from palm sunday to april

I've got some inspiration and a little time, so I'm going to try and get this blog up to date. Since the last post, we've had quite a bit going on. I decided on the condensed-text version followed by pictures. I think you probably all prefer that anyway...


We celebrated Palm Sunday and waved palm branches. We had a very busy Holy Week, a preschool Easter party and egg hunt, a weekend full of Easter egg-dyeing, practice hunts, and bunny cakes, and a beautiful Easter Sunday starting with a sunrise service on the front lawn of the church. We went on a road trip to New Orleans for my brother's wedding, shared visits with family, dealt with various sicknesses, went to many doctors appointments, and happily welcomed much-anticipated warmer weather. We've spent a lot of time outside, despite the incredible amounts of pollen, playing in the backyard, going for walks and wagon rides and soaking up the sunshine.


Palm Sunday, on our front steps:

   

{Hannah and Mollie, best friends forever.}

 

{Sibling love.}

Good Friday/Preschool Easter party and egg hunt:

{Hannah's cute outfit courtesy of Meme.}

{It was very simple with Joseph. I explained to him what he was suppose to do and off he went. Very diligent and focused. (I admit, I did tell him to put the candy wrapped in yellow in his basket. What?...Like you aren't guilty of sharing the Easter candy!) Hannah was uninterested when it came to collecting, and more interested in being social. No surprise there.}

{Hannah and her friend, Katie}

{Joseph wasn't interested in waiting to open some eggs. His Daddy understands, and has a large sweet tooth of his own.}

{I'm annoyed about the over-exposure. The sun was in and out, automatic was too dark, so I was shooting on manual.  Must improve my photography skills. Tips welcomed.}

{Joseph is most likely saying his trademarked "Ehhhhh!!!!" which in Joseph-speak means "Please open this candy, Daddy." Hannah is doing her trademarked fake smile.}

Holy Saturday:

{We started the day making mini bunny cakes!}

{Dyeing Easter eggs on the back porch}

{Spenser}

{We took Joseph away from coloring the furniture with chalk long enough to dye a couple eggs. I'm not sure what he's doing in the following pictures.}

{Dexter and Chloe look almost identical, though I can tell from the bark collar that this is Dexter.}

{Dyeing eggs is serious business...}

{And then there's time to let loose and be silly.}

{Please ignore the nasty nose. It's an identifying characteristic of my children these days.}

{Hannah takes great pride in watering the plants.}

{Practice...and these are all blurry, but it captures the reality of the situation. Hannah was much more interested, and even fiesty this time around.}

{I slowed down for a moment to capture the first growth on the fig tree. It was nice to shoot a non-moving subject... I love the promises hidden in the first signs of spring.}

{Someone's proud of her pumping ability.}

Easter Sunday:

{I woke up early and went to the church for Joe's sunrise service. A little chilly, but beautiful. Meme stayed home with the littles, and soon we came back to see what the Easter Bunny brought.}

{Our Easter table.}

{E.B. was generous.}

{This is all I got - taken with my phone. Hannah was most excited about her pink patent sandals and neon pink skinny jeans. Joe was only interested in candy... And yes, they are wearing their matching Christmas pajamas. That's how we do things around here.}

{We headed off to the church for the Easter egg hunt.}

{So you know what kind of moods we were in at this point, have a look at Joseph's face.}

{That's Aunt Betsy with Liam on the right.}

{Hannah was an excited little egg-hunting girl...}

{...Until she saw how many eggs were in Joseph's basket. I mean, look at that pout!}

{Yeah, her mood didn't really turn around when it came time for some family pictures...}

{Then, Joseph had another meltdown...}

{Our first attempt. I thought I'd keep it real and show you how it went.}

{Poppy, Gran Gran, Baby Marshall and Aunt Sarah}

{Our second, and final, attempt}

{We stopped here.}

{Back at home, we played in the backyard while waiting to have lunch.}

{Typically picture of Joseph}

 

{Joe with our nephew, Marshall}

Easter Monday:

{I spent the whole next day packing up and getting ready for our trip. Since I was fairly organized, I allotted myself an hour to sit in the backyard and read a book during naptime.}

{Naptime rarely happens for this marry girl, so she joined me outside.}

Tuesday,  April 2 - drive from Sandersville to Brewton, AL:

{We left at 6am, waking up the kids. They didn't go back to sleep as we had hoped.}

{Lunch with Aunt Kitty at David's Catfish House in Brewton}

{We had a short, but wonderful visit with Aunt Kitty (and her sister-in-law, Margie) and the next morning continued our journey.}

While I obviously brought my camera to New Orleans, I sadly did not even take it out of the bag. We had our hands full between the kids (including a very unhappy Joseph much of the time), helping out, visiting family, and trying to be everywhere we needed to be. I cannot believe I didn't take any pictures of such a big time! Not a shot of the bride and groom, and not a shot of my family. I do have a few random ones on my phone and can snatch some off Facebook, so stay tuned...

And that's all I can accomplish for now.

PS - tomorrow is a big day! Someone is going to be TWO YEARS OLD!!!