good friday with good friends...4.10

look at this beautiful spread! 5 families contributed to this feast!

baby jacob spent lots of time just staring at the craziness around him...

sarah in costume change #1...

sarah in costume change #2...

all the kiddos eating outside together...11 (not counting jacob, of course!)

sweet pic of my oldest and youngest man in my life...

costume change #3...

a picture of the delicious and beautiful cake that mimi helped sarah and drew make at her house...mimi had sarah and drew spend the night with her on thursday night! the list of activities made me exhausted and all i did was listen to it :)

costume change #4...(and the humongous mess the kiddos made in the playroom!)

griffin and drew hiding together in a box. this box was barely 2 feet by 1.5 feet...

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we had a great lunch at alison's house on good friday! we all got there around 11am and stayed til 4pm...it was a very relaxing day! the kiddos entertained themselves so well! of course, the house looked like a tornado had come through by the end of the day!

as you can see, sarah made herself at home in the "dress-up" department! we were laughing SO hard. the first 5 or 6 times she changed, she was wearing princess or bride or superhero costumes, THEN she just started wearing claire and emma's regular clothes! she was in heaven!

little jacob chilled with the "men" mostly and took a little nap on a bed upstairs. i made sure to get a pic of him since i took 9 million pics at the last several events but VERY few of little man.

what a wonderful way to spent a day with the daddies off work!!!

sarah's preschool easter party...4.9

sarah is currently OBSESSED with her friend anna leigh. they have been having weekly playdates. and are completely inseparable at preschool. (they go to church, school, and dance class together!)

well, on the day of sarah's easter party, as i was dressing her, she asked if anna leigh could wear the same dress as her to school. little fashionista that she is, she knew anna leigh had the same dress since she had worn it to church.

so, i called miss amy to ask if that was ok. of course she said YES!!! so, sarah and anna leigh got to wear the same dress and they were OH SO HAPPY!

the party was lots of fun! the kids really enjoyed being outside on such a nice day!

i am so glad i'm able to be a part of sarah's preschool days. i am getting really emotional already about sarah going to kindergarten in TWO years.

i know. i'm pathetic. i have a whole 'nuther year but i'm already stressing about it. i don't want my sweet baby girl to be at school all the time! okay, i'll stop myself before i get all worked up again :)

peas and carrots...4.9

this is what happens when i ask the kids to pose for a picture before school...

so i got a little creative.

i had the kids hold hands and run back and forth on the walk to our front door.

they thought it was the GREATEST idea mommy had ever had!!! i got so many priceless pics! i really had to control myself to just post these few!

anyway...i was happy to have some pics of my kids when they weren't looking at their shoes or turning their heads away from the camera on purpose. little stinkers.

3 and 4 year olds in this house DO NOT like to pose nicely for the camera :)

so cute!!!

boo boo for drew...4.8

amazingly, with over 20 kids at the egg hunt with mops, drew was the only child to sustain an injury. after most of the crowd had left, drew got in front of the swings when sarah and anna leigh were swinging really high and took a foot to the face. ouch!

he recovered really quickly as always. sweet little man. BUT, he was hilarious when everyone asked him what happened to him. he ALWAYS said, sarah and anna leigh hit me! what a ham!

please note, the egg hunt was FOUR days prior to easter sunday. you know, the day we would try to take family pictures. of course. we must always have an injury for picture days :)

mops easter egg hunt...4.8

anna leigh and sarah...

playing in the little creek...

running as far away as possible...

raising their hands if they were being quiet during the hunt instructions...

and they're off...

drew was very serious about his egg hunting...

sarah made sure to keep her hand on the tree when she found her 10 eggs...

sarah and drew found a nice seat to enjoy their candy...

while everyone else was still happily hunting away...

more friends decided to stop for a sugar rush...

miss amy telling the kiddos to use their listening ears to find out the rules for the game...

everyone else eventually decided to run around again, but drew was content to stay on the bench and enjoy his booty...
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on wednesday afternoon, a great group of moms from mops got together at the park with ALL of our kiddos to have a little easter egg hunt. the kids had SO. MUCH. FUN.

we let them play on the playgrounds for a while while the bunny hid all the eggs. of course, the kids wanted to play in the ditch and run towards the woods the whole time. its so nice to have 10 or so moms to watch out for our wild ones!!!

we stayed at the park for 3+ hours. it was the most perfect, beautiful spring day! a nice breeze and gorgeous sunshine! and little jacob just chilled with us the whole time. he spent some time on the ground on a blanket while we read stories...LOVING all the attention from the older kids!

we grabbed some food on the way home and jumped STRAIGHT in the shower when we got home. and then immediately to bed. what a great way to spend the afternoon!

i have a feeling we are all going to be worn out at the end of the day almost every day this summer! what a great feeling!!!

poor little bunny...4.8

drew tortured, err, met amy's rabbits on our way to the park for an egg hunt. poor bunnies! it reminded me of john steinbeck's of mice and men when lennie was always being too rough with the rabbits...(i'm a nerd, i know!)

drew thought the bunnies were AWESOME...i'm sure the bunnies didn't share the same sentiment!!!

[p.s. my crazy friends amy AND mary got their kids bunnies for easter. way to make me look like the slacker mommy!]

even steven easter egg dyeing...4.7

we had easterpalooza at our house on the 7th...we came home from school and colored eggs.

it took me twice as long to set up as it took the kids to dye the eggs. i had to make sure EVERYTHING was exactly the same, but separated for sarah and drew.

sweet little man slept through his first chance at an egg dyeing experience :)

after the kids did their thing with the eggs, we got out the easter cards to decorate for family. sarah was VERY into making each card just right...drew, notsomuch. he was much more concerned with watching tv. shocking, i know...

we had a great time and the kids were worn out by dinnertime. perfect!!!