Nearly a Week Ago...

Elsa has now been alive for nearly a week.  She was able to go home on Thursday and together Meredith and Matt, along with the boys, are adjusting to life with a newborn.  Aside form having her days and nights mixed up, Elsa is doing well!  (The rest of the bunch, slightly sleep deprived, are also doing well!)

In the hospital, Elsa snuggles with her mama...

We all got our snuggle time with her too, don't you worry....

Here are Meredith with the girls.  They were SO inquisitive about all the gadgets and furniture and equipment in the hospital room.  Poor Meredith got more than 20 questions thrown her way.

Elsa is so precious and so easy to snuggle up to.  We are looking forward to even more snuggles in the coming days!

Repeat...

It took seven years for Quinn's first tooth to fall out and just one week later for the next one! On Tuesday, Quinn lost her second tooth.

That makes Quinn a toothless wonder these days.  Quinn's so proud of the fact that she pulled her own tooth out at school and didn't need any help this time around! We are proud too.

The tooth fairy visited our house again.  She left a dollar folded as a dress, with a gold headed dollar coin on top.

To make matters even funnier, Quinn has another loose tooth - this time on the bottom!  Maybe she will hold off a bit on this one.  The tooth fairy might be getting tired and losing creativity with all the visits she has made lately!

We're Tripping...

I was fortunate enough to take a day off last week from school to go on a field trip with Quinn and her class. We traveled to the zoo to take in the animals and be outdoors.  Unfortunately Mother Nature was again uncooperative to us South Dakotans.  But the weather wasn't going to keep us away.  We hats and coats and mittens, we bundled up and went for it!

Here is Quinn's class outside the zoo...

Checking out the monkeys.... they were going crazy.

Quinn enjoyed feeding the billy goats in the petting zoo.  We even got to watch one of the billy goats get their hooves clipped.  Quite interesting!

Although the weather was cold and it deterred us from enjoying our picnic in the park, I couldn't think of a better way to spend my day off.  I so appreciated being able to go on the field trip and spending time with Quinn and her classmates.

Introducing...

Our sweet, sweet niece made her way into the world today.  

Elsa Elizabeth was born at 12:57 a.m. and weighed 7 lbs., 2 oz. 

She is absolutely perfect in every way!

Circus Circus...

Last weekend was not only filled with a birthday party, but the circus was in town.  I grew up going to the circus every year and as such it holds a little bit of nostalgia and fond memories for me.  I look forward to the circus every year and creating those memories with Sullivan and Quinn.  So it was only natural that we were going to pack it into our already full weekend.  We always have time for the circus!

The girls with Ryan before the circus began...

Quinn and Sullivan each got to choose a souvenir from the circus.  What circus would be complete without some type of light up toy?

During intermission, the girls were begging to ride on the ponies.  Back in the day, that was never an option.  There were no rides during intermission.  Now you can ride on ponies, or camels, or elephants.  The girls opted for the safest bet - ponies.

Before riding the ponies though, we found out that our fearless Sullivan is not so fearless. It turns out that she has a deathly fear of....

CLOWNS!

We came in close contact to the clowns before intermission and you have never seen Sullivan so afraid and so clingy in your life.  Poor girl!  We tried explaining that it was just a man with makeup on, but she wasn't buying it at all!

The circus, although the same circus for the past several years, was still good.  We had a good time and hopefully created fond memories that the girls will remember.

One Last Celebration in April...

April is filled with birthday parties, celebrations, and parties galore at our house!  So to end the month with a bang, Quinn invited a few friends to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate her 7th birthday.

I have to admit, I was very apprehensive about having a CEC birthday party.  That type of party is just not my style.  I tried hard to sway Quinn into some other type of party, but she just wasn't having it.  And in the end, I have to say, the party was GREAT.  All the girls got along beautifully and the place was not busy. It was a stress free party.

Some of the girls enjoying the games...

Eating pizza....

We also celebrated Sullivan's birthday while at CEC. She invited our friends next door and was happy to be a guest of honor as well.

The girls were crowned by Chuck E. with their beautiful crowns.

They both took a turn in the Ticket Blaster.  Sullivan had a little bit of help...

After unwrapping a few presents and playing a few games, the party was over.  Quinn and Sullivan enjoyed themselves beyond belief and were grateful for all the friends that came and helped celebrate their special days.  I never thought I would say this in a million years, but I would totally recommend a CEC birthday party to anyone looking for a stress free birthday party.

Finally!

It happened.... At 7 years and 5 days old, Quinn McKenna lost a tooth!  

Quinn had two loose teeth - her two front teeth.  Slowly over the past weeks they had both become looser and when I picked her up from after school care yesterday, she had a big surprise for me!  

She was beyond excited to have lost her tooth!  She is one of the only in her class that hadn't lost a tooth yet.

Being that she had a pearly white tooth laying around, she decided to place it under her pillow last night to see what happened!  It turned out to be quite rewarding - in the morning Quinn awoke to find a great surprise from the tooth fairy. 

The Tooth Fairy left her a note to commemorate the special day, along with a small bottle of 'pixie magic.'  The going rate for a first tooth?  Apparently, two gold dollar coins (sprinkled with Tooth Fairy dust) and a  basket made from a dollar bill.  Why the basket, we wondered?!  The only explanations we could think of are that the Tooth Fairy #1: needed a container to keep the belongings in OR #2: it was a May Day surprise! Either way, it was well received!

Quinn not only looks completely different with a hole in her mouth, but she sounds different too!  It is only a matter of days before her other front tooth comes out and the Tooth Fairy visits again!