A Special Adventure!

 So many new adventures have greeted little Tierney in the past few weeks of her life.  Just 2 weeks old, and she was outside in the beautiful spring warmth last Monday, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine while Mommy worked in the flower beds and Ezri and Alora played in the dirt and on the swing set.

 Just into her third week, we pulled out the floor mat, which was well received by Tierney, just as it was by her big sisters.  This toy was a good investment!  While her tolerance time for it is not very long right now, she is quite content for a short while to look around and take in the sights.  This Mommy has to be very vigilant while she is on the mat, however, as Alora loves to lay on it with her, and is not very aware of where Tierney is while climbing under it.

 Ezri and Alora were able to have a picnic outside last week as well, which was very exciting for them.  We are so anxious for the spring weather to stick around for a while so we can get back to doing these things much more often!

The highlight of this past week was a very special trip to the Detroit area for the weekend.  Thomas was back in town, at Greenfield Village, and we again surprised Ezri and Alora.  This time, we opted to stay at a hotel as our group was bigger than last year's trip and Aunt Becky's house is just not big enough.  Uncle Andy , Jay & Becci, Scott, Dawn and Kenny joined us for this adventure, and we had such a wonderful time together.

The hotel had a pool, so the girls had a blast playing in the water Friday and Saturday evenings.

Saturday morning, we woke, had breakfast, and made our trip to Greenfield Village.  Ezri was nearly surprised, but a couple of women in the hotel elevator tipped her off about an hour before we got there by noticing her Thomas t-shirt and asking if she was going to see him like they were.  Grr :(  We tried to brush aside the comments and questions until we got to the village, but as soon as she saw the big banners with his face on it, she knew.  She was still very excited, as was Alora!

As we waited in line for our turn to ride Thomas, the girls were so anxious to see him coming down the tracks, watching vigilantly and not even complaining about the nearly 20 minute wait in line.

 And then, there he was!

 It was all smiles as we boarded the passenger coaches and waited for Thomas to take us around the village.

 After our ride, Daddy made his way quickly to the photo area and we were lucky enough to be the last family to have our picture taken with Thomas before he took off with another group of passengers.

 There were a bunch of activities around the village for the kids to do.  Ezri was determined she needed to first go get her "tattoon" :)

 Alora, of course, wanted a "stamp" too!

 There were train tables to play with, pictures to color, and even a big Lego Thomas in one of the tents.

 We got to see Sir Topham Hatt, although Alora wanted nothing to do with standing next to him...

 And then we found another train set that was motorized.  This held everyone's attention for quite some time!

 The girls spent some time listening to Thomas stories being read...

 And then we headed back toward the tracks to watch Thomas pass by again.

 Much to the delight of Ezri!

 We had a picnic lunch together on one of the grassy areas next to a stretch of track, where we saw Thomas pass by a couple more times.  Even the big kids had some fun with this, putting pennies on the track and sharing in the fun and excitement with the little ones.

 We spent a little time on a new playground at the village as well, to burn off some energy.

 What started out as a sunny but breezy and a bit chilly morning turned into a beautiful sunny day!  After nearly 6 hours at the village, we were all tired, but still smiling.

After another evening of swimming, we woke Sunday and checked out of the hotel.  The morning was spent at the Automotive Hall of Fame and The Henry Ford Museum.  The girls got to spend some time working in the garage as junior mechanics and had such fun :)

 Then we found the gigantic Allegheny train, which Ezri just loves to sit in!

 And we made a Thomas connection as Ezri noticed that one of the very old trains in the museum is exactly like one of the new characters from a recent movie, Stephen.  It was pretty exciting for her, though she was confused as to why he did not have a face.

 The ride home was pretty quite after a time as the girls were all quite exhausted!

 Even little Tierney, who spent much of the weekend snuggled close to Mommy in the Moby wrap.  We sure had a wonderful time together and enjoyed the energy and excitement of the girls as they discovered and played.  Such great memories with family and friends, and a very welcome time away together!

Happy Easter!

We're still adjusting to life with three little angels, but finding routine amid the chaos.  While much of life is in maintenance mode for this Mommy, we at least have some clean clothes and dishes.  The house... well, it's "clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy".  Thankfully, the girls enjoy helping and can be flexible in play, so when it comes time to do laundry, everyone joins me downstairs for a bit.  Of course, we have to find a safe, warm place for Tierney...

Still in love with being Big Sisters, Tierney begins and ends most days being held and loved on by Ezri and Alora.

Visitors have been far fewer than we expected, but Tierney sure loves the extra special snuggles from Great Grandma, who sure enjoys those moments too!

This past weekend brought Easter.  The girls and I spent quite a bit of time reading Bible stories and playing in the Easter Garden, talking about what Easter means.  We also got in some fun with egg hunts.  We kicked things off by bringing the girls to the Hopkins community egg hunt.  A bit of chaos, but fun, and a beautiful day.  We had the opportunity to see many of our neighbors and introduce them to Tierney as well.

Sunday morning, we dressed the girls in their matching dresses.  Ezri and Alora were so excited that they all looked the same :)

Tierney was a little less than excited at all of the passing around for pictures...

Such sweet little girls!

Tierney's second time at church, she got plenty of attention, though we still kept her in our arms only, to protect her from germs and over stimulation as much as possible.  She slept most of the time :)  

Between services, our church had an egg hunt for the younger kids.  Our girls were quite excited about this!

We made a difficult decision to not participate in any family dinners for the afternoon, and to instead spend the time with just Alex, myself and the girls.  With Tierney only being 2 weeks old, we chose to limit exposure, ensure rest for all of the girls and just relax.  So, after we got home from church, we let the girls look for eggs at our house, where they found the items that otherwise would have been in their baskets...  money, nail polish, socks, stencils and a small amount of candy as they got more than enough at the other hunts.  It was pretty exciting for a few moments!

Another beautiful day, we enjoyed the warmth, sunshine and signs of new life all around us.