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Thursday, April 27, 2017

Wolves & Bunnies in April!

WARNING: LOTS of pictures ahead!!!

April was a month with lots of photo ops, so not only are there TONS of pictures in this post, but there will be more from April of our big girl's birthday, along with the more mundane moments of the month.  This one will focus on our awesome trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, and various Easter activities.

Great Wolf Lodge is a very kid-orientated amusement water park/"lodge" and we had the pleasure of staying there for a few days with Nana & Pop-Pop.  The girls had a blast!  Even though they weren't up to any of the slides (at least Steve and I got a few rides, though!), Lilee loved one of the small pool areas, and Maelee spent most of her time in the wave pool and the kid-friendly hot tub!  We were also SO proud of her for trying a boogie board wave ride!!!  The lobby was decked out with various woodland critters with dance partied and story time in the evenings and it was just as super special time being there.

 Ready for the water park!
(at least we think that's what Lilee's expression is all about...)


 Dance party then story time in pjs!






 


 More water park fun for almost the whole day!




 Lunch!!!
(Fruit, pita & hummus, and an
ICE CREAM BUCKET!)

 Yum!

 Braving the wave pool with daddy!

 Relaxing in the hot tub.

   
Safe with Pop- Pop!

 So proud of our dare devil!

 Daddy's turn!



 Beautiful evening walk around the resort.


 


More pictures from the Great Wolf Lodge:

We are so grateful for our time there and both girls keep asking when we're going back. :)  So thankful for the memories!

The fun continued the next weekend with Easter celebrating!  We went to a cute little festival the day before Easter in MD where the girls got the obligatory picture with the Easter bunny, and Easter Sunday was spent enjoying a delicious lunch and egg hunt with our church community group followed by chocolate bunny fondue and our own little egg hunt at home with my folks.  

Steve and I both served in the Children's Ministry at church that morning where Steve had a blast tying in some science experiments with Jesus' ressurrection!  It sounds like it was pretty memorable for the kiddos and a great way for them to remember the meaning of Easter.  

 Egg dying!


 
 Easter bunny, face painting, bounce houses, and even little chicks and ducklings to pet- fun morning!

 So serious!

 Happy now!




Easter morning began with a basket of little treats, including the big chocolate bunnies from Too-daddy!

 So sweet and pretty in their Easter dresses!

 The kiddos ready to find some eggs!



 Little Emmanuel's first Easter with the Icardis!
He did pretty awesome with those eggs!


 Time to enjoy a couple treats!

 Before feast!!!
Mike made a yummy lamb dish and Steve's ham was delicious!

 
 Back home after a beautiful afternoon.

 Nana & Pop-Pop are here!


 The golden egg!

More pictures from Easter:

The girls love our annual egg hunt at home where we have a sweet game that always ties in the story of the resurrection with the items found in each egg.  It's a great way to show how even secular Easter favorites can point to Jesus!  It was a fun day of celebrating new life in Jesus that we were grateful we could spend both with friends and family.  

Stay tuned for more April pics!









Thursday, April 20, 2017

Much in March!

Just like the weather where we had hot summer-like days and freezing snow days, this month had a little bit of a lot of different happenings...  From Maelee's first parade that she participated in to a fun DE visit to my recital and birthday, with lots of other fun in between.  I'll have a separate post about the recent "Flute Recital & Adoption Fundraiser" I gave and hopefully not too far behind will be one featuring our soon-to-be SEVEN year old.  

Here's a quick recap of March:

Maelee's school was invited to walk in the Scottish parade with the Alexandria Animal Welfare League, but it proved to be a one time only experience with the crazy wait before actually walking!!!
The girls were good sports at least!

So proud of how hard she worked on her school project making a personal timeline!

Fun with the cousins!
We loved seeing all the cousins, including Holland (!), for a short but sweet visit to DE!





They love riding that "gator!"

Sweet Too-daddy LOVES those kiddos!

Say cheese!

Ice cream with friends after the school's Variety Show!
While Maelee was not selected this year, I was so proud of how well she handled it and how supportive she was of her friends who did perform!

Having fun with pizza dough!


Our breakfast pizza tasted just as good as the restaurant's across the street!

SNOW DAY!
The kiddos enjoyed every bit!


More to come on this one!


Awesome bday celebration with a date with my hunny followed by a delicious (and beautiful!) cake at my folks!




A sweet bday, indeed!

Slideshow of more pics from March:
https://pix.sfly.com/ORx9gp


And some favorite pics of Lilee at school!
 
Green eggs for Dr. Seuss day!

 

 
I love that tongue-out concentration!

 
So proud of her holding a worm!

 
That smile... :)

More pics of Lilee loving school!

There has been lots to think about and process these past couple of months so hopefully one day I'll actually have time to write a bit about everything!  But for now, hope you enjoy the photo documentation of our little life!

Friday, March 31, 2017

February flew!

Well, it looks like I'm back to being two months behind in these posts... BUT, with our recital fundraiser done, and our dossier almost submitted, here's hoping I can get caught up!  I guess maybe it helps that my phone hasn't been able to take pictures for several weeks so at least I don't have a huge back log of photos!  A more detailed post about where we are in our adoption process will come soon, but for now, here are some pics from February!

Trying out some cast iron skillet chocolate chip cookies while Steve was traveling-
delicious!!!


Superbowl Sunday!
Poor Maelee had a fever all day, but Lilee loved some solo granddaughter time with Nana & Pop-Pop!
Found hanging outside of Lilee's classroom :)

More birthday parties!
This one was for close neighbor/pal, Elaina, at a bounce house place!



Incredible treat by my folks of dinner at the amazing Marcel's in D.C.!

Sweet treat for the girls on Valentine's Day morning!

Celebrating with this sweet, little love for her class "red" party.



Our little sweethearts :)

Ending a sweet day with more sweets!

Fun with Chloe to celebrate her bday!

'
These two!

Ready to dig in for a Baskin Robbins bday treat!

And the first front tooth is out!

The tooth fairy was generous with this one!

A birthday party for one of Lilee's school friends back at Busy Bee's!
(where Lilee had her 2nd bday party!)


And just a couple cute shots of Lilee at preschool:
 Chapel time!

Loved this one!


Some more pics of preschool fun through this link!

And more Feb fun here!

Not a whole lot of pics from Feb, and March has been sparse with my phone woes, but they have been busy months!