May 2014

Here are some pictures from all of the things we did to keep ourselves busy in May, starting with Alex and Stacy's First Communion.

All of the girls...Kailey, Stacy, Sierra, & Avery

The Kids' Table

The Mancino's

Sierra assisting the magician

Avery & Alex got in on the act too!

 We had a nice, relaxing Mother's Day at home!

Me and my girls

 

 

Sierra's Girl Scout troop had their end of the year party at the Ice Skating Rink. She was so excited since she had just taken lessons there over the winter, she had a great time!

Sierra and her friends out on the ice

Sierra showing off her stuff

And posing with a few of her friends

 Over Memorial Day Weekend, Uncle Joey, Aunt Jenna, Alex, and Stacy came to visit to spend some time in D.C.

Sierra, Stacy, Avery & Alex with the capitol in the background

We went to The Spy Museum which was very cool! All of the kids got a chance to be like James Bond. They had to hang on to this bar while wind was blowing on them. here's Avery giving it a try.

And Sierra's turn

The kids posing with some statues

They got a feel for their possible future presidency

Sierra might need to grow a few more inches first

This was the first time that we had been to D.C. since they finished working on the Washington Monument. With all of the scaffolding down, Avery was so excited that she could touch the Monument!

As always, we had to get a picture in front of the White House

 We also spent some time at the Air and Space Museum. here's some pictures of the kids with a helicopter and the Space shuttle.

Towards the end of the school year, the kindergarten put on an awesome Hoe-down performance. it was so cute and Sierra did such a great job! Here are some of the pictures but they don't do it justice.

Sierra had a speaking part and she did great!

Getting ready for their big number

Sierra looking cute in her costume!

Vacationing Texas Style!

 April 2014:

We had a great time visiting Uncle Danny, Aunt Linda and Trevor in Dripping Springs, Texas, along with Nana and Grandpa and Uncle Bobby, Aunt Ami, Jack and Luke. We went for Founder's Day so we had fun at the parade, carnival and all of the festivities in town. We also spent some time touring around Austin where their motto is, "Keep Austin Weird", so it was very interesting! We even had a chance to go to a University of Texas Women's Softball game, which the girls loved! The rest of the time, we easily adapted to "Texas living", just relaxing at Uncle Danny and Aunt Linda's, spending time with family.We had so much fun!

Having some fun shopping in Austin, TX!

Avery was born to be a cowgirl!

Visiting the Capital Building in Austin

Watching the Dripping Springs Founder's Day Parade with Jack & Luke

Grandpa and Uncle Danny even made it onto a Veteran's Float in the parade!

Check out this cool car!

Showing off our carnival prizes

Cute cousins!

A see-saw in the woods

Posing with Gladys (Henry was too busy running around the house to stop for a picture!)

Easter Weekend

Here are some pictures from our first Easter in Virginia.

Our beautiful Easter Bunny cake

A Close-up view

Gramma and Grampa were in town and we all went to a hibachi grill for dinner.

Gramma and Avery

Sierra and Grampa

Avery couldn't seem to catch food in her mouth so our chef took it easy on her!

Back at home, Gramma made up a fun scavenger hunt for each of the girls to find their Easter baskets.

Sierra reading one of her clues

Avery found her gifts in the garage!

Waking up Easter Morning

Our Easter Egg Hunt was not very challenging without a yard but it was still fun!

Aunt Lisa & Uncle Allen came to visit us for the day.

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We were a little late dyeing our eggs but we got it done!

Spring is Finally here!

I can't tell you how excited we are that spring is finally here! Although, some days it doesn't feel like spring, we will take what we can get! Along with the change of the season has come a change in activities. The girls have started their spring sports. They are both playing softball. Sierra is on the Stingrays and Avery is on the Ponytail Express. Avery is also playing soccer on a crossover team which means she is on the recreation team and then she has an extra practice and extra games in a more challenging league. We are still adjusting to our new routine and having fun in the process. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

Sierra's first softball game. She is playing first base in the blue jacket

Avery is "softball ready" at short stop

We were able to find some of our Easter decorations. Here are the girls showing off their Easter Tree.

In school, Avery has been learning about Ancient China and Ancient Egypt. As part of it, the whole second grade class put on a presentation called, "Temples and Tombs." It was very entertaining and, as you can see, Avery was a mummy and got to "walk like an Egyptian."

Getting into character before the show

On stage with her class. She is on the end in the back row.

Avery also had her first Saturday of soccer. 

Here she is going for the ball. Avery is one of the oldest in her division, so she is about a foot taller than most of the girls. She had quite a few break-aways, so we are trying to get her to practice her foot skills and passing!

Sierra doing some tricks on the sideline!



In school, Sierra has been learning how to read. As a part of the process,  she had 11 lists of sight words she had to learn. Every time she learned a new list she got tested on it and got a sticker on her sheet. She has now completed all 11 lists! We are so proud of her and love it when she reads books to us!

Just a Little Bragging!

Last week, Avery's Language Arts teacher, Mrs. DeVido, thought it would be fun for the kids to have their own little Spelling Bee in their class. They started off with the second grade word list. As kids were eliminated, they advanced to the next list. By the end of their class on Tuesday, they were up to the fifth grade list and it was down to two kids, Avery and one other girl!

So Tuesday night, Avery studied the list and went to school on Wednesday for the Finals. And she won!!! She was so excited! Of course, the first question Cory and I both asked her was, "What was the winning word?"  But she couldn't remember, go figure! We are still very proud of her! Her prize was that, not only did she not have to take the spelling test on Friday, but she got to call out the words for the test for the rest of the class! Very cool!

Our Weekend in Pennsylvania

 Last weekend we went to Pennsylvania for Aunt Jacey's Baby Shower, our cousin Ali's Bridal Shower, and our new baby cousin Jacob's Christening. It was a very busy weekend, but it was so much fun! And it was so nice to be able to celebrate so many things with our family!

We were even able to squeeze in a trip to Kraynak's Nursery to see their Beautiful Easter Display!

Here we are with Gramma and Aunt Jacey at her baby Shower

Aunt Jacey with her little "helpers"

Some Random Stuff

I didn't think we had done a whole lot in between Valentine's Day and going to PA last weekend. It feels like we have just been home a lot considering the abundance of snow days that we have had. But when I was going through pictures from last weekend, I found all of these that I thought I would share!

The girls playing in the snow after one of the bigger storms

They thought it was so cool that the snow was piled up all the way to the Stop sign!

Lounging in the snow

The girls' school celebrated their 100th day of school. The kindergarten classes made a big deal out of it!  They played all kinds of fun games and made some different projects.

The kindergarteners with "Zero the Hero"

Sierra's teacher, Mrs. Malacarne had an app on her Ipad where you could see what you would look like at 100 years old. She took all of the kids pictures looking like little old people. It was so funny! Here's Sierra in her old lady disguise.

Then, of course, we celebrated Cory's birthday...

...with presents...

...his girls....

...and a little fiesta!

We were able to get in one more ski trip to Liberty Mountain. The girls, once again, skied awesome!! Sierra really figured out how to turn and she easily made her way down the intermediate slopes. Avery took Cory down a double black diamond and some moguls and she did great!

Cory & Avery on the chair lift.

The girls with the skiing tiger