Kaitlin and Grandma Barbie come to visit DAY 1

It was a fun filled weekend of all things Boston. It was also exhausting.

Thursday Grandma Barbie arrived, after dinner we took her and Ally to the hotel. Ally spent the night there with her, and Becky and I attended a parents only social for school.

Friday morning Kaitlin arrived! She flew in from Columbus all by herself and I picked her up at the airport while Ally stayed home and worked on her Emily Dickinson project with Grandma Barbie. We decided to keep Ally home from school to spend the day with Grandma, me and her cousin.

Kaitlin and I in the car. Kaitlin loves selfies. 

We tried to teach Grandma Barbie how to take a selfie. It didn't go very well.

But it was a fun lesson.

We decided to go on a Duck tour.

Both girls got to drive the duck boat on the river! A sailboat almost hit us while Ally was driving. The tour guide/driver had to cut the engine so we wouldn't crash!!!

One of the things we saw was the state house. The next day Ally told me as we drove in the car, I see the gold topped building! It's the state house! So it was an educational tour.

After the tour, Becky met us at the museum of science. I drove Ally to gymnastics, dropped her off, and then drove back to the museum to pick up Becky, Grandma and Kaitlin and take them to the show. Yes two shows this year!

She nailed her round off back handspring.

Look at them in the air!

It was a great show again Friday night!

After the show!

Fun cousin pictures!

With her teammates, Caroline and Hanna above and a school classmate, Colette below. 

Afterwards we went out to a diner for dinner:

Grandma Barbie and her granddaughters all ordered chocolate milkshakes.

I wanted a picture of Ally solo, but Kaitlin is a professional photobomber. Seriously in many pictures Kaitlin has bombed them. 

After dinner we headed back to the museum of science to see an IMAX movie on Dolphins.

It's hard to take a selfie in the dark theater. See Kaitlin above us?

After the movie, we went to the astronomy night at the museum and saw Jupiter and Saturn thru the high powered telescope. 

It was a very long day. Late night of fun!

Gymnastics Show 2016

Ally participated in her annual gymnastics show tonight. She will perform again on Friday and then Grandma Barbie and cousin Kaitlin will be here to see it too!

Ally and her level 3 team mates had their faces painted. The theme was Rio - to honor the upcoming Summer Olympics. Hannah and Caroline have become Ally's good friends this year.

Warm up:

One of the neat things about being on team is that the team girls watch from the balcony. Ally said it was great because  you could really see the other classes perform their routines.  Ally is in the picture above on the left side just below the diving bar.

 The team in their competition leotards with fancy head-dresses to wear. 

 Dancing and tumbling away.

 Ally has worked super hard the past few weeks and she did it! She nailed her round off back handspring. We are so thrilled for her. So were her friends' parents too who know how very hard Ally has worked to get this skill back. 

 The routine was a combination of dance, and gymnastics. Fun to watch. 

The obligatory bow at the end.

 And a smile for mommy's camera. 

After the show we went out for ice cream to celebrate!

Very lucky

Lately I have been feeling so lucky. Not as in good luck, but gratitude. 

Ally is doing really well. At school she is playing at recess, 4 Square before school and at mid day recess! This is amazing!!!! Playing voluntary at school! Something most kids do just as a matter of life and now after many many months Ally is too! 

She is caught up mostly academically. She isn't taking any pain breaks out of class now, and on her last math test did fantastic. 

She has 4 birthday parties this month. So clearly her time out of school and her health issues haven't hurt her social connections.

I am thankful for family and friends who support us. For good jobs that enable us to have amazing experiences and plan fun vacations. 

And as my 9 year anniversary of being Ally's mom comes around this month, I am so grateful to be her mom, to have the privilege of parenting her with Becky. 

So much love and laughter.

The look on Ally's face when we told her that her gymnastics idols, Gabby Douglas, Ali Raisman and Simone Biles were all going to be competing at a big meet we had tickets to see.

Another new outfit from Great Aunt Martha! thank you.

Silly smile in new sunglasses.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was a nice mix of activities and down time. It's a flurry of events, projects, company,  and parties from now until June 22 when school ends for Ally. 

Friday night Ally had gymnastics practice, her round off back hamdspring is coming along.

Saturday morning, lots of snuggling with Cloey and playing American Girl dolls by herself while mama and I sorted our clothes for the change in season. I then went shopping for some new clothes and Becky and Ally worked on a science project and went to ballet class. 

Me shopping! I bought the sweater, not the cropped pants.

For dinner we went to Stella's house for a BBQ. It was HOT, mid-90s and they don't have air conditioning so the girls cooled off by washing the car.

Ally, Stella and Violet always have fun together. Washing a car was no different.

Eventually we were wilted and melting and it was time to go home. 

Becky crashed on the floor with Cloey later that night. I think the heat and all that playing with Ally did her in. I love how it looks like Cloey is talking on the phone. 

We needed a good night sleep because on Sunday we headed out to Central Massachusetts to visit the Emily Dickinson Museum.

There she is, the poet herself. Ally was assigned Emily Dickinson for a social studies project. Each 3rd grader has a historical figure (a native to Massachusetts) to research, create a tri-fold poster and dress up like for a 5 minute presentation on during a class "wax museum" exhibit on June 17!. So we visited the Emily Dickinson Museum. The 90 minute tour was very educational, interesting and informative.

Ally was saying good bye to Cloey.

Amanda, one of Ally's AG dolls made the trip with us..

Here we are!

Ally walked the whole 90 minute tour, out to dinner and a bit more in her wedge sandals. She insists they are comfortable. I bought a pair for myself, there arrive this week and I will be sure to document whether I agree or not!

Our selfie shot at a great pizza place in Amherst. See Becky in the mirror.

In the car on the way home Ally worked on a timeline of events of the poet's life for her project, and made notes of all she had learned. It was a very successful day. 

Sunday was an outing with Guatemala Girl friend Rosa and Alice at the Museum of Fine Arts. 

Ally tore a tendon in her leg and has a cast. She needed a wheelchair for the museum. It was free and very crowded event. Ally was pretty tired when she got home. But after a break and a couple TV shows, she started her Spanish end of the year project on the Rock Cycle. She worked on it for several hours with help from Becky. Ally even made Becky a name tags that designated her the "helper".

The finished project:

Pretty neat!!