He Lives! Easter 2009!

Easter is such a great holiday. It ranks as one of my favs. As much as I love coloring eggs, chocolate bunnies and pretty dresses. Even more I love the fact that it's the day Jesus rose from the grave and gave us the chance at this wonderful life! HE IS ALIVE! :) We're so blessed and I thank God daily for the life I have, my AWESOME family, my AMAZING friends and my beyond words to describe hubby and daugther!

Easter was great this year. The weather was heavenly. I was so glad because in past years it was cold and ugly. This year made up for it!

The evening before we colored eggs. I always try and get the coolest egg coloring kit I can find. This year was no exception. I found this kit that you put the egg into a plastic bag, drop in colored dye on top and just squish it around until it's colored! Girlie LOVED IT!

As you can see...

Sunday morning we got all gussied up (oh I'm so country). Here we are right after Church.







James is being a goof in this one. I would have preferred a peace sign!

After church we headed to the park to grill out and hang out for the rest of the day. It was so great!

She hunted eggs



Then hid them for me to hunt

Then I found them

Mom and I

James and Mom

Her and her walking stick LOL omg this cracks me up! She totally got the stick and started using it like this

Lastly the YUMMMMMYYYY peanut butter egg that Aunt Shelly made us all! OMG I couldn't thank her more. My hips aren't thanking her, but my tummy sure is!

YUMMM

We hope that everyone had a very Happy Easter!

Fun in the mountains - Continued

Our last afternoon there (for just Girlie and I -everyone else was there until today). We head to Ripley's Aquarium. Fun was had by all. I actually like seeing sharks - BEHIND GLASS THAT IS!







I just love this picture of Girlie amazed by the fish





Stingrays, jellyfish and sharks - OH MY!










Girlie's a fish

With Anna

Me and my girlie

I have to share these last two as well. These were taken by Girlie. There are always a few that she's taken I love. These are two of them most loved to date!

This one of me making a face she told me to make LOL OH so funny!

And her - beautiful as ever! (look at those baby blues)

It was such a great time. Family times are always great and I'm sure she'll will be talking about it for the next 5 years! I miss you all terribly already and hope that we can do this again soon. Say, maybe sooner than the last time, maybe a lot sooner than 32 years! To all the Klipa's - WE LOVE YOU! Until next time...

Fun in the moutains - Klipa style!

Last weekend I was lucky to be able to spend a few days with my family in the great Smokie Mountains. The Klipa's are great. I've always thought so! They are fun and crazy and outgoing and well, I consider myself ALOT of a Klipa. This trip was no different! We had a blast!

Everyone came on Saturday. I was later than most because I live closest LOL. I was up late the night before and just couldn't get going enough to get out of the house. We had an amazing cabin. The view was spectacular

and sitting on the deck checking it out was great too

Saturday we just vegged and went to the grocery for some grub, try shopping for 12 people. WOW! Sunday we hang out in downtown Gatlinburg for the day, the weather was TO DIE FOR.

A look at some of our walk downtown. Girlie, M and A had a great deal of fun together.

CHEATER! hehe

That night we had a SUPER fantastic time at The Dixie Stampede. It was Girlie's first time, and a great deal of my family too!

My lovely cousin Mysi and her family



Oh my grandpa's face in this one - such a character!

Oh the soup - YUM!

the corn...
Girlie and I broke apart the wishbone - I won :) So unfair.

Monday the weather was COLD and chilly. We went to an indoor water park that afternoon (no pics from it, I need to get that waterproof cover for my camera). It wasn't the new nice one they've opened but it was PERFECT for the kiddos. We spent most of our time in the lazy river and I LOVED the ride with Anna on the tube slide. I nearly drowned her at the bottom, SORRY ANNA! Dinner at home and lots of chit chatting!

Tuesday we woke to about 3 inches of snow.

So in the morning we took time to hang out with family and say goodbye to a few as well. Here is the Klipa siblings all together

Back Row: LtoR - Milan (my grandpa), Don (my uncle who lives in Mt. Juliet, TN just miles from here), Pete (my uncle from FL). Front row: LtoR: Liz (Aunt fromMD) and Margaret (Aunt from VA) As you can see we are all over the East Coast. Oh they are so cute!

Then I shot this one of my Paps and me (again, he cracks me up)

Anna was THRILLED with the snow since she lives in FL and has her entire life (almost) and she had to build a snowman LOL omg so funny.

to be continued...

Brag Brag Brag!!

We recently received Girlie's progress report from preschool! I was VERY PROUD and had to share with everyone!

Angels Watching Over Me Academy
Floating Butterflies Progress Report

Date: March 16, 2009
Teacher: Tawanna Oats

Activities your child mostly participates in:
Indoor – She usually participates in computer learning activities, dress up play in the dramatic home center, building blocks and exploring the art center (drawing and coloring). She also loves to play dress-up and free choice computer time. She is always willing to explore each center of the room depending upon what activities her peers are engaging in.

Outdoor – She loves to run and chase her friends. She has fun riding the bikes, digging the mulch and cooking pretend dirt food, swinging and enjoying the great outdoors.

During the A.M. – She engages very well in our group time learning activities. She usually completes all of her assigned tasks in an orderly manner as well as returns her homework. She loves to learn new things and really tries to be comical during learning time but it’s her little way of making learning fun! She encourages me to take learning to high levels.

During the P.M. – She plays games with her peers, engages in teacher structured activities, watches movies during assigned times and helps out whenever she can. She eagerly explores the computer center when given the option for free choice.

Comments:
She usually naps and eats very well but she can sometimes be a picky eater, she eats what she likes! Her interaction with her peers is very good. She has learned to use her words whenever she gets upset and tell her friends whenever they hurt her feelings. She and I have a very good student teacher relationship. She loves to talk to me and I love the way she responds to what I have asked her to do, she respects authority! I love teaching her, she is very smart and I enjoy introducing new ideas and skills to her. She catches on extremely fast with the use of repetition! All of the skills I have introduced thus far she has mastered and I am extremely proud to say she learned them in my group time. She can write all of her name legibly, recite letters and sounds, organize and categorize items, identify opposites/rhyming words, recite all of her colors, weekdays, and count to 20 by rote and beyond, recite different words all in Spanish and sign language, and much more! She is an exceptional learner and I am glad to contribute to her academic and intellectual growth! She has very supportive parents that work with her and encourage her to reach her full potential. She is going to excel in pre-k!

Let's hope that the progress reports continue this good! I'm such a proud Momma!

A HOPPIN' time!

Yesterday after work & school we went to the coolest toy store this side of the equator. Phillip's Toy Mart is by far one of the neatest places you'll ever visit, that's toy related! Enough of my commercial for their store LOL
Right now they have live bunnies that you can view and pet during Easter time. Girlie has been dying to see them so we finally went. H met us there and they had a blast!

The bunnies were adorable! I totally forgot my camera at work and I could kick myself. How could I - ME!! ME!!!- with camera nearly permenatly attached to my hip. I am such a ditz sometimes. Anyway, Allyson was nice enough to let me borrow hers for a few shots.

Here they are wishing everyone a HAPPY EASTER!


Checking out the bunnies!



After we headed to Dalt's for the best Choc and PB milkshake ever! :) it was a good night!

FUN TIMES! Thanks for coming with us A&H! :)

Randomness...

Well it was an eventful weekend. Girlie was diagnosed with Strep Throat on Saturday :( My poor babe. She was so sick! She bounced back REALLY quickly and was about 80% better yesterday and then 100% today! Gotta LOVE meds!

It was also the 6 month anniversary of James NOT smoking! I'm so proud of him! 6 months no smoking is a really big deal to me! I never thought he would quit but I'm so glad he did and he's doing amazing. He never ceases to amaze me - in a ton of ways! Great work honey! You are so fantastic!

Lastly, we did some reorganizing at home this weekend. Girlie's play area was out of control and the desk area was taking over our living space so we minimized and organized! We have more plans of doing that throughout the house and I'm so glad! We have WAY too much furniture but we are ridding ourselves of useless furniture and bringing in functional furniture!!
Like there's a huge Curio cabinet in our foyer. Yes it's beautiful and yes I've had it for 20 years, it still looks great. But NO it's not useful and it collects dust and dog hair (as does EVERYTHING in my house with my 120lbs mut, uh bulldog). So that was our weekend:

• Taking care of a sick kiddo :( but she's much better
• Celebrating James 6 month smoke free
• Reorganizing and repurposing
• ENJOYING NOT WORKING AT THE OFFICE :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I have a Klipa (My mom's dad's side, alright my grandfather) family reunion coming up that I'm THRILLED about. I can't wait to see you guys!

all*you

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Hope everyone has a great Thursday!