Maelee turns 8!

While Maelee may already be 8 and 1/4 years old at this point, it's still hard for us to believe she's even 8 already, and so close to 10!!! She is still our spunky, incredibly excuberant, sometimes moody (!), super bright and creative little girl, but her heart and spirit have been maturing and blossoming so much in this past year and she is growing into such a beautiful, young lady. Her favorite things are reading, practicing gymnastics, playdates with pals, American Girl dolls, and she can write stories that have a witty- ness and sense of humor that, in our humble opinions, rival any other kid's stories we have in our home!  While it may not be easy parenting this first-born of ours, who got her stubbornness from the both of us (sorry, Maelee!), it continues to challenge us in such sweet, rewarding ways. Goodness, we love this girl!!!

We were still at our church retreat on Maelee's birthday, so we brought a "Happy Birthday" sign to greet her in the morning and had one of her closest pals ride back with us that afternoon, with a sweet stop for milkshakes along the way. Our ride back took a little longer than we expected so Nana & Pop-Pop came to the rescue getting pizza and balloons before the store closed and getting everything ready for a little celebration once we got home.

She didn't waste much time tearing right into her presents!

Absolutely thrilled over a new American Girl doll from Nana & Pop-Pop!

It was a sweet celebration!

And the fun continued the next day when we went to the American Girl Store Cafe for a party with a few of her friends! She was in heaven!

Such a sweet day!

More Birthday Pics HERE

And some sweet photos of our girl during her "8th Year Photo Shoot:"

And to close up this post, here's an awesome video of a very delayed birthday gift- getting her ears pierced!!! I surprised Maelee after school one afternoon in June with the news that I was taking her to get her ears pierced, and thankfully, Nana was able to join, too. She had been begging to get her ears pierced for months! She was fairly terrified at first, but the fear turned to disbelief and crazy joy (!) after the first ear was pierced and she realized how easy it was. The video speaks for itself!

Ear piercing video HERE

Super nervous...

Super ecstatic!

She is something! So much personality, so much life in her- we can't wait to see what God has in store for her!

April & May!

Due to the fact that I am still in a desperate game of catch up with these blog posts, my words will be brief and the photos will be plentiful. As usual, our spring was full- there was our weekend church retreat in West Virginia, Maelee's birthday (which will be a post all in itself, of course!), a sweet day trip to DE, Mother's Day, various school activities for each kiddo, and many other good times with each other or dear friends and family.

Birthday celebration with one of Lilee's besties, Emmanuel.

A "sweet" little experiment for Maelee to observe during one of Steve's longer work trips, then enjoy after he returned- rock candy!

Our little adventure out to the National Harbor where advertisements promised a fun event for kids and beautiful, blooming Cherry Blossom trees- we got neither, but thankfully, everyone had good attitudes and it ended up being a funny story!

Lilee's dearest friends, hamming it up in Sunday School.

Then hamming it up with crazy hair at Maelee's playground!

Proud of her class projects!

Making playdough for school!

Cute little petting zoo at school.

And we were so proud of Maelee and her classmates for the wonderful job they did presenting all they learned about Native Americans to the parents!

The last weekend of May, we traveled to the beautiful Capon Springs resort for the annual church retreat. The kiddos all loved it and Steve and I found sweet, and much-needed, times to pray and receive prayer.

The kids were so adorable in their performance at the end of the retreat!

Video HERE

Our neighborhood crew enjoying their neighborhood shenanigans!

More April pics HERE

The girls enjoyed a little virtual reality demonstration at a local earth day fair!

They always enjoy the snakes! Lol.

Their biodegradable plants!

Quick mommy/daughters bite afterward.

More fun with the neighbors.

Ollie loved pouring water on his head!

Popsicle playdate at Maelee & Ollie's future school!

Girl Scout backyard "camping" night for Maelee- she loved it!

While Maelee had her night away, Lilee had a sleepover at Nana & Pop-Pop's and we got a special breakfast date with Ollie!

Lilee felt like a million bucks with her special time!

And Maelee was beside herself to get to walk a friend's super sweet dog the next day!

The busy weekend continued with a sweet birthday celebration with sweet Holland, who turned 3!

With the girls on their special overnights, it was the perfect time for a double date with our pals!

Adorable Mother's Day "tea" at Lilee's school!

They got to release their butterflies afterward!

So excited to start his potty chart!

Getting more adventurous with her tree climbing!

Another date night! This time, our dear pals kept our kiddos for an early pizza and movie night with their kids so we can enjoy time together. So grateful for them!

The second weekend of May, we headed up to DE for a short but very sweet visit with our wonderful DE family. Aunt Viv opened her home for our family, and my cousin, Sam and his wife Kim's family, and Mary Catherine came by with Mark and Bess. It was so great to see everyone, but we all missed having Too-Dad there.

Due to a crazy incident on the Bay Bridge getting home from our quick trip to DE, our usual 2 hr trip ended up taking over 4 hrs, leaving us all exhausted on a busy Mother's Day the next day.
It was crazy, but there are still no 3 kiddos I'd rather have call my mama!

Such a treat to chaperone a field trip for Maelee's 2nd grade class to see Clementine the Musical in DC!

Proud Ollie on the 100th day for his Pre-K class, standing in front of the marigold he planted.

Breakfast with Nana & Pop-Pop during another work trip for Steve.

So excited for his new recycling truck that he earned for completing his potty chart!

We loved watching Maelee and her class present their "dance night" with all the dances they learned in music class!

And that's a whirlwind of a wrap for April and May! Looks like the captions weren't that brief, but I guess that's what happens when I'm waiting in an airport for HOURS! 😆  (More on that in an eventual post!)

More May pics HERE