Easter Birthday Parties

Not only was it an Easter weekend celebration, but we also squeezed in a few birthday parties...Lexi's First and Izzy's Fourth! Here are the birthday girls...

Lexi

Izzy

Aren't they gorgeous? I have a bunch of pictures of all the cousins together from the party. We all had a great time. The kids are getting to the ages where they all play together really well and help each other out a lot, so its really fun to watch.

All the cousins together at the party in their Easter outfits

The Cakes

Here are few fun pictures of Lexi getting into her cake...

This is all for me???

Maddy feeding Lexi

Maddy stealing some of Lexi's cake

"Maddy, you touch my cake one more time and I'm going to get you with this fork."

"Yummy, this cake was great!"

A few others of the kids eating the cakes...

Jaelyn and Maddy
(Maddy had to move on to the other cake to stay away from Lexi.)

John V enjoying his cake

Jaelyn liked hers too

Addisyn preferred the pizza

After cake the had a good time hanging out together.

After dinner, John V and Maddy watched the deer out the window

Jack drawing a picture while relaxing on the bean bag

Watching The Backyardigans

Getting ready for bed
(I love this picture of Jaelyn because we actually got her smiling in it, which is hard to do.)

Jaelyn, Maddy, and Addisyn watching the Care Bears before bed

Some other funny pictures from the weekend...

Maddy's tights were a little too small

Jaelyn's artwork

So as you can tell we had a blast all weekend. We even managed to fit in some snowmobiling and sledding with the kids. There was a ton of snow but it was really hard so I had to take it easy on the kids pulling them behind the snowmobiles on sleds. I did take them over a few jumps though. Its so much fun hanging out with the kids. I tried to get some video but apparently the camera wasn't charged. So unfortunately I don't have any pictures from our outdoor festivities. I think I posted enough pictures from the weekend as it is. I apologize but I just love showing off all of my wonderful nieces and nephews. They are all so great!

Easter Egg Hunt

Next we had an eater egg hunt! We paired all the cousins up with one of the older kids being with one of the younger kids. Each pair had their own color of eggs to find, with the big eggs for the younger ones and the small eggs for the older ones. It worked out perfect and was so much fun. We hid the eggs all over my parents new house which has no furniture in it yet so it was like a big playground. With there being snow outside and lots of it we had to compromise and it worked out great. The kids were running everywhere trying to find the eggs.

Madelynn and John V were paired together as they are the middle aged ones of the cousins so it made for quite a funny show. Needless to say we had a help them a little bit but it didn't take them long to get the right idea. Maddy tried throwing a few wrong colored eggs in her basket though so we had to keep a good eye on her.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go....

John V and Maddy are off

"I see one under the bed, John"

Looks like there are a few in the closet

Kitchen cabinets are a good place to find them too

Addisyn what happened to your basket

"Look at what I found, Papa!"

Clean Up Time

Thanks for the Easter Egg Hunt Auntie!

Auntie, will you hurry up and open this for me before my mom sees?
(This one would make quite a Milky Way ad)

Dyeing Easter Eggs

While we were up north celebrating the Easter holiday we participated in many different festive events...the first being, dyeing easter eggs.


We got all the cousins together for a big easter egg dyeing party. It was a bit stressful for me because all Maddy wanted to do was lick the eggs or try to drink the dye. She apparently really likes vinegar. She quickly became quite a mess, with dye all over her face. It was still a ton of fun...I haven't dyed eggs since I was in high school so it was nice to do it again. I think next year will be a bit more enjoyable for us though as Maddy hopefully will be more cooperative. She loved it though so it was still worth the effort.

John, Izzy, Brooke, Maddy, Jaelyn, and Jordyn

What a crew!

Jaelyn do you think the blue or the pink will taste better???

The pink one does look good!

It tastes good too!

A Week Without Our Baby

Papa and Maddy

After our weekend at Boyne, we let my parents take Maddy back up north with them for the week. We were planning to head home for Easter weekend so we would go get her then. My parents have been begging us to let them have her for awhile while we are away so that they can have some one-on-one with her so that she can get to know them. When we are around she usually prefers us, plus when we are home usually all the other grandchildren are around so my parents have there hands full and don't get much time with her. So we finally gave in and let them take her home with them for the week.

We missed her like crazy. It seemed so quiet around the house...too quiet. Jason and I both had a lot of work to do and we wanted to work on the basement when we could so the week went by faster than I thought it would. We talked to Maddy every night and could tell she was having a blast. She loved her time up north with Papa and Grandma. She got to play outside in the snow and go sledding everyday, feed the pheasants with Papa, and watch the deer eat corn. Thats all she would talk about! She became quite the Papa's girl while she was there. We weren't sure if she would want to come back home with us, but she surprisingly was very excited to see us and come back home.

Avalanche Bay

A few weekends ago, we went up to Boyne Mountain to meet my parents for a fun family weekend. Jason and I were planning on skiing while my parents took Maddy to the indoor waterpark (Avalanche Bay), but the weather was miserable with a unbearable wind chill so Jason and I decided to join them at the waterpark rather than ski. We had a blast playing with Maddy in the water. She was real bashful and hesitant in the morning, but after lunch and an afternoon nap she was crazy. She would go down the toddler slide by herself, even backwards, and then didn't want to stop going on the big slide with either mom or dad. It was really nice because they would let her on the big slides with an adult so she even got to try out a tube ride. It was so much fun, she didn't want to go home. We had to drag her out of there at 9 pm, kicking and screaming. We had no idea she would enjoy it that much. Looks like we are going to have a fun summer at the waterpark at Kensington Park this summer.

Stepping on the Water Fountain

Oops Missed

Coming Down Forwards

Here She Comes

Going Down Backwards

Nice Landing

Maddy and Daddy

Here They Come

Good Landing
(Maddy is already saying "Again")

Here's a video of Maddy coming down by herself and then calling for Daddy to follow:

2008 Howell Co-Ed Volleyball Champs

So I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but this past month we played in the Howell Co-Ed Volleyball Tournament and won. We did lose one game though. Overall this season we ended up 36-1. Not too shabby for a team with only 5 players: our neighbors Mike, Greg, and Sarah played with us. Marnie was pregnant this year so we decided to just play a player short. We had so much fun. Can't wait for next year. We were sponsored by a restaurant in Novi, Mi called Garnish, which is very similar to Panera. Check it out sometime, it is really yummy: www.garnish.com

The tournament was at the beginning of the month and after our big win we celebrated with a nice dinner at our house. We had the kids eat first at the kids table and then let them play while the adults ate. It was so weird to have the six of us sit down together to eat. I don't think that has happened in two years.

Here are the kid table pictures: