Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! 
Rebecca started off the morning with a bang by finding her basket hidden in the bathtub right after waking up.

Sarah followed suit not long after when she crawled directly to hers hidden under the jumperoo.

 Teresa found hers in the ottoman.  She adores this light up Princes Sophia spinner!

 Andrew had a pretty extensive search before he found his hidden in our room in the old ottoman under some pillows. 

 After the initial diving in, we headed downstairs to find all the eggs that were hidden.  Lots of good ones!  The group favorite was one held up by darts on the dart board.

 Back upstairs for breakfast 

 Rebecca trying out her bubble spinner 

 After a beautiful, packed 10:30 Mass we were delighted to find our cousins waiting in back to say hi before they headed to Green Grandpa's.

 We ran home to change & headed over to my sister Cara's house where Red Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Fr. Jon, & my sister Chris' families were all awaiting us. 

 We had way too much fun with these huge Easter eggs.

 

 Fabulous food & conversation with those I love. 

(Look at Dad's face!  Ha!)

 In between bursts of rain the littles had another egg hunt out back.

Most of the crew

Such a fun group!  Glad we could all be together.

Happy Easter!

Alleluia!  He is risen!

Free wheelin'

After a couple of hours of lazing about, we decided it was time to finally get those training wheels off of our almost 7 Rebecca's bike.  She was all for it & had a great attitude!  "Mom, I made it a whole 7 blocks without falling!"  She meant 7 squares of sidewalk, but it was still pretty impressive.

Never one to lag behind, Teresa begged for her training wheels off as well.  Daddy did his best with Rebecca & Andrew was Teresa's personal coach.  She looked pretty good but wasn't ready for him to let go yet.

Here's Andrew his first time without training wheels 4 years ago on Holy Saturday.  I guess we were continuing yet one more tradition!

Holy Saturday

 The tradition continues  :)

Our Holy Saturday was full of preparations & fun.  After breakfast, morning routine, & putting away our Lenten decorations (which are few), we headed off to Church for the Easter Eggstravaganza. 

 Even more fun to get to just show up & enjoy it!  Thank you Freshmen & Sophomore GodTeens!

 Sarah was a good sport even though it went right through her morning nap.  She crashed before we left the parking lot, so we decided to just head home.  While she was snoozing, we colored our Easter eggs.  Two dozen this time so that we could bring abundant deviled eggs the next day.  It was really fun not feeling like I had to "ration" out how many they could each color.  Definitely need to do that again next year. 

 

Their faves

A simple lunch & we were off again!  This time out to the cemetery to put flowers on Zachary's grave & then out to Orschyln's to enjoy the baby chickies & bunnies.  Forgot to take any photos this year but it has been a great tradition for quite a while.  Came back home & the girls helped me to put up most of the Easter décor.  I can't believe that I used to do all of that by myself after they went to bed PLUS the other stuff.  So much easier this way & they had fun doing it, too.  Another keeper idea for next year!

Little Flowers Tea

 Every spring we wrap up the year for Little Flowers with a Mother Daughter Tea.  It's such a fun tradition.  Amazing moms & ambitious daughters help to make it a special celebration.  Here are some of our goodies that we enjoyed.  I didn't take other pictures of us eating... because we were eating! 

 We took pictures of all the moms with their daughters.  Sarah joined in the fun with Rebecca.  She's not a Little Flower yet... more of a rosebud.

 The girls made special thank you notes for their moms.

 We had a Cupcake Walk using the music from our meetings.

 They also did palm weaving & practicing of good table manners for prizes.  Rebecca enjoyed every aspect of it & we had a lovely time.

So thankful for time with my sweet girls & such a virtuous group of women!

Pretty birdies in their nest

Fits of giggles

The gorgeous weather called for lots of outside play!  Once I got tired of pulling random lawn discoveries out of Sarah's mouth, I decided to give her a ride in the swing.  She's done it before, but never anything extensive.  Well, this time she LOVED it!  Not only did she sit & smile, but she started swinging her feet, too.  This made all of us collapse in fits of giggles & in turn made her giggle as well... then do it more.  I hope this video works because it is just priceless!  Love this little girl.

What Sarah's been up to

No good!

 Her first toilet paper unraveling,

 continually improving her cupboard destruction techniques,

and slobbering all over the back door window.  Lots of exciting things to see out there! 

(You can finally see those two bottom teeth peeking through in this photo.  Cutie pie.)

Little Flowers 2013-2014

A different view

 No more catching glimpses from the floor for this one!  She wants to be up in the action.

 Teresa enjoying (way too much) cream cheese & crackers.  She has an obsession with cream cheese like Rebecca has with black olives & Andrew has with bacon!