Where have I been?

Yes, I'm still alive and living! I left for a little while there :), not on purpose of course! just been very busy. but now I'm back! What have I been up to? well let me tell you! lets see..

All the snow is finally gone! and spring came and is almost gone! 

daisys are one of my very favorite flowers, so I was trilled to see a little 'grow it yourself' kit in the 1$ section at Target, I planted them and its been so much fun watching them grow..none of them have bloomed yet but I will post a picture when they do!

I turned 17 this year! and that was exciting! for my actual Birthday I went to the Vera Bradly sale with Grandma, Mom and Hannah, it was crazy busy, a lot of people trying to get good deals 

Birthday dessert: fruit trifle, my sweet little brother Isaiah was so kind to make it for me

Gifts! lots of gifts from all the people who love me so much these were only a few. I'm so blessed by my family

I got my ears pierced!! yep! I was not going to for the longest time but I changed my mind like a week before my birthday :)

Easter, on of my favorite holidays (close to 4th of July and Christmas), the day we celebrate Christ concurring death through the grave, so that we may all live free from sin. 

We went to my grandparents after church and spent the day there, we had a wonderful lunch, Grammy (Grandma) always makes us feel like honored guests by decorating the house lovely and plans a delicious menu

I don't know if you have ever noticed, but my sisters and I can be very crazy sometimes, only sometimes :)

I love these people so much! (plus Hannah who wasn't able to be here) 

In April we also went on our annual church spring camp trip to Hueston woods state park in Ohio, it was a little cold especially in the morning ;)   

trying to keep warm in the tent

This girl, I love her so much! her friendship is such a blessing to me!

Esther and Paul organizing the trailer 

Happy hour at Starbucks! my mom was the Starbucks delivery lady for the weekend  

we played a lot of knock out, it got pretty competitive :)

campfires are the very very best! we stayed up quite late talking at night. one night a raccoon kept coming back to take the s'more supplies, it was quite humorous 

   

coffee was a great way to keep warm in the morning...

and this gorgeous gal is a lot of fun, I'm so glad I can say shes my friend! she was always willing to help, especially with dishes when we needed it.

minion assemble! :) we all like minions, like a whole lot. and we all have minion shirts so of course we had to match

we went on a morning hike, which was fun we went in circles and got muddy feet and had a great time :).

Ok moving on! this is much more recent from 2 weeks ago when we went to Chicago to help out with my cousins graduation party

so we did go to help out but there was also a lot of playing and goofing around involved :), this is Natalie and Mary playing shuffle board 

aren't they just the cutest!?

Valerie and my Aunt Kathleen's niece Truly

little miss Faith playing for me in her cute 'very matching' pj's

Oh and this was just so cool! we got to ride in Uncle Todd's sweet Indy 500 pace car

after months of drooling over their cupcake pictures on Instagram :), we finally got to the famous Miss Jones Cupcakes, they were (as you can probably imagine) amazingly delicious 

Valerie apparently borrowed my camera to take some selfies :), this one was just to cute I had to post it

Mom and Alaina were put in charge of making the biscuits for the party, they were wonderful!

The delicious desserts that Mary, Natalie and cousin Shannon made

Last week we went to an amusement park, Indiana Beach with our FWAS homeschool group, we had great weather other than a little rain and praise the Lord we were all stayed safe ;)

Natalie was my buddy for the day, I lost her once and it was so scary!
thankfully she had slipped away while we were in line for a ride to use the restroom :)

I wish I had more photos to share from this fun day but the problem was, I was having too much fun to take very many pictures :), probably my favorite part of the day (and the part I especially wish I had gotten pictures of) was going on a 'roller coaster riding spree' with dad right before they closed.

Last Saturday was quite a long day! My parents (but mostly mom) are the coordinates for the FWAS (Fort Wayne Area Homeschool) graduation ceremony, so that was in the morning, there were 41 graduates this year. Mom did a wonderful job with everything! then that evening it was my dads work company picnic at our Fort Wayne TinCaps baseball stadium, it was a very close game and they won!! (I don't remember the scores) I think this was the first time I've ever gone that they've actually won, Mary says otherwise but I'm having a hard time believing her :), anyways it was sunny out and all of us were able to go so it was great! and of course we stayed late for the fireworks and to run the bases :).