Baby Goats!

 We are so in love with our baby goats!!!!! Ollie and Tillie are adorable and funny and keep us so entertained! They are dwarf Nigerian goats - birthday presents for the girls. We just had to wait a few weeks until they were old enough to be weaned. They are scared of us still, girls are working with them. As long as you have food/treats they love you.

Happy 14th Birthday Sophie & Grace!

 

Hard to believe my girls are 14! Time goes by so quickly. The biggest present Sophie and Grace got was baby goats! We went to pick them out, they are not old enough to leave mama yet. I forgot to get a picture! Grandma and Grandpa Smith bought them beautiful CTR rings. They had the girls choose which ones they wanted, it was really special. The girls had their friends over for a sleep over as a party. They watched Napoleon Dynamite and slept in the tent outside and ate a ton of junk food. The Friday before they went to an 8th Grade end of school dance. They have a great group of friends, sweet girls.

Sophie, Campbell, Abby, Erin, Olivia, Grace

It was Erin's birthday, her mom rented this van and the girls all went together to the dance and then to midnight laser tag. They were excited to beat a team of college aged boys, twice! Grace and Sophie walked across the field at 3am to sleep in their own beds - made me laugh! Everyone else stayed at Erin's (our neighbor).

Battle of the Books County Winners!

Grandma and Grandpa Smith sent the girls flowers from Russia! They had their regional BOB competition. Their team easily won the county competition, against 20 some other teams! They have worked hard to get ready - if reading awesome books is hard work! The regional comp. they got 2nd and were pretty disappointed. They felt like they could have done better - but I am so happy they were a part of the team. Man I love these girls!

Spring Break Beach

Gram and Papa came for Spring Break and we went to Emerald Isle. Our cute coral colored rental is in the background of the picture. We had so much fun! The weather was cool and sometimes cold. Luke and Grace still got in the water, crazy kids. The beach was beautiful and mostly empty of people. I love the Outer Banks for that. 

 
Jason, Papa and the boys went on a fishing charter. They had a blast and caught a ton of fish. We had yummy fish dinner when they got home.

This is Grace. The water was freezing, but she had to get in. I was in my down coat on the beach and she was playing in the waves. Luke got wet but didn't last anywhere near as long.

 

Good times! I am sad I didn't get a picture of everyone, especially the kids with Papa.

Luke & Noah 5th Grace DC Trip

Saeed, Noah, Luke in front of the White House.

I chaperoned the boys DC trip, it was just us and Saeed Farauki. He is a super nice kid, we have known him since 2nd grade so my job was easy and fun. Weather was a little cold, but we had a good time. 

 I love this Dr. King quote. The kids were doing a scavenger hunt at the different memorials. It was great, they actually had to pay attention and learn things.

Most of the group - crazy 5th graders! It is fun to see so many of the boys friends grown up. They were mostly fun to be with ;)

Grace dressed up as Cinder from the Lunar Chronicles for school character day. I was super impressed how she created a cyborg hand!

 
Luke's Basketball team, 2018

Grace's Honor Roll and special SOAR award, Sophie got the same awards - I didn't get a picure of hers, obviously. Boys both are on Honor Roll too. 

These girls!!! Abby is her beautiful self and my girls, while beautiful, are their crazy selves...

Grace, Sophie, Erin, Abby, Olivia and Campbell

These loud, fun silly girls spent the night at our house. They screamed to Taylor Swift, played with cats at this cafe, watched Princess Bride and did not sleep...much.

Atlanta Trip

After Christmas we made a quick trip to Atlanta. The kids have wanted to see the aquarium there for a long time. I think it is is funny that I didn't take a single picture there! They have this HUGE tank with whale sharks and a ton of other things. It was lots colder then usual for the South, we are cold wimps now too though.

Atlanta zoo has pandas! We only got to see this guys. The others were not out. A lot of the animals were inside because of the cold. Even things like the sun bears  - we were surprised and I really wanted to see one. We did get to see the naked mole rats though - Sophie was thrilled, she had been looking forward to it.

 
 So we had no idea that downtown Atlanta was a huge tourist destination. It was crazy! I tried to show a pic of the line to get in to the Coke museum - we had expedited passes because I bought them online luckily. People were waiting and hour and half to get it! We were confused at how big of a deal it was? And then it turns out that this is not really a museum at all. It is a huge long commercial for Coke. I felt a little like I was in a sci fi movie getting brainwashed...the funnest part was trying over 100 kinds of soda from around the world. We had fun - but it was weird. Like a temple to Coke. Jason and I looked up all the info about Coke that we wanted to learn back at the hotel on Wikipedia.

 

Our hotel was across the street from the College Football Hall of Fame. We are not into college football enough for it to be super awesome, but it was still fun. The boys loved this interactive field where you could kick and throw. I loved the ChickFiLa that was delicious and cheap. Atlanta is now checked off the bucket list. Way to crowed to really enjoy if I am honest, but we did have fun and it was nice to get away as a family.