Birthday Girls

We celebrated Mallory's 1st birthday last October 21, Madison's 7th birthday on February 7 and Molly's 4th birthday on March 14. Another year of birthdays has flown by. We had Mallory's 1st birthday party on the most beautiful fall day with close friends and family at our house. She devoured her Baby Einstein cake! Madison and Molly both woke up to a special personalized birthday song and a bed full of balloons on their birthdays. They both wanted to make their birthday cakes this year. That was a new adventure for me. They actually turned out great and we had a lot of fun making them. The girls loved being able to decide every little detail. With mom's gentle suggestions of course:) Duane make a special birthday sign to put in the yard for both of them and we had dinner at Home Town Buffet on both of their birthdays. That is the only place they ever want to go for dinner. The waitresses know us by name now. We celebrated their birthday's at Great Wolf Lodge instead of having big birthday parties and both girls got to do something special the weekend of their birthday. Madison brought a long a friend to the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History. It's a great place! All the kids really enjoyed it. Madison got a new bike and some Nintendo games. We took Molly to see Peter Pan the ballet. She is our little balerina. Her birthday present was introductory ballet classes at the rec center. We can't wait for her to start. Duane fixed up Madison's old bike for Molly. It looks like brand new. Believe it or not Molly actually enjoys having things that belonged to Madison. I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts.

In Like A Lion!

March certainly came in like a lion in Ohio this year! Last Friday morning the snow started around 8:00 and didn't stop until 4:00 the next day. By then we ended up with several inches of snow. We hibernated for the weekend. It was a nice change of pace not having to go anywhere or do anything in particular. By Saturday night Duane and I had a bad case of cabin fever. Lucky for us, we have a neighbor across the street that babysits. The snow had stopped by that evening and the roads were passable. It took us 45 minutes to find an open restaurant. On Sunday, it was actually warm and sunny. So Duane took the girls sledding at a local golf course. They all had a blast. Maybe Mallory will be ready for sledding next winter. Her and I went to Target instead. Which in my book, is just as much fun:) This will hopefully be the last of our winter weather. The girls didn't seem to mind it a bit though.

Great Wolf Lodge

We took the girls to Great Wolf Lodge this past weekend to celebrate Madison, Molly and their cousin Logan's birthdays. What an amazing place! Our room had a pretend cave in it where the two older girls slept in bunk beds. There was a wave pool, family hot tubs, several kiddie play areas and lots of awesome slides. The decor was over the top. Just being in a place like that made me feel like a kid again. That was the first time I had been on a water slid since I was a kid. I loved it! It was wonderful sharing the experience with our kids. We all enjoyed ourselves so much. You really have to work as a team and find a balance with three kids in a large and sometimes overwhelming place like that. Mallory loves the water, but isn't very secure in it so we were on constant patrol with her. Molly is a great swimmer, but still needs supervision in the water. Madison, luckily is pretty self-sufficient, but she still wanted mom and dad to tag along with her when ever possible. All three girls are pretty fearless, which increases our stress level often. They were all three very excited and on fast forward the whole time! It was great to spend time with Logan, Dale, Janet, Megan and her friends. It is so entertaining getting the cousins together. It is precious seeing Molly and Logan, who are only a few weeks apart, interacting so well together. They seem to be getting closer the older they get. We all really enjoyed our time together and are looking forward to our family vacation this summer.