Baby Colton

I have been fortunate enough to watch Maya since she was just a baby. Her and Allie really enjoy playing together throughout the day and honestly, sometimes it's easier having her here. There are times when they hang out playing in the bedroom and I get a lot done because Hannah and Allie don't need as much of my attention!

Maya just recently had a baby brother and we were able to spend some time with him today!

Meet Colton Joshua Griffon!!

We even got to spend time with the lovely Gray family! They came for lunch too. What a fun day. Congrats Griffon family!!



It's a gender party!

Our great friends Jessica and Jeremy invited their family over to reveal the gender of their baby! We were fortunate enough to be a part of it.

Jessica and Jeremy put a filling in some cupcakes that would match the color of the baby's gender. You'll find out in this video what they are having!

Congratulations Jeremy and Jess! Can't wait to meet and snuggle your beautiful baby girl!!

Ann Arbor Hands-On Science Museum

We were invited to a birthday party today at the Hands-On Science Center in Ann Arbor. We had never been with our kids before. The girls had a blast. There are so many different things for the kids to check out and play with. We had a tour guide that took us to each room where the kids could explore for about ten minutes. After that was over, we went back to the "party" room where the kids were able to watch a volcano erupt. It was actually vinegar and baking soda placed in a cup inside playdoh! The girls thought it was super cool. They also had cake and ice cream and candy from a pinata! It was a fun day!

Allie enjoying fishing with these magnetic fishing poles.

This was an iceberg climbing wall.  

These next two pictures were my two favorite activities. They both made really big bubbles with the soapy water. 

The girls are inside a real ambulance. 

Checking out their volcanoes 

In line to hit the pinata. 

On the way out the girls mentioned that they didn't get to see the tornado. So we made a quick trip over to check that out!

Jump rope for hearts

Ava's school does an assembly every year to raise money for the American Heart Association. They have the students come down to the gym for 1 hour and jump rope. The kids take turns practicing on their own, do double dutch, and Chinese jump rope. Then at the end, they divide up by class and see who can last the longest. In PE the day before the big assembly, Ava beat her entire class and stayed jumping the longest! She was super excited.

At the assembly, she did very well but she didn't last the longest. We were very proud of her for sitting down as soon as she messed up though. Not all of her classmates were quite as honest, so we made sure to praise her for that! It was a fun day and Ava was really excited to have her family there to watch her!

Avery, Brody, Austin, Nathan, and Ava

Ava and her good friend Avery

Mike and Donald were able to take a break and come watch!

Papa, Grandma, Allie, Hannah, and Maya watched too!!

Play place

We had an open Friday morning this past week, so I asked the girls what they wanted to do. We decided on the new and improved play place at the 12 Oaks mall. The girls had a lot of fun exploring all the new structures!

Felix the cat

Meet Felix, the newest member of our family. This cat belonged to the Darnell family, who recently found out their son is allergic. We have been thinking about getting a cat for a long time so we decided to bring Felix home! He was a little freaked out the first week. He didn't come out from under my bed much, but lately he's been a lot friendlier. He actually lets the girls pet him and comes out from hiding often! Who knows, maybe next we'll get a puppy!

Painting, play-dough, and 100 days of school

We have had a busy winter! After the month of a million birthdays, came short February. With me going to FL in the middle of it, the month seemed to fly by. Ava is continuing to do well at school. She's excited for March when she will be the Kinderstar for an entire week! I'll post about it later. I was mystery reader at her school a couple weeks ago. Ava was very excited to have me there. She came home asking Mike if he could be the next mystery reader!

Allie and Hannah are starting to play more "together" rather than in the same room. We recently got a cat so the girls are super excited to follow him around the house. Allie has been earning a lot of stickers lately for doing things around the house without us asking her. She is such a great helper. Hannah is talking a lot! She loves playing with her sisters. We recently just moved them all into the same bedroom, with Hannah's old room being the play room. They LOVE going to bed at night together. Hannah loves chatting with her sisters before falling asleep.

We're looking forward to warm weather, playing outside, and swimming. We will be going camping for the first time this summer and the girls talk about it all the time;

 "are we going camping tomorrow?"

"when is our camping trip again?"

"Is this the month we get to camp!?"

Here are a few things we've been doing at our house this past month!

Since our girls are so into art, it's perfect that my dad and Mike's mom are such good artists. My dad has been teaching Ava and Allie to paint. He drew this picture of Kevin from the movie "Up" and helped Ava paint it!

Allie loves to play play-dough so we will often get this out while Ava's at school and Hannah is napping! 

Ava had her 100th day of school on February 27th. She had to make a necklace with 100 things on it. We chose hair ties. She also made a crown and wore it all day. 

We've had a great winter and are looking forward to Easter, spring, and summer!

The Johnson's visit MI

We were fortunate to have Dave and Katie come up for a visit and they stayed with us on Wednesday night. To say that my girls love Dave and Katie is an understatement. They were very sad to see them leave. They are both amazing with kids. Dave spent so much time playing hide and seek with Allie and Hannah. He is so engaging with them and you can tell they both really enjoy children. THey are going to make amazing parents! Katie is due with her first baby girl in June! I cannot wait to meet their new bundle of joy!

Snow bunnies

We haven't had many opportunities for our girls to play in the snow. I love it! I much prefer a milder winter. But I do know my girls love to sled, build snowmen, and just play in the snow. We finally had a snow storm a few weekends ago, so my mom and I took the girls outside for some fun.

Snow trampoline! 

Hannah enjoys it for as long as it takes for her fingers to get cold! 

Naples, FL

Amazingly, you can hop on a plane for 3 hours and suddenly be in a beautiful, sunny, warm, palm tree filled state. Sometimes makes me wonder what the heck I'm doing in Michigan!

I was so blessed to be able to travel to Naples, Florida for a girls weekend, with 7 other amazing women. It was such a relaxing and restful four days. I came home feeling rejuvinated and refreshed, not only as a mom, but as a wife. Lisa is an amazing woman who takes the time out of her week to watch our children while we meet for mom's group. She is already such an amazing gift to us! She invited us down to hang out in her beautiful condo for four days. It was awesome! We shopped, drank wine, played cards, ate out, drank coffee, walked on the beach, swam in the pool, collected seashells, had great conversation and did whatever we wanted with no little ones to be responsible for! Ahhh, glorious!

Jackie, Kara, and I getting ready to go shopping. The weekend was actually pretty cool so we didn't swim too much.

Walking to the beach on a chilly 50 degree day! 

The final day of our trip turned out to be a beautiful day in the 70's. We soaked up as much sun as we could. 

Jodi and I stayed in this beautiful room! 

Laura and Jackie roomed in the master bedroom. 

Kara and Holly's digs. 

Laura and Lisa, our amazing hostess! 

One of Lisa's amazng views of the water. 

The sweet and heated pool!