Picture Book Winner!

Last Fall, Abby entered a Picture Book contest sponsored by our local library. A few months ago, we found out that she had taken 2nd place in the Grades 2-3 category for the entire county. She was so excited!!

On Thursday, May15th we attended a special award reception at the Library for all of the winners. Abby did a great job presenting her book and enjoyed reading and listening about the other winners and their stories.

Winners from all the categories (Grades 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-12 and Adult)

(This picture of all the winners was also included in the newspaper...another exciting event for Abby!)

The next day we headed back to the Library for their monthly LEGO build (can you tell we LOVE our local library?!?!) This time the object was to build an animal or habitat. Landon built a farm, Abby built a zoo, and Nolan...well he just had a good time using all the different LEGO pieces!

Second Graders Go to the Zoo!

All of the second graders at Paramount Elementary went on a field trip to the Washington DC zoo on Tuesday, May 13th. I wasn't able to go, but my neighbor was kind enough to send me pictures of their fun day!

Abby and her two best friends Amanda and Sydney (they both live in our neighborhood too!)

She sure has a fun little group of friends!!

She had a blast and loved telling us about every detail from her trip!!

Talent Show

Abby performed in the school talent show on Friday, May 9th. She had originally wanted to sing "Let It Go" (like everyone else at school) but they were only allowing one act per song this year (thank you, thank you think you!! There were way too many renditions of "Call Me Maybe" last year!!) She got together with three of her little friends and they performed "In Summer."

They created a whole dance routine to it as well as did all the singing to the karaoke version of the song...

Unfortunately the microphones weren't really working well so it was hard to hear them, but they sure looked cute  with their matching outfits and adorable dance moves. 

I love how Abby adores performing in front of people. She definitely doesn't get that from me!!

Gender Reveal...

We went in on Thursday, May 8th for the anatomy scan. I am always a bit nervous for this ultrasound, just hoping that everything looks normal and the baby is healthy. We didn't find out the gender with baby #3 (Nolan) since we already had one of each, but Abby was extremely anxious to find out the gender as she had been praying and hoping for a little sister for quite some time. Landon was hoping for another girl and Nolan was just excited to see the baby in my belly!! Abby and Landon were in school but Nolan was able to go with us and he loved watching the baby on the screen move all around inside of me!!

The baby looks perfect and was able to give us a pretty good shot of what the gender is too!!

After dinner that night, we gave each child a cupcake with a little surprise inside...

They enjoyed licking the frosting until it was "go time!"

Then they dug right in...

And Abby discovered what was inside first...

Showing off the pink icing inside!!

A cupcake helped ease the sting of not getting another boy!!

And Nolan couldn't care less about what was inside the cupcake, he just enjoyed devouring it!!

Yup...it's a GIRL!!

And we couldn't be more thrilled!!

First Communion

A couple of Saturdays ago, Abby and I attended the first communion for several of her friends from school as well as one of our neighbors. I have been inside several Catholic churches before on my mission, but had never attended an actual Mass before, so it was interesting to see what it was like.

Here's a little picture of Abby and her friend Ava. There were probably around 40 children doing their first communion that day and Abby loved the veils that all the little girls were wearing!

After the Mass, we headed to our neighbors for a big Brazilian feast. Our neighbor is an amazing cook and loves to entertain which is perfect since our family really likes to eat!! It was amazing and made me miss a lot of things about my mission. We sure do love having great neighbors!!

Lego Lovers

Another fun day at the Library for their monthly LEGO build activity. This time we were given the assignment to build a boat that would float on water.

There was a lot of attention to detail..

Some intense concentration...

And careful selection of pieces...

We sure do love our Library!!

Antietam Recreation

After our morning at Antietam Battlefield, we headed on over to the Free Family Day at Antietam Recreation, a summer daycamp chock full of fun activities. We had never been there before, but when I see something is free and includes ziplining, horseback riding and boating, I am ALL over it!!

We started out at the ziplines and after a bit of trepidation at first, Abby and Landon fell in love with it!!

Then we headed over to the water area where these three enjoyed a fun boat/water slide.

Then the whole family completed the water cargo walk...

And did a little canoeing too..

Then it was time to head over to the horses for some riding fun!!

The petting zoo was quite a hit too, especially those furry little bunnies!

The final part was a tractor ride over to the river swing...

And rope swing!!

Needless to say, we had an amazingly fun day. We have signed up Landon for a week here during the summer while Abby will be attending an "American Girls Doll" program at the local community college during the same week. It will give them something to look forward to after our many family vacations in June (We will be gone almost the entire month and see all of our family members while we're at it!!)

Antietam Junior Rangers

The Antietam Battlefield is located just 20 minutes from our home and was offering a "Junior Ranger" program on the last Saturday in April. It had been a while since we had taken the kids so we thought this was a good reason to go back. We started off with a scavenger hunt, looking for different items and symbols around the battlefield and on the various cannons positioned throughout the area. After completing the scavenger hunt, they were awarded with "official" Antietam Junior Ranger Badges (that they ended up wearing most of the day...they were pretty proud of those things!)

Then it was time for the shooting demonstrations, complete with several Civil War reenactors. They demonstrated the steps you would go through in firing a Civil War style musket, and then they gave each child a wooden musket to try out...

Landon was especially pleased when the instructor gave him the "best handler" nod for that day!

Nolan was terrified of the real muskets firing, but when he realized the wooden ones wouldn't make that loud bang, he was all over them!

After the muskets, we headed over to the cannons where we learned about each step that went into firing it. Abby was in charge of cleaning the cannon out and then pushing "the cannon ball" down into the chamber...

Then Landon got to pull the string that ignited the cannon and yelled "FIRE!" (He loved that!!)

Of course Nolan wanted in on the action too!!

It was a great way to enjoy one of the many historical sites in this area as well as the beautiful spring weather!!