Fun Easter Weekend

Dave gets Good Friday off each year (yay!) so we headed off to a fun adventure at the Children's Museum. The kids were so well-behaved and had so much fun. We ended up staying later than we ever have and Anna and Collin got just 15 minute naps for the day. It was a really fun family day! They had a new friend in the admission area of the museum, one that was quite amazing to our five year-old......a GIANT Bumblebee! He was soooo excited!

Everybody loving on Dora and Boots.

Our monkey giving Boots the Monkey a hug.

We enjoyed seeing the museum a little bit differently this time. Most of it we did all together, but at times we split up and had some one-on-one/one-on-two time which is always a blessing. Anna and I had some fun girl time in the Barbie exhibit.

We got to design an outfit for Barbie together.

Dave and the boys had fun checking out some real movie/tv costumes. Some of Benjamin's favorites were Darth Vader.....

the witch's hat from The Wizard of Oz.....

and Batman!!!

Next we headed up to the carousel. Here are the excited bunch anticipatively waiting for their turn....


All three seemed to very much enjoy it!

My camera died after this, but we had many more hours of fun. Dave, Benjamin, and Anna had lots of fun together while I had some really special one-on-one time with Collin in the preschool area. We all had fun in the science exhibits, the trains, and of course the dinosaurs! It was a fantastic day!

The next morning we had to get everyone up and ready early so that we could make it to Benjamin's 8:00 soccer game. Afterwards, we rushed over to church to enjoy a pancake breakfast and an egg hunt! Everybody was ready with their baskets!!!

Off to hunt some eggs.....

They're off!

Collin did really well and loved filling his basket for the first time!

Anna was so funny. She was super particular about her eggs. She would walk around like she was looking for a certain egg. At first we thought she just cared about the color, but then we noticed she would shake some and then throw some down as if they didn't have what she was looking for. It was pretty funny to watch.

All my pictures of Benjamin were just of his back as he just zoomed from egg to egg. He quickly filled his basket and then helped fill Collin's and Anna's too!

Our church had 6500 eggs prepared and less than 100 kids showed up. Usually there is a huge crowd, but the weather has been so rainy so I guess most stayed at home. So as you can see, our kids scored! Benjamin, Anna, and I and two helpers emptied all the eggs and it still took forever b/c they had so many!!!

Digging in to their unbelievable amount of candy!!!

After naps and supper, we had a little Easter party. We decorated Easter cookies....

Collin was very excited about the cookies! Isn't he looking so big?!?! He recently got his 8th tooth (his first in over 6 months) so soon he will be even with all four on the bottom to match his four on top. He's also teething in the back, so hopefully he will have some (as Dave calls them) "grinders". He's talking like crazy too. He loves talking about who's every thing is and runs around telling me things like, "Daddy's car" "Momma's socks (he LOVES socks)" Ben-a-min's pup (cup)" "Nana's shoes" etc. He's pretty adorable!

Next it was time to dye some eggs! Collin very proudly held onto his egg....

Benjamin and Anna all serious in their dyeing......working hard and having fun!

Their mean mom interrupted them for a smiling picture.....

Next up for our Easter party was an egg hunt in our basement. The kids had a lot of fun with this and we did it over and over again! :)

The Easter Bunny came!!!

Coming down the stairs hand-in-hand....

Check out Benjamin's reaction! :)

Now Anna sees the baskets too!

Excitedly tearing into their baskets....

Anna was so happy to find a Rapunzel dress!

Collin walking his new dog. He tells me, "Momma!" "Dog walk!"

Benjamin got what he wanted....a Bumblebee transformer!

Playing with all their fun new toys: Anna with her dress-up dolls, Collin with his monkey drums and toy broom, and Benjamin with his new block set. They were so happy with their new treasures!

We had to pry them from their new toys so we could get all dressed up in our Easter best. They all looked so grown up and beautiful/handsome!

They did a play/cantata type service. I was so proud of Benjamin with how well he paid attention. We were able to discuss a lot of things and he learned a lot! Afterwards, we couldn't believe how nicely the kids smiled for me when I got their picture up by the (EMPTY!) tomb. We love these guys SO much!!!

We had a very blessed Easter celebrating the best gift any of us have ever received, Jesus dying for our sins and having so much fun with our little sweethearts! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter celebration with your families as well!

Daddy's Back!!!!!!!

Dave was gone for three whole days last week. The kids were a lot better than I thought about it (Anna cried and cried when I told her the week before that he was going on a trip) but we sure were happy when he got home! We decided since we have a little more wiggle room with our vacation days since Dave got an extra week for his 5 year anniversary that he would stay home on Friday and we had a wonderful family day!! It was going to rain around lunch time, so we hurried up and headed to Brown Co. park and went on a lovely hike together. Its so neat doing things like hiking each year as you can really see how much the kids are growing with all the things they discover and explain to you. Benjamin was pointing out bark and the moss growing everywhere as well as many other things.

We saw a couple of these web looking sacks on trees and I was totally grossed out as we assumed they were full of baby spiders. Then we came to this one where it was their birthday and saw these little baby caterpillars crawling out to discover the world. Pretty neat (from distance anyway, as it's still kind of gross).

My little hikers....

We were on a trail that we had never tried before (we're becoming more adventurous now that Benjamin and Anna are more capable) and discovered several natural looking bridges made out of rocks and stones like this one.

Collin didn't participate in the hike for too long before his heavy eyes fell asleep on his Daddy who he was clung to all weekend.

They're off!

After the hike we dashed over to a playground for the kids to play before the rain started. Anna was one happy girl!

This picture is very amazing for two reasons: 1) Benjamin is on a swing 2) Benjamin is smiling while on a swing. :) He has never liked to swing, not even as a little babe. This swing glided really easily so he could control how much it swung and he seemed to really enjoy himself.

My wild girl always loves to swing.....as long as you acknowledge her frequent requests of "Higher!!!"

We had a very happy day together!

Benjamin surprised us on the playground by trying some new things on his own. One of which was going down the fireman pole without his Daddy or I helping him at all. He was so proud of his bravery and new skills!

Collin woke up just in time to enjoy a few rides down the slide!

Then we headed off to one of my favorite restaurants and then after nap time we took the kids to get ice cream to reward them for being so good for me. We are one very blessed family!!!!

(The pictures look blurry for the most part on the blog to me again. They aren't blurry outside of the blog. As I'm not very computer-savvy, I don't know how to fix this once again. Argh!)