Easter Festivities

Today we went with our friends, the Alvarez family and Mullis family, to Belmont, NC for lunch and an Easter egg hunt on Main Street. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we can find time to all hang out. It has been so gorgeous, a little chilly, but sunny and clear skies! 

We ate at the Soda Fountain and walked down the street to the park for the egg hunt. There were a ton of people!! Luckily they separated the ages so the big kids weren't dominating the little kids! Charlotte really didn't get the point at first but we tried to help her understand what to do (see video). 

After the egg hunt, we checkout an old train and walked through a couple of shops and ate ice cream at a general store! I love days like this where we do new things. I love the small town feel of Belmont. I'll be returning for more ice cream! 

A Royal Brunch

Charlotte attended her first party today! The theme: mother/daughter Royal brunch. All the girls were requested to wear their princess attire. It was perfect and Charlotte was so excited! She had been looking forward to this all week. When it came time to leave, she got very sad, well had a break down! Other than that, I thought she did really well at the party, considering she was the youngest princess there! We ate brunch, the girls played, cake was served, there was story time and, of course, opening presents!!

Carina the Birthday princess! 

When did she get so big??

All the princesses ready to eat!

About to sing "Happy Birthday!"

A Rapunzel sandwich!

The girls loved the Princess story time

Happy Birthday Carina and thank you for inviting Charlotte to your party!

Grandma's In Town

My mom recently came to visit us in Charlotte.  It was nice not have to go so long in between visits (we just saw her last month in CA).  She was supposed to go with my dad to Nashville, but last minute came to Charlotte!  Charlotte loves her grandma and can now say "Grandma" and "Grandpa" and pretty much everyone's names!!  And anytime she sees an airplane, she thinks Grandma is on it.  
I hardly got any pictures while she was here, but it was a relaxing week (a.k.a. boring) from what she's used too.  The weather was gloomy and rainy, which is always a bummer.  Of course the day after she left was like 70 degrees!  She was able to sleep in each morning and we found a good donut shop in Charlotte!  We ate lots of good food and took Charlotte to an indoor waterpark one day.  My family needs to come visit in the summer!!  We have so much fun in the warmer days of the year!!

The first night we went to Baskin Robbins.  My mom doesn't have one close to her so it's a good excuse to go here!

  Both are in heaven!

Shopping before the waterpark opened.

We took my mom to the American Girl doll store.  She had never been!

Charlotte is getting good at taking pictures ;)

Charlotte got to stay up late every night Grandma was in town.  She knew there was a party going on and had to be apart of it!

Swim Lessons

I have been so bad at updating my blog that I finally had time tonight to write down some things!!  The first post I am catching up on is Charlotte starting swim lessons!  This has been the highlight of our week!  She is such a fish, that I decided she needed to learn how to swim by summertime.  I don't know if she'll be perfect by the time all the pools open up around here, but I am crossing my fingers!
We signed up for private swim lessons at Charlotte Swim Academy.  It takes us about 35 minutes to get there (on the opposite side of the city), but it's worth it and we try to plan errands and things to do on our way home.  
Charlotte's teach is Adrianna and is so great with her.  We start out on her little bench and then when it's time, her teacher comes to get Charlotte and I go into the observation room.  I literally cannot take my eyes off of her for the whole 30 minutes.  It's hysterical watching her.  Especially with her goggles on!!  
Here are some pictures of our lessons so far...
First lesson:

 We had a makeup lesson once on a Saturday and Josh got to come.  Of course, he loved it!!

 She can climb out of the pool on her own!

 And the goggles...

We cannot wait until tomorrow!!