Oaks of Righteousness: March

We started March off with dress up days that week at school. The pic below is the girls dressed for "Wacky Wednesday." They had fun trying to be the wackiest!

The girls got to have a father/daughter dance this year at Trinity. The boys got a more "masculine" date with mom. We built birdhouses and then ate in the cafeteria. There was a DJ and the boys had fun doing dances like the chicken, cha cha slide and the YMCA. It was fun to watch Jordan dance with all the boys. It didn't take him long to learn all the moves!

Brent's parents both work in the school system and are lucky to have spring break off. We were blessed with a visit from them on their spring break.

For spring break we decided to take a mini "get away" with everyone and see how everyone would do. It would be our first family "vacation" staying in a hotel and going fun places. We have traveled to and from TX a couple of times, but we always stay with family and are mostly in family houses the whole time. I made all the kids a goodie bag with essentials for the trip: sunglasses, candy, snacks etc. The pic below is of us about to leave with everyone's sunglasses on.

Our first stop in Atlanta was the aquarium. The kids really enjoyed it. We did have one scare. We couldn't find Whitney and Ryan for a few minutes. We finally found them at the top of the jungle playground. Whitney was scared to come down the slide and refused to move. Many kids were coming through trying to encourage her to go, but she wouldn't move. Ryan stood by her side and didn't leave her. Finally the attendant let Rachel (who was technically too tall and was not allowed to go in the playground) go up and rescue Whitney. She had to drag her screaming and force her down the slide. By that point we had quite an audience watching the scene! The pic below is of the kids petting the sting rays.

Cute family pic:

Jordan...

Ready to watch the IMAX movie:

The highlight of the girls trip was to go to the American Girl Doll store. Hayley used her birthday money last summer to buy a "Just like me" doll to give to Rachel when she came home (she has such a beautiful, sweet heart). They had both been earning some money doing some chores around the house and saving it to spend on this trip. I gave them each a little more to spend that day and we had FUN shopping for the dolls!

When Rachel first came home and couldn't speak good english we couldn't explain to her how to take care of the American Girl Doll's hair. She would just brush really hard and it destroyed her hair. Luckily, they have a "doll hospital" you can send your doll to and get it fixed. They even brought our the "Doctor" and he asked what her favorite foods, tv shows etc. were! They put her in a hospital gown and took her away. So cute! Two weeks later we got her back in the mail good as new :-)

The girls ate at the restaurant there and although it is NOT cheap, the food was really good. The dolls got to sit in high chairs attached to the table and had their own plates and cups. It was super cute!

It was a dream outing for these girls. I know I would have been in heaven as a little girl!

The month ended with Turkey season. Ryan went hunting with Brent and shot his first wild animal. He was SO proud. We got to eat it and it was really good :-)