A Big Weekend

So between Friday night and Sunday afternoon I took 124 pictures - lots going on this past weekend! Luckily, I also figured out today how to upload more than 5 pictures at a time. (totally wondering why I didn't try to figure that one out before now!!) Don't worry though, still not throwing 124 at you-too many!

Charles (a.k.a. Little Charles) and his family stopped by Friday evening for a visit. As you can see he's not so little anymore! They were headed for a spring break trip to tour D.C. and NYC.  We were super glad they made the daring drive down I-95 to pay us a quick visit.

 Chase thinks that Charles is the coolest thing ever. 

He keeps asking when he can play with "my friend Charles" again!

  

 Poor Charles, after all these years I still won't leave him alone.  I took my scissors to his hair (kind of at his request) before he'd even been here 2 hours!  I was about to compliment him on how much easier it was to cut his hair now that he's not 2, but about that time, he said, "geesh, are you finished yet?"

After Charles left on Saturday morning, we were off to the circus!  Chase was excited until we walked in the building where he informed us he didn't really like the circus.  He got over that soon enough! 

 This picture cracks me up.  They all look miserable, but they were having a good time, I promise!

See, happy times. 

 Chase's favorite part - the elephants.                                 Cotton Candy. 

 And the classic car nap after a big morning!

Sunday morning brought Easter baskets!                                   

 Before church, the typical picture cooperation of our children.

 Chase at church with his buddy, Grayson. 

 Here the boys were watching another little boy do something that they both wanted to do but I think both knew that they would get in trouble for!  Good restraint boys! And aren't they handsome.

Taylor and Bryce

 A little Ring Around The Rosie while waiting for our turn for pictures.

 Oops. Don't worry, she was still packing them in off the pavement.

 The family - don't the kids look thrilled.

After church, an Easter Egg hunt at Grandma's...

  

 That's my girl.  She was snatching chocolate as fast as she could!

 Checking out the loot.

 MeMaw, PaPa and the gang.

 At this point, they were all too tired to even complain about us wanting to take more pictures!

 Later in the day, lounging outside in their new lawn chairs.  The cup holders were quite the hit!

And finally, a visit from Easter past.   This picture arrived in the mail and I got a good laugh out of it - Dave and Joey looking good in their bunny ears.

Spring Pictures & Eggs

We went out in the warm weather earlier this week to get some pre-Easter pictures to send to the grandparents out-of-town. They should have arrived today and if not, surprise, they should be there tomorrow!Taylor is sometimes way too happy to show off for the camera.Her brother, however, was not really feeling it at first.

He pulled it together eventually.

Our best together shot.....sad.

They were probably smiling like crazy for this one, but I couldn't fit on the right side!

And, 'tis the season for coloring Easter eggs.

I must say it's not quite all it's cracked up to be with a one-year old!

Chase was very excited, and Taylor, well she couldn't stop trying to drink the vinegar. Probably should have used bowls instead.
See what I mean about cracked up. We were down from 8 to 5 eggs in about 3 minutes!

Concentrating.

Showing off his work! And Taylor's!

The finished products.

Taylor's 30 minute nap might not have been enough for this strenuous activity. Not likely she'll actually be falling asleep anytime soon though.

Get Well & The Bunny

Chase & Taylor wanted to send out a special get well wish to one of their best blog fans, Shari. Hope you're feeling better soon!

Just in case you can't tell, Chase drew a picture of you, Shari, and a picture of your road so he could come to your house and tell you to feel better.

Hard at work and showing off their best "cheeeese" faces.

We also made a visit to see the Easter Bunny today. Neither kid was willing to go it alone, but the group photo was rather painless. Taylor was not super-thrilled at first, but when I put her on the far side of my lap where she wasn't touching any bunny fur it was better! Chase even left the bunny with a high-five!

Before Kerry Calls...

It is only a matter of minutes or hours before I get the text from Kerry informing me that it has been nearly 10 days since my last blog post...sorry Kerry! If anyone would like to have a discussion with Chase about why he still might want to take naps, that could free up some blogging time for me!! Oh well, more time to play outside, right?!

Here's the last 10ish days in review: Taylor at the park. She wore the glasses the entire time while marching around like she owned the place.

The boys driving the car, probably trying to run down Taylor or atleast making sure she wasn't going to try to get in with them!

Taylor fell asleep on the way home and we conveniently passed by "the ice cweam place", as was yelled out by my backseat passengers!! It was a tough sell, but they talked me into stopping! A lovely brother-sister moment. To tree or not to tree....that was our question for like 2 years. We (ok, Dave) finally decided to take one out. This was our yard about 30 minutes into the operation last Saturday. "Free" entertainment!

This was our yard on Sunday.

More "free" entertainment on Monday.

Our yard on Monday evening and how it still looks at this moment. I'm sure they will be back any minute to finish getting it up, right?

Oh well, the boys have had more fun playing with wood chips than any of the toys this week.

They said they were building bird nests. I think they were just trying to put all of the chips I had swept off the sidewalk back on the sidewalk without getting in trouble for it! Taylor dog-sitting. Max looks about as happy as Chase does when Taylor sits this close to him!We made it to our first Flying Squirrels game this week. Chase was super-excited.Taylor too. She likes the music before each batter much more than the actual game itself.

The next day- showing Bryce the mascot poster he got at the game. It has become the art centerpiece of the living room for now and keeps them entertained quite a bit.

(They still think this is their chair.)

Reading books with PaPa. Ironically, the 3 kids had just finished eating donuts and they were reading the 3 little pigs....

Yay for nice weather and being able to stay outside all day!

Taylor's 4-wheeler license was suspended for the afternoon (because I was tired of chasing her down) so she made the best of it by staying parked and making her own motorcycle noises!

I was trying to take her picture by this bush while the flowers are pretty, but just as she got set Dave came driving down the road....

and then drove past us to the driveway and then she took off!

At the mall today with their new buddy Jacob.

And Kaleb came too! Doesn't get much better than that!

(Not sure what's up with the spacing, but I now have 2 blog helpers, so it will have to do for now!!)