Happy Birthday Joey!

Cheese!  I'm THREE!

Make a wish!

The Grandmas conducting craft time

Joey's 3-year-old cake wasn't quite as elaborate as Mel's, but he still liked it!

Least expensive decorations I've ever used - just raided the toy room!

Gigi with all of her grandkids

Randy, Ron, Jeff enjoying the party

And a couple more pictures of him for good measure.....

Whoever coined "terrible twos" hadn't yet gotten to 3.  This kid spends  a lot of time crying.

Learning to bake from Daddy.

Joey turned three on April 25!  He has been working very hard at holding three fingers up; he makes it a bit more difficult than it needs to be!  We celebrated at our house that evening, and then had a family party on Saturday the 27th.  We had to rent Grandma & Papa's basement for the party, since we were smack-dab in the middle of the move.  I hope he doesn't expect a new house for his birthday next year, too!

Joey continues to do any/everything his sister does.  She takes the responsibility pretty seriously, and doesn't get the two of them in too much trouble.  He's not fully potty-trained, we had to pull him out of private swim lessons (one day I'll miss how clingy he is, right?:))  He loves adventures and exploring our new house & yard, likes everything soft, still loves his cotton balls, just got a new (to him) bike from the next-door neighbors that he LOVES riding outside and in the basement, and is watching way less TV now that there is so much to explore here.  Seriously, I thought we were going to have a couch potato on our hands!  The thing we're really working on is having him talk in a "normal" voice, without SCREACHING everything he says!  Oh, and potty training and listening.

Joseph Pierce Worzala continues to bless our lives (and our eardrums) every day.  I can't believe it's been over three years since I took that surprise test and found out our family would soon be complete! Happy birthday, little man.

K Prep

I enrolled Melanie in a research study through Riley Hospital - she was in the control group for a developmental study involving children's cochlear implants.  She had a battery of language, developmental, memory, etc., tests.  It was really interesting to see her answer all of these, and so independently! I had to take a picture through the observation glass (she was intrigued that we could see her and she couldn't see us).  I thought it would be a good tool for us as she gets ready to start kindergarten - while helping research!

Day 1 of research testing

Day 2 of research testing

AND THEN - we had Kindergarten round-up!  Melanie is officially enrolled in Kindergarten at Union Elementary!  She is excited!  I'm not sure if the excitement comes from a new school, or from the pencil with the star eraser that she got from the before/after care coordinator.  Either way, Kindergarten, here we come!!

Meeting with one of the four K teachers

Weekend Without Daddy

Jeff and his family went to Arkansas for Uncle Conrad's funeral, and the kids and I were on our own all weekend.  I bragged to them that we were going to "break all the rules" - including leaving lights on when we left rooms, not running the dishwasher every day, etc.  That went out the window when we broke the CARDINAL Worzala rule and I let both the kids sleep in my bed the first night.  That didn't go as well as planned, so we were back to that rule-following Saturday night.

We started the weekend with dinner at Tom & Paula's house for dinner.

The second night of sleep involved them FALLING asleep together, but then being separated into their own beds.  This is Mel's bed (Joey's bed as of May)

Breaking all the rules

Saturday, we went to Ellie's birthday party, and then to Frankfort to see Gigi, Poppy, and friends at the Zafran house.  Sunday was a zoo trip with Aunt Julie & Molly!

Train ride!

Enjoying the dolphins

This was before the predictable move of Joey to the stationary bench.

Aunt Julie leading the way to the roller coaster

Melanie was riding the roller coaster for the first time!

Joey was not riding the roller coaster.  To add insult to injury, he had to stand in line for the roller coaster, walk through the car to get to the other side, and then watch as his sister rode it.

So he got rewarded with his first full face paint.

Kitty

The cutest zebra I've ever seen.

Spiderman dining with his Kitty & Zebra pals

Proud Spidey

Home Depot

Jeff took the kids to their first Home Depot Kids day - they both made a bird feeder and got personalized aprons, pins, and certificates of completion.  They had a great time!!!

Happy Easter!!

Goofy, as always

"I found one!"

Racing for the eggs

Happy Easter!

Easter w/ Gigi & Poppy!

Some quiet time with one of Joey's Easter presents

Our neighbors, Tom & Paula - we'll miss them when we move!!

We spent Easter at my parents', with Julie & Molly, Ron & Diane, Tom & Paula, and Kim Bright.  We had great weather, great company, and fun with the kids running all over the neighborhood!

Easter Saturday

Just hangin' out

Taking inventory of the winnings

Teeter-Totter

Melanie & Grace C

Swinging with Lily H

Joey's three-second face paint

We had a great Easter weekend.  Friday night, we went to Grandma & Papa's for dinner to visit with Uncle Rick, who was in town for work.

On Saturday, the kids had two egg hunts!  We started at Lions Park in Zionsville for a pancake breakfast and age-divided egg hunt, where the kids had a great time running into several waves of friends - we ended up there for about three hours, since it was a beautiful day to play at the park!  After a little rest at home, they headed back out - this time to the Westons' neighborhood hunt with Grandma, Papa, and Jeff.  For the second Easter Saturday in a row, I was at a funeral (!)

The face painters, by the time we got to them, were completely done with their job, and trying to rush to their next booking.  Joey, however, would have nothing of Melanie getting her face painted and him not getting a turn, so they slapped this artwork on his cheek.  When he caught a sight of it later in the reflection off the car, he proclaimed, "HEY! My smiley face doesn't have a nose!!"