Hello Spring!

Easter Sunday

After starting the day a smidge late, we went to Church (where we showed up 15 minutes late and had standing room only in the back...of course), then headed to Muskegon (where the kids fell asleep in the car and I drove to keep them asleep, then got lost and had to drive even longer to get back to Mee-maw and Papa's house), we finally arrived and started our day of fun!  Sheesh!

Thankfully I remembered to snap a family picture before we were all filthy. :)

Quick picture of all the kids before the Easter Egg hunt began.  I love these kinds of pictures where we herd all the kids together "real quick" and expect everyone to cooperate.  Lets look closely at this picture shall we?

Classic!

 Once the egg colors were chosen, the kids took off.  Notice how there are no kids in this picture.  They buzzed around that pond in about 30 seconds flat.  Well...all except one.

At first, she wanted no part of this.  I had to hold her, squat down to help her pick up her eggs, all while trying to take pictures of it.  Got my work out for the day!

She eventually warmed up and started to have a little fun.  {a little fun}

Bryce loved it...naturally!  He was cracking me up because he didn't bother to put his findings in the basket.  He immediately opened up each egg to see what was inside and carried his candy around with a death grip. 

Maddie was nice enough to help Bryce get one of the eggs out of the tree, and I love this picture of Bear and her dad. :)

After dinner {which could quite possibly have been the most amazing meal I've ever eaten}, we celebrated Miss Charlotte's 3rd birthday!  She had the coolest ice cream bunny cake.  Happy Birthday Charlotte!

...and of course that meant more treats for these two.  I was convinced one of my kids would puke last night, but by the grace of God...no one did.

Every single chance he had, Bryce could be found doing this...

We could not get him away from that thing!

We had a really great day.  {and with a little photoshop help, I was able to manipulate catch a picture of all 4 of us smiling.}  This is my new favorite picture.

What the.........?

You know, a crazy thing has been going on around here.  Last week it was in the 80's.  The trees and flowers were starting to bloom.  The sun was shining.  My mood was uplifted.  I even enjoyed my kids a little bit more than usual...

Then we got hit with snow.  AGAIN.  Seriously?  I am soooooooo over this.  The snow has since melted, but it's been cold and raining.  I just want to cry. 

I'm ready for Spring!  Maybe Easter will bring Spring back to us.  My fingers are crossed!

Butterflies at the Garden

Thursday afternoon we met Ben and Cassie at Frederick Meijer Garden to see the butterflies.    It was a yucky, chilly rainy day, but you would never know from inside the hot and humid butterfly house.  (Forgot how hot it gets in there!)

The Butterflies were in full (?) bloom, and they were everywhere. The kids loved it.

I spent the majority of the time chasing them around and dragging Bryce from the  roped off exhibit to actually see much of anything, but the few butterflies that fluttered past my sweaty face were awesome. 

We may try to get back up there one more time before the exhibit ends for the season.  Maybe I will get to see a few things that I missed this time :)

Sunday Funday

Yesterday was the most ridiculously beautiful August April day.  I think we hit 85 degrees.  While I LOVE early spring/summer days, they are such a tease since it's back to gloomy and chilly today.  What the heck??? 

Oh, well...we certainly enjoyed it while it was here. 

The entire afternoon was spent outside playing, grilling, reading and having fun.

At one point while Sydney napped and Bryce quietly played in his sandbox, Dan and I sat on the patio (possibly with a cold alcoholic beverage in our hands), looked at each other and said "this almost feels like vacation".

I carefully handed Bryce my camera and asked him to take a picture of us...clearly he needs a little practice with the SLR.  (please excuse the crotch shot)  So instead, I had Dan catch Syd and I.

She was rockin' some awesome half piggies yesterday.  (and a skirt!  she never does that!) 

Later, we grilled some steaks for dinner with probably the best twice baked potatoes known to man, then we had some friends over for a fire. 

It's sad that it was so short lived, but we sure lived it up while we could!

Spring Fever

The weather this past week was borderline ridiculous, you know, in a good way.  I have been waiting for this for months!!  All through the winter months I sulk and complain, but without persevering through them, I don't think I would appreciate just how happy Spring weather makes me feel! 

We were pushing almost 70 by Thursday, but Tuesday and Wednesday were a comfortable mid-50's.  I am by no means a die hard runner, but I have had the itch to get outside and go for a run. 

This was the perfect week for it!  We headed down the road to Roselle Park (which our family refers to as "The Silo").  The kids LOVE it there!  These are awful pictures, but I didn't bring my camera, so the phone had to do.

I could really use a better jogging stroller.  Right now, we have a bike trailer/jogger that was cheap to begin with, but after several times bottoming out because of kids trying to stand in it, it's taken on a Flintstone-esq quality.  Not to mention I'm pushing almost 50 pounds of child in there.  Not pretty.

Oh well, it gets the job done!

After our run, the troops were getting restless, so I let them walk the last stretch.  It took about 20 minutes to make it the last 1/4 mile back to the car because...

someone had to pick up every single rock he could find...

 then throw them in the "river" (snow meltage)...

and Mom kept trying to take pictures of two unwilling participants...

finally Syd had enough and said "Peace Out".  We did this Tuesday and Wednesday, and to be honest...it wasn't that bad. If I can just force myself to do it, maybe I will actually run the entire 8 miles up at Mackinac this fall.  ???????  We'll see.