Early April Happenings

Catching up...

On April 5th, Alexee went to her friend M's 6th birthday party at a local art studio.  She had a great time and painted a cute puppy picture!  The girls all got to wear leis and the cupcakes were tropical themed.  A's lei broke though, so she brought the pieces home and recycled them into a skirt for Joey (next photo)!  :)

For some reason the kids asked if they could mop the floor one day...YES!  

 Sunday

Alexee and our neighbor took Joey on a field trip out in the front yard one afternoon!  It was cute seeing them work together to carry the basket outside.  :)

I took the boys to get frozen yogurt one afternoon while A was at another b-day party.  Crosby wore his helicopter shirt and took his toy helicopter with him.

Our azaleas are in full bloom.  A picked some to take to school for her friends.

Crosby put on his Dark Knight costume and climbed the tree.

 More soccer...only one more week of it.  Crosby has enjoyed it so much!

We've had two fun date nights recently:

We went to see Spamalot at Robinson...

...and met our friends Brad & Leslie for dinner at Local Lime.

This month is just flying by.  The kids will be out of school for summer break so soon!

Holly's Sip & See

I have been looking so forward to this weekend!  Friday morning I went to Texas to help Heather and her Mom with a Sip & See honoring our friend, Holly.  We were celebrating the arrival of her TWIN BOYS!  I got there about noon, unloaded the cake and flowers, Heather and I went to eat a quick lunch then spent the afternoon cooking and decorating for Saturday morning.  It was a busy day, but so fun to get to catch up with Heather while we worked.  Friday evening we met Holly for dinner before one more trip to Wal-Mart and some last-minute party prep.  

The front porch...I took this sign from Rhett's room, and Heather added plant stakes with the boys' names on them.

The food table:

We served cheese crackers, cucumber sandwiches, fruit/fruit dip, roasted pecans, white chocolate raspberries, sausage casserole, cupcakes and petits fours.  I bought the hydrangeas here and took them with me, but they didn't do well on the trip--two of them were wilted by Saturday morning so we improvised with dogwood blossoms from the front yard.  We decorated with special keepsakes that we already had for our boys:  books, silver baby rattles & cups, shoes, a blue Bible, etc.

I loved Heather's raspberry idea--they were each stuffed with a white chocolate chip.  So simple but delicious, and I thought they looked really pretty on the table.  The roasted pecans that Mrs. Babs made were delicious too.  

Holly arrived with her daughter, Lucy, and a baby boy on each arm.  She also has a seven year old son!  Very blessed and very busy!!!  Lucy Kate was so cute helping with her brothers.

This is the punch recipe that we decided to try (Pinterest).  It was great--I'll definitely use this one again!   

More decorations

We painted letters for "Gabe" (Gabriel) and "Rett" (Garrett) and hung them from the mirror.  We were out on the patio after dark Friday night cutting a strip of burlap and painting polka dots on it for a buffet table runner.

 Their precious birth announcement

Holly and Heather grew up together.  I met them when we lived across the hall from each other our freshman year at Ouachita--lots of good memories!  And 18 years and 9 kids later...still friends!

 Holly and Lucy Kate

 And Holly with the boys

 My turn to hold one!

 I just kept thinking "I can't believe she has TWO babies!"

I loved getting to play with them and hold them!

A big thank you to Lane for taking care of the kids for the night--I think they had a good time, too.  They rented Wreck-It Ralph Friday night and had a "sleep-over" in Rhett's room, then L took them to eat pizza for lunch on Saturday, then they went to the library.  I was anxious to see everyone Saturday evening!

Easter Weekend

School was out for Good Friday, so my niece came over to spend the night with us.  That afternoon we dyed eggs then we ate an early dinner and went to the Good Friday service at our church.  

Alexee made this cute one that reminded me of Raggedy Ann.

Rhett drew an angel at the tomb on one of his.

Crosby added stickers to his.  

I loved Jaiden's empty tomb egg.

The Good Friday service is always a really special time of remembering what Christ did for us.  I'm so glad we were able to go.  Lane had to work on Sunday, but it was nice to go to this together.

That night I made a grape salad and a cheesecake to take to my sister's the next day.

Mic's Easter decorations

Everyone was excited when Mo & Grandad arrived.

We had Honeybaked ham, Frito corn salad, Pioneer Woman's Mac & Cheese, potato casserole, grape salad, rolls and green salad.  For dessert:  Easter cookies, cheesecake and Vanilla Chess Pie.  

It had been raining and was still sprinkling, but we still had a quick egg hunt.

Crosby, Alexee, Jaiden, Ethan (a friend of Mic's), Jeryn and Rhett

Alexee loves their calico cat.  (Unfortunately it scratched her right after this picture was taken.)

Mo helping the kids find eggs

Thank you, Micaela, for my Easter basket!  :)

Rhett was up at his usual early time on Sunday and woke A and C up to come downstairs and look in their baskets.  They got crayons, markers, a few pieces of candy, balloons, hair bows, temporary tattoos...

It was POURING rain--and hailing--that morning when we left for church, but it was a wonderful morning of celebrating a RISEN SAVIOR!