Snow Day, Round Two

After our nice holiday weekend with visitors galore, I have to admit that I was looking forward to shipping the girls off to school last week. I needed to grocery shop, do laundry, clean, and frankly, just be alone. Alas, Mother Nature had different plans in mind, and my much anticipated free time was not to be.
We were out of school for 3 days, but we made do by playing with our neighborhood buddies, going bonkers in our bounce house, and crafting our little hearts out. The only thing we didn't do on our snow days was play outside a whole lot. The girls went out with Paul on the first day and then with our neighbor the following day. This Mommy was no where to be seen outside on any day!

We waited nearly the entire day on Tuesday for the snow flakes to start falling.

It wasn't until Wednesday that we had enough snow in which to play.

Back inside, the girls had tons of fun playing with peanut butter play dough.

H is for Hepper!

Not surprisingly, Julia had alternative plans for her play dough. Good thing it actually is edible!

Margaret was so proud of her "birthday cake." 

We hit up Chick-fil-A for lunch on Thursday.

Daddy was home earlier than usual most night last week because of the snow. The twins took full bedtime story reading advantage.

Blurry but cute picture of the three C's: Caroline H, Caroline B and Campbell.

Wonderful Weekend

We had such fun over the last weekend! We had two Darden reunions at our house: one that was planned for a while and one that was thrown together late in the week. On Saturday, the Rayborn, Garrett, and Phillips families descended on our house for lunch, play time, and catching up. On Sunday we hosted our last Darden family for playtime and dinner. The whole weekend was so fun. It was just like old times in Charlottesville, except with a lot more kids!

This cutie pie is Maddox, aka, Olivia Jr. :)

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Margaret chatting Mason's ear off at the dinner table. 

Caroline and Mason working together to build a marble run.

Julia putting on a post-breakfast show for her guests.

The Heppers and the Phillips 

First Snow of 2014!

When I woke up yesterday morning I was shocked to see snow on the ground and still falling from the sky! I like to consider myself a fairly informed person, but I had NO idea that snow was in the forecast. For those of you who know me well, you know that I despise cold weather. And snow? Snow is not my thing. And of course it happened while Paul was out of town.
Normally he'd be all over it and outside with the girls before I could fire up my first round of coffee. But not yesterday morning. I had no choice but to put on my big girl mommy pants and deal with it. I suited up the girls and let them loose in the backyard so they could have their snow fix. All in all, it was relatively painless, and I didn't actually have to spend that much time outside myself. WIN!!

Caroline and Margaret scoping out the snow first thing in the morning (and yes, Caroline was already in a dress up costume)

Attempting to catch a snowflake on her tongue.

Margaret looking super cute in her hat. She was not a snow lover. The apple didn't fall far from the tree with this one.

Julia suited up and ready to go outside! 

Our winter wonderland 

Julia enjoying the snow.

Caroline catching snowflakes 

Caroline and her teeny tiny snowman.

Off to school with hot chocolate!!!

A Special Night for a Special Cause

This is my second year co-chairing the Auction Committee for the Noah's Children Gala. If you're not familiar with Noah's Children, let me fill you in. Noah's is Central Virginia's only pediatric hospice and palliative care program.
For families with a terminally ill child, Noah's Children offers medical, practical, spiritual, and emotional support for families who are facing a terrible reality: losing a child. It is a situation that I find very hard to imagine going through, and my heart aches when I think of the families who are suffering through it. It is a cause that I find exceptionally worthy of my time.
For the last 6 months I have worked with my fabulous co-chair, Cary, and a whole host of wonderful women to put to together an auction that we hope will raise a significant amount of money for Noah's Children. The gala is in February and is Noah's main fundraising event for the year.
This evening, I had the opportunity to take my girls to their first Noah's event. We went to the Children's Museum of Richmond's Chesterfield location to take part in a celebration of children's art that has been created by local school children in a fundraising effort for Noah's Children. The children's art project is one of the original fundraising efforts for Noah's and is a very special way to teach children the importance of helping others.  I was so excited to bring my girls to the museum and introduce them to some of the people I've gotten to know through my work with Noah's.
The girls thoroughly enjoyed their time at the museum and after I dried my tears from watching the Noah's video that is shared at many of their events (and I cry every time), I was able to pull myself together and enjoy my healthy and happy children, knowing that all the hard work that I've done is totally worth it.

If you'd like to come to our gala in February, click on the link below and buy your tickets!!
https://www.bsvaf.org/test/fortyone/tickets

If you can't make the event but would like to make a donation, click here.
https://www.bsvaf.org/givetonoahs

And that tear-jerker video can be found here. It's an uplifting story about a family who lost their precious little girl to cancer. Scroll down to the third video, "How Noah's Children Makes a Difference."
http://www.noahschildren.org/videos

And last but not least, here are some pictures of the girls at the museum!!

Julia drives a real Richmond City Bus while Margaret plays the pensive passenger. 

Caroline at the wheel of a real fire truck!!

Three girls in a jungle gym

Hands down, Julia's favorite exhibit was the animal adoption center.

They even have actual animals up for adoption! I temporarily lost my head and considered bringing home a cat.

Julia and Margaret behind the wheel of a Benz.

One of my favorite pieces of the children's art.

Picture Post

 We are humming right along, getting back into the normal flow of school, activities, playdates, and sister time here at the Hepper house. It is wonderful! Here are a few pictures from the last week or so.

Scrub a dub dub, three sisters in the tub!

We pulled out the bounce house on a rainy day...and blew it up in the dining room!

Messy-haired J

When you're 2.5 and can't really cut with scissors by yourself yet, it's nice to have a twin sister who will help you by holding up your paper.

Happiness is being given a new box of dress up clothes by one of your friends.

Caroline was thrilled to get this hand me down princess castle. "I just love it SO much, Mommy!"

I saved the best for last. Here's what happened one night last week when I left the twins playing in Julia's crib to go downstairs to start their dinner. It's amazing what these two managed to accomplish in less than 10 minutes. I think they both have a real future in the makeup artist industry, don't you??

SO pleased with herself.

Nice pose (and eyebrows and mustache), Julia.

Scolded and stripped down for a bath, but still smiling and oh so proud.

First Visitors of the New Year

 Over the weekend we had our first visitors of 2014: Marmee and Grampy! The weather outside was brutally cold throughout their visit, so we stayed indoors the whole weekend. We went to the children's museum, out for lunches, and bowling!

Julia and Margaret excited to eat their dinner with the adults..even if they had to sit at the kids' table.

Grampy showed Julia how to play with her food.

The produce truck is here! What can I get you?

J and M's turn behind the wheel. 

Marmee loves on Margaret while she works on a craft at the children's museum.

Marmee shows Julia how to use the kiddie bowling ramp.

Grampy shows Caroline how to roll her ball down the lane.

Success!

Margaret looked cute in her bowling shoes...

...but that was about it. She was not interested in bowling AT ALL.

Daddy and J

Nice form, Daddy!