The Shriner's Circus

We surprised Cora and Emi with tickets to the circus tonight! It's been ages since we've been and we were quite impressed with the show. Too bad we had to leave at intermission since it was so late… we look forward to next year's MATINEE show :) 

 Riding an elephant

 Poor Emi squished in

 Their first taste of cotton candy, YUM!

Getting autographs from Patches the clown

Happy 1st Birthday, Louisa!

What a quick year! Louisa is a joyful addition to our family and we've had so much fun… and we look forward to more good times!

 Enjoying her first donut (hole) after church

 Posing in her new armchair with big sisters

 Birthday princess

Greg posing with the grandparents, who FaceTimed in for the party

 Blowing out candle with mom's help

 YUMMY cake! 

 Doing quite well with a fork, too!

 In the end, Louisa was the least messy of all our girls on their 1st birthday :) 

 Big sisters VERY eagerly helping open presents

At the carwash...

Fun way to entertain kids? Drive through the carwash!

 Oooh, rainbow soap!

MUCH, MUCH better than taking the dogs through the carwash :) 

Our budding artist

Today was beautiful outside, so Cora asked me to get her easel and paints and set them up in the backyard...

She began by drawing the playset with a pencil

And then the painting began...

Voila!

Heading home

We've sure missed Greg and Louisa and are excited for their return tonight! Lou appears to have been a great traveler, but who knows the real story… regardless, Greg wins "daddy, son, grandson and husband of the year" award for taking this challenge and succeeding! 

 Hanging out on GG's yellow stool

An airport snack from Duke

Economy comfort from Newark to Atlanta

 Enjoying the window seat from Atlanta to Memphis

Happy 90th, GG!

Louisa and GG! Louisa Pauline is named after GG Madea, so we're thrilled they finally got to meet in person :) 

Accepting a kiss from cousin Jack

4 generation picture

Sunday without daddy and Lou

We weren't sure what to do without them, so we decided to do things we wouldn't otherwise do…

After church we decided to go inside our donut shop to enjoy the Sunday tradition

Next we went to Build-A-Bear with friend Caroline (this was our first time to experience this place)

Animal selection -- the big girls got simple teddy bears and Emi got a pink penguin

Running the stuffing machine

Kissing the hearts before they are inserted

Stuffing the penguin with her heart

Giving a quick bath

Take-home boxes

Peso-nina the penguin and Chloe the roller-skating bear

Our next special event? Breakfast for Dinner at IHOP!

Emi preferred the strawberry syrup :) 

Our new roof

Conveniently enough, today we got our new roof installed and the workers were thrilled to have such beautiful weather… it's been FRIGID and DAMP all winter long… the morning snow quickly melted and it got all the way to 40 degrees. Some workers were even in short sleeves.

Pre-demolition

You'dve thought Santa was up on the roof, the girls were fascinated!

 Getting closer…

Around this part of the day I had a neighbor text me and ask if we are on "extreme house makeover" due to the number of men working on our roof! I think since it's been unbearably cold these guys haven't worked in a long time and they were eager… kudos to a job well done -- it was an excellent crew!

 ta-dah!