Birthday for 2

Today was the day that Abby has been anticipating for weeks, her birthday!
My little sister is now 6 and is already able to read, where has the years gone?
It seems like just yesterday that she was 5 days old!
Dad also celebrated a birthday this week ( he half way to 90!). He would not pose for a birthday picture so you will have to be content with Abby's. I will post some party pictures tomorrow.

Our Easter Celebration

We started our Easter weekend on Friday by coloring eggs with children. They had a great time and came up with some beautiful colors. After the eggs were done Dad wrote our names on them to use for place cards for our Easter dinner. The menu for the our special dinner was: Ham balls,mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, squash, bread, and grape juice. For dessert we had coconut cake, it was a recipe that a friend had given us and it turned out unbelievable! Below is a photo montage of the different activities that we did.

Below are some pictures of the children when they
opened up their chocolate bunnies!

A Mount Vernon Adventure

I am trying to stay awake as I write this.
I am still trying to get over the lack of sleep caused by our 3:45 wake up time for this field trip and it's 11:00 p.m. bedtime (the three boy's school was taking the trip and Mom,Dad,and I were along as chaperone's and Abby came along for the ride). I will say it was all worth it.
Our group of 56 left the school parking lot at 5:00 a.m. for Mount Vernon (George Washington's Estate) in the old mission bus.
We arrived at 8:30 a.m. and were on of the first groups through the mansion.
I was a little disappointed at how quickly the guides pushed us through, I could have spent most of the day just admiring the beautiful rooms. We then took some group photos on the front lawn, and took a hike down to the waterfront and the pioneer farm, with it's round wheat barn.
Next we toured the artifact museum, which held personal pieces of clothing, jewelry, maps,ect. .
It was fascinating, but the alarm system was so sensitive that if you even leaned on the glass barrier it would go off with the loudest ringing noise I have ever heard. Well this only served to interest a few of the children more than the actual exhibit thus the Siren went off multiple times while we were in those rooms. After a picnic lunch by the bus, we enjoyed an interactive museum. It had many wax figures and mini movies playing which the children really enjoyed.
Dad,Mom and I were asked to help with the 1st and 2nd grade class so we took them to the children's section were they could dress up and take pictures. Then after a quick tour of the gardens we met up for our Slave tour. We were separated into 2 groups and went on an 1 1/2 tour all about George Washington's Slaves. We toured their houses and heard all about their lives and jobs. This was one of my favorite things we did that day.
I was very pleased with our day and I really enjoyed the whole day.
After supper at Wendy's we arrived back at school at 10:30 p.m. .
I was sure glad to get home to bed! I have some people pictures but if you want to see more pictures check out Noah's blog.

It sure was a full house!

Getting through the gates

Since there were 27 elementary student each one was given a letter of the alphabet
and for check up the would line in alphabet order to make sure we had everyone!

Isn't to cute!

Just before our tour we took a break on the front lawn

Abby liked taking pictures while the boys played recess

Here our group meets our tour guide

Here we are outside the managers house

These children are enthralled with the Blacksmith

Just about ready to say goodbye.

If you have ever been to Mount Vernon leave a comment and tell me about it!