Royal Wedding

I must be nuts. I set my alarm for just before 6 a.m. so I could get up and watch the Royal Wedding. I love seeing history in the making. I'm fascinated by the traditions surrounding this ceremony and how the world is watching. I'll be tired later, but I wanted to see it live.

Come Hail or High Water

I am still recovering from last night at work. I was there waaaaaaay past my bedtime. Our coverage lasted more than 9 hours without commercials. This was my view of things. I sat in the studio for about 7 hours straight.

Meanwhile...back at the home front...Anna, Chris and Jamie were doing their best to keep the girls safe and calm. This is what the hail looked like at one point!

It was a crazy night and thankfully....we had no damage. I am so grateful everyone is safe.

Wordless Wednesday

Impromptu Slumber Party

Monday night, an unexpected thunderstorm blew through our area. It brought down trees all over town, including the neighborhood where Anna and Chris live.

Their street looks like a jungle!

They've spent the last two nights with us...not because of any damage to their home...but because they have no power! The girls love our unexpected house guests. Ainsley has expressed her desire for them to stay with us for 298 weeks. Somehow I think their power will be back on before then....at least they hope so.

A Walk on the Wild Side

Anastasia had Monday off from school so we set out for the zoo. The camels weren't out and there are no bird shows on Monday, but we had a really nice time anyway!

The weather was perfect and the girls were so well-behaved the entire time. It really was an easy trip.

We enjoyed all our favorite activities....like shoveling poop....

And getting chased by the animals....

And after lunch we played in the huge sandbox!

Our membership doesn't expire until September so we will be going back a few more times. They really, really want to ride the camels so hopefully the next time we go they will be out.

Paint-A-Palooza

One of the awesome things about being home with my girls during the day is being able to do fun things like arts and crafts whenever we feel like it.

Things like...painting......

Allie decided painting her face was way more fun than painting the paper.

Easter 2011

We've had a wonderful Easter sunday. The girls were up waaaaay too early but I attribute that to the excitement over their baskets.

They got all kinds of goodies.

After breakfast we headed out to church. We arrived really early and it's a good thing. There wasn't a seat to be found by the time the brass quintet started at 10:45.

We even managed to get a picture of the five of us!

Nana and Granddad joined us for church as well.

The service was amazing! Afterwards we tried to grab lunch but as it turns out...most places were closed. We ended up at McDonald's. Not my favorite place, but it was open and fast. After naps the girls spent over an hour in the pool. Now we're going to enjoy a nice, quiet evening at home. Or at least our version of nice and quiet....which is most definitely nice but no so quiet.

The Mystery of the Missing Egg

Happy Easter everyone! I pray today is filled with much rejoicing as we all celebrate our risen Savior! We are heading to church in a bit and then will be spending the rest of the afternoon relaxing and enjoying each other's company. We also hope to locate....the missing egg.

We were very fortunate to all have Friday off. It's a rarity that we all 5 are home from school and work for three days in a row so we have been enjoying it immensely. We had planned to go to the zoo but rain was in the forecast so we chickened out and stayed home. We did however....dye eggs.

The girls really love this part of our Easter traditions. The like choosing the colors and watching each one morph from a bland white egg into a rainbow of Easter color.

This year's creations were especially spectacular.

After the eggs were dry, they immediately set out to hide them in the yard. Jamie and I were cleaning up from lunch so Anastasia and Ainsley took turns hiding them for each other. Unfortunately, Anastasia hid one so well....we still haven't located it. Granddaddy swears a possum or raccoon has already absconded with our verdant creation, but the girls maintain hope we're going to find it. I'm pretty sure we'll find it with the blade of our brand-new Troy Built lawnmower that will be pressed into service this week. Hope those possums like egg salad.

Happy Easter!!!! (More pictures to come of today's festivities!)

Egg-Cellent Easter Fun

Our church is a large urban congregation and thus the majority of our property is...well, asphalt. Which is great for parking hundreds of cars on Sunday morning but not so great for Easter Egg hunts. We have a small courtyard with a great playground for the kids but it can't accommodate all the kids who show up for an egg hunt.

Fortunately we live in a city with some really great parks. We knew the hunt was to begin at 10 a.m. sharp so we arrived about 20 minutes early. The girls had a blast playing on the playground until the other kids showed up. (The ones whose mothers aren't horribly Type-A.)

The big girls took off running. I barely had time to photograph them on their egg pursuits.

They seemed to be pretty set in the hunting department.

And all their work paid off in training Allie for her first real egg hunt. She was a pro.

She ended up with 14 eggs! Way more than her sisters were able to find. She would spot one, pick it up and deposit it in her basket.

After the hunt they went through all their eggs which were filled with really awesome candy and stickers.

Then Jamie and Anastasia proved their prowess at the Egg Toss. Despite a three-hop on the ground, their raw egg remained unscathed through the competition. (There was a rumbling from one of the other parents that Team Lamar had a "hard-boiled" egg, but I assure you...it was very much raw.)

It was a beautiful morning and a wonderful way to get our Easter weekend fully underway!

Allie's 18 month checkup

Allie had her checkup on Wednesday. The doctor said she's a genius. Just kidding....but he did say her language skills are off the charts. She chatted with him non-stop the whole time he was examining her. She's still on the small side, but nothing to be concerned about. She got two shots and did pretty well with them. Although, in the afternoon she spiked a fever and threw up all over the kitchen. She kept saying "Mess, mommy. Mess." I got her cleaned up and she laid her little red head on her pillow and watched Tangled, which is her current obsession. The horse is her favorite. She makes this cute little horse noise every time she talks about him.

All in all it was a great check-up. I'm so grateful for another healthy child. I do not for one moment take her health for granted and I am thankful for all she is able to do and be. Hopefully....the next we time we visit the amazing Dr. R....she'll be two years old!

Post-Its For Peace

Since I work in the evenings, I say goodnight to the girls on the phone. We give hugs and kisses each afternoon before I leave, but our final nighty-night is done on my cell phone. You wouldn't think that would leave much room for arguments, but lately WWIII has broken out over who gets to talk to mom first. We tried the whole "speakerphone so no one is first thing" but that was a spectacular failure. One child left the room in a huff, thus negating the whole purpose of the speakerphone to begin with.

So now, in the effort of peace, I have turned to Post-It notes.

I am making one each week that has a list of who goes first on which night. So far....it's working, at least until I forget to make one. Maybe I can make a Post-It for that too.....

Wordless Wednesday

First Swim of the Season

Do not go check your calendars. Today is Tuesday, April 19. And my children are in a swimming pool.

And not just any pool. One we bought today. (Who knew Wal-Mart sold pools so early? I certainly did not.)

They were in the pool for well over an hour and didn't seem to mind the chilly water. It was 86* today though.

Getting the pool home was more of a challenge than I had anticipated. I had to balance it on my head, while pushing my cart full of groceries and two children across the parking lot. Traffic actually backed up at one point because the wind kept trying to lift the pool off my head. Just to be clear, it's really hard to steer a buggy while balancing a pool on one's head. I narrowly missed ramming my buggy into several cars. By the time we finally reached the van, Ainsley and I were laughing so hard we were crying. But no tears in the pool!

Just sunshine and smiles as we trick the calendar into thinking it's actually time to swim.

Fallen Angel

Allie manages to find trouble wherever she goes, even on the road. Over the weekend we were at Nana and Granddad's house. Her pack and play was set up in our room as it always is when we stay there. I put her down for a nap on Saturday, thinking she would go right out since we had played hard all morning at the dinosaur museum.

Anna and Ainsley were in the upstairs bathroom when they heard a clink-clink-clink noise. It took them a moment to realize the sound had come from Allie's direction. Anna opened the door to discover Allie had grabbed Nana's lace runner from the dresser and pulled a picture frame, a vase, and an extremely old (extremely breakable) dish into her bed.

That poor little cherub was atop the dish's lid but didn't survive the fall from grace into the pack and play. Unfortunately that little broken cherub cut Allie's thumb too. She was bleeding all over the place when Anna came in. (She didn't cry at all.) We got her cleaned up and bandaged. I wish we could say the same for the little cherub. At least its buddy made it through unscathed.

Jonesborough Farewell Tour: Part 2

I know you've been waiting on the dramatic conclusion of our Jonesborough weekend. I had to work early yesterday so I didn't get a chance to get it all together.

We started our Saturday at the Dinosaur Museum (also known as the Gray Fossil Site). We had visited there once last year and the girls felt our farewell tour should include one more trip.

The new exhibit included a blank mural where the girls got to paint.

It also included a triceratops!

Everyone had a roaring good time....

After lunch we took the girls into town for the Easter Egg Extravaganza. We stood in line for over an hour to get balloon animals.....

And faces painted.....

The girls also got to hold bunnies and ducks!



The egg hunt was PURE chaos. They had it divided out by age group, but ours was 5-7 so there were waaaaaaay too many children. Basically, they scooted everyone off the grass, dumped two boxes of eggs out there and then said GO! Ainsley came away with two eggs and Anastasia ended up with three. She actually had four, but she saw a girl crying because she didn't get any eggs at all and Anastasia gave her one.

After one last family picture...it was time to go home.

We have so loved our time in Jonesborough, but we can't wait to make new memories in their new house!

Holy Week Begins

Palm Sunday has been wonderful. Anastasia and Ainsley processed into the sanctuary with all the children, waving their palm branches high. Allie joined us for that part of the service. She too waved her palm (and hit the woman in front of us several times). When the processional hymn ended, Allie said, "Yeah!" I think that is Alliespeak for "Hosana in the Highest."