Monday, April 9, 2018

Celebrating Easter

I hope you had a great Easter! Holidays are the hardest for me when it comes to living so far away from home.  That being said, I try to make the holidays a little special for the girls which helps me take my mind off the fact that we live so far away and I get to focus on all the memories we are making with our kiddos. With that being said, here is a look at what our Easter looked like!

^ our Easter officially started when the Easter Bunny showed up with Easter baskets for the girls ;). ^
^ the Easter Bunny brought them some Shopkins and Hatchimals and it was fun to hear Emma exclaim, "it's like the Easter Bunny knew exactly what I wanted!". hahaha, kids are the best. ^
^ the girls were super excited about Easter this year and they were counting down to the big day. about 5:30, I heard Emma wake Everly up and tell her that it was Easter morning. we tried to get them to go back to sleep, but ten minutes later they were back up and ready to see what the Easter Bunny had left them. ^
^ she was pumped! ^
^ that smile!! ^
^ Everly couldn't believe she was going to get Shopkins of her very own! if you remember, Emma got some for her birthday and we have had a little bit of jealousy ever since. ^

^ they wanted to go out for the Easter Egg hunt right away, but since it was dark outside, we convinced them to wait until the sun came up. the minute it was peeking through - we were outside for the hunt! ^






^ I already mentioned this on Instagram, but long gone are the days of our slow and easy Easter egg hunts where the girls toddle around and can barely pick up all the eggs; this year definitely had more of an "off to the races" vibe. with a few hurt feelings mixed in. next year, I am going to do assigned colors so no one gets their feelings hurt. ^
^ after we got done, Ev's asked Wes if he had stayed up late to "catch" the Easter Bunny this year - he came through ;). ^

^ going through the loot. ^
^ you guys, we did all of that before the sun even really came up. mama needed a nap and it wasn't even 7:30. ^
^ Ally gave me a new cinnamon roll recipe where you let it rise over night and it is life changing (thinking I might post the recipe here at some point so I don't always have to refer to screenshots on my phone) so these sat out at room temperature and were ready to bake. also, I have officially decided, that homemade cinnamon rolls are my favorite treat to eat. ^


^ we got ready for gymnastics and had no trouble easily making it there by 9am (Emma rejoined Ev's class since we had afternoon plans). when we got home, I went to get my hair cut and the girls played around the house. ^
^ the girls dressed themselves (while I was gone) and they looked so cute when I got back, how could I not take a zillion pictures of them :). ^
^ new favorite picture of Everly :). ^
^ I love/adore/am obsessed with being a girl mom. ^

^ I always feel like I hit the jackpot with these two!! ^
^ when they said silly face picture, apparently all we know how to do is stick out our tongues. ^
^ Emma loves turning the side walk into her balance beam. ^
^ we have a beautiful cherry blossom tree in front of our neighborhood, so we walked over to take a few pictures. ^


^ how in the world did she get those long legs and where have her chubby baby legs gone! ^
^ we picked the cherry blossoms up from the ground and threw them in the air to mimic "snow". ^
^ haha, picture fail. ^

^ love this picture of them :). ^
^ my family :). ^
^ it was not all cherry blossoms and sunshine ;), classic Everly pout right here. ^
^ that was right before they gave me sweet embrace. as soon as I snapped this picture, Emma kissed Everly just so gently right on the tip of their nose. ^
^ back at the house, we worked on testing out our egg painting activity. Emma told me that morning, she wanted to paint eggs, so Wes hard boiled some eggs for our friends that were coming over. I thought we would just pull out our watercolors and let the kids go to town. Low and behold, we couldn't find our watercolors (and still haven't located them) so we had to pull out our paint sticks and make do ;). ^
^ I love that this guy has embraced my love of having people over - I love making sweet memories with him and our friends in our China house. ^
^ the eggs! ^


^ after we all ate, we had another egg hunt with the five kiddos! it was crazy and so much fun!! ^
^ after our friends left, we drove our scooters to get a view of the sunset. It was the perfect way to end Easter day. ^

Thursday, April 5, 2018

March Little Things | Part II

^ we got tickets to the China PGA for the third weekend in March! ^
^ I love these pear trees. ^
^ this girl is just so smiley. ^
^ I am not sure if they will always want to dress as twins so I am embracing it while it lasts. ^

^ I am not sure what Everly is doing in the background, but I love it!! ^
^ I guess that is what she was up too ;). ^
^ looking impossibly big! ^
^ running (as fast as she can go). ^
^ dancing ^
^ and rolling her eyes at mommy ;). ^


^ love these three pictures of Emma- need to find a place in her room for them when we get home! ^
^ an outfit change by Ev's (I honestly for the life of me cannot remember why she changed clothes) and back outside to wait for Ev's best friend and her family to come over (fun fact: Ev's best friends mom is Emma's teachers assistant that Emma adores!). ^
^ they were being extra affectionate. ^
^ trying to capture them with the cherry blossom tree. ^

^ watched them slow dance around the street until our friends arrived. ^

^ off we went to the golf expo. ^
^ we watched some golf (which was a little hard with all of the kiddos, but we managed). ^
^ back at our house, the kids rode bikes and put on their roller blades and then we shared a really nice meal together. ^

^ on Sunday morning, just Ev's and I went to her gymnastics class. ^
^ while Wes and Emma headed back to watch some more golf. ^
^ Ev's and I joined Wes and Emma when we got home from gymnastics. it looks like we have it all together here and we were not steaming mad at each other, but we were. the girls were over walking, we only had one stroller, and we could not get off this golf course to save our lives. or our sanity. we were OVER it. all of us. except Wes, who always remains level headed (bless him in this crazy house full of girls). ^
^ one of the happier moments. ^
^ back to gymnastics (which we nearly missed because we were stuck on that golf course!). after class, we rewarded ourselves with some mexican food and margaritas after our morning. ^
^ evening bike/scooter rides have been my favorite. ^
^ the cherry blossoms don't hurt the situation. ^
^ Ev's thought it was hilarious that her Lemur was "stuck" in a tree. ^
^ scooter rides * 2^
^ loved this picture from Emma's teacher - it was crazy hair day (we convinced her to not go too crazy because we were headed to Xi'an that afternoon). ^
^ took a high speed train to Xi'an (more on that to come). ^
^ back in Chengdu - after the 2016/2017 winter, I promised to never take blue sky days for granted. I think I am making good on my promise so far ;). ^
^ I love to see their imaginations work together. ^
^ flying the drone! ^


^ Emma taught us a new game where she writes her sight words (or just words from her books) on a piece of paper and she crumbles it up into a snow ball. after we each choose our snowball, we run around chasing each other. when you are hit with a snowball, you have to stop, open it up and read it. it has been so fun!! ^
^ Wes surprised the girls and went to lunch one day! sis had a scooter race so he went to watch her :).^
^ after we went to the dentist (the last Saturday of the month), the girls requested to go to the blue ball playground so off to the indoor playground we went! ^
^ riding bumper cars with daddy. ^

^ they played for hours - literally we had to insist it was time to leave - only pausing for a lunch break. p.s. I heard that five was the golden age, but really I think it might be six (I am loving this age with Emma!!). ^
^ near the end, Emma convinced me to go up on the slide with her - sure do love these girls and all the little things we get to do with each other every month. ^