Baby Shower

Our friend is having twins!

This was a very special day celebrating a friend who is having a set of fraternal twins!

We are so excited for her!  It has been a long journey to motherhood and twins are an extra special blessing!

We met at the event and enjoyed the wonderful decor and spread provided by her friend.

There were games, a picture booth and so much more, but mainly we were there to give our well wishes and watch her open one of the larges piles of presents imaginable!

She let us tour the nursery and talked about all her hopes and dreams for her precious babies!

Lenora decided to go for her longest independent standing record right in the middle of presents!

It brought tears of joy to Emily's eyes as everyone looked at Lenora's milestone!

Great twin day celebrating twins!

IMA Day

On this eventful Saturday, we took the kids to Newfields!

They had their exhibit (Summer Wonderland: Spectacular Animals) running!

First we stopped at the fountain to watch the beautiful cascading water on this warm, sunny day.

Never one to let an opportunity to foster child wonderment pass her by, aunt Ashley quickly pulled out the coins so that we could all make wishes.

We strolled the property looking for colorful animals.

There was a steady stream of snails, meerkats, frogs, alligators, birds, and many other animals to keep you entertained as you easily jumped from one area to the next.

Ashley showed Victor the fountain in the Formal Gardens where his parents were wed.

Then it was time for some silliness under the Giant Red Elephant!

Victor bravely took on the Alligator to save us!

Ashley walked Victor along all the "brother" wolves to the "king".

Victor gave them these names and enjoyed the aspect of play in this normally long patch of grass.

We had lunch in the Cafe - a beautiful setting of windows illuminated our Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad (Marble heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, cucumber ring, arugula pine nut pesto, balsamic glaze, micro basil) and Garden Cauliflower Flatbread (Gluten free cauliflower crust, roasted cauliflower, artichokes, roasted red peppers, arugula pine nut pesto cream sauce).

We had a perfect lunch and then headed on our way!

It was a perfect way to spend an afternoon with the kids!

They loved the animals and we loved the exercise, great food and gorgeous grounds!

Perfect twin day!

Lincoln Park Concert Series

This year's concert in Lincoln Park was really fun!

ARN sponsored an evening entitled, Acoustic Roots.

This was much more our pace!  We really enjoyed the singer/songwriters.

Victor loved that the Kona Ice truck was also there!

Here he is getting hopped up on so much sugary goodness!

We first met in Avon and had dinner with the kids and Greg at Panera.

This is a great place where kids can get their kind of food and adults can have something enjoyable as well.

Victor and his LEMONS!

We got to the concert early to see the children's presenter, Mr. Daniel.

He was late, but it was no matter because the kids had fun running around.

The music was great, we had time with the ARN staff and Lenora even got to go up front!

People really loved the involvement of the children at the event and it made it more comfortable to walk around passing out the free wares.

Great musical twin night in the park!

Victor's Third Birthday - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Cowabunga!

Victor's 3rd Birthday party was a totally tubular good time!

It will always be the birthday Victor got his first bike!

We decided on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme because that is one of Victor's favorite cartoons!

We have the boxed (in a turtle van) set of DVDs from the 80s cartoon.

Vintage turtle fun!

Greg also had lots of original TMNT toys in a chest that he has been sharing with Victor.

It has really been a fun bonding experience for both.

We ordered some pizzas and set up the pool!

The decor was mainly TMNT toys and some printable turtle things to accent the treats!

We bought a cake this year from a Zionsville bakery and were very pleased with it!

Aunt Ashley picked up the wonderful cupcakes and brought them all the way from Beech Grove!

We had presents, cake and games outside.

The kids tossed pizza frisbees into pizza boxes!

Lenora had to take a break from all the fun!

It was great to have almost everyone there...including gran and mom!

Ashley cooled her feet in the pool while Lenora snoozed.

Pizza Frisbee game!

Jack, Julia and Victor splashed and played together well.

Lenora also had a water table area that she stood at for the times she was awake.

When it was time for cake, Victor did a great job waiting for the song to conclude and blowing out his candles.  He was excited to grab the figurines from the top!

I guess it looked pretty delicious because he just couldn't wait for a plate!

And on your birthday---you really shouldn't have to!

Love was all around as everyone celebrated this super cool dude!

Everyone was tired after the two days of partying, but it was well worth it!

We had a more relaxed party atmosphere with pizza and pools so the adults could take it easy and enjoy the day.  It worked out really well!

Great turtle twin day!

Gran's 90th Birthday Bash!

Gran's big party day arrived!

We were so excited to spend the day celebrating 90 years for our amazing grandmother,

Lois Elaine Sprague O'Neal Alexander Lytle!!

We sent invitations far and wide for this monumental event!

Ashley designed a fantastic invitation suite complete with invitation, response card, and customized 90th birthday card to facilitate a card shower!

It was brilliant!

We chose the strawberry theme because it seemed to be suited to her personality 

as well as having been a part of her life in her china pattern, clothing, drawings, etc.

Ashley even designed a personal website for gran!

https://lois-turns-90.weebly.com/

This helped in communicating with younger family/friends as well as casting the widest net for the card shower.  

We did reach the 90 cards goal using these techniques!

Emily created a slideshow of photos through the years, which gran really loved!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV9FgGlg3Eg

Ashley worked on the catering with Hoosier Village.

They put together a perfect spread and it was artfully presented.

We hired Coby Palmer to do the flowers and he really captured the theme!

The printed materials were from our pin boards, etsy purchases and customized prints.

Ashley found the balloon letters and came up with the concept for how to display the cards.

Through collaborative ordering efforts, the cupcake picks, cake topper and other special touches were ordered.  The cupcakes came from Beech Grove, the cake from a Zionsville bakery, and the personalized sugar cookies were made by Emily's neighbor!

Friends and family from as far as Texas and Illinois and as near as upstairs joined the party.

The turnout was great!  Lois was a bit nervous she would not recognize people, but she remembered everyone and had meaningful conversations with each.

The open-house feel of the day allowed many people to stay or cycle through and so it is difficult to get a complete count of attendance.  

We agreed that those who came were a blessing to gran and so the number was not as important!

We sent each guest away with a small bag of strawberry candies in fitting with the theme.

We split the effort of creating the party and it made life so much easier!

We ended up with a really special event filled with people who love and admire Gran.

Even more sent heartfelt messages and memories which Ashley curated into a book.

It was a lot of hard work, but by outsourcing a lot to professionals, we took some of the more tedious tasks off our plates-allowing us to focus on the day and Gran.

Amazing twin day full of happiness for a 90 year old woman who made us the twins we are today!

Gran's 90th Birthday Lunch!!

The day we had been preparing for arrived: Gran's 90th Birthday!!

We decided to take her to lunch at Traders Point Creamery!

We ordered champagne to make the date special!

She was so happy to be getting out for the day with two of her granddaughters!

Ashley gave her a present at her apartment before going to the restaurant and Emily brought a blanket she had made with the names of all the family members.

We chatted and laughed about how she doesn't feel 90!

Emily ordered Salmon Tartine!  Amazing!

Gran opted for the Ploughman's Lunch (cup of soup with today's selection of housemade cheese and charcuterie, fig jam, mustard, grilled bread).  Yum!

Ashley had the skillet of vegetables topped in an egg!  Perfection!

We had a delicious lunch and wonderful time together.

Ashley took Gran to get her nails done afterward for a bit more time together and pampering!

Perfect birthday lunch twin time!