Easter with Nana

Yay for Saturday mornings! The kids even slept in... about half an hour, haha. Nana, Aunt Amy, Danny and Aunt Val came in the morning to help us celebrate our Easter a little early. They brought 98 eggs and lots of hugs and kisses! While the kids were distracted, Amy, Val and Danny went out and hid all 98 eggs for an Easter egg hunt. They got creative with a couple of the T. Rex toys, haha! We let Clara go first and Aunt Val helped her figure out how to put the eggs in her basket. The boys took off across the yard and started snagging egg after egg. Nana snuck some giant Ninja Turtle and Hello Kitty eggs into spots where the kids would find them and they were a big hit. After all the eggs were gathered, Nana, Aunt Amy and Aunt Val helped the kids open the eggs and count their loot of coins and candy. :) I hid their Easter baskets and, just as they were starting to look, cousins started to arrive - so I cheated a little and gave them very specific hints like "look in the laundry room." Derek and Bryce were thrilled with their new dodgeballs, soccer ball and basketball. Clara was thrilled that Aunt Amy helped her play dress up with her new princess jewelry. We love spending time with family!

Clara dashed out the door, ready to gather her eggs!

Bryce inspected the first few eggs to see if he really wanted to put those in his basket

Aunt Amy and Aunt Val reminded Clara to put the eggs in her basket and not just carry them around

Derek found his Ninja Turtle egg!

Bryce found the egg Danny left with the T. Rex guard. He fearlessly claimed his prize!

With much coaching and "hotter/colder" cues, Derek finally found the $5 egg!

Derek was very proud of his $5 find

Clara finally found her Hello Kitty egg!

Aunt Amy left her egg in the care of a bigger T. Rex that apparently got hungry ;)

My three little Easter egg hunters! :D

Counting and sorting the loot!

Derek found his basket!

Aunt Amy was happy to help Clara put on her princess shoes

All decked out!

Playdate with Cousins

Austin was kind enough to help me out by using his van to pick up a chest freezer for me, so I watched the kids while he and Mitchell went to the gym for an hour or so (Liz was at an awesome homeschooling conference). The kids and I had a lot of fun playing "Statues," shooting hoops at a neighbor's house and dancing in the kitchen. :D Clara has been having trouble sharing with others, so when it was Oakley's turn with a toy football, Clara was less than pleased. She did one of her "silent temper tantrums" when I told her to share. She walked over to a grassy spot, laid face-down and quietly refused to move. HAHAHA!!! It cracks me up every time!

The dinosaur gang!

Clara is oblivious to the children playing around her little temper tantrum

Oakley doesn't get the drama

Andrew had some impressive moves on the trampoline

Clara got some air, too

Derek, Isaac, Andrew and Bryce galloped around edge of the trampoline while Clara happily jumped in the middle.

Isaac and Bryce are good friends

Clara is too cute!

Dance party! Emeri's got some fancy poses and Bryce does a knife dance

Everybody dance!

Everyone has a weapon, Emeri just loves her a little more, haha!

All hail the weilder of the yellow lightsaber!

Emeri peeked down her lightsaber at me

Bryce breaks it down

Oh yeah! Two lightsabers are better than one!

These two are so stinking cute! Isaac and Derek are best friends.

Emeri and Bryce are best friends, too. They were dancing together upstairs, but those pictures were blurry. :(

Haha, let the age of "cooties" begin! This is his reaction to Emeri's kiss on the cheek. :D

Aunt Bella Comes to Town

Aunt Bella and Uncle Dwight are in town today! It's Spring Break for Aunt Bella and we're thrilled they came up to visit. Bryce was napping when Aunt Bella, Uncle Dwight, Nana and Amy got here and Bella snuck in to wake him as a surprise. Bryce was definitely surprised to see her, haha! Somehow, Aunt Bella lured Derek and Bryce into doing math with her. You can take the teacher out of the school, but you can't take the school out of the teacher. ;) Amy does the same thing!  All the kids were excited to show everyone the flying toys I brought back for them from Chicago, so we went outside to fling them around. After playing outside, we placed Chick-fil-a orders with Mitchell who kindly picked it up on his way home and we enjoyed a fun family dinner together. We went for a quick family walk once around the neighborhood before Nana and Co. set off for home. We love hanging out with our family!

 "Brycie Bryce..."

 Look who it is!!

 Yay! He loves his Aunt Bella. :)

 Counting the TMNT trading cards. Bella had him counting all the way to 12 while Derek added and subtracted for her. :)

 Derek was fascinated with the TMNT cards. He made sure Aunt Bella saw all of them.

 Uncle Dwight is a crack-shot with that flyer. He nailed Aunt Bella on the bum lots of times, haha!

 Andi and Ace were excited to have all the company. Ace kept trying to herd Andi away and hoard all the attention for himself, silly boy.

 Bryce improved his range with the flyers after Aunt Bella demonstrated for him

 So excited!

 Andi wanted a turn, too!

 Clara didn't quite get the hang of it and kept snapping her hands with the elastic band. Oops.

 She was very persistent and struck some awesome poses, haha!

 Derek found an advantage from having the high ground

 In true little-sister fashion, Clara wants to do everything her brothers do

 Run!

 Bryce and Clara lead Nana to the swings so she could provide some Nana-power!

 Wheee!

 Nana and three of her little hooligans!

 Aunt Bella loves Derek cuddles.

 Derek has some funny faces!

Aunt Amy scored some rare Clara-cuddles. They only last a few seconds, but they're so sweet.