A Pirate's Birthday Party!

Grayson is 4 years old!

 We finally celebrated with a few neighborhood friends this weekend. 

His birthday is in March, so we wanted to wait for  nicer weather before having a party.  Ironically, the temperature the morning of the party was 41 degrees and the wind was TERRIBLE.  But when it was actually time for the party to start, it was beautiful outside and the temperature was bearable.

 

 As I was trying to set up the table and decorations, everything was blowing away,

so I sort of gave up on doing everything that I had planned to do, but it turned out cute anyway. 

The loot table...

 I also forgot to take pictures until most everyone had already grabbed their pirate gear, so the table looks a little empty.

Digging for buried treasure....

Decorating their "loot" bag with pirate stickers so we could go on our treasure hunt....

treasure hunt.. .

pinata....

 cupcakes....

Happy Birthday to Grayson!!

and the most faithful pirate who kept all of his gear on the whole time...

We really had a great time despite the wind and 

temperatures!  We are so thankful for our sweet Grayson! Can't believe that he's already 4 years old!

We love you, buddy!!

College Friends, Birthday, and Egg Hunt!!

I'm trying to play catch-up, so I'm just cramming everything into one long post.

All of this happened a few weekends ago and life has been crazy busy since, so here we go!

First things first.  Isn't this the cutest little cowboy you've ever seen?

Okay, so I met up with my college friends and all of their kiddos at my mom's house in South Carolina.  It was so great to hang out for the day and see what's going on in each of their lives. 

 Sweet Leslie brought some flowers for the kids to plant.  My kids loved it!

It's so neat to see our kids play together.

 College roomies--Leslie, Steph, Lara, and me.

The next day, Bonnie, William, and Abby Ruth joined us for a birthday celebration for the girls.  We dressed them in their Easter clothes so we could get some pics.

I just love these girls!!  

And they love their Papa!

Birthday time!  First we sang to Caroline....

and then it was Abby Ruth's turn...

The cake was beautiful thanks to Aunt Bonnie.

After the birthday celebration, we had an egg hunt.

Needless to say, it was a very long day with NO naps.  But everyone stayed pretty happy and had a good time.  I can't believe our little girls are 2!!!  

After visiting with Mimi and Papa for another day, I dropped the kids off with their Grandma and Pops.  So they had a week at the beach with Chad's parents and loved it! 

Chad and I had a week at home without kiddos to get some work done.  We built a picket fence in our front yard, so unfortunately there was not much resting!

We were very thankful to get them back home and now we are counting down the days to our first real family vacation...

Disney World!!!

8 more days!!!!

Easter 2013

We finally had some days of nice weather around here and we were able to get out and take part in some Spring festivities.  Egg hunting was a big hit with Grayson this year.  We were able to attend several hunts and he never tired of finding eggs and opening them to see what small treasure was waiting inside.

Our neighborhood hunt was canceled this year due to rain, but a few of us got together the following weekend so that the tradition wouldn't be broken.

 

Caroline was not so much into hunting eggs this year, but would rather chase the cat or squirrel or whatever else she might see, or just have mommy hold her which is one of her favorite things as of now.

 

The weather turned out nice for Easter morning, not too cold, so the kids were able to wear their matching bunny attire.

 

and of course the Easter basket surprises were a special treat after lunch. 

This year was especially fun with Grayson as we were able to discuss a little deeper, why we celebrate Easter--teaching him about the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Of course there were many questions asked and it was so encouraging to see him really think about the truths of scripture.  One night as I was tucking him into bed, he looked up and asked, "mommy, why would Jesus choose Judas if He knew that he was going to be bad?"

I thought that was an impressive question for a 4 year old!  

We are always praying for him to begin to ponder the truths in Scripture as we talk about them in our home.  We are so thankful for opportunities to teach him about all that our Savior has done for us.