Spring Break Where It Actually Is Spring

It was a full day... and I'm beat. So, here's a few pictures of today's hi-lights.

We're staying in Oxford which is right on Chesapeake Bay. It is pretty much surrounded by water. It is a quaint little town with antique stores, old houses and churches. This picture was taken right behind the church where Sam and Renee are getting married.


Practicing for the big day with the Ring guy.


The Bride and the Flower Girl. I overheard Abby say, "I wish I was getting married." We really do need to curb the enthusiasm there.


And, LOOK! It's spring here. How awesome is that? I think someone said it was 80 degrees today. Abby has been wanting spring for several weeks. When I mentioned to her that we "traveled to spring," she said, "Yeah!" I said we would have to go back to winter, she said, "Why?" I don't know, maybe we'll stay. I like the view from here!

Road Trip!

Surprise! We're in Maryland. We left on Wednesday afternoon and traveled to "Grandmother's" and then came the rest of the way to Uncle Michael's today. Our dogs are in excellent care with niece Belle. Thank you, dearie!

Abby is going to be a Flower Girl in my nephew's wedding. She is super excited. If it involves dressing up and going to a party, she's in heaven! You can bet we'll be taking (and I'll be posting) lots of photos.

Abby got to meet cousin Marlene at Grandmother's house. I think Cinderella looks great with a cowgirl hat on!


Keeping Abby entertained in the car so we could listen to our Dave Ramsey lesson (we're missing a class at home).


Grandmother is doing the wedding cake, of course, and her precious cargo was in the back of her van.


We're actually staying at a beautiful B&B in Oxford called the Ruffled Duck Inn. It's so nice.

More to come...

Wordless Wednesday

Our Happy Resurrection Day!

Since our church is meeting on Saturday nights now, Easter Sunday was quite relaxing. Although, we did choose to go to a "Sunrise Service."

Actually, it was at 9 AM. (Hey, that's when the sun rose in my eyes.)

Actually it was "Breakfast at Hantie's." And I still had my robe on. Now that's a good service!

Here's Abby's Easter basket. Horton was sitting on the "nest" of goodies and eggs. He is a faithful elephant. "One hundred percent!"


And the all important chocolate rabbit. Mmmmmm, good!


Here's what Hantie had made for all her children and had one little bunny left over, so she gave it to Abby. It's a bread bunny with a chocolate kiss in the belly. When Abby found the kiss, she didn't eat the rest of the bunny. My girl loves chocolate!


Later on in the evening, we hid plasic eggs in the house for Abby to find. It's become a favorite game. Yes, she's still in her pajamas from the morning. I told you it was a relaxing day! She did change into a nightgown to go to bed.


Our Easter celebrations all happened inside this year. March 23 is MUCH too early to have Easter in my opinion. But I guess the whole "full moon, spring equinox thing" really doesn't take my advice. Plus, I promised myself I would not mention here that we got FIVE INCHES of snow that weekend. So pretend I didn't. Just like I'm pretending that because the calendar says "spring" it must be warm and sunny outside. Don't those flowers smell pretty?

Eggs and Bacon. Anyone Hungry?

Abby looks forward to coloring Easter eggs all year long. One year, right after we put up the Christmas tree, she said, "Is it time for Easter now?"

But with Easter eggs, what could be better? A holiday that includes a craft AND a game!

It takes great concentration to dip the eggs.

This is what happens when Daddy says, "smile for the camera." What she's really thinking, "you're ruining my zone!"

Notice the blue arm to the left? That's me saying, "don't get me the picture, Billy!"

Signing her work of art... before it's begun.

More cheese.

Finally, the reward for all that hard work! Bacon.

I couldn't crop out the basket of laundry. Pretend it's not there. I did!

The Prince

When Abby saw my last post with the pictures from Beauty and the Beast, she was quite disappointed when the Prince's photo was not found among them.

How could I have been so insensitive?

I mean, he is the Prince, after all! And he maybe had 2 lines to memorize for the entire show. And he was on stage for maybe 5 minutes total. (The Prince and the Beast were played by two different people.)

But in Abby's mind, he was one of the principle characters. ;)

So I present to you, Abby with the Prince. Long live the Prince!

I find it very odd that in most Disney fairy tales, the Prince does not have a name. Anyone else feel this way?

Beauty and the Beast

The local High School put on the musical production of Beauty and the Beast. We went to the show on Friday night. It was fabulous! Those kids really did a great job! There is some amazing talent in this town. And the costumes were quite creative, as well.

On Saturday morning, they had a pancake breakfast where you could meet the characters and take pictures. Daddy took Abby so she could meet Belle and her friends. He said she loved it, but was a little overwhelmed at all of it. But the characters were very nice and got down on her level (as much as possible). She also has a little autograph book that they all signed.

Belle with her fancy dress on!

The Beast

Cogsworth

Mrs. Potts and Chip

Lumiere

Abby was a little leary having her picture taken with Gaston and Lefou

The Silly Girls (who are in love with Gaston)

All together

Snow Dogs

I really am coming to the end of my snow pictures. Really.

These are of our dog, the brown and white one, playing with his "cousin," the yellow lab. They had a lot of fun bounding through the deep snow together.

He's really not as ferocious as this last picture make him look.

See, it's not all Abby all the time... :)

Happy Birthday

Today is Abby's Grandma's 70th Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Grandma. We love you!

More Snow... Pictures!

This is the official ShaggaBear weather stick. It snowed 14 inches, at least. The stick might have hit the ice below.


Abby did her part to help her Daddy out. Actually, Saturday night, we had teenaged elves giants who shoveled out a lot of our driveway. Thank you! You know who you are. :)



Abby loves the snow, but LOVES the deep snow. She would deliberately walk where there were no tracks so she could go deeper.

Sorry the camera is so shaky in this video. I was trying to navigate the deep snow as well.



And the forecast for tomorrow? More snow... pictures!

Blizzard Outing

On Friday, I made a decision to post-pone my grocery shopping. Bad decision.

Because on Saturday, we were not going anywhere. And we were out of food. Well, not all food. Just essential food. Billy did manage to get to my mom's for a few eggs early in the morning. But that was as far as he was willing to go.

And the snow kept coming.

Later in the day, Billy thought he might try to shovel a little so it wouldn't be so hard later. I took this photo from the upstairs window. It looks as if he's trying to find the road or the sidewalk, or something.


When my sister heard of my empty frig, she invited us over for chili. So we all bundled up, and headed outside. Here's Billy and Abby outside our house. Look at the drifts on the roof.

Snow cone, anyone?

After a nice evening of family, food and fun, we bundled all up, again, for the long walk home.

This is a little video of our trek down the street. I thought it might be easier to pull Abby in the "tube" than to have her walk through that deep snow. You'll notice that no snowplow had been down our street the entire day.

It Doesn't Show Signs Of Stopping...

***UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM***

Now that this has become your official "Weather Blog," you'll be wanting an update, I'm sure.

The Lion has reared his ugly head and has dumped large amounts of snow. Here at House of ShaggaB, we've named it the "Blizzard of March 08." Catchy, I know.

At 10AM this morning, here's what the back yard looked like.

And then at 2PM, several more inches had fallen.
***5PM Update***

And just so you can get the full effect of snow actually falling...

I'll post a couple of videos that might actually be interesting tomorrow.

We have now reached new levels of boredom on this blog.

Pre-School Open House

This past week was Abby's Open House at her pre-school. They sang a few songs and then we looked in her classroom at everyone's artwork.

She was super excited about going up front to sing. When they called her class up, she ran down the isle and so ended up in the back. And she's not that tall. So, most of the time, I couldn't see her singing. But we got to see her occasional hand movements.

They let the parents come up at the end and take pictures.



These next two are of her teachers.

JM and Little Peanut

Last week, I got to do "Auntie Duty" while my sister was taking a couple of her children to the doctor. Abby was taking a nap and she was none too pleased when she woke up and found out her cousins had been here and she didn't get to play with them.

But I had fun with them, and took several pictures.