Gracie turns 5!

We started off Gracie's birthday celebrations the weekend of Tulip Time down in Pella. We arrived in Ankeny on Thursday and stayed the night there, went to visit Grandpa great and did the parade for Tulip Time on Friday and they Sat night we had a Birthday party for Gracie at Chad and Shay's house. We are always so GRATEFUL to them for being willing to host a birthday party that often happens at their house just b/c it is the default location where everyone is gathered! We started off the evening with some of Gracie's favorite foods...HAM BALLS are her favorite right behind ribs ;)Cheesy "Noodles"...for the longest time Gracie didn't like potatoes, but if we called them cheesy noodles we could sometimes get her to eat them!A YUMMY Fruit Salad Grandma Doreen made...And AMAZING Tulip Cupcakes handmade by Uncle Seth and Auntie Heather for dessert!The kids saying "Cheers" to the birthday girl!Addyson and Grandma Doreen taking time for an after dinner story timeShe asked for tulip cupcakes and tulip cupcakes she got! She was SOOOOO excited and proud to hold em up!Daddy and Addy playing a little peek-a-boo before present timeAddyson is such a little cuddle/giggle bug!Grandma Doreen, Nathan and Aaron had prime seating to watch Gracie open up her presents. Amazing how in 5 years we have gone from one little lady to a room full of 3 girls and 2 boys!Everyone gathered together....I love it!Singing Gracie Happy Birthday...Time to blow out the candles....how many more years til the question comes up, "How many boyfriends do you have?" after she blows out the candles =)Digging into the presents!!!Heather showing Gracie the AWESOME gift she made for her. She took thin cardboard and mounted pictures on one side and patterned paper on the other to make her very own personalized memory game! It was SOOO cute!Grandma Doreen shows Gracie that not only did she get her a suitcase, but other fun stuff inside it!Jon being the monkey we all know him to be ;)Peek-a-boo Auntie Kris! Where are you?After the party ended, the fun was just getting under way. All of the kiddos, Rob, Seth, Chad, Heather, and I headed outside to run off some more energy before bed time. The real fun began when the kids started going down the tube slide and the "big ppl" decided to join in the fun!Rob barely fit and the kids thought it was hilarious to watch him plop out of the bottom!There is the Nate-man after coming down...He is READY to help catch Karys with Uncle Rob!Here comes GRACIE!!!GOTCHA!!!Auntie Heather is ready to take a turn...up the rope she goes!
Success! Out she comes and quickly gave a thumbs up while laughing. Chad made it down the slide too and the kiddos went down as a train a couple of times...who knew a slide could be so much fun for all ages! We had a GREAT time celebrating Gracie!

Tulip Time!

For Friday's parade we had Dutch costumes for everyone in our family. I should have known it was a bad sign when Gracie, who loves to wear her costume, did not want anything to do with it. I fought way too many battles to get us all dressed and out the door, as well as the pics to attempt to get this day that is really just was not worth it! We did end up having a good time walking in the parade and it was fun to watch Nathan and Karys hold hands across their strollers as well as Addyson wave without being directed at all to all of the parade goers gathered along the streets for the parade. We were bummed it was so cold, the girls wore their hats and cloves and Addy had a jacket on almost the entire time! Thanks to the Pella VL's and Grandma Doreen for enduring the yucky weather though and making it a TTto remember!Rob and the girls ready for the baby parade...my babies sure are growing up fast!Orange City/Pella VL's unite for the Dutch tradition of pushing your young ones in the baby parade.Grandma Doreen even got a chance to push the stroller..."Hey Grandma! Can you keep your wheel from running into mine?!?" (Nathan)Daddy with one of his future Tulip Queens! She was sure waving like a little queen would be ;)Everyone all together for one last picture at the end of the parade route...my girls were a wreck...enough said...The next afternoon, we skipped the costumes and went for watching the parade as spectators instead! The girls were so excited for this and found some GREAT spots on the good ole Central red blanket!The rest of our crowd all gathered together to anticipate the excitement of the parade!uncle Seth even got one of the chosen seats on the blankets down by the girls...the girls were very excited to have him!One of the first floats that went by was this one...a great, big ice cream truck!They even handed out little "ice cream" cones to all the kiddos!Karys proudly displaying her cone...neither her nor Gracie were that crazy about eating it though. It was find with Mommy-less is more when it comes to sugar!Uncle Seth quickly jumped on the chance to have a good tickle fight with Karys between floats/festivitiesAuntie Heather walking in the parade with the court from 2001! Can't believe it has been that long since she was on the court! Still looks so young and fits right into her costume ;) Addy LOVED watching all of the different floats and people walk by...Almost as much as she LOVED cuddling with daddy on his lap!Whatch lookin at? =)
Addy Grace and Momma are ALL SMILES! Good parade, Good company, Good fun!

Visiting Grandpa Great

Before heading down to Pella, we made a stop off at Newton Village to visit Grandpa Great. Just as we were getting there, Grandma Great, Auntie Kris and John Elliot were walking in too! We had a GREAT visit with Grandpa and got some GREAT photos with him! Was fun to see how many people we could cram into his room! We love you Grandpa! and Pray for you so often!Rob and the girls with Grandpa and Grandma GreatGotta have a silly faced picture too...Grandma must not have gotten the memo ;)Grandma Great getting some snuggle time with Addy Grace Roben Eugene with Earl Eugene...love this moment!

Gotta Have the Tulip Pictures...Right?

The girls had the opportunity to head down to Ankeny a day earlier than Rob, Addyson and I with Grandma Doreen. She was up to attend Gracie's preschool graduation (bless her heart for coming!) and had offered to road trip home with the girls. Because of the weather we had been having leading up to Tulip Festival, word had travelled that the tulips both here and inPella may not last through the festivals. That being the case I wanted to get some pictures of the girls by the tulips here in town before they headed down the road.
We decided the park would be a great place to take the pictures...there were lots of different colored tulips to choose from and it was close by.
The girls and Grandma all ready to hit the road! As you can tell they were ready to get in the car and take some naps! They were such GREAT sports for the photo shoot! The following pictures are what came from the "session"...Enjoy!