Happy Easter

This year Easter started the Friday before. Sarah Grace had an egg hunt at school the Friday before Spring Break. I went early to help "hide" eggs. There wasn't much to hide. I went to the big field/track area and just started dropping them on the ground along with 2,000 other eggs. It was really pretty, seeing all the colorful eggs in the grass.Not long after I finished helping with eggs the kids started coming out. It's quite a site to see 200+ Kindergartners chomping at the bit to grab the eggs that are just inches in front of them. They all lined up around the track and waited for the whistle to blow, which felt like forever. I thought with the number of eggs out there Sarah Grace would rack up, but that was not the case. She's such a girl! She passed by 50 eggs before she picked one up. She was going for the "pretty" ones. She hand-picked 8 eggs. Out of 2,000 she got 8. But to her credit, they were pretty and all color coordinated. After all the eggs were "found" we went inside to resort them so that every child would have 12. When SG heard what we were going to do all the color drained from her face. You could see the panic, she was going to lose her pretty eggs... Her teacher had all the kids dump their eggs in a pile and they went around one at a time, in 12 rounds, and picked. She went for her favorite first. It was a tiny little purple egg she had found before. She was so proud of it. When she originally found it she stopped looking and found me to show me her "baby" egg. She went for a color theme again (purple, pink and turquoise), choosing several from her first batch. She was happy with her final 12.The next Saturday was our egg hunt at home with our Sunday school class, friends, and family. We had over 30 people, about 16 were kids. The dads hid the eggs while we waited inside with the kids. We let the kids go out in two groups, under 3 yrs old, and then the bigger kids. Little did we know that the Gadds brought a ringer! Payton was a pro! She was snatching eggs so fast we had to let the big kids out early so they'd have eggs left to hunt. She probably found 20 eggs, in under 2 minutes. Come to find out they had been practicing at home for weeks! Charlotte did good, she found about a dozen, with no practice.When we let the big kids down it was a free for all. There were 2 prize eggs that were really hidden and the winners got a big chocolate cross. Sarah Grace did better than at school. She went down the fence line and found all the ones along the gates and in the pine straw. She got about 10. Claire did good too, with a little help from her daddy and big sister. She just wanted what was inside them.After some group pics we went inside, it was CHILLY, and had our "picnic". Charlotte ate really fast because she knew what she'd get if she ate all her lunch. She even helped Claire finish hers so she'd get a treat too. Cookies! Every year I make & decorate Easter egg sugar cookies. She had watched me make them a couple of days earlier and had been begging for one. She got the one with the most jelly beans on it, her favorite treat in the world. She didn't miss a crumb.The next day was Easter. I got the girls up early and got them dressed and then we went down to see what the Easter Bunny had brought for them. Charlotte really had no clue/memory of what was going on but she liked all of her treats. Sarah Grace knew and bolted to her basket. They both emptied them so fast we couldn't keep up with pictures. Charlotte found an egg filled with jelly beans and popped it open. It exploded all over the den! She and Fancy were packing them in their mouths as fast as they could. She had at least 10 in her mouth. She couldn't even smile for pics her mouth was so full. She was so stuffed with sugar she wouldn't eat her breakfast. Lesson learned... next year we'll eat first and do baskets after.After a great service at church we went to Nani and Pawpaw's for lunch. All the family was there. After some pics and playtime in the yard (without baby ducks!) it was time to eat. Charlotte was ready! After lunch the girls got gifts from Nani, Mimi and Pawpaw. Mimi gave them all bathing suits and cover ups and they all wanted to model them. Charlotte would end up wearing hers all day, under her dress. Then Nani gave each of the girls and big plastic egg. They all opened them and they each had a $5 bill in them. Sarah Grace was thrilled! Next year the Easter Bunny should just bring a basket full of eggs with dollars and quarters in them. She loved it! Charlotte held hers up to her daddy and said "look a ticket!".After gifts they put their clothes back on the guys hid eggs. All the girls did good finding them. They were spread out enough that they all had their own territory. After round one, Claire opened every egg in her basket one by one checking for candy. There was none. She'd open an egg and in her quiet little voice say "nope" and go to the next... "nope". She was so determined to find something we actually put candy in a couple so all her hard work would pay off.After our egg hunts we packed everyone up and went to my aunt's house to see my mom's side of the family for dessert. All the kids played and Charlotte, still with swim suit under her dress, begged to go swimming in their pool.

Zoo Day

Spring Break started off rainy (like Noah's Ark) and stayed gloomy for a while. We really wanted to do something fun with the girls while Sarah Grace was out of school so Adam took Friday off and we went to the zoo. There were storms in the forecast but we forged on. The whole family went, except for poor Jonathan who had to work. It turned out to be a perfect day. The threat of storms held off the crowds and we walked right up to everything and didn't wait for anything. It was cool but not cold and towards the end of the day the sun actually came out.It was all the kids', but Sarah Grace, first times at the zoo. They loved it. Charlotte would have been fine staying at the park entrance all day. They had a bubble blower that continually blew bubbles and all she wanted to do was chase them. We convinced her to leave them long enough for a pic with a couple of characters (you can tell she is still watching the bubbles). Meanwhile my dad was IN the flamingo enclosure and be converged on by park employees. He wanted THE perfect pictures of the girls watching the birds... He got one.

After Dad climbed out of the exhibit, we went to the Parakeet Adventure. It's an open-air enclosure with 100's of parakeets flying around. They take you in in groups and you can buy feed sticks to feed them with. It takes a bit of patience to get them to come to your stick, because there are 50 other sticks being waved around and 500 that came before those. But Sarah Grace wanted to wait. I think the rest of us were ready hand our sticks to the next person and call it an "experience" when she got 2 to feed off of hers. She was so excited, they fed for a minute or two and then started fighting over it and she got scared and dropped it. The other girls tried, for maybe 15 seconds each, and had no luck. I don't know that I would want to come eat from a 2 year old yelling "BIRDIE, COME MERE!!!" if I was a parakeet either.After the birds we saw the elephants, tigers, monkeys and some big ugly birds. The girls all liked watching and really paid attention to each one, as much as they could for their ages... Then we went to see the lions. My personal favorite of the day. They were so much fun to watch. There were 3 cubs (teenagers) and one adult male. The cubs played together for the longest time and really put on a show. Eventually the dad came down from his rock he'd been watching from and joined in. When the younger ones saw him coming they all flocked to him. They jumped and pawed at him and he played back. It was so cool to watch! There was a huge crowd and everyone kept going back and forth from one part of the enclosure to the other to see what they were going to do next. We had to drag the girls to the next animal.The next stop was the gorillas. When we first got there not much was going on, but stayed a few minutes and they all came out and put on a show for us. A large silver back came down the hill, out of nowhere, and all of a sudden 4 little bitty ones lined up behind him in a train (hands on each others shoulders) and followed him down to the viewing window. It looked like a Conga line. :) It was precious!!! They were so little. Eventually some of the moms came down too and they all dispersed to their moms while the male sat and watched. The girls thought it was funny to walk like the gorillas for the rest of the day.

After lunch (really good pizza) we did the reptile house, zebras, orangutans, pandas (we saw one of the babies), and petting zoo (the girls all liked to brush the goats). The orangutan was ENORMOUS, bigger than any of the gorillas. The pics don't do him justice! You'd have to see him for yourself. We were lucky enough to see him get up and climb around and it was AMAZING! HUGE!!! There was also a tiny one that liked to swing upside down from a rope while eating a snack. We ended the day with some free time on the playground and snacks. It didn't start raining until we got home. :)

March 1st

IT SNOWED! That's a big deal in Georgia! It came in fast and piled up! It was a Sunday morning and we new that is was a possibility. When we left for church it had been raining but wasn't at the time. While we were in church it started to rain (10:00). By the time we went to Sunday School (10:45) it was a mix of sleet and rain. And then by the time we got out of Sunday School the ramp (we're in a trailer) and cars were iced over and it was starting to snow (12:15). We got the girls and headed to the car and when we got to it it was already accumulating. The girls were so excited (and so was I)!!! It happened so fast, by the time we got home and ate lunch it looked like this (2:00).Sarah Grace got all layered up and was ready to go play. Charlotte didn't know what she was missing so she went down for a nap (she'd play later). The three of us got bundled and headed outside. By this time there was over and inch on the ground (we got 3), plenty to make snowballs and snowmen out of. Sarah Grace and I had a battle, then she and her dad, and they they ganged up on me. But I eventually got even.Sarah Grace had a contest with herself to see how big she could roll a ball for the snowmen. She and Adam made a whole family of snow people. One for each of us. It was quite the project. Then Sarah Grace played with the neighbors a while and we went inside to dry off and warm up.Later that afternoon everyone came over for a snow party. Krista and Jonathan came down with girls and my parents came over too. We all played outside. Charlotte and Claire weren't too sure about everything. They liked being held and watching everyone else play. They had no interest in getting out in it and touching it. Charlotte liked "tasting" the snow.Krista and Jonathan built a snow family too. It had five snow men! This was how they told mom and dad they were expecting #3! We already knew. It took a few minutes for it to sink in. My dad thought the 5th was for their dog... really. But once we helped them along the thought process they were thrilled, and surprised.

The girls made more snowmen, threw snowballs, andmade snow angels by the lake. They even took a slide down the snow covered sliding board. After a couple of hours and 10's of frozen fingers we went in. We all ate dinner together, got the girls into their pj's and made smores in the fireplace. Fun day.