Saturday, April 23, 2011

Quotes from yesterday...

"I know!  We can just take a secret passageway to Berrien Springs!"--Amalia

"Mommy, don't put Carrigan in that green seat.  Hata and Hoshish are sitting there"--Brinnly

"Poop! Potty!" --Carrigan  (even better, she was right--diaper free house, here we come!)

Carnegie Mellon Carnival 2011

Jack and Mali check out the Harold & the Purple Crayon booth
Racing cars

Carrigan is always impressed by stairs

Jack kept pushing his mama's hand away so he could hold onto a "Ward-Girl"

Toy Story never fails to impress

Carrigan's favorite character

Mali loved the fact that Barbie's tub was filled with cotton balls

I still think they are too young to know who Barbie is

First Ride--the Carousel!

Next up, the Ferris Wheel.
"We can see all of Oakland!"--Mali

And of course, motorcyles.  Here's Brinn and Gail.



Baby's First Ride.  She loved it!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Happy Birthday Kellie

She's usually the one capturing the moment and appropriately documenting it, but for today, the Wards wanted to take time to say a special happy birthday wish to our dear friend  Kellie.

Kellie, thanks for opening your home to us for weeks on end (Literally-- Jonathan lived there for two weeks this winter!), Thanks for cooking us soups and pound cakes, sharing chocolate, schooling along side of us and always saying the right things that we need to hear.  Thanks for putting up with 8:00 am phone calls from Mali, slow runs through Shenley Park, and even Brinnly's newborn screams back in the day.  You encourage us on a daily basis and our lives here are brighter because of you. If we can't be in Michigan for this season of our life, we're happy field tripping with the Ryans.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Grandma Deni and Aunt Amber Come to Town

First up, lunch in the Strip Distict.  Brinn was enthralled by the fiddlers.

Then a tour of the great stores.  Yum, cheese.

A hidden fountain downtown

We took both the subway and the incline for this amazing view

Our group on Mt. Washington

Don't they look like sister and brother?

Not mention, mother and son.

There was lots of dancing involved.  There always is.

And of course, a lemon cake for Grandma Deni's birthday.  Have we mentioned how much we love company?

Big Exciting News!

We have a new title...landlords!  Thanks to many helping hands that prepped our GR house ready to be place on the market, we finalized the lease details last week.  In case you haven't heard, the market in Michigan is still pretty dismal right now, so we are relieved to be able to find great tenants that are excited to live in the place that we used to call home.  Feel free to drive past there and report to us if the lawn is being mowed and sidewalk shoveled!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Grandpa Gregg and Grandma Sandy Come to Town

First order of buisness--Grandpa's birthday cake

Carrigan approved

Fun in the garage at the Children's Museum

Carrigan is thrilled to have a rainbow dress of her own

Mali did great buidling in the water room

I love love love the design in that place

I also love love love these people

And we all love love love hosting our family. 

Monday, April 11, 2011

Spring so far

We have been blessed with loads of houseguests lately so I have many, many pictures to post soon.  With two grandparent birthdays in spring (Grandpa Gregg and then Grandma Deni) this is always a busy time of organzing, hosting, cake-baking, and of course, celebrating. 

In the midst of all of it, our girls are growing like the weeds in our front yard.  Carrigan is experiencing a word explosion.  Her first real sentence was "All done cotton candy!" after devouring a cotton-candy flavored popsicle. (Side note--who ever dreamed up that flavor?).  Brinnly is spending a lot of time reading aloud to herself.  She occasionally gets a word or two correct.And our Amalia....she's inching closer to five all the time. During the regular Easter dress shopping excursion with Grandma Sandy, she tried on no less than eight dresses. The grown-ups all loved her in a bright orange and pink polka-dotted beauty. But alas, no. It was dubbed too "casual", not "spinny" or "princessy" enough. A pale, more subdued number won her over. Thankfully we talked her out of anything with the pricey, poorly-designed "Cinderalla" label on it. She'll be an Easter princess nonetheless.