Mommy Daughter Day

We journeyed home from the OBX and our Easter holiday so that Bryan could return to work and Noelle and I could head to Hopkins for her spring appointment with the specialists. Noelle has made a ton of progress over the past 6 weeks. We are so proud of how well she is doing with her frequency and urgency issues. Noelle's bladder hasn't done much growing so we are adjusting some of our strategies at school since medication dosage can't be increased but we are definitely seeing progress after 18 months!

To celebrate such a great appointment and how hard Noelle has been working we left Kel at daycare a little longer and headed to the zoo. We love the zoo and the animals were enjoying the overcast low 60's weather and were pretty active while we were out. Even the polar bears got up from their naps and interacted with one another! We saw the new penguin exhibit which is great and Noelle decided she must pose with each and every animal statue we came to throughout the zoo. It was a great morning and early afternoon together. Although I am starting to see a pattern as I work on the blog of Noelle getting to do lots of fun solo parent outings and Kellen getting the shaft so maybe we owe him a little adventure soon!

The tram is we get ready for our zoo adventure!

My little polar bear

Another great thinker

Go Terps!

I think she was trying to make a sad face. At least I hope so...

Just "Lion" around...

Easter 2015

Easter was lovely for us and it is great to see Noelle actually starting to really comprehend our religion and what we believe. She is definitely learning a lot in her Sunday school program, asking good (usually randomly timed) questions, and forming a wonderful relationship with Jesus. We are so proud of her and it has made religious holidays even more special. 

This whole you have to wait for school breaks for travel thing has taken some getting used to. With the hard winter, Noelle's county decided to remove one day off of the beginning of spring break. We had already planned to leave for NC Wednesday night and we decided to stick with that schedule so Bryan would have computer access Thursday for work. So we headed to NC after rush hour the Wednesday night before Easter and had a very easy trip down after we decided to shell out a few bucks for the new toll lanes in Northern Virginia.

The weather for our trip was gorgeous. We walked up to the beach and even dug in the sand a bit, had a plethora of Easter egg hunts, went up to a windy Jockey's Ridge to see them attempt to fly kites, walked the dogs and took wagon rides, looked for turtles and snakes, played with bubble wands, had some "sword" fights, and had a lovely time soaking up some sun.

Our one damp morning was spent at Home Depot doing the April kid craft. The kids' made awesome chalkboard planters and got some basil to put in their pots!

Of course we also did the traditional Easter activity of dying eggs. It was so nice to have Bryan be able to do this with us this year. The kids were super careful as they made their creations - a big change from 2 years ago when Noelle and Kellen dyed their faces!

Our Easter was spent with early mass, a beautiful long, flat run for me, some more egg hunts, and then an amazing family dinner for the holiday.

 

Our drive home wasn't great. Lots of accidents (cars and kids...), lots of traffic, and one car sick daughter. But we made it home and got to relax a few hours. We always forget that evening travel is the only acceptable way to come home!

Hope everyone had a blessed Easter.

Princess and Gymnast

Before the fun of spring break, Noelle alternated between princess and gymnast. First up, princess. After church on Palm Sunday we dropped the boys off, dressed in our tiaras, and headed to Columbia to meet friends Katie and Evie for a viewing of Cinderella. I didn't have particularly high hopes as the main character was played by one of my least favorite Downton Abbey characters but she was actually terrific. And the movie was wonderful. We enjoyed the early afternoon double date with friends.
 

Then on Tuesday evening we headed to Noelle's school for her scheduled time on the Whiddle Equipment. This was a gym program they have been doing a bit throughout the early spring and it was awesome. They should do fundraising by letting mom's rent this place out to have a little stress-free fun! It wasn't the best night ever as I had Kellen in tow and he wasn't super happy to be there but not on the equipment, but Noelle had a blast and it was fun to watch her play. I continue to be so impressed by her school and happy with our decision to send her to public Kindergarten. And I think she is ready for some more gymnastics this fall!