Easter Sunday

We started Easter out with such a beautiful and thought provoking service and sunday school at church, constantly hearing "He is risen...He is risen indeed" back and forth between pastor and congregation or friends in the hallways. What a blessing.

We set off for lunch with the family at our house, filled with good food, an old-fashioned egg hunt, a treasure hunt, and even a birthday celebration for my mom.

Here are the kids, lined up from youngest to oldest, waiting to be "released" to find eggs.

Laney had a little help from Pops.

And the candy was enjoyed by all.

Helicopter Egg Drop

While Ron worked in the yard Saturday morning, I ventured up to Veteran's Park with the kids to meet my brother and his family for a little outing. Several churches in the area got together to throw a huge event with giveaways, inflatables, and an egg drop.

The kids hung in there while waiting for their chance at picking up some eggs. My SIL took this picture of Laney playing peek-a-boo with her bag.

It was hot out there, but we still got some cuddle time in...

So I mentioned the egg drop. It wasn't just any old drop, a helicopter was dropping 20,000 eggs. It was mass chaos. Hundreds of 3-6 year olds all running after eggs at the same time. I stayed with Laney and assumed Sam and Luke were together. After the eggs were all gone and the children started exiting the field I quickly realized I couldn't find the boys. Jennifer found Sam, but Luke was still missing. After screaming for him among the crowd, I heard my name over the loud speaker. "If there is a mom named Penny out there, Luke is looking for you. He's in the middle of the field." I finally reached him and threw my arms around him. He said "I went up to a grown up and said 'My mommy's name is Penny and my name is Luke and I can't find her.' " What a big boy! I was so proud of him.

After all this craziness, we made our trek back to our cars only to find that I had lost my keys in the crowd. I'm assuming my key fell out during one of the many times Laney pulled my phone out of my pocket. Thank goodness someone found them and turned them in. Needless to say, I'll stay far away from this event next year.

Bowling

We went bowling for the first time as a family with our neighbors the other night. It's hard to believe that Sam, almost 7 years old, has never bowled. Of course the boys were enamored with the game room when we first walked in.

We got a ramp and let the kids have at it.

When Laney wasn't bowling, she was climbing around on everything that she could, or lounging on the stairs, or giving me looks.

Sam got a few spares and was loving it!

And by the way, I loved the shoes. Much nicer than they were 15 years ago.

Sam's last K5 field trip

Sam's last field trip with his fellow kindergarteners was this week. I brought Luke and Laney along for some fun at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Sam was so caught up in the scavenger hunt with two of his buddies that he kept running off. I quickly saw that me and the little ones would be walking around by ourselves. At least we were able to meet up with him afterwards. The mom who was running around with Sam, Alex, and Cole said he was perfect. (Wish we got that kind of behavior at home...)

Luke enjoyed hopping on the large bunny.

Laney enjoyed getting in to things she shouldn't, like the flowers.

She also enjoyed giving me a few looks.

On a side note, in case you're ever tempted to refer to more than one Canada goose as Canadian Geese, you would be wrong. They're Canada Geese, according to my stepdad and the nice folks at the Gardens. :)

Sam and Alex chilled out together while waiting for their snacks. Good times!

a visit from the Zitneys

I grew up alongside a special family. The Zitneys came to Birmingham when I was just a toddler, thanks to State Farm. Steve and my dad worked together and became fast friends. They were a second family to me...

Steve and Vickie came through Birmingham for a quick visit and spoiled all 6 of the grandkids with bubbles and movies. What fun it was to see them!

Briarwood Church Picnic

We had so much fun yesterday at the church picnic. There were several inflatables. There was a dunking booth...
cotton candy...

face painting...
a pirate ship amusement ride...

croquet...
and cold cokes while watching a bluegrass band.



After 2 hours outside, we made our way up to the fellowship hall for some boxed BBQ dinners. Yummy! We played hard then headed home for an early bedtime.

The Rumpshaker 5k

Ron ran in the Rumpshaker 5k yesterday and came in 3rd place with a time of 16:07. Way to go, Ronzo!Here he is coming to the finish line.
Me and the kids got in a picture before the 1 mile fun run.
Luke was the only one signed up for the fun run. He had been looking forward to it for a month.
He was all smiles with Sam at the finish line. But he cried the whole mile leading up to it. I had to carry him two times. We were the last ones on the course a block from the finish line. The police car was right behind us with lights flashing. We passed up about 10 people so that we wouldn't be dead last.
Once we finished with that, we went to the awards and waited for Ron's name to be called.
The trophy? In honor of the Rumpshaker's cause, raising money to fight colon cancer, he received a bronze potty. He said it's his favorite trophy so far...

We enjoyed a Blue Bell Sundae cup and were on our way.

Three Tall Trees

The entire K5 class at Briarwood performed Three Tall Trees on Friday. We've been looking forward to this for weeks. All the grandparents were able to come and we weren't disappointed. What a blessing we received! Hearing the kids share the gospel through the play was so special...

Sam and Bela posed for a picture along with Sam's friend, Troy.