Thursday, June 2, 2011

Easter 2011



The Easter Bunny came through again.  :)  This year she sneaked Squinkies into many of the hidden eggs (shown here by Katie). Is anyone else caught up in the fad of these tiny, squishy characters?

We went to an egg hunt at a local park that was rained out and moved to the gym of the nearby recreation center. The kids loved it anyway! (And when they told us, "You're the last group, so find the rest of the eggs," . . . Abby sure took them at their word. She made quite a haul!)

Abby's Birthday

OK, so Abby's birthday was in mid-April, but I've got to start somewhere with catching up the blog! (It's been a rather crazy spring.)


Abby turned 7 years-old!!

She had fun celebrating with some friends from school and church. (It was a high-energy bunch, for sure!)
Here's Luke manning the pinata . . .
 . . . and Abby showing the cute "Pin the Tail on the Mouse Critter" game that she made by herself.

The best part of Abby's birthday was sharing it with GRANNIE! Their birthdays are a day apart, so we celebrated them together. Mom stayed for a few days and planted an abundance of gorgeous flowers for us:


(I don't know how I ended up with so many more pictures of the flowers than of Grannie. I think we were too busy having fun and digging in the dirt to think about the camera.) It was SO fun to have her visit us!!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Our Spring Break

Spring break last week wasn't very . . . well . . . spring-y. In fact, it started off with a blizzard, so we spent much of the week just relaxing at home. This little Easter craft project kept everyone busy for quite a while (notice all the un-spring-y snow through the window):


Abby's masterpiece . . .


. . . and Katie's . . .


. . . and Mom's.

(When I was little, I used to spend hours making little creatures out of pom-poms, often with help from my mom. I called them "cucuns." I guess now I'm passing along the fettish to the next generation!)

Katie looking oh-so snuggly in her bed created from couch cushions (building things out of the cushions is a popular pastime around here).
Alex at his train-watching post (you can just barely see the train tracks from this window). He gets so excited when he hears that whistle.
We did venture out to the library, the children's museum, and a playdate with friends . . . but overall, it was a week of sleeping in and laying low. No homework to check, lunches to pack, or buses to meet. Sometimes that's exactly what you need!

Our Tree


I love how our magnolia tree explodes every March, practically overnight. (I just hope the beautiful blossoms survive this snowy cold spell!)

Friday, March 4, 2011

Birthdays!

We've had a lot of birthday celebrations around here lately:

Grandma Nora's (when she and Grandpa came to visit in February),

Luke's birthday #1 (with his parents),

fun at Chuck E. Cheese's for Abby's school friend Zach,

bouncing in the jumping castle at next-door neighbor Owen's party,

and Daddy's birthday--#2 (on the actual day).

Whew!