Easter Weekend

This weekend has been so relaxing! Josh was off Friday and we have spent the last three days just hanging around the house with an occasional trip out!

Friday we ran some errands in the morning and then shopping at the outlets and tried a new restaurant, Mac's BBQ. Charlotte was quite the hit at Michael Kors. She is a girly girl to the extreme!

The employees got a kick out of giving Charlotte the smallest purse.

Saturday we tried to watch General Conference. Twice a year, the leaders of our church speak to us. This year it happened to be Easter weekend which made it more special. I say tried because trying to watch four hours of TV that isn't Disney Junior is not going to fly with Charlotte! (Not that she watches four hours, but you know what I mean!) She kept asking us to play or go outside...anything but sit and watch our "show." Luckily, we recorded it and it gets published to read! 

In between sessions, we tried another new restaurant, Mellow Mushroom. The best pizza we've had since being in Charlotte! 

Sunday was of course was Easter.  I got up early (big surprise) and set out all the Easter bunny goodies. 

I also started putting together our Easter brunch. Something I don't normally do, but wanted to make today more special. 

I told Charlotte she couldn't see what the Easter bunny brought until daddy was awake. So she put on her ears and hopped into his room. It was pretty cute! 

Once he was up, we all went downstairs, opened baskets, ate and then talked about Easter! 

The night before I had seen a Facebook post from a friend who was a litte confused with why we celebrate Easter...Jesus Christ or Easter baskets? She talked about how her and her husband didn't give their children Easter baskets because they wanted to concentrate on why we celebrate Easter. I thought it was a great point to bring up and I wanted to refrain from posting pictures that distracted about what Easter is all about. I commented and said that I am guilty of doing baskets. I do like the tradition but I had also been thinking all week before how I'm going to talk to Charlotte about Easter.   Of course I have been trying to explain already but wanted something different on Sunday.  She is so young but it has to start sometime!!  Luckily the "Friend" had a great little Easter activity that I pulled out and put together. We read the description and had her match the picture. She did all of them perfectly! 

In between conference sessions, we went to the park to enjoy then ice weather. We have been spoiled by these amazing sunny days! Charlotte loved the swings a lot these days and then we went on a walk on s trail around the park. It was perfect!

We came back and again, tried to watch Conference. Today was more successful ;) After GC, I cleaned up (all the chocolate wrappers) and Easter decorations. Back to the grind on Monday and hitting the after Easter sale at Target!! 

I couldn't help but snap a photo of her first Barbies ;)

Right before I started taking Easter decorations down.

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!!