a mini vacation

 The girls earned a trip to Pottery Bayou to create some Christmas ornaments.

 Anna chose an owl.

 Maria picked a snowman.

 I did help Anna bit.

 Posing with their creations.

 We headed to Indy on Saturday and stopped at Fort Harrison State Park to play, eat a picnic lunch and attempt to hike.  The girls didn't last long.

 But they did have fun playing.

 They had a really cool slide in the side of the hill.

 Daddy even tried it out.

 Our next destination was to Elisabeth's 6th birthday party.  The girls were friends back in Culver, but we haven't seen them since we moved.  It was a surprise for both girls!

 The four girls!

 My good friend Kim.

 The were so excited to stay in a hotel, especially to go swimming.

 We spent Sat. night visiting with friends and swam in the morning and then we went to visit some other friends.  We ate lunch with them and then hit the road.

We had to stop along the way for a short treat diversion.  Can anyone figure out where this is?  Maria is only slightly covering the town's name, but it's the specific place we stopped that had us driving a bit out of the way to stop.
We have plenty to praise God for; a chance to get away as a family and see some friends. 

bouncing and teeth!

 Oh bouncy houses are so much fun!

Love the crazy face she makes to show me her 2nd lost tooth.(yes, I gave it the final yank again!)  Just for kicks I looked up when she got these teeth and it was almost exactly 5 years ago, only off by 2 days and the 1st tooth was off by a month from when she got it.  Let's see about the top teeth, if they follow the pattern they should be around Jan/Feb.

school days

We received Anna's preschool pictures today, and I may be biased, but I do think we have the cutest girls ever!

And them I had to get Maria's preschool pictures and compare the two. Definitely sisters! 

And then I realized that I don't think I ever posted Maria's school picture this year. 

We have plenty to praise God for; the blessing of these two beautiful girls, inside and out.