Trip to Indiana- April 29 to May 4.

Bea and I hit the road down to Atlanta.  From there we hopped on a plane up to Indianapolis.  

Once we made it to Aunt Jenni's house, her cousins got right to spoiling Bea with chocolate cake.

It's so good!

Come on, Aunt Jenni!

We visited the girls' mega gymnastics studio to watch Evie practice.  It's so big there's a walking track around the top.  And a pool.

I decided to start wearing earring again when I found these earrings.  I think they look like golden snitches.  Aunt Jenni thinks they look like a fancy version of the Indy 500 logo.

Here's the real reason we went up to Indy.  Annalise had her First Communion. 

Grandma surprised us with pictures of our First Communions.  I'm the really excited one on the right.

Seriously, I was so excited.  I had a veil AND a crown.

And here's Aunt Jenni's First Communion.  I love the knee socks.  And the orange curtains in our old house.

Meanwhile, Bea tried to fit Molly into some shoes.

Luckily, Molly is pretty agreeable.

On Sunday,, we went up to Ohio for Oliver's First Communion.

I promise he wore pants to church.

Bea was not into the car drive back to Ohio.  I think it's because I was sitting BESIDE her and she wanted to be sitting ON me instead.  She's usually great in the car when I'm in the front and she can't see me.  Out of sight, out of mind.

We spent one more day in Indiana having fun with our cousins.

Here's Bea's distinctive crawl.  The ill-fitting diaper only makes it cuter. 

I want to climb that slide too!

How could you not love this to bits?

Back at the airport.

And home in time for supper.

Festivals, galas, strawberries- April 25 to 28.

Prepare yourselves for a long, awesome post.  We fit a lot into just 4 days.

This picture of the girls with Laurel may be one of my favorites ever.

Along with this one of my sweet girl.

Saturday morning was the Central Railroad Festival.  We got there early enough to get a ride on the mini "train" without having to wait too long.

Bea didn't get to ride due to inadequate baby security.  Seriously, who taught this guy how to wear a baby?

On Saturday night, mama and papa got invited to the South Carolina Botanical Garden Gala.  

They had a super fun time with their friends Claiborne and Darren, Glen and Shannon, and Mark and Kerri.

On Sunday, Papa went hiking with Mister Jon.

They hiked to the top of Table Rock, which looks pretty amazing.

And a little sweaty.

 While dad was hiking, June's girl scout troop was at the mall.  They raised a bunch of money for their troop selling girl scout cookies.  Most of the money went to projects for the next year.  some went to charities they chose.  And the girls chose to use the rest for Girl Scout Build-a-Bears at the mall.

The Bears even had little Daisy vests!

Clothes on bears!  That's ridiculous!

 

Georgie's preschool class was visited by some gross butterfly scientist.  At least that's what mama called him.  She likes science, but not butterflies.

Still taken with Jervey Meadows, mama, papa and Bea went back for a picnic lunch.  Bea tried to escape.

 

Skunked again.

On Tuesday, we drove down to the big strawberry farm for some serious picking.

Bea did some serious eating in the traditional tie-dye field garb of her people.  (Tie-dye only gets better when you rub some South Carolina clay into it.)

Another beautiful spring day in SC.

We tried out the huge slide.  Of course Georgie is the one wiping out.

Sylvia and Amelia have a good run.

And Georgie ultimately made it down too.

Back at home, we put those kids to work.

You can tell Georgie is really concentrating.  (I swear I corrected that bad knife form.  It would be so like Georgie to lose a finger in a strawberry cutting accident.)

Beatrice got these cute sunglasses from Aunt Katie.  Unfortunately, she wasn't a huge fan.

Sleeping babies- April 20 to 23.

We had family pictures taken at Jervey Meadows.  

And we couldn't have had a nicer day for it.

Or a more willing group of girls.

It was supposed to be a photo shoot of Beatrice with a few family shots, but it mostly turned into the June and Georgie show.

And June's pet bird.  (Poor kid.  This is as close to a real pet as they will ever get.)

It was so nice out, we decided to go out for Cookout (our bribe to the kids) and then we headed to the dock park.

Summer is coming!

And so is the wind!

I really was having a good hair day.

Poor Bea.  The big kids and mama all had a round of antibiotics for strep throat.  Then dad came down with strep throat on a trip to Chicago.  Bea was the last to fall with a nasty sinus infection.  It required some serious cuddling.

Later, she tried to keep up with Georgie at the park.  (I mean, look at those dusty knees.)  And she did for a little while, but the ride home did her in.  

Mama got her out of the car and into bed and Bea slept for another 3.5 hours.  

Georgie tried to pretend that she was asleep as well.

But the giggles got her.

I'm not sure, but this could be the first bottle/sippy sup Bea ever drank from.  IN ALMOST 13 months.  That's one happy mama right there.

But this is not a happy Bea.  In fact she was a little terrified of the backless benches on this picnic table Grams and PawPaw sent Bea for her birthday.

In this picture, the girls are especially happy about the log they flipped over in the back yard.  

"Mom! We found mosquito war-va and earf-worms!"

Can you tell that Georgie thinks June is the greatest?

June's friend Helen has a new little sister.  Mama is never one to miss a chance to hug a baby, so she took Miss Debbie some food and hugged on sweet Elizabeth for a while. 

It sure is nice to have a baby that is too small to wiggle too much.

Unless this wiggle worm, who Papa caught waking up in a great mood.

I dare you not to be happy finding this sweet face in your room.