Frozen

 Ryan and I sat quietly through a whole movie in a theater! Frozen was amazing, we've been singing the songs constantly. Even Ryan belts the words to Elsa's power ballad. I totally want to see it on Broadway, and I totally recognized that Elsa's voice is the same as Elphaba's voice in Wicked. Ridiculous. Amazing.

Playing Catch

Baseball will be a mandatory sport for Ryan, because, well, just look at him!  It's too early to tell if we can force him to be a southpaw, but Dad says using duct tape to secure the right hand behind his back is taking it too far. 

  Dad says I have excellent mechanics for throwing and catching, but I need to work on patience and practice. Apparently I inherited Mom's tendency to become furious when I can't do something perfectly on the first try. She said this trait will help me kill it when they put me on a Little League team! 

Movie Night

 Dad and I went to Daddy Daughter Movie Night at my school. We set up beach chairs and watched Despicable Me 2 outside in the pavilion. Dad said I bounced around like the mayor, hugging friends in the crowd like I owned the place. Then, of course, we had to stop for ice cream and send Mom a selfie. She and Ryan had their own fun in Piderman pajamas watching Zathura for the hundredth time!

Spa Day

Keeley's birthday party was what I call bliss- 

a morning at the spa with girlfriends.

We were pampered with hand massages

and facials.

Then came the beautiful part: sparkly nails,

sparkly makeup,

and professional princess hair.

Poppy was there to document the event with his video camera... I think boys probably don't choose a spa day for their birthday parties.

But we girls love it!

Then it was Chik Fil-A nugget and birthday cupcake time. Seriously, perfection.

We were so glad to share this day with Keeley- she's a big 5 year old now!

Plus, we got the bonus of girl time together while Dad entertained Ryan at the middle school gym.

Playdate

First rule of traveling with kids: Keep them busy until they pass out from exhaustion at bedtime. The Children's Museum was the perfect spot to let them go crazy. 

The dinosaur fossil area was cool.

And the big T-rex was scary cool.

There were tons of fun things to explore together.

The music area was fun, especially the dancing part.

And the rooftop where it was so cold. So, this is what real winter feels like!

 We literally had to squeeze quality time out of every single moment in our blitz visit, including lunch at a restaurant sitting at our very own kid's table. Our parents are BRAVE.

 We took Ryan to see the Chattanooga Choo Choo and had to drag him away, screaming, because he wanted to stay there forever.

 I got to show Marmee how I've been practicing my reading skills.

 And I got a sweet hug from my perfectly squishy great grandmother.

Georgia Cousins

Our 48 hour visit to Georgia was a blur, a really fun blur! We wanted to stay longer, but the threat of rain and freezing temperatures prompted Mom and Dad to get on the road a day earlier than planned. They learned their lesson in the Blizzard of 2010 to travel before bad weather. But that meant we didn't get to see all the people we wanted to see. So, we're planning a summer trip for a whole week and calling it Camp Georgia.

We made it in time for Keeley's birthday dinner, where I got to reconnect with my crazy cousins.  

I loved hanging out with them and eating all of the yummy sweets.

Ryan loved playing with Brady and connecting with his boy cousins.

Mom and Aunt Jenny got into a competition over their shared obsession with photography. 

Each tried to capture the most treasured moments happening among the kids.

Mom said she wins with this picture of the boys:

Because Ryan and Brady idolize Jakob.

The boys had a great time as Jakob lead them in a game of hide and seek. They took counting VERY seriously: "1,2,6,7,10, here I come!"

Ryan got to spend a little time with his great grandmother, trying to charm his way into the Favorite Great Grandchild position currently occupied by sweet Brady.

But the highlight of Ryan's visit was meeting Jack Jack the cat! Dad loved him, too, until the furry Satan triggered a terrible allergy attack.