Easter

What a glorious weekend we had!  Easter is one of my favorite holidays...how can you go wrong when you combine family, spring flowers, green grass, great food and Easter egg hunts around a celebration of Christ, the risen Lord?!?! 

We spent Easter weekend at Mom and Dad's and had a great time.  Although the ground was soaked, we certainly didn't let it dampen our celebration.  Andy's parents were able to come to Easter for the third straight year, and Ben couldn't have been happier to have "Gan-pa, Gan-ma Debbie, Papaw and Gannie" all in the same location...what a treat for him!

Here are some pictures from the festivities...

 

Our future golfer!

It was so exciting to watch Ben actually get into the Easter egg hunt this year :)

Picking up a few pieces of candy!!!

Time for a swim...the kiddos needed to relax after all that hard work of hunting eggs!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter with your family and friends.  Above all, I hope you were able to take some time away from work and worries to celebrate our risen Lord! 

Friday nights!

There used to be a time, not that long ago, that our Friday nights were filled with fun and excitement!  If I let my mind wander, I can remember back to planning evenings out with my husband (I think we called those dates...it's a little fuzzy).  We would sit in a nice restaurant (child free) and TALK!  It would be nothing for us to have a 2 hour dinner conversation and not be interupted or lose our train of thought...boy, those were the days...OR, were they???

Now, our Friday nights are completely different.  We still find ourselves wanting to go out with friends and do fun and interesting things.  The only difference is now we are excited to have Ben join us.  Those quiet dinners (a.k.a. dates) are few and far between, but surprisingly this doesn't bother us.  Late nights out have turned into early nights in that we look forward to all week.  Fancy restaurants have been traded in for the local Pizza Hut; usually with our friends and all of their kiddos!

Last night, around 9:30, I came around the corner to this:

Is this what our Friday nights used to look like?  Absolutely not...but, I wouldn't trade our "new" Friday nights for anything!!! 

Spring Break!!!

This past week has been jam-packed!  We've traveled, spent time with family, worked around the house, and tried to relax a little too!  We started Spring Break with a quick trip to the Wisconsin Dells with my sister and her family and Andy's sister and her family.  We went for four days and had a blast.  The water parks are not the best place for a toddler, so Ben was able to spend the days with Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Jim.  Here are a few pictures of our water park adventure!

 Andy, Jason and Max coming out of the Hurricane

 Katie and Ellie in the lazy river

 Ellie exiting a water slide

Katie at Cubbie's Cove



We left for Wisconsin in cold, rainy weather and came home to sunshine!  This meant that we could work on some projects around our house.  I was able to mow the yard (twice!) and Andy was able to roll it...moles seem to have taken up residence in our yard!!!  Ben, of course, was right in the heart of the action.  He spent most of his time moving from tractor to mower to four-wheeler (it all depended on what mood he was in and which parent he preferred).  Here are some pictures of our little helper :)

 Ben and Daddy rolling the yard (Ben needed to have his hard hat on apparently)

Our little modification for the mower.  I'm sure parents everywhere are cringing, but just remember, we did a lot worse when we were little :)

We ended our week of vacation with a sunny, 80 degree Sunday.  We topped off the evening by grilling out and enjoying some relaxation before starting back to work.  I hate to see Spring Break end, but on the upside, summer vacation starts in seven weeks (I can do it, I can do it)!!!