Happy Easter!

My last update was right after Zoey's birthday, so I have a lot of catching up to do and LOTS of pictures.  We had professional pictures for Zoey's birthday.  A lot of great shots, but here are some favorites.

Nick's Aunt Tracy and Uncle Bruce came through again and stayed with us for a few days.  It was a blast!  The girls adored them.  They were such good sports, reading bedtime stories, playing games, even watching a flag football game.  We hope they will visit again soon!

I took another photography course, a 3 hour one.  So I have been practicing and trying to get better.

Sam has been playing flag football.  Her team has lost only one game.  Nick is the assistant coach.  Sam is a super fast rusher.

Doesn't she look fierce :)

Right after pulling a flag.

My friend (her daughter is on the team, and her husband is the head coach) caught this image.  Zoey plays with her son and wanted him to hold her baby, she yelled across the field.  She also made him sit down to hold the doll.  They both snack their way through the games.  My mom helps a lot in keeping them fed so I can watch and photograph.

Sam made a leprechaun trap for school.  We painted it gold, Nick (and Sam) made a ladder and we made a shelf with gold coins and she glued on a free gold sign.

Sam's Spring School picture.  They got to wear whatever clothes they wanted, but the background was so weird.

The girls tried astronaut ice cream.

We had bunny pictures done.  The last time Zoey was so young and ran away from the bunny.

Story time at the library.

Fluffy stuff.

A bubble playdate.

We also ventured back over to Hobe Sound to meet up with the Woods.  We even let Sam skip a day of school since our Spring Break did not line up and our weekend was so busy that we could not get over there until Sunday.  It was a blast.

Zoey and Charlie mainly stayed on the sand.

Sam and Izzy braved the waves and had a wonderful time.

Sammy the fish!

My sensitive girl watching Frozen.

Sam got a new bike, but it is a little big.  So we, mostly Nick, have been working to get her used to balancing.  Hopefully she will be riding soon.

Zoey has been zooming on the trike and once Sam is on her new bike, she will get the spiderman one.

We have had a few Easter events.  We did an egg hunt at the YMCA.

Sam was also in a live Easter/Resurreciton Eggs performance.  She wrapped Jesus in cloth.

And it was followed by an egg hunt.

 Zoey found a huge pile and picked only 3 eggs.  Maybe she heard you had to count them or maybe she just wanted as many as she is years old.

I hope everyone has an amazing Easter.  Love from the Southern Kellings

Zoey's birthday

We have made it through the holiday and birthday season.

Zoey had several chances to be celebrated.  She got presents at Nana and Papa's.

We went out to dinner at guess where, Red Elephant.

She opened presents from us and other friends and family.

 This picture cracks me up.  Sam wanted to read the beanie baby bear's tag and Zoey said no and made up something.  Sam is actually looking at me, but it looks like she is rolling her eyes.  Being a big sister can be tough and she may have felt this way.

Then we had a small party.  It was Doc McStuffin's themed.  There was a check up station. The kids also enjoyed our play structure.  Zoey was in near constant motion and would not pose for me at all.

We pulled out the roller coaster toy.

And of course there was swinging.

Zoey picked out a cake mix and a frosting kit with sprinkles.  She loved it even though I tried to sway her to a different one with less red food coloring.

Happy Birthday to an amazing kid.  We love you!  We also went to the doctor and she is 38 inches tall (73%) and 28.5 lbs (26%).  Sam is now 39th height and 35 weight.  Zoey is taller and heavier than Sam was at 3.

Zoey is impressive!

Zoey has been attending Nana school and is making great progress.  I have been trying to upload a video, but it keeps failing.  So here is a link of Zoey reading sentences.  

http://youtu.be/5IZfJjRIbCY

Also, a couple of cute Zoey stories.

We were waiting on Nick the other day and she called him Nick.  She told me it was his middle name, when I said it was not, she said yes, his name was Daddy Nick Kelling. 

And when Nick asked her if she liked being 3, she said no.  And he asked why not, she said 2 was comfortable.

Valentine's Day and President's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day with PALS.  No good shots of both girls together, but here is one of Sam.

We did a craft with glitter.  Sam was gathering it, so I thought she could throw it up for a picture.  It is still in her hair!

Zoey did a silly head tilt.

We got to join Sally, Scott, Izzy and Charlie at the beach for president's day weekend.  It was a tad chilly, but the big kids loved the water.

The kids played so well.

We also hit the fair on our way home.

 We love the Olympics.  Sam drew this right after Nick watched a parody of Putin discussing that there were only 4 olympic rings and anyone who said differently was an enemy of the state.

Sam's birthday

I am behind again, so I will start the catch up process.

Here is Sam's birthday, after her party.

She got ready quickly and played a bit before school with the magna tiles from my cousin Linda.

A quick picture of the girls.

And just Sam.

I took cupcakes to her school.  They had peace rings on them, which the kids liked, but the hot pink icing from Sam's taste awful.  It was a disappointment.  Even Sam asked me to scrape off the icing.

She was thrilled with the attention.

 She opened presents.  A favorite was the American Girl Doll of the year, Isabelle, from Grammy and Poppi.  We also gave her ear piercing and some earrings.

 Birthday dinner was at Red Elephant.

Sam is also playing flag football and she had a combine to rank kids to be sure teams are pretty equal.  Her friend is also on her team and Nick is the assistant coach.

Zoey's best friend Nick is a big brother and the girls got to hold baby Rowan.

Zoey and I finally made Parksdale, but she had already gotten a cupcake, so we stuck with a milkshake not their famous shortcake.

My Cowgirls!

Sam originally wanted her party at the local pottery place, but they did not do parties, you had to pay a reduced studio fee and then at least $20 for a piece per person.  Since she wanted to invite the whole class, I said she would have to pick somewhere else.  So she picked R&R Ranch in Lithia, where we had been for a party before and gone back for a trail ride.  She was also willing to choose a charity to support in lieu of gifts. This year she chose kidpack (http://www.kidspack.org/), which I also organized as our chairty for the mom's club, which has allowed us to donate food, money and hands on time sorting food.

But on to the party itself.  The place had bunnies and chicks the kids loved.

And there was horse back riding!

Zoey was pretty much the only one willing to ride the miniature horse, so she got to loop about 10 times.

 It was windy.  Nick finally managed to light candles, but Sam blew them out before it was even set down.

We had snacks, including "oats".  Given that a classmate's 2 year old sibling sampled some and returned them, I did not want to put them back in the bag.  So the farm let us feed the goats and pigs.  That was a blast!

We had a great time celebrating an amazing girl!