FBCC Egg Hunt

For the fourth year in a row, we had a great time at First Baptist of Chattahoochee's egg hunt at Whittier Mill.  There are lots of fun activities, and it's always nice to catch up with long-time friends.

Mia started out by decorating and eating a cookie.  She loved getting to ice it and then put sprinkles on it.  This activity was new this year; great idea!

 Of course, they love the playground too.  Fearless Mia climbed right up!

 Both girls loved getting tattoos on their hands.  They did not want to wash these off anytime soon.

 Lily picked a pink butterfly while Mia went with a bunny that said "Hoppy Easter!"

 We missed seeing Granna who was in Tennessee, but we were all excited when Popa came!

 Swinging is always fun.

 Flying high!

 The girls always love the balloon shapes.  Lily picked a dragonfly while Mia wanted a pirate sword.

Finally, it was time for the egg hunt!  Ryan went with Lily in her age area. 

Scooping them up!

 Picking up one and heading for the next.

 With a basket full!

 Liz and I stayed with Mia who was in the more crowded 2 and 3 year old area.

Mia loved finding the eggs! 

 Picking up as many as she can.

 So excited about her basket with eggs!

 Showing off their baskets.

 Of course, the most fun part is going through the loot!

This is always a fun event!



Easter Egg Coloring

One of my very favorite annual traditions is Easter egg coloring.  I have loved this ever since Meme did this with all 5 of her grandkids each year.  I love it and look forward to it each year.  The weather wasn't ideal outside, so we covered the kitchen table and set up shop there. 

The girls couldn't wait to get started!



 This particular set came with a crayon that you decorated the egg with before dipping it in the color.  It didn't work too well, but the girls had fun trying.

 Concentrating so hard.

 Carefully dipping an egg.

 Mia preferred to use her fingers for dipping.

 Having fun!

 Watching all the eggs get colored.

 Getting a lesson from Bama.

 Lily showing off her favorite egg.

 Mia's eggs.  You may notice some of the colors are not the standard colors you find in an egg-dying set.  It look Mia about 5 minutes to go through all of her eggs, while Lily had not yet even completed half.  So Mia decided to redye her eggs.  She would take one, put it in red then blue then yellow etc until all the colors had been used each time.  She loved her rainbow eggs!

 Lily enjoyed displaying her eggs on these little stands.

 Mia showing off her basket full of eggs.

 Mia sat her basket down, picked up this egg and exclaimed "Oh no Mommy!  This egg is hatchin'!  We have to take it outside to hatch!"

 Lily showing off her basket of colored eggs.

And so the tradition continues...love it!

Disney on Ice

I'll start this post by being completely honest.  I love Disney on Ice; always have.  Don't really know why, but I do.  There, I've admitted it.  So, with that admission, you can understand why when Ryan and I saw that Disney on Ice was coming to the Gwinnett Arena on March 31st, I thought to myself, "We're going and we're taking the girls.  Nevermind that tax season is beyond hectic, I want to go.  The girls will not always want to go, nor will they always have the belief in Disney magic, so I'm putting work to the side to enjoy this day with my family."  For the record, very smart move on my part.

The arena is about an hour away from our house, and given that you never know how traffic will be, we left in plenty of time; we arrived about an hour early.  This gave us lots of time to walk around, see the sites, buy a few fun things and enjoy time together.  Here we are testing out seats beforehand: three excited girls!

 Each girl really wanted a Tinkerbell spinner; they love these things!

 What trip to Disney on Ice would be complete without snow cones?  Mia picked a Cinderella cup with rainbow snow while Lily wanted a Tinkerbell cup with rainbow snow.  Since we had plenty of time, we ate them outside so the pieces that fall down (and a lot of pieces fall down) wouldn't land all over our seats.

 We were all eyes once the show started.

 We were using our iPhones to take pictures and unfortunately, it had a really hard time with the ice and its glare.  But here are a few pictures that turned out alright.

First up was The Incredibles family.  They (along with a couple dozen skaters) showed everyone in the audience how to warm up and exercise.

 Next up came Alice, the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee and Dum and White Rabbit all getting ready for a happy un-birthday party.  Of course, the queen and her card soldiers came in later which is what this picture is of.  They had some really cool choreography of synchronized moves for the cards.

After Alice, Peter Pan, Wendy, John and Michael came out to play.  Of course, you can't have those kids without Tinkerbell who flew above the ice.  The girls loved it!  Also, Captain Hook and Mr. Smead came out; Mia loves them, so she was excited to see them.  They loved seeing the big alligator slither across the ice in pursuit of Captain Hook. 

Next up was The Lion King which the girls know well since we went to see it in the theatre last fall.  They loved seeing all the lions though Mia kept asking for Scar the mean lion.

 The costumes for The Lion King, whether on stage or on ice, are always impressive to me.

Snow White and her dwarf friends came out for a little while.  They cleaned, the witch came and gave Snow White the apple and she slept until her prince came. 

Of course, you can't have Disney without Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.  They came out for a little while which all the kids loved.

 This is how Mia and I spent most of the second half of the show.  Trust me, I didn't mind one bit!

 The second half showed us Jasmine and Aladdin who flew across the ice on their magic carpet.  The girls were amazed.

 Peter Pan and the Lost Boys came back out and prevailed over Captain Hook.  Woo-who!

Next up was what we were waiting on: Rapunzel.  It was a lot of fun to watch Rapunzel and Flynn Rider skate under the lanterns that were flying high above the ice.

 Last up all the princesses (Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Arora, Tiana, Pocohantas, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Mulan and Ariel) came out and skated with their princes.  The girls loved this part.

 Joining them were Prince Mickey and Princess Minnie.

 The show ended with lots of sparklers and confetti while everyone skated away.

Such a fun family outing.  I told several people, the reactions from the girls was exactly what you want when you plan an outing like this.  They were enthralled throughout the show.  The excitement on their faces was priceless, and I will remember those faces forever.  Just perfect.

Catching Up

Wow, it has been a busy month!  Of course, work has been extremely hectic as tax season ended on April 17th this year.  That always takes up more time than we want right now.  Additionally, Ryan was fortunate to go back to Ambler, Alaska.  This Eskimo village has become so special to him and our family.  We love the people there, and we're thrilled that he gets to spend time with them.  This past trip was scheduled for 8 days, but Ryan had the honor of being asked to participate in a funeral for one of the elders that he truly admired; we were fine that added a couple of extra days to the trip.  We were all thrilled though when he arrived safely home last night.  We managed to have some family time even in the busyness, especially around Easter.  I have a couple of extra blogs dedicated to that coming soon.  In the meatime, here are a few miscellaneous pictures taken recently.

The girls with Macey Henderson.  Ryan and the girls went to see Parker play t-ball on a beautiful Saturday; these three always have so much fun together.

 When David and Jan came to visit in March, they went to the zoo with Ryan and the girls while I worked.  The girls always love a zoo trip, and they thoroughaly enjoyed the petting zoo this time.

 The playground at the zoo is always fun too!  Drum away girls!

 Sweet Mia at one of the fountains in Downtown Smyrna.

 One Friday at Lily's school was "history day" and each class was assigned a time period to dress up as.  Lily's class was for the Old Testament time period.  When I asked Lily who she wanted to be, she immediately replied "Mary."  When I explained Mary was in the New Testament, she said "Oh, I thought there was only one testament."  She then said she wanted to be Ruth, so here is a picture of Lily dressed up as Ruth.  As a side note, she was beyond thrilled that Mrs. Worrell came dressed as Naomi because Lily knew the Ruth and Naomi were best friends.

 Of course, little bit wanted part of the dress up action too, so here is Mia as Ruth.

On Monday, Lily asked if I was going to the grocery store.  I explained that I would go Wednesday or Thursday.  She said that was okay, and she had helped by making a list for me.  Here's her list.

Her list was "peanut butter, goldfish, circle crackers (what she and Mia have always called Ritz crackers), green gatoraide, tea...Bama (she wanted to make sure Bama had enough tea) and granola bar.  Funny thing is, we did need all of these things!  When Mia and I went to the store on Thursday morning while Lily was in school, Mia loved getting to cross off everything on Lily's list as we purchased it.  Such helpful girls!

Mia's Craft

This picture of Mia just makes me laugh.  She made this craft last week during her visit to the library with Liz.  She was so excited about it!  This sweet girl lives her life with so much exuberance; she is such a happy little girl!