The first graders sang at PTO the other night. Emmie often gets up on stage and gets overwhelmed and just kind of stares into space but we worked SO hard all week on her words and I was so proud that you can clearly see her singing!
Ellie and Ruthie were so excited to go and watch Emmie!
Easter Sunday we got up and went to the 8:30 service at church. We got there about 10 minutes early and had to sit in the overflow seating in the chapel...it was packed!
After the service we ran home and I finished some last minute cooking details and then we headed to North Carolina to celebrate Easter with family. We always do Easter with Paul's mom's side of the family. This year my parents were able to join us as well and it was so nice to have both sides of our family present! We ate lunch, had an easter egg hunt, participated in an egg toss, and had a scavenger hunt. Last year Paul's cousin, Kim, and I won the egg toss. We put in a good showing this year and I think we ended in 4th place and most importantly the egg didn't break ON either of us!
JP...ready to find some Easter eggs!
ready to hunt!
And then JP discovered the basketballs...so much better than hunting Easter eggs! This kid is ALL BOY!
We had a busy but fun spring break! We managed to pack in all of our favorite activities and made lots of fun memories with our friends!
Ellie kicked off her spring break by heading to Gigi and Papa's house on Friday afternoon. She stayed until Sunday afternoon. You can see all about her trip here.
Emmie started her spring break with a playdate with her friend Emma. They had a blast!
Saturday, Paul went to the Masters with my dad. They had a GREAT time! The kids and I just hung around the house in the morning and then I headed to a baby shower for a good friend. I had so much fun celebrating Kelly and baby Molly!
I love watching these kiddos play together.
Sunday our spring break guests arrived. My friend from college, Abby, and her 2 girls came from DC to spend a few days with us. Abby's girls, Elizabeth and Caroline, are my goddaughters and I hadn't seen them since Caroline's christening over two years ago so it was so much fun to spend time with them!
Franklin was SO excited to see Abby. He made himself right at home in her lap.
Reading to the kids at bedtime.
Monday we went and picked strawberries. The kids had a great time and ate plenty of strawberries while we were picking!
It was rough trying to get a good picture of this crew! (Ellie, Ruthie, Caroline, Elizabeth, JP, Emmie)
Ruthie and Elizabeth
Elizabeth and Emmie
Ellie doing quality control taste testing.
JP was actually a pretty good strawberry picker!
After lunch and naps we took the kids over to the Children's Garden. As always, it was a big hit.
The kids were fascinated with this caterpillar and I was SHOCKED when Emmie was holding it! She is usually so squeamish around bugs of any kind.
Monday evening Abby fixed us a yummy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs! It was so nice of her to help out with the cooking! We finished off our dinner with strawberry shortcake for dessert.
Tuesday we headed to the zoo first thing in the morning. We met up with Dana and her 2 boys. The kids had a great time at the zoo. We weren't able to hit all of the animals before it got too crowded and the kids started wanting lunch but we saw a lot and also rode all the rides! Ruthie was finally tall enough to ride the pony and after all that waiting to be tall enough she decided she didn't really want to ride! I couldn't believe it! My other two girls and Elizabeth and Caroline all rode and had a blast. I was so glad we arrived to the zoo early because by the time we left at 12 it was super crowded and the parking lots were at capacity!
I got a big kick our of Caroline and Ruthie "reading" their maps.
Trying mto get a picture of these monkeys. (Heath, Caroline, Emmie, Elizabeth, Ruthie, Ellie)
JP and Mommy selfie :)
Ellie was the only one of my girls brave enough to feed the birds.
Caroline, Ellie, and Elizabeth. I think Ellie was glad to have friends to do the "brave" things with. The other kids aren't so much into things like riding the carousel animals and feeding the birds.
The rest of my crew hanging out on the carousel bench.
Ruthie and Heath
After the zoo Abby and I took the girls to Chick-fil-A. Needless to say by the time we left all the kids were worn out. Sadly, only JP was interested in a nap. Oh well!
Tuesday night Abby and I met up with Dana for dinner. It was so fun to have a night out to catch up without having to chase kids around at the same time! Thanks to Paul for keeping 6 kids!
Wednesday morning we headed to Edventure. It wasn't crowded at all but then a field trip came in and they had spring break camp going on at the same time so it got a little wild for a bit. We finally managed to put some distance between us and the field trip group and it calmed down a lot. The kids had SO much fun exploring!
Hanging out in the fire truck.
The whole car thing was a little scary! They looked like they were ready to drive off!
Elizabeth, Ruthie, and Caroline in the back seat.
Shopping...always a favorite.
JP loved taking care of the dogs in the vet office.
Building. Ellie made a little table that she saw in one of the pictures on the wall. She was really proud of herself.
Pizza!
Ellie worked really hard building something that would fly in the wind. She was so proud of herself!
We ended up eating lunch at Edventure and then my crew headed home so JP could get a good nap and Abby took her girls over to campus so she could show them where she went to college.
My friend Lindsay and her family were in town for spring break and so Wednesday evening they came over to play and have dinner with us. The kids hadn't seen each other in so long and we had the best time catching up with them! We miss having Lindsay, Mark and the kiddos right down the road.
Mark being super dad!
Mason, Ruthie, Ellie, Caroline, Elizabeth, Madison, JP, and Emmie. 8 kids under the age of 7!
Silly picture!
So looking forward to baby boy's arrival in just over a month!
They thought it was hilarious to put each other in time out.
Silly JP!
Thursday morning we sadly said goodbye to Abby and her girls. While Abby was packing the car I got some sweet time cuddling on the couch and reading with Elizabeth and Caroline. :) We had a great visit!
After Abby and crew left I tossed my kids in the car and headed to the Y for a quick workout. The kids love playing in their childcare area and then they were thrilled that I let them stop and play on the playground as we were leaving.
We just chilled out and watched movies Thursday after naps and it was so nice to have some down time!
Friday morning we headed back to the zoo to do Waterfall Junction, the kids area in the gardens. It was not crowded at all and we had a very relaxing time. They added a small splash pad (with chairs and umbrellas around it!) and we hung out there a good chunk of the time. It was perfect for JP and the girls enjoyed it too. Plus there was a grassy area right next to it so the girls played there a lot while JP played in the water. Because of the way it was set up I could watch everyone which was great.
Digging for fossils.
They had a great time dressing up the scarecrows.
The water was FREEZING but the kids didn't seem to mind too much.
JP was a little intimidated by the loud noise and the height of the water in the big splash area but he LOVED the new splash area. It was much quieter as it was away from the big waterfall and it was just his size. AND they added chairs and umbrellas around the edge so I loved it too!
The girls had a great time playing in the grassy area next to the little splash pad. There was a parachute and some things to build with.
Ellie of course made a bed.
Emmie made a seat for JP
JP was WORN OUT by the time we got back in the car!
Friday afternoon I took the kids to see the Easter Bunny...but we'll save that fun for another post.
Saturday I got to take Ellie to golf. I love seeing how much she has improved! Saturday afternoon I took the big girls to Evelyn's birthday party. The kids all had so much fun playing in the bouncy house. I left during the party to run some errands and I had already checked to make sure that all the food and dessert was peanut free. I told Ruthie before I left that she could eat all of it but I was so proud when I got back and one of the other moms told me Ruthie had asked about peanuts before she ate anything. I am always so proud of her for remembering to ask! (Also, Tuesday at dance her friend offered her an oreo and she said she couldn't have one. She actually can have oreos but we always stress to her that she can't touch or eat any food without asking us first so we can make sure it doesn't have peanuts. So proud of this big girl!)
We wrapped up our Spring Break with a wonderful Easter Day. I'll be sharing our Easter fun in a later post!
