Madison's First day of Pre-School

Madison is such a big girl now. She is three and ready for pre-school. She has been so excited to go to school since all 3 of her sisters go to school too. This morning she picked out her dress and was ready to go...

We made it just in time to see what room she was in...

Lets find your name tag Madison...

She's ready to go...she even said, 'mom, can you go now?'

Hugs for mom and dad!!!

Madison was so happy when she came out of her class, the first thing she said was, 'can I go to pre-school again?' Awww, so precious! She made an Easter egg craft for her first project. There's also a park steps away from the clasroom so we stopped off there for a few rounds of the slide before we came home.

Weeeeee.....

Which led to this...a long siesta for almost three hours. It's tiring being a kid.

Precious...

Catching the train...

...well really it's a light rail, but a train sounded more fun to the girls. Here are the girls getting their tickets...so exciting!

We left at Apache and the 101 - next stop: Mill Ave. or 'college town' as Ashley calls it. Home of the ASU sun devils.





Downtown Tempe...Matt & I used to come down here all the time. Especially for the Tempe art festivals and other fun stuff but it has been years, I mean like at least 6 years or so since I've been down in this area. It was fun to see what was still there...

The particular store I needed to go in to didn't open til 11:00 am, so we just walked around and looked at the shops and water fountains.

After I found what I was looking for (black leg warmers - 80's style - of all things!) we hopped back on the train and headed to downtown Phoenix to the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch.

Madison is fake sleeping here...but she did fall asleep going back home on the train. It was a fun little outing...and something to do while on spring break.

Fun as a family!

We did lots of fun stuff as a family today...

After Alyssa's soccer game (won 1-0) and after Ashley and I went on a few errands...we went for a family walk...ripstick...bike ride.

Woah Madison...stay on the road. We stopped off at the park in the next neighborhood up from us off the paseo trail.

Go Madison...dad is always there to catch you.

Mia's not too sure yet...it's a long way down.

Ashley knows how to flip backwards...

Alyssa knows how to hang upside down...hmmm, could Matt and I still do that?!

Well...we aren't AS young as we used to be, after all, Matt just had another birthday. We are surely feeling the age these days, my legs hurt from when I went jogging yesterday. - But we try...

Heading home...come on mom!

After pizza night and watching the Huskies basketball game...we surprised the girls with a trip to Kokomo's frozen yogurt. Yum, and one of their favortie places to go!

Another surprise for just a little bit was a quick trip to peter piper pizza, just for the fun and games. Everyone got some tickets and picked out some fun prizes.

Whew...what a day. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, GO HUSKIES!!! They made it into the sweet 16 - needless to say, Matt was super excited. I'm sure ya'll in Washington heard him from down here with squeals of delight....whoo-hooo! - Go DAWGS!

Mia's 55th Blood Transfusion

Here we are at yet another transfusion...# 55. After stopping by starbucks to get our usual, we headed straight to POTC. Of course Mia did amazing at getting her IV...and some special visitors came too.

Her BIG sisters. No Maddy today, she stayed at home with dad. The girls wanted to show the nurses their cheer dance...

...oh wait don't drop Mia!

Ok so maybe with a little more practice...and when Mia doesn't have her IV in it will look better next time.

Mia picked a craft to do with her sisters so they could have something to do.

This was the perfect day to bring the big sisters along, there were tons of fun crafts for them to do (thank you Miss Christine!)...which they did during the whole day.

They also did surgery on Mia's little bear...

...then it was Ashley's turn to get an IV and Mia knew just what to do...

The girls helped Mia decorate a purse...which Mia said...is exactly 'my style.'

Time to go to lunch...this was the first time Mia went with me to get some lunch. Usually she waits in her room, but today the nurse let us go down stairs...

...until the machine started beeping because I bumped it! Of course we were in line waiting to pay so we hurried back.

Mia sat with the nurses for lunch...then they all watched a movie.

The last thing they did before we left was paint their nails...with help of Miss Sierena. I'm so glad that Ashley and Alyssa got to see what Mia goes through, and they can imagine her now each time she goes to the hospital and picture where she is and what she's doing. Sisters are so special!