Hawk Hunt 2013

On Friday of Spring Break week, we had the annual Hawk Hunt.  As I’ve mentioned in posts before, the Hawk Hunt is a very highly anticipated event each year.  The purpose of the original Hawk Hunt was just trying to find hawks in the sky, but each year it’s encompassed much more than that.  Each year there are fun activities that Mousey puts together for the girls, and this year was no exception.  The girls started by decorating Peeps to make a table centerpiece.

  

 

They had a nice lunch, then they got a special gift to help them remember they are unique and special.  The girls got a copy of the book, Only One You, which my mom read to them. Then she gave them each their own uniquely painted fish (which she made) to help them remember to celebrate their uniqueness.

  

After that, it was off to flying kites, hunting for hawks, and exploring in the woods.  Despite the fact that the weather was not the brightest, Nina and Lyla had a wonderful day and another great Hawk Hunt day with Mousey and their cousins!!

“Spring” Break

Although we’re technically on Spring Break this week, it doesn’t feel like spring!  It started out feeling kind of normal – a little coolish for March, but when we got the snow on Sunday night, that was just depressing in my opinion.

On Saturday afternoon we got a visit from Mousey.  The four of us girls walked up to Sweet Frog and did some chalk drawing in the driveway.

    

On Sunday, we got a visitor for a few days, Riley.  We’re watching our friends’ dog for a few days while they are away for spring break, so he seemed to enjoy all the good smells coming from Mark’s smoker as he made ribs for dinner that night.

   

We enjoyed a great evening of dinner, hanging out, and playing with our good friends, the Clarkes.  Nina had fun playing puppy peek-a-boo with Jonah, and all five kids had fun goofing around in the basement and just being kids.

 

The Clarkes left on Sunday night and the snow came.  I can’t believe we got several inches of snow and we’re past the middle of March!   We visited our cousins at Mousey and Poppy’s house yesterday to play in the snow, and we’ll see more of them today.  As far as having a dog in the house goes, Riley has been very easy and Nina has enjoyed it, but I think Riley really misses his family.  He perks up every now and then to get some attention and give doggie love, but I think he’ll be super happy to see his family come home tomorrow.

  

Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys…

…or Cowboy fans.  They might end up owing their friend a dinner at Reston Town Center for having a worse record than the Redskins.  As the blog is able to document so well, Mary stepped up with a challenge just before last year’s preseason starts.  As seen in the comments section of this post, she threw a bet out there from Dallas Nation.  As we all know in Redskins Nation, Dallas fans lost the bet of having the better record for last season, and Mary paid up tonight with dinner at Vapiano in Reston Town Center.  I had the host snap a picture with my phone so I could document the win and post it on the blog as an official win for Redskins fans.  It was a fun night with a great friend, and I didn’t even make her wear a Redskins hat all Saturday after the Super Bowl (but that would have been a great picture to go with this one!).

Family Time

To round out the weekend with the Williams family, we spent the afternoon on Sunday at Algonkian Park.  It was a beautiful day to enjoy doing anything outdoors. Days like yesterday make me so ready for spring to be here to stay.  Speaking of being here to stay, I know two little girls who are really excited to have their cousins back to stay!  They really enjoyed their time together.  We had a great weekend celebrating birthdays and spending time with family. 

More Celebrating

On Saturday evening we continued the birthday celebrations with dinner at my parents’ house.  Since we’re celebrating four March birthdays that all happen within  10 days of each other, we had a big family dinner to celebrate them all.

If you didn’t know already, Lyla loves jelly beans.  In particular, she loves Jelly Belly jelly beans.  Richelle found a Jelly Belly cupcake jelly bean holder for Lyla that she loves!  She also loves gardening and digging, so Mousey and Poppy got her a bin of her own gardening supplies.  She’ll love that as the weather gets warmer!

 

    

After dinner we were treated to a fabulous performance by the girls.  It’s never a dull moment when all the cousins get together! 

   

Lyla Turns 5!!!

It’s hard to believe, but our little Lyla turned five yesterday!!!  She has requested that we don’t call her “Little Lyla” anymore now that she’s a big five year old, so I guess that’s the last time that I can call her that.  Anyway, our Lyla turned five yesterday and had a little party with some of her friends.  We sprung Nina out of school early (since we were having a lunch time party), and since Lyla loves bunnies, that was the theme.

We had lunch, played games, ate cake, and played some more.  Even after her friends left, the party continued for Lyla because her cousins stayed for the rest of the day and a sleepover, so the festivities continued right into this morning.  Lyla shares a birthday with Bo, so he came by on his lunch break to see his birthday buddy!! 

We are truly blessed to have Lyla in our family.  She is so funny, sweet, thoughtful, and unique.  We love her so much, and we really enjoyed celebrating her yesterday.