate's style, so he volunteered our family to help. A bit of background: We have two cherry trees in our back yard and had some cherries frozen from the previous summer, a VEISHEA (Iowa State's annual party) tradition is cherry pies. Since it was the ISU Foundation and we just happened to have cherries, Nate decided that cherry pies and homemade ice cream was the dessert of choice. To help with the cuteness factor he invited the girls to come and help serve....along with ALL of their kitchen equipment from home!

Ready for the competition to start!

Camille was busy "baking"

And we won! 2 awards actually the "Thanks for Bringing Your Entire Family" award (that the judges made up just for us) and the People's Choice award. In this picture Hannah is holding the cookie jar "trophy" that is passed around year to year.  It is to sit on Nate's desk until next year when he gets to be a judge...except that now he has a new job...more on that a few posts later! :)

Star of the Week

Allison was the Star of the Week for her class the first week in March.  She was able to bring in something to share with her class and she chose to bring her sisters! She felt pretty special having visitors in her class and being able to tell all her friends about her family. After hearing how Allison got to share her sisters, Hannah thought she needed to share her sisters with her 1st grade class as well. So the week after we visited Allison we also got to make a trip to visit Hannah. I managed to get a few pictures from Allison's school, but not Hannah's.  Somehow trying to get 3 kiddos instead of 2 kiddos in and out of the school building without causing too much of a scene made me forget! :)

My baby

Just a few pictures of Emma from the last 2 months because we love her SO much!

Cyclone Fans

Since we live in Ames, we have to be Cyclone fans, right? This winter we've been enjoying some of the Iowa State athletics. We all went to a gymnastics meet (and enjoyed the ice cream!), Hannah and Nate went to a basketball game, and then Emma accompanied mom and dad on a lunch and basketball date. Go Cyclones!

 We had to get pictures with Cy!

Emma thought Cy was pretty interesting.

 After the gymnastics meet was over we got all of their autographs.

And this gymnast's name is Camille!  So we had to get a special picture with her :)

Hannah's basketball date w/ daddy.

Emma's basketball date w/ mommy and daddy.