Half and Holi- mama.

We woke up the morning of the half to overcast skies and 40 degree temperatures.  Good thing Aunt Jenni had gloves and hats. 

The weather ended up being perfect for running and the course was very flat by South Carolina standards.  I set a PR of 1:58.  It was a great race!

 But the real reason we came up to Indy was to go to Holi at the India Association of Indianapolis.  We got a full meal and watched a bunch of kids perform, then it was time for the color.

 If you haven't heard of Holi, it's an Indian spring celebration culminating in throwing colored powder at anyone you can get close to.  It's crazy fun.

 It was 65 degrees outside, which the Indians all declared to be way too cold, so they moved the color throwing inside.  

I'm glad i didn't have to stick around to clean that up.

This video is from after things died down a bit.

When we thought it was all over, they hauled out more juge rice bags full of color and it all started over.

Our friend Dan came up from Louisville to join in the fun.  

After the celebration, we were able to shake most of the color off, but you can still see how awesome my hair looked when we stopped in at the Patel Brothers for some Indian snacks.

Back at home, Cecelia got some snacks of her own.  But she did have a hard time getting those puffs to her mouth.

Jo smelled weakness and immediately swooped in and ate all of C4's puffs.

On the way back home, we stopped in to get a tour of Louisville from Mister Dan.  First stop, an awesome Indian restaurant.  

Next, Louisville's famous Hot Browns.  There was a lot of cheese in that thing. 

The last stop on our trip was at a rest stop in Tennessee.  After we used the bathrooms, the girls spotted an ad featuring the prettiest lady ever.  My heart swelled when both girls screamed "Dolly!" and ran to get a picture.

Indianapolis- June.

Aunt Jenni had an extra registration for the Carmel Half Marathon and mama's already run 2 this spring, so we decided to pack up the van and take a long girls' weekend to Indiana.

 The festivities started with some henna!

 Annalise did a great job of holding still.

 Evie was not interested in the henna (neither was I), so she holed up with a good book.

 Mama and Aunt Jenni were feeling goofy, so they decided to put henna on their legs for the race.  This is what mama drew on Auntjenni's leg.

 And what Aunt Jenni drew on mama's leg.  If you look close, you can see "13.1" in Elven.

 Apparently they were having so much fun they forgot about JoJo.  Nice shoes, kid.

 When the Seiberts showed up, Jo ran outside, forgetting her shoes and that it was raining and only 50 degrees.  Southerners.

 We were all happy to see baby Cecelia.  I don't think Georgie understood that Cecelia isn't just her favorite song.

(Flashback to South Carolina:  Georgie really likes this song.)

And mama really likes this baby. 

She's really coming into her own.

You gonna eat that?

No need to eat toys around here.  Not when Aunt Jenni is handing out ice cream!

That's the good stuff!

I can't believe this sweet little girl was the same one who kept her parents up half the night crying!

Fly-in- Henry.

Pickens County always puts on a great Fly-In and Cruise-In at the local airport.  This year, we went with our friends the Rapp's, who were up visiting from Tuscaloosa. 

Georgie didn't care much for the planes or cars, but did spend a good deal of time buckling up the straps on her stroller while we ate lunch on the end of the runway watching planes come in.

You could vote for your favorite car- I choose orange.

 Later that afternoon, mama left us with a babysitter so she could go run a Mud Run with Mister Lee, Miss Kerri and Miss Juliet.

 3.5 miles and 36 obstacles later, they finished triumphant and very muddy.

Take a look at those yahoos.  Mama says this year's run was much easier because she insisted on including a strong man on their team.  It was much easier getting over those walls with Mister Lee on the team.  Mama only sustained one injury and that was a massive scrape and bruise that extended from her knee halfway down her shin.  And that was only because she tripped near the end of the race and fell on a rock.  Smooth, mama.

But she found solace the next day at Clemson's International Food Festival, a mecca of all things foreign and delicious.  Too bad the only picture we got was of mama and the poutine. 

Have you heard?  June loves Dolly Parton.  Especially the song "Apple Jack."  She even can perform the entire spoken word intro.

At bedtime, I like to take a notebook to bed with me and make lists.  Tonight's list was of "Things We Like."  We sure are dorks.

This and that- JoJo.

Remember that birthday party we went to?  It culminated in a huge water balloon fight.  And after the party I refused to take off my bathing suit.  So I wore it to the store and around the house until mama wrestled it off me.

Henry had spring pictures (spring pictures?!?!) and insisted on picking out his outfit.  Again, plaid is handsome, so he went all plaid and black socks.

It's been a very warm spring, so the strawberries were up very early.  Mama took us down to the farm to do some picking.

It was a warm spring, but a cold morning.  And mama had already put away all of our winter clothes.  Luckily, our rain coats kept us warm and acted as a tarp to guard against the strawberry mess.

Us with McKain!

And with mom.  We had intentions of making some jam from those strawberries, but we ate them all before anything happened.

On the way out, we stopped to say hello to the llama.

Papa spent the weekend at a conference in Chicago.  Henry eased his pain of missing papa by writing him a letter.

While papa was gone, mama decided to brave a late evening out with the kids.  The local college radio station was holding a festival and was bringing in a band mama liked- Megafaun.  Since entry was a free will offering to the local food bank, mama decided it would worth a shot to go see them.

Megafaun played at 7:30, so there weren't many people out and we had free run of the place.

And plenty of time to get goofy.

We're not quite sure what June is doing, but it did involve lots of giggling.

And posing.

And cheering for the band. All in all, it was a pretty good time and we got to stay up way past our bedtime!

Easter morning- June.

Guess what we found on Easter morning?

I had to explain to mama how our chocolate bunnies came to be.

Per our family tradition, we were allowed to open our bunnies and eat them for breakfast.

As the sugar set in, Henry started to wax philosophical about the easter bunny and the repercussions of capturing him.

But it's totally okay to bite his head off!

Midway through our bunnies were were all feeling pretty goofy.

Henry was the first to finish his bunny. JoJo, who isn't known for eating breakfast, took a break halfway through her bunny, but came back later to finish. And eventually, I tired of playing with my bunny and ate him too.

After lunch, we headed into Pendleton for the Spring Jubilee. In between kettle corn, sweet tea and dancing to the band, mama bought this quilt. She's been wanting it for a while and finally decided to buy it. Now she just needs to decide where to hang it.

We forgot to dye easter eggs, but at least mama remembered to make a lamb cake! We didn't have a traditional easter dinner, but we did have the neighbors over for hamburgers and hot dogs.

Oliver and Natalie isssued a lego challenge of trucks and frogs. And Henry came up with a great submission.

Finally, Jo and I went to a party for our friend McKain. His mom sent over this picture of Jo burying her face in a cupcake. After the snacks, we had a water balloon fight. Georgie didn't really care for getting wet, but loved her bathing suit and refused to take it off. She did manage to get a trip to the grocery store out if it, but eventually mama had to pin her down and wrestle it off of her. I didn't put my suit on, but I did manage to keep up with all the 4 year old boys and their squirt guns.