Greetings from Sunny Florida!

I am posting from Florida. We arrived in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday and have been enjoying lots of swimming, trips to a science museum, walks on the beach, collecting sea shells and meeting new friends. We will be back to Maine on Saturday. I will be posting pictures from our trip all next week!

Recital Day

Lights, camera, action....showtime!!!

Grace's ballet recital was on Friday evening.  It was a day we were all looking forward to for so long.  Grace was absolutely beautiful to watch on that great big stage.  I was one very proud mama!  Grace's danced to a piano version of Butterfly Kisses and it was so sweet.  Bravo, Grace.  

Getting Ready for Dress Rehearsal

Here are a few pictures of Grace getting ready at one of her dress rehearsals last week.

Here is a picture of Grace with her wonderful ballet teacher, Miss Juliette.  Miss Juliette helped put Grace's hair into a bun for the rehearsal. Miss Juliette said that Grace had the worlds smallest bun -- and it was so cute!  

Prior to one of the dress rehearsals, the dancers had their pictures taken by a professional photographer.  I was watching all of the action from the hallway and caught this sweet moment between Grace and Miss Juiliette just prior to Grace's picture being taken.

I love this picture of Grace!  Grace was getting her ballet shoes ready and she reacted to something very exciting Miss Juliette was saying.

Recital day pictures to come!

Dandelions

While Jack was hard at work exploring the tractors at Pineland Farms, Eve and Grace walked hand-in-hand to explore the beautiful dandelion fields together.  The girls spent most of their morning at the farm picking dandelions and blowing the dandelion seeds together.  It was so very, very sweet and special for me to watch.

Tractor Day at Pineland Farms

We spent yesterday at Pineland, where it was tractor day at the farm.  We started off our morning by riding a hay wagon pulled by a big John Deere tractor down to the barns where several tractors and tractor attachments were set up in a field for the children to explore!  Jack spent the entire time going from one tractor to the next.  It was a dream come true for him (for those of you who know Jack you can imagine how excited he must have been!).  Grace and Eve also had fun exploring the tractors as well as walking in the fields picking dandelions and blowing dandelion seeds together. Here are some pictures from our unforgettable day at the farm...

Sisters

Recital Week...

We are all so very excited for Grace's ballet recital this Friday evening.  This picture of Grace was taken during one of her rehearsals last week.  Many more pictures to come!

Happy Mother's Day

*our dandelion flower prints*

Today I wish all mothers, especially my own mom and mother-in-law a very Happy Mother's Day. 

Paper Chain

 Every May Bob attends an annual retreat with the board members of his Credit Union.  This year they are going to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Jack and Grace will be coming with us and as Jack says they are both "extremely excited!"  Grace, Jack and Eve all worked together to make this paper chain, which serves as a visual representation of how many days remain until we leave for our trip.  Each link of the chain represents one day.  Every morning Grace, Jack or Eve removes one link from the chain.  We have been watching our paper chain get shorter and shorter over the past few weeks as our trip gets closer and closer.  We will be leaving on May 27th and returning June 2.  

Dandelion Flower Prints

This week the we enjoyed making dandelion flower prints.  This is something that we have done every spring since Grace was born!  The prints are made by dipping dandelions in yellow paint and stamping them onto paper.  This is one of my favorite projects and the childrens' prints always turn out so beautiful (pictures to come!).

Eve had a grand time with the dandelions this year!  It was so much fun for me to watch Eve with the dandelions.  By the end, Eve looked like one of those beautiful dandelions!!!

Notice Eve's band aid over her eye.  Eve fell into a bin full of blocks earlier this week and received a cut just above her eyebrow.  Eve needed to go to an urgent care center and fortunately Eve's laceration was closed with a type of skin glue and not stitches.  Eve has been quite a little trooper all this week by keeping her band aid on!  

This activity is a favorite of Grace's also.  The moment the dandelions appeared this spring Grace said that she couldn't wait to make the flower prints.

Picking Dandelions

Dandelion week was put on hold yesterday because of the rain.  Here are some pictures of Grace, Jack and Eve on Monday picking dandelions in our yard.  We are thankful that the rain stopped overnight so we could continue our week of dandelion activities today!    

Dandelion Week

All things dandelion at our home this week.  Oh, how we love these little yellow spring "flowers."  Pictures of our dandelion activities to come all this week!