Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Mother's Day

This time of year, life is just flying by. Quite a few blogs to catch up on, so they'll just pop up as I can get to them. That means less on the writing, more on the pictures.

First up, Mother's Day! My family did a lovely job celebrating me this year. They made me yummy monkey bread for breakfast while letting me sleep in. We went on a hike in Duke Forest, splashed in a creek and had a picnic for lunch.

pretty leaves and sunlight
off to explore the deeper part of the creek
yoga on the bank. or something. I have no idea what she was doing.
carefully checking for more crayfish
my sweet rock hopper
say cheese!
throwing rocks is the best
checking out the crayfish
the crayfish! (there's two, if you can spot them)
the view from our picnic spot
helpful sister
Mother's Day Family Portrait
Then we had dinner over at Grandma and Popop's house. I made homemade Oreos for my mom. We played outside and just had a lovely evening. Oreos with ice cream made for a delicious dessert
the homemade oreos - trying to be all food art-ish and stuff.



me and the kiddos!

smooches
chillin' and munchin'
look who's waiting for crumbs...
mom and me - thanks for being a great mom!

Monday, April 28, 2014

Bubbles!

This past weekend we finally broke out the new bubble machine. Eliza and Molly had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from a birthday party, and we needed something to make the sleep grumpies go away. Enter the bubble hurricane! It worked wonders, and I had fun taking pictures. There was laughing, popping, chasing, hiding, and even karate chopping. What a lovely way to spend some time outside in the sunshine.
the bubble hurricane placed strategically on the second to last step













Easter Weekend

We had a delightful Easter weekend. It started off with going to the Eggstravaganza at church. The girls enjoyed dressing up in fancy dresses and carrying their Easter baskets. We got there early enough to do all the activities (cookie decorating, balloon animals, face painting) before the egg hunts started. The egg hunts were broken up by age group - we were lucky enough to have one kid per hunt! The eggs were hidden downstairs in the youth room because it was rainy and wet outside. Molly was first and did great after some initial hesitation. Eliza jumped right in and gathered up lots of eggs when it was her turn. Hayden flew around the room collecting eggs with the big kids and stayed looking until the very last egg was found. We recycled all the eggs (i.e. gave them back) after dumping out their contents. Who knew jelly beans were SO exciting?!
Molly reaching for me before getting into the egg hunt.
Molly's loot
balloon animals - H has a flower (out of the picture), E has a bunny and M has a pony
E had easy pickings with eggs scattered on the couches
Eliza's loot - and a special favorite
Hayden in action
H with her spoils
Molly's so sad face when she was denied any more jelly beans
In the afternoon we dyed Easter eggs at our house with Grandma and Popop as specially requested guests. No pictures of that but the eggs did turn out pretty. (FYI, if you buy dye on sale the year before, it still works the following year!) Hayden talked on and on about how excited she was to eat the hardboiled eggs. We even had to let her open one up at dinner time b/c she was so desperate to eat one!

On Sunday morning, we woke up and the girls were delighted to find their Easter baskets filled with goodies. We got breakfast prepared and into the oven (hashbrown sausage casserole) while the girls had a little yogurt. While the girls got dressed (in Easter finery, even though we weren't going to church), I hid 60 plastic eggs and 14 real eggs out in the front yard. In a matter of minutes all but 1 egg had been found, 1 giant tantrum had been had, and many jelly beans had been eaten.
Easter baskets - a chocolate bunny, a little bit of candy and a toy for each
E brought her bunny down to share in the fun
M wore the bunny hat (thanks Lori!) to go with her pig-jamas
exploding with excitement as the egg hunt is about to begin!
M finds an egg beneath the peony sprouts
E hurries to an egg
found another one! (love how her basket, boots and dress coordinate!)
action shot - H hurries to find more eggs
look! I found two hardboiled eggs!
where oh where are the eggs?
E saying something goofy
M posing for me - don't know why she tilted!
reach up high! they weren't very good about looking UP for eggs.
Blizz sniffed around in the beginning but quickly decided it wasn't worth the energy
an unmown and weedy lawn means so many more hiding places!
family game time with our new hungry, hungry hippos
no bonnets, but they still look pretty cute on Easter!
We then enjoyed a delicious brunch (casserole, homemade NY-style crumb cake, and fruit salad). Afterwards it was such a lovely day that Grandma and Popop stuck around to go for a walk back to the playground in the new development with us. The girls had a blast playing "run from the sea monster - (i.e. Jason)" and running around the playground.  Even Blizzard got into the fun.
apparently she has to shut her eyes when I take her picture on the swings
enjoying the swings and sunshine
Hayden - captain of the ship
Blizz wanted to escape the sea monster too
Molly in sea monster jail
holding hands as we walked back home
sister love
After quiet time, we headed over to Grandma and Popop's for Easter dinner. Dinner was delicious and everyone was in a good mood. We even managed a family photo shoot on the deck after dinner with everyone smiling!
E gets goofy
snuggles with Popop
dresses and boots - totally on trend :)
Happy Easter from our family to yours!