Guat Girls April 2013

Gabby finally turned 6! She is the youngest of our group and she had a fabulous Princess tea party themed party.

The girls came dressed as princesses, and decorated crowns. Then they had their pictures taken with the Princess banner.

Gabi (at left) sat with some friends from school, but the other 4 Guat girls sat together.

There were adorable flower shaped sandwiches, mini muffins and fruit tarts to eat. Tea was pink lemonade. The girls had so much fun pouring and drinking their tea.

I showed them how one puts up her pinky when you’re fancy and being proper while drinking tea. Roxie got really into it and put both of her pinkies up!

The swing set is always a highlight of parties at Gabi’s house. Rosa was a big ham for my camera.

The birthday girl, Gabi with her sister Caty and their mom Kim. (Caty was born in Guatemala too). Roxie gave me a huge grin when I asked her to smile.

Present opening and cake.

At the end of the party the other guests had left and it was just the 5 Guat Girls and we snuck in a picture of them all together.

Classmate Birthday Party

Sunday afternoon Ally and I attended her classmate Boden’s birthday party. It was a baseball theme – and the craft activity was decorating whiffle balls. It was fantastic to see the finished be-jeweled whiffle balls.

Ally was pretty tired – she and Becky attended a night hike the night before, and Ally did not get to sleep until 10pm.

Of course piñatas are always the highlight of any party.

New Members

Today Becky and I officially joined the church we’ve been attending all year. It just seemed that this church fits with us, our family and our beliefs and why wait to join as official members.

Above is a banner that all the children in the church made last week. It was their activity while the adults prayed and talked about the Marathon bombing. It is so true that Love Wins. (Ally made the rainbow to the right of the Wins)

There was also a baptism today so below are pictures of us from 6 years ago when Ally was baptized at Grandma Debbie' & Poppy’s church in Pennsylvania.

The child today was about 18 months old, and at our new church children from the church aid in the baptism by filling up the baptismal font with water. Ally was one of the children who helped with that today. So all 3 of us were up front and center today!

 

Playing on the playground after church – Becky and I received flowers to congratulate us on our new status. That is Ally’s friend Erik behind us.

Play date at the zoo

 

The zoo is one of Ally’s favorite outings and its always more fun with a friend. So one day over Spring Break Ally and Becky met Rosa and her mom Julie at the zoo.

 

Our zoo has a brand new playground and the girls had a blast running around and climbing and enjoying the Spring weather.

 

Of course they visited the gorillas, and Ally told me she saw the baby one. Feeding the budgies (colorful parakeet-like birds) is also a highlight.

A bird landed on Ally’s head at one point! Becky said she did not get a picture of that, but it was certainly a fun time.

We are so happy Ally has such strong friendships.

The Circus!

The Boston Marathon Bombings took place less than 2 miles from our house. It was a very somber Monday evening April 15 for Becky and I. We kept the news from Ally and decided to attend the Circus in downtown Boston with Ally and Gwei Gwei (my boss’s daughter). Becky and I decided that if the public officials were encouraging people to come into the city and go about our everyday life then we should go – not going would mean the terrorists had won.

It was a bit startling to see such a massive police presence. There was even National Guardsmen checking bags at our local T stop and everywhere we looked downtown there were police officers and bomb squad dogs.

But we just talked about how they wanted us to be safe. Ally seemed oblivious to it all – she is used to getting our bags searched at Disney, security at airports. I think she was so excited about the Circus it did not phase her. Gwei, who is 14 was a bit intimidated but she did ok with it all.

 

On the T I had asked someone to take our picture.

We walked around a bit before the show and Ally’s legs got tired so I carried her up this long flight of stairs on my shoulders!

The Circus!

Ally had been looking forward to popcorn, one of her favorite treats, and she tried cotton candy for the first time.

She loved cotton candy!

It was a small circus – one ring and it had lots of old-fashioned performances, like a contortionist, a trapeze artist, 2 clowns who did silly acts, a guy with a giant steel ring, horses, dogs. Ally sat enraptured thru the whole thing.

On our walk home we stopped for a family picture.

Its important to note that Ally is wearing overalls – Becky and I have been trying to get her to wear these for over a year. Finally on this day she agreed. So we had to get a few pictures to remember what we think will be a once a year occurrence

Gwei was a sport with pictures. And I just could not resist how cute Ally and Becky looked holding hands as they walked.

Then it was time for Ally to put on her own circus performance! At Gwei’s house there is a big tree with some really fun things to play on; 2 kinds of swings and a bar with rings.

Look one hand – and check out my position!

Can you tell it was a great day?