Easter 2013

We tried several times to get the kids to sit for a picture and failed miserably.  We assumed that the church would be a good place but that didn't work either. It was discovered later that day (when Abigail threw up) that they were both sick.  (I had tried introducing raw milk into their diets to try to boost their immune systems but they, and Jason, ended up with diarrhea and vomiting instead.) 

We hid Easter baskets for them to find and they both were very excited about the goodies they found.

They looked so adorable in their matching outfits that I had to take them to get professional pictures taken the next week. Thanks Portrait Innovations!  These are beautiful.

Easter Egg Hunts

The kids had invitations to several Easter Egg hunts this year.  Mt. Holly Springs United Methodist Church had one Saturday, Kat's parent's neighborhood the next day and 

our friends had another the following Saturday, the day before Easter.

Abigail was a pro right from the beginning.  She knew without a doubt or real instruction that she should pick up the eggs and put them in her basket.  It was a blast. 

After the eggs were all picked up the kids had fun playing in the yard toys that the preschool has in their yard. 

Get ready . . . 

Go!

Opening the eggs to discover the goodies inside.

Some of the eggs had puzzle pieces inside.  Daniel and this friend were the only ones interested in putting the pieces together.  I don't think we had all the pieces though so they gave up and joined in the running around.

Abigail with her loot.  She was a professional egg hunter after three tries!

Early Spring!

We bought ourselves and were gifted Hershey Park season passes this year.  We used them as often as possible to go to the "zoo" but Spring Time in the Park was the first we got to go to the park! We headed out to the park on Good Friday.  It was brisk to say the least, but I don't think the kids minded.  They were all smiles most of the day.  

Tuesday (3/25) we had the last snow fall of the year.  It was so beautiful I had to take some pictures.  Our three families of cardinals were out in force and were breath taking against the snow. Maybe trying to sneak ultra zoom pictures out of my dining room doesn't result in the highest quality photos but just imagine how pretty this must have been!

Our snowy Smoo.

Crocuses popped up as soon as the snow melted a couple days later!

Silly Girl

We all stare in amazement at how silly this little girl is. She is just wild and makes us laugh all the time! Here is a taste of some of her shenanigans:

Saying "Cheese" when someone takes the camera out. The point of the video was to get the adorable faces she makes when reading this farm animal sound book. This is pretty cute too.

 

Daily dance party/scream fest. She'll just spin in circles till she falls down and sometimes will add hitting herself with whatever toy is nearby.

 

 

Hiking Pine Grove Furnace

After the miserable cloudy, cold, dreary winter we have been having the sun came out! We took advantage of the mild day, packed a picnic and headed to Pine Grove Furnace.  Daniel is an expert hiker and likes to lead the way.  Abigail hates being confined to the backpack so she mostly cries the whole time and tries to ruin the experience for everyone else. Roxy, even in her old age and bad health,  just loves to be in the woods, and if she finds a stream - she is as happy as can be.  The path we took happened to be a dead end so we stopped for a rest at the stream we could not forge, and then headed back to the car.  (The tree that had been the bridge was washed into the stream so there was no way for our family to get across.) 

No one really seemed to mind, we were just happy to be outside and together. 

 

Daniel stomping the baby trees - he likes to pretend he is an elephant tromping through the forest.

Kat's Birthday

The "Blizzard of the Year" (which amounted to flurries just a few miles from here) had schools closed a day in advance all over the mid-state.  We had about five inches in the morning that mostly melted by afternoon but the kids got to play a bit.  We built a huge snow man (that fell over in an hour or so), had a snowball fight, and pulled each other around the yard in the sled. 

It was a good start to a great birthday.

 

 

Jason made me a wonderful dinner and we had our parents and grandmother over to help us celebrate.  The table was beautiful, I should taken a picture, and the dinner Jason made was amazing.  Beth made me a carrot cake as well as a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing for everyone else!

It was my first birthday without my Dad, and that was really hard to stomach.  The joy of having everyone together got strangled on occasion by the weight of his missing presence. Despite his absence, the house was full of love; I am blessed. Thank you to all my friends and family for the birthday wishes.  Here's to another year.