Mr. Potato Head Exhibit at The McWane Center

My friend, Summer, and I took our 5 kids to the "science museum" this morning. Most of the exhibits are the same, but this summer they have brought in all things Mr. Potato Head. The 4 girls had a blast doing the regular things and some of the newer things. Ethan was just along for the ride. He loved watching the balls fly through the machine box in the lobby :-). After the McWane Center we braved Chick-fil-A at lunch rush-hour. All I can say is that we were all completely wiped out when we arrived home 5 hours later!!

Allison playing in the water at "Just My Size"

Playing in PURPLE sand! Emily was in heaven!!!

Allison taking Emily for a ride on the Potato Safari.

Ethan was there too. He was a real trooper and did great!

Allison and Campbell digging for dinosaur bones. Notice Campbell's feet on Allie B.'s back?? She didn't want to get them dirty ;-)

All the girls were all talk about meeting Mr. Potato Head. I was taking Ethan to meet him, but Allison wanted to be held at the same time. So, here I am holding 50+ pounds - WHEW!! He was cute though!

Princess Dance Camp 2010

Last week Emily participated in Princess Dance Camp sponsored by Vestavia Dance. She had an absolute ball. I didn't think she would dance for the crowd on the last day, but she did better than I thought. I didn't get too many snapshots. I had my hands full with the video camera and shoveling snacks into the mouths of the other two! All the little girls were adorable and now we are looking forward to starting dance in the fall!

Allison and Ethan were there to watch........with snacks in hand, of course!!

Emily and her sweet friend Savannah.

The Basgier and Kiel sisters - together again!

Gia came to Em's performance and brought her flowers! Gia is so special to us. P.S. - I think they look like twins in this picture.

Such a proud mommy!

Ballerinas!

Emily has been going to Princess Dance Camp this week. She loves it. She has learned the routine and dances all over the house. Hopefully, this will be a good start in getting her ready for ballet next year! Of course, Allison has to play the part too. She has enjoyed taking and picking big sister up and seeing all of the "real" ballerinas. Such a cutie! I'm sure I'll have more pictures coming - we get to watch the girls tomorrow during their final class.

Best friends forever!

Angelic

My little ballerina!

Emily's 4th Birthday Party!

Emily had her 4th birthday party at Overton Park last Saturday. It started at 10:00 and it was already close to 90 degrees. It was very hot but the kids didn't seem to mind one bit. She is a very lucky girl to have such a great group of friends! We all had a wonderful time!

CUPCAKES = Yummy

With sprinkles = even better!!

We had the whole park to ourselves....I'm guessing the heat kept everyone away.

Sweet girl friends......Harper, Ava, Emily, and Savannah.

Emily and her twin (Daddy) and her very tired and sweaty brother!

It rained the last 30 minutes of the party. We were VERY thankful for the summer shower to cool us off!!

BIG sisters: Emily and Savannah LITTLE sisters: Campbell and Allison

Ethan gets a post!

My little man doesn't seem to make many blog posts, so here's his chance! This is his buddy, Ben. Ben's daddy, Bryan, and Mark are good friends. The two of them came over last week while we were moving in and let the kids play. Ben is about 5 months younger than Ethan. They had a fun time!

Ethan has the orange star....Ben wants it....

Ethan sharing with Ben.

Both boys are happy! (Ethan obviously got the star back, but now he's hiding it!)

One Cheerleader and a Tiana

Thanks to Aunt Lorrie, the girls have two new dress-up outfits. Allison got the cheerleader costume, complete with pom-poms and a hair bow. Emily got the costume from The Princess and the Frog. I think we just lack one princess dress now! Enjoy the pictures!

"Ready! OK!"

Em showing off her beautiful dress!

Cheerleader pose! Following in mommy's footsteps. Maybe I'll get at least one cheerleader...

She loves to have her dress "swirl" around her.

Summer Fun!

The girls and I spent a couple of hours outside this afternoon while Ethan was napping. He always seem to miss out on the fun. He really doesn't; it's just when he's up and I have all 3, I can't take pictures because I'm already juggling a million things at once! They had so much fun and enjoyed being outside and not sweating to death. It's been in the low 90s already this week! Soon we will have our new swim passes so we can enjoy our neighborhood pool. Enjoy these sweet pictures of my two best friends!


Priceless!

LOVE!

Even her facial expressions make me laugh!

Happy 4th Birthday Emily!

My first baby turned 4 today. Holy cow! Where has the time gone??! She had a great day and tons of phone calls. Every call I had today was for her. It's so fun listening to her conversations - she's so grown up. She chose chick-fil-a for her birthday dinner.....conveniently enough, it was the opening day of the spicy chicken sandwich! YUM! We will have her party once we get settled in to the house and I can get everything organized - like finding the guest list we completed a few weeks ago. Happy Birthday baby girl. You have such a wonderful personality and you are so incredibly smart. You make us laugh harder than we ever thought possible. We are so proud to be your parents.

Princess Ariel. She is "swimming" in this photo.

She looks JUST like her daddy in this picture.

Nana and Papa are also out of town (on a boat) so we celebrated with them Saturday night. She got this Ariel costume and lots of other fun stuff. Can you tell she is really into dress-up these days??

Saying Good-Bye

The Kiel family has said farewell to our first house. It was our first house after we got married and the house we brought each child home to. It was a bittersweet weekend. 1212 was a great house for our little family....then everyone got bigger!!! Anyway, we are very excited to move on to bigger and better (?) things. ;-)


Emily was hugging her old door. So sweet! I think Allison is taking it the hardest. She cries at least twice a day wanting to take her bed and her toys to her old house. Just breaks my heart everytime. Hopefully, once we get moved in to the new house she'll be ok. I'm sure she will!

The girls waving good-bye to the house.

The Kiels (minus Ethan) before we drove away with the last load. Ethan was already asleep. I wish he was in this picture, too.

Barbie: The Bride

Since Gia will be out of town (in Peru) for Emily's birthday, she and Em had a girls day out. They went for tea and then went shopping......LOTS of shopping. Emily picked out this Barbie Bride costume. She really thought she was getting married. You should have seen her looking at herself in the mirror. I had to take some pictures so I could have them for her real wedding day! Thanks to Gia for treating our princess like a queen!


Showing off her DIAMOND!