He has RISEN!

Easter Sunday morning with three extra-giggly little ladies just before a really great service at church.

At Mimi and Bop Bop's after church, gearing up for the final egg hunt. I would also like to introduce all of you to Jake's new seersucker suit. His wife is a fan.

 Balloons courtesy of an artistic Mimi, who thought it would be neat in pictures. She is right, as usual.

 All the grandparents. The egg hunt was followed by Easter lunch for the kids, then a lovely grown-up Easter dinner for the adults during kid naps. And of course the Masters.

We make Easter an all-day affair, staying until the kids' bedtime, just enjoying a relaxing day with family, as we celebrate our risen Savior!

KSU egg hunt, Easter Saturday

The Saturday before Easter was the egg hunt at KSU. We missed last year, so the last time we went, the twins were in carseats! This year was chilly, too, but not bitter like that one!

 Getting their game faces on...

Then... total fail. There was about a 10:1 kid:egg ratio. Jake commented that he's never seen so many disappointed kids at a egg hunt. Abby Jane must have been a good strategist, because she cleaned up with a grand total of 8 eggs and shared her spoils with crying children. Joy got shut out, but she reaped the benefits of a fast big sis, too.

There was a huge bunny behind that fence that children were holding. But the line was long, and Jake and I were ready to move on, so we did. The next day, Abby Jane cheerily said, "Hey, do you remember that rabbit yesterday that we almost got to hold?" SAD!!! Parenting fail- should have waited in line to at least let our egg-gypped kids hold a rabbit for a couple of minutes.

We took our time walking back to the car, swinging on swings, jumping off stone walls... til we realized the wall we were sitting on was covered in tiny chiggers!

 We decided to do Easter baskets after naps on Saturday to simplify Easter morning a little more- I think we may make this a tradition. It was so nice to let the girls take their time, play with their little gifts, and for us not be rushing them to the next thing.

Then it was just playtime. Blythe, queen of accessories, is wearing a racket cover around her neck, in case you were wondering.

 She LOVES practicing hitting the ball! Notice no ball in sight- she made contact! But most likely, it went about a foot after she tapped it.

 Joy loves to hit the tee as hard as she can. Notice the tee is flying, the ball is dropping directly down. These comparison shots of the girls are so who they are: Blythe is precise, soft and delicate. Joy is anything but precise, and she's full steam ahead.

The Rest of Spring Break

Well, we're back in business. I've had a little blogging siesta due to some coffee-spill-related hard drive issues, BUT now it's catch-up time! Spring break was a fun week with my girls, so I wanted to finish the documenting, even though so much time has passed!

Wednesday: park time with Miss Katie and her crew! Abby Jane has often been in school when we see Katie, so she had a lot of fun being with them, and evidently Carlton was pretty excited to see his older friend!

Thursday: dumped my pansies, put in my new flowers!!  Jake surprised the girls and met us at the nursery to help out while I collected my new treasures. Then we had some girl time at home learning how to dig holes and "put the flowers to bed", "tucking them in".

 

Good Friday: visit to Grandaddy and Granny Joan's, joined for a while by Grammy!  Grandaddy had lovingly made tons of paper airplanes for the girls to fly off the deck. Unfortunately, I left my camera at home, so forgive the quality of these phone pics! So here are the girls up top...

 And here is our favorite plane chaser!

They had even devised a little Easter basket elevator. Grandaddy would fill the basket with airplanes and Granny Joan would bring them up for more throwing!

 Grandaddy hung a swing beneath his deck (which he built by himself, by the way- every bit of it, including all the adirondack furniture). Every single girl was soooo proud and dying with laughter when Grandaddy pushed them high enough for their toes to touch the deck!

 My precious Grandaddy and my girls!  We had a wonderful visit with them, and we plan to make it happen more often!

 Friday night was Good Friday Atlanta, which we attended thanks to some wonderful inlaws who pitched in to babysit when we got tickets at the last minute! We went last year, and it's honestly just an indescribably amazing evening of worship. This year, a friend saved seats on the fourth row, so we had a pretty decent vantage point!

 Last year, by contrast, we got there late and were on the last row of the people out on the lawn!

It was such an awesome way to worship on Good Friday and get our hearts prepared for celebrating Easter! There were a ton of people from out of state- if you ever have the opportunity to be a part of this Good Friday evening, you won't regret it!

Creek Morning

Day Two of spring break,we went to the creek with the Joneses. It's about a 1/2-3/4 mile walk through the woods to get there, and it was a PERFECT, beautiful day for our walk and playtime. 

There had been a little complaining from my little people about their seemingly continuous desire to eat, but once we saw water, no one asked about food for at least an hour!

 It was a beautiful spot, and just so delightful to be out in the woods, yet only 15 minutes from home.

Nate (center) was doing some curls on his own with this log, then Joy and Andy decided to join in the work out.

 Blythe and Joy found it vital to spend a lot of time "cleaning" my feet and legs with that chilly creek water. I love what water bugs they are. Both dumped buckets full of water on each other multiple times- they are tough cookies! It wasn't frigid, but a whole bucket dumped on your whole body would be a pretty good shocker!

 Abby Jane chose to check out after about 5 minutes and supervise from the side, but she still had a fun time watching everyone, enjoying our beautiful surroundings, and seeing lots of Monarch butterflies!

We were even graced with a couple of low-flying planes during lunch, which were obviously fascinating.

My ladies started falling apart on the walk back to the cars, however, due to our timing pushing them pretty far past into their normal naptimes. Within a few minutes, the twins were taking turns crying, Andy had a pretty hard fall (the kind that an adult might have broken a rib on), and Abby Jane suddenly needed to go potty right there in the woods. I was a little short on patience at that point, and I said, "Let's play the happy game! Let's see who can stay happy for the longest?" Joy goes, "Not. Me."

Joy always has worn her heart on her sleeve. It was one of those afternoons that I was glad I was with such a precious friend while sharing some "real life" with another mom of young ones. There's little shame amongst other parents of similarly aged children.

Grateful for God's creation and the opportunity to spend a sweet morning enjoying it!