Cheer Clinic

The girls and I somehow ended up at Deveau's in Fishers for a Cheer Clinic this afternoon. Their little friends were going, so they got recruited to tag along. It actually ended up being pretty hysterical. I couldn't get very good pics, but this will give you an idea. The girls are each in green sorts. Ady is near the right hand side, Lily is on the left.

Wish I could be....part of your wooooorrllllldddd....

Caught Lily in this pose twice the yesterday. Barclay caught her once. She was signing Little Mermaid Songs. Hilarious

Monkey Joe's party

We celebrated Addy's third birthday at Monkey Joe's with all of her little friends. She's a crazy little bouncer and had such a great time with all of her friends. The kids all spent a little over an hour bouncing and bouncing and bouncing. After the bouncing was over, we headed into the party room for some pizza, cake, and presents. Monkey Joe visited us there - he scared half of the kids, and the other half of the kids got to give him a high 5. At some point, Lily was having a hard time getting Monkey Joe's attention. She broke down in tears b/c she thought he was ignoring her. Then she ran all the way around the party table, and gave Monkey Joe a big hug while sobbing. The pizza and cake were pretty uneventful - by this point it was 7:30 at night, so the kids were starving and ate quietly. Present opening time was adorable. Addy would open each present, then stand up and show everyone (Vana style) what she got. Here are some pics:

Addy B - funny is she

In honor of Addy's third birthday, I decided to do the first post of Funny Addy-isms. Here are a few from the last few days:



- "She don't know ____ is beautiful" (insert name of various family members Addy had seen lately). A misinterpretation of She Don't Know She's Beautiful - a country song she has, no doubt, heard while driving around town with me.

- " MOMMY, those flowers are yellow, that's WIERD" (tulips in spring...wierd)


- "Mommy we don't say damn, right" "Mommy we don't say butt, right" "Mommy, we don't say God, right"

- In the Biltmore - "we better get out of here, there are dragons and we forgot our swords".

- " PRINCESS AND THE FROG? I love Princess and the Frog. Lily, you be the frog okay?"

- "Mommy, there's a dead bug in here. But we don't eat them, right?"

I just can't believe she's turning three - really, it's amazing that three years have gone by so quickly! She's just an amazing blessing in our lives - a challenging blessing, but a blessing nonetheless.

Biltmore Easter

What's better than getting the entire family together and heading to the mountains of North Carolina for Easter weekend? Not much, other than getting the whole family together for a whole week on the beach somewhere ;) On Friday morning, mom, dad, and Abbie drove to Indy and met up with the four of us for a drive to Asheville, NC. We met up with Matt, Taryn and Gabe, and Joe and Mel and their kids. The weather was beeeeautiful, the Biltmore was amazing, and it was a great weekend to get everyone together. On Friday we all arrived, unpacked, swam in the indoor pool, and just hung out at the hotel. Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed over to the Biltmore...which was right next door to our hotel. We were there all morning touring the house and gardens. The kids were so cute - they spent the house tour looking for the dragons that they just assumed lived in the house. The house was built by Cornelious Vanderbilt and was certainly very masculine with all of the gargoyles, etc. Spooked the kiddos just a bit, but they made a game of it. At one point Addy said "we better get out of here, there are dragons and we don't have our swords"! About half the group went back to the hotel for naps after that, but the rest of us went over to the winery and the little petting barn. That night we watched BUTLER beat Michigan State - whoop whoop!

Then Sunday, of course, was Easter. We went back to the Biltmore for an Easter Egg Hunt in the morning. Then we went over to the winery area, for lunch at a nice little outdoor cafe. The weather was amazing - 80 degrees and sunny. I could have stayed at that table with my mimosa forever! Alas, we eventually had to leave that spot and go back to the petting zoo with all of the kids. Gabe was hilarious - he was picking up fully grown chickens and carrying them around!

That night, a scheduling glitch caused us to miss mass - yes, I know...we missed mass on Easter Sunday. Ugh, the Catholic guilt! So we went to downtown Asheville for ice cream. Then we hunt out in the garden area of the hotel until bed.

All in all, a great weekend. The girls just adore their cousins and have so much fun when they are together.