LAKE KEUKA - we miss it already!!

I will not even try to add captions to all of the pics I took...and these are only a portion of them! We had SOOOOO much fun at Keuka Lake, NY. My great-Aunt MaryJane, and great-Uncle John brought two of their grand-daughters making our vacation even better than we imagined! Words cannot describe how much fun we had skiing, swimming, tubing, talking, fishing, eating, and being entertained by our talented children...we are so fortunate to have a family that enjoys being active, enjoys being together, and enjoys laughter (a lot of laughter:)

You will notice that MANY of the pictures are of the girls...needless to say Claire was in heaven being with Ashley and Madison. The past week gave her such a dose of girlishness which she LOVES...it isn't easy being the only girl out of her first cousins! The bond is still so great with her distant cousins. They had so much fun sharing a room, doing their hair, teasing the boys....the list goes on and on!

Ayden is a definite dare devil on the tube! When the wake and waves aren't bouncing him, he gets on his knees and bounces it himself! All the kids are such "fish"...they are naturals in the water! The big boys LOVED tubing with Ashley since she is the "expert". Claire, Eli and Maddie enjoyed swimming off the boat! Maddie became pretty brave on the tube as the week went on...good for you, girl!

Our bathing beauties!

Oh yes, even the "old guys" got up on skis! WAY TO GO DAD!!

My mom was feeling adventurous and took a spin on the tube! I think I was more nervous than she was...when do children start worrying about their parents rather than the parents worrying about the child? Funny how that happens without anyone noticing!

I don't know if there is anything Aunt MaryJane disliked on our vacation. It was so fun to see her smiling and laughing at all of our silliness!

One night the adults were treated to a talent show put on by the kids! We really have some talented children!

Many acts were imitations....Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Elvis....oh yeah, and the girls imitated two "cool guys", Ayden and Trent. It was pretty darn funny!

The Hoe Down Throw Down!!

A ventriloquist act...I bet you can't guess who the dummy is!!

Dancing is definitely in their blood...and self choreographed none the less! Watch out "America's got Talent"!

Good buds Ayden and Eli put on a pretty great boys hip hop number! Hip hop isn't quite Trent's thing, but he was an excellent stage crew!!

This was Ashley 90% of the time!! She is an expert tuber!

Our resident fisherman, Trent Douglas!

Our resident goofballs, Ayden and Jason!

I thought this captured Uncle John doing one of his favorite things...just enjoying the Lake!

The girls just having girl-time!

We miss you guys...and we missed you, Jordan(Ashley and Madison's sister)! Maybe next year?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!

Claire's birthday wish finally came true...she now has her American Girl Doll, Lanie. Lanie loves nature, helping wildlife and the environment. Sound familiar? Yes, they are a match made in heaven. So far Lanie and Claire have been inseparable. She has been waiting and wanting this doll for a long time. I think her patience paid off...and her enthusiasm has really made it worth it to us:)

Rather than having a party we took Claire, a few friends, and my nephews rollerskating! It was SO fun!

Some friends needed more help than others:)

Many just hugged the wall!!

After the first half an hour it was smooth sailing! I think a good time was had by all....and they have the bruises to show for it!

One thing is for sure...Girls definitely know how to have fun!!

Happy Birthday Claire Bear! You are our beautifully GOOFY girl...always making us laugh, always giving us a smile, and forever loving to everyone and everything!!

We are so proud of you for nothing more and nothing less than just being you!!

Summertime...REALLY?

Okay...I have been getting some comments about my lack of blog activity. Hopefully the pics will fill you in and you will understand why I have not had time to do this! Thank goodness Summer is just around the corner:) I can't believe how this Spring has FLOWN by!!

In March we celebrated Earth Hour with our friends by playing in the dark, eating s'mores and hotdogs, and using NO ELECTRICITY the entire evening:)

Dalton and Tyla were our buddies that night..SOOO fun!

Many of you know that Claire had her ear drum reconstructed and did extremely well with her surgery! You can see how much support she received from friends and family. It really meant so much to her to have so many thoughts and prayers:)

She also did LOTS of resting...poor baby. We are very relieved to have that behind us! She has already been showering and swimming without earplugs this Spring...finally she has a "normal" ear!!

Somehow we managed to squeeze in a trip to Indian Echo Caverns. It was a Mother's Day activity, and it was perfect. We had lots of fun going out to breakfast, learning about the caverns, and then doing some shopping:) Thanks Jason:)

Ayden has been playing baseball, and Claire has made a friend in Dylan. Dylan is Ayden's good buddy Ryan('s )brother. Ryan and Ayden are on the same team this year and loving it.

Baseball presents a lots of challenges this year. Hitting off of the team pitchers (not coaches), playing outfield and learning how to play the game. Ayden has learned so much, and improved his game immensely.

The Dodgers (his team) have great coaches, parents and boys that play together nicely. Everyone has been very encouraging, so it's been a very positive experience.

That brings us to the most demanding aspect of our Spring shedule! E-DANCE!!! See for yourself....

Claire's ballet number was set to an Alice and Wonderland theme...

Ayden's was 2000 Watts, an old MJ song...

The show was a huge success, and totally fun...watching the show at the end of the season ALWAYS makes the chaos of classes, rehearsal, costumes, worth it!

Tyla and Claire were in the same dance class this year which made is extra-specially fun! Jason and I were SO proud of the kiddos for their hard work and confidence when performing in front of an extremely crowded theater!

Among all of our activities the kids HAVE had a terrific year at school. I think they will be sad to leave their teachers and classmates on Friday. I have also been substituting as an Instructional Aide regularly and have liked it a lot. Brian and Erica stayed with us a few days, and were even able to help out at Field Day with the kiddos! THEN Stewie stayed with us a few days the following week!! PHEW! Did I mention I am really looking forward to Summertime? That's it in a nutshell....I'll be in touch!

Spring Makeover

Make your own photo collage

SKIING...AGAIN!

movie:

http://s941.photobucket.com/albums/ad254/jasthomas/Skiing%20with%20Stewie%20and%20Biz/

Jason has made yet another one of his creative movies(click on the address above to view it). This time we have two more stars to introduce, Steven(akaStewie) and Elizabeth! They definitely add to this shorts entertainment value just as they did on the actual day! Thanks to Stewie and Elizabeth Ayden had two terrific snowboarding teachers. What would we have done without you?

Claire, as you will see, decided to continue skiing rather than boarding. It was certainly worth her while as she traveled over moguls and half pipes with ease! As if that wasn't a big enough challenge she decided to travel half of the slope backwards...yes, backwards! Too funny. We had an awesome day and were so happy to share it with Unlce Stewie and Aunt Biz!

Enjoy these pic and lots more fun on Jason's masterpiece:)

HAPPINESS

Some of you may know that I have started practicing yoga with someone new. This yoga is VERY different than the yoga I have been doing for the past few years, but I think I am enjoying kundalini and plan to continue taking classes. It is extremely peaceful and very rejuvenating from the inside out:) Anyway, we learned a song that goes along with some meditative motions and is particularly fun. I wanted to share the words with all of you because they are SO simple. It isn't often that we have mantras in plain english, so I hope you can enjoy the words and meaning to this little song!

Happiness runs in a circular motion.

Life is like a little boat upon the sea.

Everyone's a part of everything anyway.

You can have it all if you let yourself be.

Why? OH! Because.

Why? OH! Because.

(the answer is in repeating the song:)

It is very obvious why I included pictures of my three favorite people. They are a the largest part of my happiness. They are also my inspiration to just "be me". Life just doesn't get better than this.