Fun

 

 The weather has finally gotten warmer and we are enjoying the outdoors. 

 

Abby in her blue bonnet dress

 I love this!  This was my romper when I was a girl!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Bonnet Pictures

In almost two decades of living in Texas, I have never taken a single picture of a blue bonnet.

Even after having children I have abstained from the 'mandatory' annual picture of the kids in blue bonnets.

My photographer friends do blue bonnet mini sessions every year and I always pass.  But my friend Brittney uses a photographer that she absolutely swears by.  She has used her for years, so she lives over an hour from here where Brittney used to live.  A long time ago I won a photography package from the photographer on Brittney's blog.  I never used it because of the distance and because I have photographer friends here.  But she emailed me last week and asked about doing a blue bonnet session.  I tried to remain opposed to the norm, but Jory was interested, so the kids and I drove to Plano one night last week.  These are just pictures with my phone, but...

This is the first picture I've seen from the photographer and I love it!  She did a great job and, honestly, it was the best photography experience I have had.  I told Jory it would definitely be worth the drive.  I can't wait to see the rest!

Let the catch up begin

Bless my heart.  I downloaded over 100 pictures off my phone from the last week.  This is Abby at Aaron's swim last week.  Her glue came off last week and her chin looks great.  It looks so small!  Which is good, but funny.  Everyone who saw it when she fell assures me it wasn't small...they just did a really good job with it and it's healing well.

Lunch at Aaron's school.  I have eaten lunch with him once a week all school year.  He and I both look forward to it.

 

 

Aaron pulled out one of my games - it's bingo with cards and he plays it ALL the time.  He is so good at calling out the names of the cards and he helps Abby to see if she has the card.

 

 

At the beginning of the school year the kids made a piece of art and then at the end of the year you could order it on a coffee mug or any number of other products.  Aaron wanted to wear his on a shirt!  You can't see it very well, but it's a rectangle of colors (he calls it scribble scrabble) and then his painted hand print on that with a heart in it.  His name and year are on it.  He is SO proud of this.

 Grandma Beth and Grandpa Mike sent the kids the coolest present!  Huge monogrammed beach towels. 

 Aaron got Planes and Abby got Minnie.  (And Minnie flip flops).

 They love them so much they've been sleeping with them!

 

Dee and Papa's

Every year, the kids do an Easter Egg Hunt at John and Kim's.  We go on Saturday morning.  We stopped this year at Fuzzy's for breakfast.

 

 We had heard their breakfast Migas were fantastic and they were!

 The kids had a great time hunting eggs.

 

Abby was such a mess when we left

 

Here are all the eggs we got this year - Abby had four hunts and Aaron had two.

 

 

 

Easter Sunday

 I started cooking Easter Dinner early in the week.  A lot of the items could be done ahead so I'd sneak one in during nap here and there.  This was the Carrot Ginger Puree that was so good.  Abby loved it.  I made it in a blender and she said "Carrot milkshakes make my tummy happy"

Aaron set the table the night before Easter.  Kim gave me the flowers!

 

 Aaron and I were greeting during both services so we had to leave early.

 

 

 I set almost everything out before we left.  I made the Easter Dinner menu in last month's Southern Living.  The only change was they had cookies for dessert and I substituted the Strawberry-Lemonade cake from the cover.  And I added deviled eggs that Kim brought because I don't like to make them.

 So, it was Sweet mustard ham, herb-parmesan rolls, carrot-ginger puree, asparagus with snow peas and chow chow, hot potato salad, orzo with peas and herbs, deviled eggs and Strawberry-lemonade cake.  It sounds like a lot, but we really didn't have a ton left.  I made Jory's grandparents a couple of plates and we probably have another meal.

 

 Everyone seemed to really like everything!  And we had a great family day!

 

Easter Party

 

Our church has a huge Easter Egg hunt every year.  This year the park where we hold it was shut down at the last minute for repairs and they moved the hunt to the park in our neighborhood.  It was Thursday night.  We invited our Sunday School classes to come by before the hunt and enjoy a cookie and walk together to the park.  We had some cookies set out inside and then we had cookie decorating stations outside.

 

 The kids had a great time with the decorating while the adults got to talk a bit.

 

 

 

Our backyard is gated so you can relax a bit while the kids play

 

We headed to the park where the church grilled dinner and then we had the hunt and some games.

 It was raining and it was SO cold, but we all fought through it and the kids had a blast!

 The next day Abby went through her eggs and said, "Look!  There are little cupcakes in mine!"  Should I be proud or embarrassed that she's never seen a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup?

 She had the best time going through her eggs this year!