The Play's the Thing

Mimi's birthday present to Collins was to take her to see "The Velveteen Rabbit" play this past weekend at the Raleigh Little Theatre. It was billed as a special day for just the two of them, and Collins was beyond excited. All last week we were counting down till "Mimi day" and planning on what dress she would wear, where they would eat lunch, and when she would get here already!

The play did not disappoint. She got to see her first play "in the round" and got to meet the fairy princess at the end. Which got her to thinking...

"Mimi?"..."Do you think you could make ME a fairy costume??". Needless to say, the plans are already in the works!

After the show, she got to play at the park next door...

And then Mimi took Collins to her favorite cupcake shop...

Inspired by her time at the theater, Collins directed and starred in a play about Peter Rabbit once they got home...Mimi was a fancy townsperson, Brian was Peter Rabbit, and Collins was the princess (who else?). Addie and I were audience members.

Setting up the plot line...

One audience member jumped ship for the sand table (new backyard favorite)...

And the other was invited to take her picture with her favorite character... :)

Following the plays, we had a tasty cookout of burgers and dogs and then watched both Carolina AND State make it to the Sweet 16!!!! Big day! 

Thank you Mimi for the fun present and day!

Easter Egg Hunt

I think it must have been a really long Winter because Collins is REALLY excited about all things Spring...especially Easter! She had her pink Easter basket ready to go days in advance of the church Easter Egg Hunt and picked out her favorite Spring dress for the occasion. 

After they let the kids loose, Collins was very focused on the task at hand...

Addie crashed the hunt...she didn't find an egg, but she did find a rice krispie treat!

They were happy with their stash!

I love this shot of of these cute girls...I'm so thankful Collins will grow up in a church where she has so many good friends.

When Collins and Laney saw each other, they ran into each other's arms. :)

After lemonade and a Rice Krispie treat, Collins asked, "Can we do the Easter Egg hunt AGAIN?!!?".

Beach Weekend

Collins was REALLY excited to go to the beach for the weekend and made her presence known the first moment she stepped on the beach...

The good news is that Sea Oats is getting a new deck...the bad news is that they were getting it while we were there. It was loud and disruptive, but also fascinating to Collins. She now knows what a nail gun is. :)

We discovered another bummer...a large cliff had formed on the beach preventing you from getting to the ocean easily. Of course, this quickly turned into a positive for Collins who was sliding down and jumping off the cliff in no time. 

 

I love running at the beach because the route is so pretty...

On Sunday, we were gifted with the most fantastic weather. We normally dodge rain clouds while we're there, but we got lucky this Spring-like day! 

  Got some cool shots at the beach late afternoon...

 

And rode my bike down to Kohls for a late night ice cream run and caught this pretty sunset...

 On Monday, we took a vacation day from work and school and caught this pretty sunrise as the clouds were rolling in...

After a tasty breakfast at Causeway, we had a tennis lesson that lasted about a minute before Collins bounded off to the playground...oh well, we will keep trying! 

We headed down to the beach and Addie had her first positive beach experience! The wind usually bothers her, but it wasn't bad and she loved feeling the sand and then dumping it on me. :)

I think Collins looks so grown up in this picture!

Collins really wanted Brian to give her a fishing lesson while we were down there. So he got the bait (Jambalaya leftovers), taught her how to cast and "rule", and encouraged her to wait for the fish to bite for more than the minute she gave it.

We had a little incident while on the dock...Collins took her bike bell apart (not sure why) and it accidentally rolled off and ended up "in the ocean!!!!". She loved telling this story, and how Dad saved the day. :)

Collins is being really sweet to her sister these days. While we were at Wrightsville, she told me out of the blue, "Mom- I think we should keep Addie." She had a completely straight face, but it was hard for me to keep one! It only took 14 months, but she finally likes her!!!

It was a great beach weekend!

First Trophy

Collins just scored her first trophy and is more than a little excited about it. She held it carefully with two hands afraid she would drop and break it, she kept commenting on how cute it was, and she was already comparing trophy conquests with Brian ("I bet you had a lot of trophies when you were my age".). Clearly, she wants this to be the first of many!

Why did she receive a trophy? She finished the Rookie Sports class at the Y, and although I'm not sure that completing a six week class of t-ball/basketball/soccer was trophy-worthy, it was cute to see her take it so seriously.

She was awarded the "Go Get 'Em" award for always playing so hard. We're proud of our little Purple Penguin!

(Collins insisted on wearing one long sock and one short sock so she would look like a real basketball player...where did she ever get this idea Brian Fork?!?)