Another one of me and my birthday girl

A beautiful Sunday afternoon in  Frick Park...this sweet girl loved the trails, the creek, and soaking it all up. Me too.

Celebrating Carrigan

Like any Ward girl, Carrigan knows how to stretch out a good birthday celebration.  We were thrilled to have family in town for her actual big day.  Uncle Dell, Aunt Julie, Trent, and Lauren were great sports about letting us take them sigh-seeing through all of our favorite Pittsburgh spots (Carrigan loved getting DRENCHED in a fountain downtown) and then we headed home for a meal of Carrigan's choice--pizza.  But really, her favorite thing was her "Cake"..a watermelon fruit salad that the girls had found a recipe for on HighlightsKids.com.  She loved it so much that she hardly even  took a bite of her German Struesel Coffee Cake the next morning and instead kept eating fruit.  Her play-doh machine, Tell-Tale Game, princess magnet toys, and new hair bows were much appreciated too (she's a gracious girl) but oh, did she love that fruit. 
A few days later we headed to Great Wolf Lodge for some more extended family fun.  And from there to Indiana for a few nights at a lake house that Josh and Kara rented.  Carrigan opened up new nightgowns, a fairy-tale book, and a scooter complete with accessories.  What fun!  More pictures to come!

Four

It's official--the Ward family no longer has a three-year-old in the house! But we do have the cutest, sweetest, blond-haired, blue-eyed four year old in the world in our midst.  Four years ago today, our Midwife handed us our third little princess and I was honestly so overcome with gratitude that I cried and cried.   Yes, we were in a difficult season of life at that point with job concerns, etc.--even her labor and delivery had been complicated with two different hospitals and insurance fiascos.  It was all we could do to finalize a name for her!  But none of that seemed to matter when we met that lovely babe.  We knew she was special from the start.

This was a challenging but good year for our peach.  She started preschool, but honestly, it came hard to her at times.  She enjoyed helping in the Toddler class or playing at home with Delaney. She plays hard, that one.  Toy horses, stuffed animals, tricycle, puzzles, books, etc.--she really loves them all and it quite content to entertain herself.  She's also on to entertain the rest of us with her silliness and antics. But most weekend afternoons you can still find her curled up with her daddy at naptime--snoozing away, just the two of them.

One of my favorite things about our squeeze-muffin in her prayer-warrior quality.  Have you been having a tough time lately?  Sickness?  Job changes? Family stress?  Don't worry--Carrigan most likely has brought up your name at bedtime prayers even if the rest of us have let it slip our minds.  What a tenderheart at times.  She's brave too--the youngest member of the cast of the Wizard of Oz didn't let any shyness come across on that stage. We'll see what the next year's adventures will bring for her.

Carrigan Grace Ward, you have taught us so many things as you have broken the "Ward Girl" mold in your little individual way.   We love you so much little dinosaur--the next time I get back in from a run, I'm going to give you a big sweaty hug, just to hear your "Ew!" in your sweet voice again.  God has  richly blessed our family through you.

More summer fun

So, I've recently upgraded to a smartphone and it is currently rivaling my Kindle Fire for favorite possession ever.  One of my goals for it was to be able tor really use it like a second camera and I've finally learned how to transfer pictures on it to Picasa.  Here's proof--and more examples of what fun we've been having this summer. 

 Chuck E. Cheese for Mali's birthday with friends

 Fun new bead crafts

 Fourth of July outfits (One of Laney's all-time favorite phrases is "SO pretty!")

 

And friends, family, football, and fireworks.  A grand old time.  We bypassed bedtime and took the older girls to fireworks this time to hang out with the Snyders as well.  Brinnly drew looks and comments from other spectators as she exclaimed "Merry Christmas" for any red/green firework displays or "Happy Easter" for pastel combinations. I wouldn't be surprised if we weren't invited back there...

A boat in the family!

I have more pictures to download still from our Michigan trip this past week, but here are a few from our picture-perfect day on Kara and Josh's new boat.  Delaney was far from sure about it for the first bit, but even she grew to like it.  The bigger girls  (all three of them!) loved tubing and stayed on it for quite some time.  I'm pretty sure that the boat was fastest during my turn though although they claim that even Carrigan was braver than I was about it.  We look forward to more boating fun ahead!

A day in the life

We seem to be asked regularly if we are on our way to or from dance or gymnastics class.  No, this is just what  life looks like around here.

Celebrating Mali

 A few days before her actual birthday, Mali and Grandma Sandy had their annual lunch date to Red Lobster.  Then, true to her form, Mali had specific plans for June 26, 2013.  Opening gifts was first on the list.

 She received map tools to help with with her History/Culture/Cooking camp she is super-excited for this summer.  Jonathan was more than willing to throw in a free geography lesson with that.  Laney wasn't too impressed.

 The meals were a main highlight of the day.  Oatmeal Bake for breakfast, Sushi for lunch, and the grand finale was Split Pea Soup for dinner.  All of her favorites.  Seriously!

 We capped off that night at our pool with some store-bought pound cake to share with friends after swim lessons. Yum!

 But that wasn't all...we traveled to Michigan a few days later where we had her "Fun and Floats" party at Fuller's Campground.  So fun to try out a place that Jonathan had loved as a kid. 

There was inner-tube floating as well as root-beer floats for our seven year old. A great time to soak up sunshine and special moments with family.  Happy Birthday again dear Amalia.  Thanks for including us in so much fun.

Seven

 

Seven years ago today we met a beautiful, bold little girl with brown hair curls that changed life as we knew it.  Honestly, not too much has changed about that sweet girl in the past seven years! Sure, she is older, wiser, and bigger but we feel that we had her pegged early in that hospital room as she looked around the place with confidence, ready to meet the world.  And eat a cheeseburger.  :)

This year has been a good one for our Mal-Doll.  She loved first grade and excelled in the structure of school  Honestly, she never gave us too many problems about the early wake-up and bus rides into school.  She likes a schedule, that girl.  (She even prefers to rotate her school uniforms and hairstyles on a specific schedule!) She learned to read, although she'd never admit that she finds pleasure in it.  That's fine--we'll read aloud to her as long as she'll allow us to.  We don't want her to grow up TOO quickly.

And besides, who has time for things like reading?  There's always science experiments to undertake, gymnastics performances to be practiced, and plans to be orchestrated. She's a schemer, that's for sure.  But in the midst of that she's learning to be sensitive to her sisters and has even grown in her affection-tolerance with her parents. Her report card noted that she's kind to others and we pray that her love for Jesus and the people around her will grow as well.

These days she's still loving the color turquoise, swimming, swinging, baking, singing (especially in church), Magic Tree House, and anything she can watch or do on a screen.  She's our most extroverted--the more friends around, the better.  

Amalia June, we are blessed beyond measure to have you as our daughter.  You fill our lives with laughter (louder than your dad's sometimes) and well-planned adventure.  We thank God for the good gift he gave us in you.