spring break laziness, a sweet sixteen, and a photobomber



We just finished up with our Spring Break and this pretty much sums it up:

 

 

 

OVER IT. I am absolutely ready for warmer weather.

 

So, our Spring Break was pretty low key and I didn't hate it. We had a couple of things planned, but we did a whole lot of just hanging around. :-)

 

 

Baseball season officially started back. I asked Maggie if she wanted to play T-ball this year, but she just gave me that "deer in the headlights" look and said no. So, while Levi is at practice, Maggie does a lot of exploring. 

 

 

She asked me if it was okay to "cross the sea" and play on the rocks. Ha! I told her that was fine, but in Indiana we called those creeks. ;-)

 

Easter was early this year and fell on the weekend of our break. I LOVE Easter - loooove it! - but there is one little downfall each year. I sing in the choir at church and we usually have to be there for sound check before the sun wakes up. This means that Eric is in charge of getting the kids ready and in their cute little Easter attire (and no cute Easter morning family picture - eyeroll). As the mom of a little girl, this scares me a little bit. But, I've learned I just have to let it go. One thing is for sure: as Maggie has gotten older, Eric has learned to rock a little girl ponytail with a bow!!

  

 

One special highlight of our week was that our niece turned SIXTEEN! That's just crazy to me because she was a baby at our wedding. And, since I'm only 27, all these numbers just don't add up...

 

Anyways, sweet Megan is 16. So it was time to celebrate! What better way to celebrate than a day of shopping?! We had a fun day together. Found some good deals and Megan learned that we had to keep Maggie reigned in. She likes to shoe shop and love to TOUCH EVERY SINGLE THING in Sephora! She loved hanging with the big girls all day.

 

That evening, we took the whole fam to P.F. Changs. We had a fun time, but joked that my kids are just really small rednecks. Take them to a fancy place to eat and they don't know what to do. They are totally happy with Chick Fil A or McDonald's. Ha! Such a fun experience, though!! Happy Sweet Sixteen, Megan! We love you!

That pretty much wraps up our break! Lots of family time and lots of time just playing outside - perfect! Oh, and I ordered a new hat for our upcoming vacation (did I mention that we are going on a cruise??). It came in the mail and I was so excited! Of course, I took a selfie for the bestie and got photobombed. He was proud of himself.
 

 

One more pic, just because they're cute:

Preschool bingo is where it's at

If you've never played Bingo with a room full of 4 year-olds, well, you need to. It's quite adorable. 

I went to play Bingo for Books with Maggie's classroom and let me tell you...they take their Bingo games very seriously. 

I'm pretty sad to see Maggie's preschool year coming to an end. We ADORE her preschool teacher and are just thrilled with the wealth of information Maggie has learned this year.

Each school day, every student has an "assignment". Letter person, light person, line leader, caboose (Maggie hates being the caboose...she would much rather lead! Ha!), and so on. On the day that I was there, she was the door holder. She explained to me that each person has to say, "thank you, Maggie" as they pass through the door.

If they don't say "thank you, Maggie", she tells the teacher. Oy. We are still working on the tattling skills. She's a cute little door holder, if I do say so myself!

Along with Bingo, they did an Easter Egg hunt. It was all the rage! Each student got to find as many eggs as would fit inside their egg crate. 

I tell you what...in all the hustle and bustle, it's moments like these that remind me to slow down and take it all in. I forget that I need to just enjoy them while they're little.

Because there's not much better in life than enjoying a little one on one time playing Bingo and eating popsicles with your favorite 4 year old girl.

I broke out my new camera for Easter!

For the last couple of years, I've been really wanting a new camera. I've been saving my pennies and finally decided this was the time. After doing lots of research and talking to a few people, I am happy happy to report that I'm a proud new Canon owner! And what better time to try it out than when we are looking and acting our best...Easter?! 

I'm going to go ahead and make the disclaimer that I have NO idea what I'm doing. At all. A few people have shown me some specifics, but right now, I'm just clicking away in Automatic mode and letting the camera do the work. That may never change. 

Of course, after church and the annual DO NOT CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES YET lovely family picture:

Love my babies. At least I got a smile before Levi changed into his ever-loving basketball shorts with a shirt that doesn't match and Maggie spilled mac n cheese all over the front of her. Good times.

And, of course, it wouldn't be a great holiday without your brother stealing your camera to take horrid closeup shots for you. (I will choose not to tell you which foundation is majorly failing me in this picture...)

He's really great at capturing the grumpy cat, double chin photos, too.

On to better things. Like sunflower peep cakes! Good job, Jenny!

And my Easter cookies...

...that I bought. ;-)

It was gorgeous outside, so we were thrilled that the kids could do their egg hunt outdoors. 

Each year, I tell myself to remember to pick up cute baskets for the kids do use for their hunt. And each year they end up using a Target bag. ;-) Details.

I hid Maggie's eggs, so they were very easy to find. Eric hid Levi's. Poor Levi.

Even better than finding all the eggs is the anticipation of what's inside.

Maggie announced that she'd gotten fifty thousand dollars from her eggs. She was just slightly off. 

It was so beautiful outside that we did what every other normal family does on Easter Sunday: we loaded up and went to the gun range.

Jenny got some practice in with her cute little pink take-your-eye-out gun. I shot a round through it and screamed when a shell casing came back and hit me in my sunglasses. TWICE. ;-)

Presh. Boys and their guns.

The kids waited patiently until it was their turn to shoot their guns. They got Drill Sergeant Travis asking them the three important rules of gun safety...

Aaaand, go! 

Even Mags got in on the action! This was her first time shooting. To answer your question, YES, you can shoot a gun with a big ol' bow on your head! :-)

Had such a great day with my family!

Last weekend, we upped our parental status to AWESOME.

So, last weekend is a weekend for the books! We had it planned for a while and I'm so thankful the weather cooperated with us. 

Once upon a time, a loooong time ago, Eric used to do this thing called backpacking. I know. Sounds horrid. Like, they pack all their essentials for the weekend into one bag, hike off into the wilderness, and live there for said amount of time. Stink, stank, stunk. 

Then, we had a baby, Eric thought he needed to go back to school for another degree, life happened, we had another baby and BAM, he hadn't been in over 6 years. Well, this was the weekend of the comeback. The guys were going backpacking and Eric was jumping back in with both feet. AND HE WAS TAKING MY BABY WITH HIM. Yes, this was Levi's first trip out into the wilderness. I gave Eric many "talks" over the last few weeks and I'm sure he took each one of them to heart. Don't let him get hurt. Don't let him drink gross water. Don't let him use a sharp knife. Put a lock on the tent at night. Ultimately, my last words to him were, "You know if something happens to Levi, do not come home." I think I said "I love you", too. Details.

So, here they are - the boys. Cuties! Eager to explore and get dirty.

My boys. 

I tried texting Eric several times that evening. NOTHING. NADA. I knew he was safe, though, because PAUL WAS TEXTING GRETCHEN. Whatev.

I was told the boys cut up all the firewood they needed. Now I know why the dads were ready for the sons to go. Child labor.

I love these boys spending time together. They don't get to see each other that often, but Levi still thinks of Pierce as one of his best buddies. :-)

Mkay, see those little colored things under the rock shelf thingy? Yeah, tents. Tiny. That's where they slept. The same place that wild animals sleep to try and get out of the elements. Awesome. (OH EM GEE.)

I love these men. I'm so thankful that they take time to invest in their sons. Such a great group of godly men. 

SO, while the boys were out getting dirty and becoming one with their knives, I packed up little Maggie May and headed south for the weekend. We had some girlie things to do! Like wear bows and eat chips and salsa.

We were gonna have an all out girl weekend. 

We decided to get the girls toes painted. That idea bombed on us, but at least we got their cute little picture in the cute little chairs!

The girls literally ran off to play for hours. Hours! They'd shut the door to Hope's room and we could hear them giggling and playing pretend. They would come out occasionally with different clothes on or to show us a dance they made up and we would laugh hysterically at them. It was really sweet to watch them play. 

Over four years ago, my bestie moved away and it was not pretty. I was angry at God and pretty much cried "no fair" every day. However, God knows what He is doing. I never could have dreamed that our friendship would grow and flourish like it has.

God continues to bless our friendship as well as the friendships of our children and our husbands. It is just...well, it's a God thing. And, I'm so thankful. 

I would like to note that Eric and Levi both made it home safely and Levi can't wait to go back out into the woods. Gag. Maggie continues to say that hanging out with Hopie was one of the best days ever. So, yeah, we're pretty awesome parents. ;-)