Happy Easter!!!

Saturday before Easter we spent the morning at Grandma & Grandpa's house coloring eggs, playing, eating lunch, playing with Cheyenne, and enjoying the great weather on the back porch. It was a great way to start off the holiday weekend!

 Maddi proudly showing off her eggs she colored at Grandma & Grandpa's house

 Posing with her eggs

 Play dough with cousin Cheyenne

 Blowing bubbles with Cheyenne and Grandma

Then we headed to the park for Uncle Ryan and Aunt Kelly's Easter egg hunt. Maddi was a little reluctant at first, but then she took off like lightening. I actually had to make her stop because I think she was carrying her body weight in eggs... and they were overflowing our of her basket!?

 Trying to talk her into stopping...

 Proud of her eggs!

After the egg hunt, I was off to complete a charity dare that I was nominated for what's called Landon's Plunge. If you want to learn more about Landon and his Plunge challenge, please visit: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1406493872950893/

 Easter morning Maddi found 12 eggs hidden in her house and an Easter basket in her kitchen cupboard.

In her eggs she found little bottles of bubbles and MONEY! In her basket she found: 4 Tu-tus, 2 sets of leg warmers, 8 head bands, 8 flower clips, pack of 10 "just like Mommy Clips", a shirt to match her purple Tu-tu, stickers, and play money.
 (I cannot get the video of her finding her basket to upload) *Sorry!

Late afternoon Maddi's Grandma Teresa, Papa Michael, and Aunt Kaila came over for dinner, egg hunt, and to played with Maddi! Maddi was so happy to see them and had a BLAST with them. They gave her a  BUNCH of presents from them and extended family, she was pretty overjoyed with her stock pile of goodies! Teresa gave her a sticker book of 1000 Tinkerbell stickers = a VERY happy Maddi! EVERYDAY since then, we have been (and any visitors) have been COVERED in stickers!!! LOL
When it was time for them to leave, she wanted to sit on the front porch steps and wave goodbye to them as they pulled out of the driveway. I could tell she was sad to see them go... but after a bit of reassurance, and remembering that she had TONS of Easter candy inside... she bounced up!

Thank you to everyone for celebrating Easter with us, and spoiling Maddi with lots of yummy treats, fun trinkets, and toys. She ended up getting 6 Easter baskets altogether, and even a package in the mail!? She is a very lucky and very loved little girl! HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Road Trip!!

 The weekend of April 12th was my God Son 1st and his brother's 3rd birthday party. Since Maddi had never met any of my Minnesota family, and I just HAD to be at my God son's first b-day, we thought it was a perfect trip for us to take! We decided to leave early in the morning (4am) so Maddi would sleep for most of the ride, and we could get to their house early enough to play and visit for the day. Here is our trip up in a nutshell:

7am Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed!

Breakfast and Potty Break!

And she was asleep again

And... she's awake again! 

Almost to Hollie and George's house

(AKA Jorge) LOL

 She traveled really well! All she wanted to do was sit in the back and sing songs, barely touched her leap pad (usually her favorite thing to do on longer car rides), and sleep!? We only had one "are we there yet?" questions, that was actually right outside Mason City... so over half way we made it without one! LOL
We got out and walked around Cabela's to stretched our legs and potty. We stopped for lunch quick, and we were there!!!

Once we got to our cousin's house, all their boys were napping, so she played quietly in their toy room while we stretched our legs and visited with other extend members of the family that drove from Illinois.
Once the boys were up, she was in seventh heaven! She tends to gravitate towards boys at school, so this was no surprise to me that she LOVED them all! We hung out, we went swimming at our hotel, ate pizza, and went to sleep.

 

 Dominic already calling dibs on Maddi... such a sweetie.

When we woke up the next day, Daddy took Maddi to Dominic's Hockey game while Mommy and Hollie setup for the B-day party. Daddy took Maddi back to the hotel for nap and a quick swim. When he came back to "the party house" (LOL) he had a surprise for me.... DADDY'S FIRST PONY TAIL!!!!

A++ For Effort Daddy!!!

 PARTY TIME!!

 Happy Birthday to Jake and Tyler!!! We had cake...LOTS of cake, thanks to me!!! (LOL)
The kids all played and the b-day boys opened presents! Maddi and Matthew (Mattie) got a long the best... however Dominic looked out for Maddi (just like he does with all his little brothers). They were all so sweet to each other, and really liked playing together.

Book given to Maddi from her Great-Great Aunt Shirley

Cake given to Maddi from George (Jorge) 

 We had a blast! Maddi talked about the boys and the fun she had with them for over a week. She is dying to go back already. I said "you don't mind that we have to drive a long time to see them?"
"Um, no... we go back right now?" LOL
Her not even being phased by the long trip, tells me she belongs in our family... because we don't care how long the drive is to see each other... we drive it! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER & JAKE!!!

Gone Campin'

Our first camping session of the year was at West Lake Park last weekend. We were excited to see how she liked it, and boy did she LOVE it! She thought it was so fun that she got to sleep in there, she thought we were kidding at first! Took awhile for her to calm down and fall alseep, but as soon as I mentioned that she needed to go to sleep so she could go to the park... she was OUT!

Breakfast Convo with Maddi

Educational fun waiting for the Park to warm up  

(She's actually pretty good at this game!)

Her favorite activity to do in side the camper... I FULLY support the obsession

Hanging out with family

Chalk

Bubbles

Park Fun

Pretend Drive-Thru

Camp Fire Stories

One Happy Camper!!!

Next day Grandma Sherri & Papa Steve took her to the park while I packed up the camper, she came back hung out with G&G, vacuumed again, and we went back to the park while Daddy hooked up the camper. Five visits to the park in 2 days = a verrrrrrry tired Maddi. When we got home she took a 2 1/2 hour nap, and I had to wake her up!? lol

She loved every minute, and she can't wait to go back because she keeps asking to go back in the camper!

I see a lot of good fun and GREAT memories in our future!!!