2 week catch up!

Not sure what I did this time, but just a warning that the formatting on this post is all out of whack. No matter how many times I "redid" the pictures and text, it was still funky. Next time, I'll see what i can do: So this post will be brief on words, but plentiful on pictures. As with most Spring semesters, the Carroll's have been very busy with dance, birthdays and baseball, baseball baseball! Here are a few pictures from the last 2 weeks of festivities: The Carroll girls dress in green for St. Patrick'sday, no pinches here! Emma had a day off from Kindergarten last Friday (for registration for next year's class), so twist my arm, I took a day off to play with my baby. We had a play date at the park with her friend Aidan. Are they too precious? That night we had a small gathering of coaching friends for Mark's 50th birthday. Here is a picture of Mark with his sign (which was originally Coach Nettles' sign 2 days earlier for his 40th). This is the only picture I could publish safely from that night: The next night on Saturday, Nannie Kim was wonderful enough to keep the girls so Mark and I could get away from DS and baseball to a wonderful bed and breakfast we found several years ago in Breaux Bridge. This was our view from our cottage: Here we are in front of our cottage sitting by the pond - not a bad shot from arms length: Here is our cottage, appropriately for us, named, "The Schoolhouse": ... the next day (Sunday), Katie had pictures at dancing. This is her jazz outfit, and her ballet one is behind us hanging on the door. (this is where the big money comes in for girls ) Boys would have been so much cheaper! Posing with friends, Breanna and Taylor: That Monday night we had our family celebration for Daddy's birthday (b/c he had a game in Zachary Tuesday night of his bday). Here are the girls lighting Daddy's favorite cake, vanilla with chocolate icing: Even at 50, Mark can still blow out the candles: Then, this past Friday night, Katie and I went to the Baton Rouge Ballet's 50th gala show at the River Center. I actually won these tickets when I filled out a raffle ticket when she did the Nutcracker in December - yeah Missy! .. and just for posterity sake.. this is what Mark does pretty much every other day now: .. and we sit on the other side and watch and eat nachos! Later!

Carroll hits 250!

... No, not my weight!

Mark got his 250th win at Denham this past week. We are very proud of him. But, even more impressive is the fact that he is fast approaching his 500th win total in baseball, which evidently not too many people reach. Anyway, here is the sign in front of school. We love you daddy/Mark!

Only in LP

The girls and I spotted this site as we headed to the bank yesterday:





That's right, a giant monster truck decorated like a dog. Only certain people in this world can appreciate this site. Evidently my family is becoming one of them!

Southdowns parade

Mark was playing ball in Monroe this weekend, so the girls and I make plans to go to the Southdown's parade with Nannie Kim b/c her house is just a few blocks off the route. It had been a few years since I had been to a parade, and I was very excited. The rain made it a little wet, so I didn't take too many pictures (not to mention that I didn't bother to check the battery on my camera, which was very low), but here are a few.

Emma and Mr. Richard (one of her most favorite people in the world!):





(cousin) Jason, Emma, Nannie Kim and Katie wait for the start of the parade:



... ditto with me instead of Nannie Kim:



Kim and Richard with Richard's brother and sister in law, Jimmy and Marie. Jimmy might be Emma's new favorite person. They were messing with her until she belly laughed - too funny.




That's all the pics. We had a good time and now I'm thinking about the St. Patrick's Day parade! Laissez les bon temps roulez, y'all.

Emma's busy social calendar

So, we'll leave out the gory details, but this week was tough one at the Carroll house. A stomach bug went through the ENTIRE family, even this mama's horse strong, high school teacher worn's immune system. I swore I would not fall, but alas, I was the last one to fall on Thursday. We'll leave the details out, but Mark and I both missed two days of work, one with a sick kid, and the other with a sick self! By Friday, we had all recovered.

Anyway, Saturday Emma had two engagements to attend. First was Cameron's cupcake party at Cupcake and Cream on sherwood. It was very cool. They got to 'make' cupcakes and then decorate them. Here Emma puts in some sugar:



Katie added some chocolate sauce. (Much to Emma's disappointment, Cameron's mom invited Katie to stay since one of her guests had cancelled):



Emma and the birthday girl:



Katie decorating her cupcake:




Emma decorates her cupcake. You should have seen the amount of icing on these things when they were done. And of course, Emma ate about 2 bites!

Emma and Cameron model their finished products:

After the party Emma had her FIRST SLUMBER PARTY at Addie's house. I wasn't sure if she was going to make it all night because she seemed so little, but I had a feeling she would be okay. (She tends to be a little braver than some one else in our household!) Addie's mom said their wasn't even a mention of home the whole time! So proud of her. Emma and Addie love each other so much, they crack me up. When they see each other, they hug like its been years. Too funny. I didn't get too many pics b/c Addie's mom picked Emma up, but I got this one when I picked her up the next morning.

This is Emma, Sophie (Addie's cousin), Addie and Aubrey, the neighbor across the street who is in the first grade at Northside:

My little baby is growing up. Sometimes, I miss the crib and noonie days!

Nah!

Earrings and babies and softball, oh my!

So we had a very eventful schedule this weekend, but not in a bad way! Friday was relaxing, but then we hit the roads running Saturday morning. First we headed off to the mall to get Emma's ears pierced, AGAIN! Katie and Emma both got them done about a year and a half ago, but both of them got pretty infected when we took them out. After they closed up, Katie never expressed that she wanted to get them redone, but Emma has been asking me about it for months, so we finally went this weekend. I forgot to bring my camera into the mall, but here are two after pictures:





... and a 'sidewards' view ( as emma would say):







After the mall, we dropped Katie off at a friends house in Baton Rouge, and Emma and I came home to meet up with Mrs. Julie and baby Sarah on a stroll. We found out that someone likes Barbies!










Emma and baby Sarah:



I title this one: " No, baby Sarah, don't put that one in your mouth!"

Saturday night, we met some of our coworkers at Big Mike's to eat after Mark's baseball scrimmage. Yummy as always!

Sunday we went out to North Park (with a million other people). The girls wanted to play at the park and Mark threw the softball with Katie who wants to play softball at Northside. We also walked around the path by the pond.

By the walking path:

Swinging in the park:

Katie throwing the softball with dad:

Snow Day (Louisiana style)

So we some how managed to get not one, but 2 days of school off this week because of the threat of sleet and ice (snow... not so likely). While my sister dealt with multiple inches of snow in Plano, this is what our "snow day" looked like:

Lots of rain and very cold, but locally we didn't see any ice. I think there was some just north of us, but nothing yet. So the Carrolls took the opportunity to clean house (fun, yes!), get groceries, fix big breakfasts and make our vacation countdown calendar! As you can see at the top of the blog page, we are going on the new Disney cruise ship - the Dream. We are fast approaching the 100 day mark. Last time we went to Disney, we made a count down calendar, so we had to do it again:

Here Emma puts stickers on the poster:

... and here is the final product. We are at day 107 right now, so we won't be marking off days yet, but probably next weekend. Castaway Cay here we come!