Ballet Party

Every ballerina that has her first recital must come home to a 1st class party! Aunt Cyndi and Grandma decorated while we were at dress rehearsal that morning!

Cara loved coming home to the balloons, streamers and party just for her!
Table is all set. Cara's request earlier in the week was for carrot cake!
She received some new princess ballerina barbies, as well as flowers and a lollipop bouquet
Mommy and daddy with Cara, hopefully one of the grandma's got a better picture than this but this was all I had to work with
Grandma and Grandpa Fox with Cara
And Grandpa and Grandma Abbott
And especially Aunt Cyndi (and Uncle Danilo) for all the party favors and decorations!

What a special day made even better with a party for our own little ballerina!

Dance Recital!

The much anticipated event was finally here, the year end Dance Recital. Cara took ballet lessons this year!


Cara in the back row to star the number
And then later switched places to the front row




Taking a bow at the end of the recital

Standing on stage with the entire dance studio
She loved every minute of it! What a fun but long day!

Oliver Winery

We decided to pack and picnic and head to Oliver Winery for lunch and a litte wine tasting with Aunt Cyndi and Grandma A. Our first stop was a table to enjoy our lunch with a bottle of wine. We finished eating just in time for a big rain storm to roll in. We sat on the covered porch and watched the rain for a while.

Cara and Aunt cyndi taking pictures in the rain
By the time we went in and tasted more wine samples the rain had passed. So Cara REALLY wanted to walk down to the pond.
And the fish were excited to have company, you can tell they are fed often
Cara feeding them a hand full of fish food
Walking back from the pond
What a fun afternoon! From here we drove down to IU Bloomington. We showed Cara where we went to college, where we met, and went to the bookstore at the Union.

Strawberry Festival

Scott, Cara and I headed downtown to the Strawberry Festival on Monument Circle last week.


Checking out the water and fountains at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument
The 3 of us enjoying the beautiful day
Yummy shortcake! Although Cara was disappointed because she thought we were going to see THE Strawberry Shortcake
New hat: after walking around the circle she asked if we could go shopping. She said she needed some new clothes, oh my what a girly girl already! So we went into Circle Centre mall and went to the Children's Place where she picked up a new dress, short outfit, and this cute hat!

Mowing Helper

If only her mower were real...hehe



She wanted to help Daddy mow the lawn! So cute!!

A little fishing and some company....

Cara got a new fishing pole so Daddy and Cara went down to the pond which is just a couple houses away from ours.

Daddy teaching Cara how to release the line into the water (we practiced without a hook or bait)
Cara's turn to try
She was really hoping to catch something!
And also that day we have some wonderful visitors at our house. Danilo's cousin from Italy now lives in Louisville and she and her boyfriend Tom came up to visit with Aunt Cyndi for a couple of days. They were very warm, friendly, and funny! What a blast we had!

Grace's Birthday Party

Cara's best friend is Grace, who lives across the street from us! Cara and Grace LOVE playing together and ALWAYS want to be together! They are very cute!


Cara, Grace and Maddie sharing lunch together

Cara and Grace thought it would be fun to sit in the baby swings (Grace has twin sisters who are 16 months old) and have Grace's grandpa push them
Grace giving Cara and big hug after opening her present
What fun! Thanks for inviting us Grace!

Swimming lesson

Cara started swimming lessons for the summer. She is taking them with a college student who teaches them in her backyard pool, perfect one on one instruction for Cara!

Teaching Cara to blow through her nose into the water
Learning to kick
Kicking around the pool with the kickboard

Later in the day we had playtime with Cara's bestie Grace! They decided to swim to cool off!


What a fun day for swimming!

New Princess Castle Pool

Grandma and Grandpa Abbott surprised Cara with this new pool this weekend, although it appeared much larger on the box (come on they had 4 kids playing in this pool).

She kept her eyes closed coming outside, so this is her first glimpse at her new pool
you can enter through the castle door and "slide" down into the pool
She is a big fan, she told us the other pool is for Mommy and Daddy now and this is HER pool
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the new pool, hours of fun ahead this summer!