ELEVEN MONTHS

Amelia's eleven month birthday was Monday, May 19th.  Her last monthly birthday before it's been one whole year without her here with us - I'm really dreading flipping the calendar and seeing the days tick by until that awful year mark.  

As for now, the weather is nice, the grass is green and Amelia's spot is ready for the beautiful days ahead.  We've been able to stop by so much more now that we can sit down and be with our little girl.

Eleven Months.

Hugs from big brother Nate:

And a smooch from Mads:

So much love for our sweet baby girl!

The Greatest Show on Earth!

COME ONE, COME ALL TO THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH!!

Thursday, May 22nd was the day I'd secretly been waiting for since we found out we were pregnant with Mads.  (I'm totally serious too!)  It was Madeline's KINDERGARTEN CIRCUS!  I still know the words to the Dancing Bears Song from when my sister Kim was in her circus.  The circus is just such a fun tradition for Northsiders.  I don't know when it started, but I was in the circus, Kim was in the circus, our little cousins were in the circus...  Nate has already narrowed his selections down to two options for his circus!  :)

Before heading to the PAC at the High School we needed to beautify our sweet little Mads.  In such an important stage production you need to have fancy hair and makeup!  We even called in assistance!  Jen came over and spent an hour making our little star ready to shine!

Here's the during the transformation picture:

And after hair and makeup - on our way to the high school for wardrobe!

And now - it's time for The Greatest Show on Earth!

After the grand march into the auditorium the performers welcomed the crowd to the show.  Our little Pickle was a Beautiful Ballerina!  She was so excited that she got to wear a pink outfit, too!  (Yes, she's the short one on the right!)

Welcoming waves!

A closer picture of all 5 Ballerinas:

All of the circus performers:

Time to see the Beautiful Ballerinas balancing high above the crowd with their parasols:

Ever so carefully they walk across the tightrope:

They place their feet delicately one in front of the other:

Then they slowly backup placing one foot behind the other:

Once they reach the end of the tightrope they lift their leg and pose ever so gracefully - the Beautiful Ballerinas!

In a shocking display of bravery, the ballerinas lie down as the Mama and Baby Elephants walk over them - narrowly missing the ballerinas by mere inches!

TA-DA!

The circus was filled with other fantastic performers including acrobats, strong men, dancing ostriches, magicians, and many others.  There was also a cotton candy girl, a balloon girl, a candy apple girl and a peanut girl!  And of course what circus is complete without clowns?!

 Love this picture of clown Lane trying to clean up after the strong men!

At the end of the show all of the performers lined up for a final goodbye wave!  What a fantastic show!

Our gorgeous circus performer - a Beautiful Ballerina in pink, Madeline Josephs!

After the show there were snacks, including real cotton candy!  No circus would be complete without candy on a stick!

Here is a video recap of Mads' performance:

What an absolutely spectacular Kindergarten Circus!!  :)

**April Extras**

Friday, April 4th was Dress Like Your Favorite Book Character at school  Mads chose Nancy Clancy.  Nancy is a fabulous dresser and super fabulous girl.  Don't you think Mads looks pretty fancy?  :)

There was a benefit held at the Middle School on Saturday, April 5th.  The kids and I stopped by to check out the silent auction and market place.  Dotty the Clown was there and she made some creations for the kids.  Mads got a pink flower on a headband and Nate got an airplane, with Batman flying it!!

 Tuesday, April 8th was a day that I was off work and home with Nate.  Mads was at school and we spent a couple hours at Jen's house before going to pick Mads up.  It was a nice warm day with a nice breeze so Nate and Brynlee flew kites.  The Superman kite that Nate borrowed was a super good flyer - he had a blast!

 That same day Mads and I decided to get our piggies and fingers ready for Spring.  We chose rainbow colors!  Bring on the warm weather!

 Spring Break was the week of April 14th.  We celebrated one night by having frozen yogurt and a movie for dinner!  How fun!

Nate has decided that the twenty minutes we spend in the van going to get Mads from school are a perfect time to catch a snooze.  He is really looking like such a big boy recently!

 Got the mail in the other day and there was a large envelope with some forwarded mail from the new owners of our Oshkosh house.  This envelope was included - It was mailed to us in late November.  Apparently it didn't make it into the mail slot and landed in the bushes instead!  :)

And that's all I've got for April randoms!  Thanks for stopping by!

A tisket, A tasket, Hunting for Easter baskets!

The kids were fantastic Easter morning.  They slept in and didn't even ask to hunt for their baskets until after everyone was up and dressed for the day!

Once we were all in our Easter best the kids were able to search the house and see if the Bunny left anything for them.  Mads started out in the kitchen:

 Then Mads and Nate teamed up and headed down the hall:

 Mads found her basket in the laundry hamper!  

 She didn't find any dirty socks in her basket!

 Nate found his basket behind the curtains in the living room:

 Time to check out the goods!

 They were excited about the new Fun Dough that came with animal molds:

 After the kids looked thru their baskets we went to wish Amelia a happy Easter.  When we got to her spot the kids saw that the Easter Bunny had found her as well!

  

 In Amelia's basket there was a "First Easter" stuffed bunny and a little garden girl to decorate her spot with.

We gave Amelia her dyed Easter eggs too.

 After visiting Mia we headed to church.  We sponsored a Lily in Amelia's memory:

 We had Easter lunch at Gramma Jackie's house with Honey, Aunt Dee, Uncle Jerry, and Gramma J.  (Aunt Kimmy, Uncle Jakey, and Michael had lunch plans with Jakey's family)

Before lunch the kids hunted for their baskets from Gramma J.  Nate found his under a blanket:

 And Mads found hers behind a chair!

 Check out these sweet light sticks!

 Light fight!

 We went over to Cousin Melissa's house for an afternoon with the Wunschel side of the family.  The traditional candy hunt was held outside in the gorgeous weather!  Nate was on the move searching for the candy!

 Mads was getting down and dirty in order to search for the candy before it melted in the sun!

 The kids also found Easter bags from GG.  (Nate found his when I didn't have my camera on me)

It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed being able to see so many family members all at once!  Happy Easter and remember that Jesus died for you!  Happy Resurrection Day!