Madness...

I'm not really sure how it's almost April...I feel like we just celebrated the New Year! This month (and year) have flown by. The month started with Mikey turning another year older. We celebrated by having dinner with friends. Nothing fancy. But every year on Mike's birthday we talk about how much fun his 30th birthday party was...we rented a party bus and went roller skating. Pretty sure we were the minority there. But we were having just as much fun as the rest of the kids. I mean, I even danced (skate-danced?) with the large, purple, dancing dinosaur. Doesn't get more crazy than that.

I snapped this picture because Izzy is in the habit of spelling & recognizing letters...one evening at dinner she looked up and read aloud every single letter (minus the lower case "e" as they only know upper case). I was so stinkin' proud of her. She does this everywhere and it never gets old. Izzy also counts constantly, "Mommy, there are FOUR of us at the dinner table!" Love how proud she is of herself and witnessing her using her new skills.

 A few weekends ago Nanny Natalie was home for Spring Break and she came over to play with the girls a bit and then accompanied us to gymnastics. The girls probably talk about her (or her parents) at least once a day, so it's always special when she makes a visit.

 The Big 10 Tourney was in town a few weeks ago and our Funster group made an entire day/evening out of the games. Although I was sad that I couldn't watch IU play (as they lost after the first round), I was more than happy to watch some March Madness with some of our closest friends.

 Mags was our beer girl

 Mikey & Clay...the two of them together spells trouble. For reals.

 Molly, Brandi and Mags

 Clay, Adam and Brian

 We've had some visitors the last few weekends as well...Mike's mom & step dad came to watch the girls so we could celebrate his birthday, then Mike's dad and step mom came down so we could have a Funster outing. Both weekends we brought the parents to the model of our new house. Mike and I always laugh, because as much as we visit it...it just never gets old. Lots of excitement surrounding the move. But also lots of emotions. That topic will take up an entirely separate post in itself.

We checked out the park in our new neighborhood as the weather started warming up.

 Speaking of warm weather...it's been in the 80's here. In Indy. In March. Now that's madness. Let's just say we've been outside. A lot. Little Miss Iz has mastered her bike (with training wheels, obv). I've been video taping her constantly, not wanting to forget any of it. I cringe when she goes down hills (aka steep driveways) or when she rides in circles. But I think my sweaty armpits will cease by mid-summer. Maybe.

 These two. Ugh. Those smiles. Don't let them fool you. Bath time at our house is the longest hour of my day. Pure. Chaos. But so darn cute!

 We had Buggy's follow up Ped Neuro appt last week and she checked out with a clean bill of health. EEG was normal. Cognitive skills, normal. Night waking, normal (not cognitively related). In fact, our doctor told me that Bug is quite articulate and cognitively mature for her age. Looks like Lane will be heading to kindergarten just one year after her big sister (she only makes the cut off by 3 days, some parents would wait another year). I also learned that she weighs just 3 pounds less than Izzy. Sister is healthy, that's for sure.

And finally, last Friday was my Flex day off and it just so happened to fall in line with 4 of the other girls' days off. The stars were aligned for us all to get our long run in then spend the afternoon day drinking. Something about these girls, my Perfect Stranger running buddies, that I can't quite put my finger on. I connect with them on so many levels. We've shared some very intimate times together (when you're running for 3+ hours at a time, things get brought up...plus, we see each other in some of our darkest hours trying to make it to the end of a marathon). You can read Meggie's blog recap and also Bri's blog recap about our shenanigans. It was quite the day. Our conversations started out light and funny, then we turned deep and emotional. Very fitting and can be related to a long run; starts out fun and hours later you're digging deep to make it through another mile. That's why I love these girls...they make me laugh, cry and overall just make me want to be a better me. I'm so lucky to have found them!