The Many Adventures of Kate

Since Kate is home with more than Ben, I have lots of random pictures of her on my phone.  There is usually some adventure associated with the picture.  We have really been working on allowing her to express herself lately and allowing her little personality to shine.  She is such a fun little girl to be around.  

One day last week this is what she wanted to wear to school.  Pretty dress with pink tennis shoes and butterfly socks.  Not worth the fight so she got to wear it.  

 Doesn't everyone walk their babies in a Merida princess dress?

 Last week Kate and I drove all over Madison County to get her some new shoes from the online yard sale.  We saw parts of the county we have never seen before.  Baby Perry and Gracie came along for the ride!

 She is such a fearless little thing.  I like seeing what she gets into.

Love our sweet Kate!!

Stormy Weather

Well, things have been really interesting the last few days around these parts.  For about a week stormy weather has been predicted for our area.  It started looking like things were going to get a bit dicey yesterday so they let school out early (don't get me started on that).  We took advantage of a little extra time off and enjoyed the pretty weather (yes it was pretty all afternoon - sunny and warm).  The kids played in the sprinklers and on the slip and slide.  They had a blast.  

 We stayed outside as long as possible playing until the weather started looking rough.  Then the kids came in to watch some movies.

 Matt and I hung out watching the weather.  I kind of hate to admit it but I like stormy weather.  I like watching weather coverage.  Storms don't scare me so I like tracking them.

 We had our "safe area" ready in case we needed it.  Thankfully we didn't.  The storms stayed to our west and north.  There were a couple of pretty bad tornadoes but we were all safe.

Another round was predicted for today so school got out early again.  It was even prettier this afternoon and thankfully there was no bad weather so that was good.  We have enjoyed the low key 1/2 days but it looks like it will be back to normal tomorrow.  Hopefully with good weather for the rest of the spring.

Relaxing Spring Weekend

Other than our time at the ball park we had a really low key weekend.  It was wonderful!!  So nice to have a weekend where there is not much going on and we can just relax and be together as a family.  Saturday afternoon we went to the local nature preserve to walk around a bit.  The weather was just perfect.  The flowers were in full bloom and it was just beautiful.  We had so much fun walking, exploring and playing.  

Saturday night we got together with the Wrights and Newbys.  Always fun to spend time with our life long friends.  Sunday was church and then nothing!!  It was awesome to just get to have a Sunday afternoon where we were just lazy.  Truly was a day of rest.

A Weekend of Ball Games

Ben had a game on Friday night and Saturday morning.  That meant we spent a good part of our weekend at the ball park.  Ben had a really good game on Friday.  He has been playing right field and doing a great job.  

 He got a great hit for 2 RBIs and he finally got to cross home plate!  So proud of him.  He has really been working hard to improve his skills and we are so proud of him.

 And can't leave out this sweet girl.  She is always good at cheering on her big brother.

Throwback Thursday (on Friday) - Baby Ben the Prince

I'm running behind this week.  It has been busy.  Anyone who knows me pretty well knows I love all things related to English royals.  I just find them so interesting.  I woke up in the middle of the night to watch the royal wedding and I was glued to the computer for days before Prince George was born.  

I have loved the recent royal family tour of Australia and New Zealand.  I checked each morning to see Kate's outfits and see little George.  I loved seeing his sweet little outfits and his personality.  I saw this picture of George and William and it made me think of a couple of Ben's outfits I dressed him in when he was little.  

 I dressed Ben just like a royal baby!!  I love little baby boys in sweet smocking.  The top picture is from Ben's first trip to the beach when he was about 6 months old.  The bottom is when he was 3 months old.  His sailboat outfit was from a consignment sale and the other one was a hand me down from Uncle Andrew.  I'm guessing that Duchess Kate did not go to any London consignment sales for George's outfits.  

Newsman Ben

Ben got to have a really neat experience last week.  The top prize for reading over 500 books during Parade of Readers was a tour of a local TV station and to watch them do the 5:00 news.  He was excited to see what the news was all about.  Matt went with him so I don't have much great commentary on the pictures but I am sure it was lots of fun.  They were both full of stories from the tour.  They got to see the newsroom and meet the local TV personalities who are celebrities I guess.  

 They sat on the side of the set during the whole newscast and watched it.  They were even featured in a little segment on the news that night.

 After the news they got to do a little checking out of the set and learning about green screens.

Proud of our little guy and how well he did reading!!

The Rest of Easter

You will have to bear with the lots of pictures in this post.  I want to get through the Easter weekend.  Saturday we did the kids Easter baskets.  We like doing it before Sunday.  

 They were both really excited about their new goodies.  Nothing too spectacular but just a few fun new things.

 I spent most of my Saturday working on making this cake.  It was a strawberry lemonade cake that was on the cover of Southern Living this month.  After a cake disaster 10 years ago I swore never to make another cake again.  This one just looked so good so I braved it.  It turned out beautiful.  It was very hard to do.  Took about 4 hours and I am not so sure it tasted that great but I did it!

 We hosted a little egg hunt with the McClure family.  We wanted to reach out to some of our neighbors we don't know as well.  We had several new faces come so that was good.  The kids had a great time getting to hunt eggs with their friends.  

 At the end of the day Saturday Kate was filthy!!!!  I am not sure how she got so dirty but she did so it must have been a good day!

 Sunday we woke up ready for an awesome day of worship and time with family.  We started the day with cake.  Because every day should start that way.  We had our traditional tomb cake for breakfast.

 We then went to church.  It was packed!!  I mean not a seat to be found.  It was amazing worshiping with so many people.  We are really enjoying our new church and it was great to be there on Easter.  The sermon was awesome on what the impact of the cross.  After church we headed over to Matt's Aunt Judi's house for a get together with his family.  We ate lots of yummy food and enjoyed time with the family.  Can't believe how big all the cousins are getting.

 Then there was a fun egg hunt.  Since Ben and Kate are really the only young ones they got lots of eggs!!

 We then headed back to our house for dinner with my family.  It was our first time to host a big holiday dinner but I think it went really well.  It wasn't too stressful.  We had a simple dinner but it was great.

 I used my fancy dishes which I don't know if I have ever used before.

 I did a fun little table for the kids.

 They loved eating at it together.  Perry did great.  I think he sat better than Kate.

It was a perfect Easter weekend full of fun, family, friends and worship.

An "Egg"-cellent Friday

Lots happened over the past few days so I need to do some blogging to catch back up.  I will start with Friday.  It was a day filled with egg fun!  It started with Kate's little Easter party at school.  They had an Easter brunch and a visit from the Easter bunny in their classroom.  

 Then they went outside for an all out egg hunt.  Kate was intense grabbing those eggs.  She had fun playing with her sweet little girl friends.

 Friday night we did our annual egg dye.  We invited Kelly and Perry along with Kristen to join us this year.  Matt was at Secret Church so we missed him but it was still fun.  We had 12 different colors and the kids really got into the dying this year.

 I love Kate's intense face on this one.  She really liked coloring on the eggs before dying them.

 Perry was a good sport with it all even though he couldn't really join in.  Maybe next year!

 Ben's favorite thing to do with the eggs this year was the put shrink wraps on them.  He was a master of the hair dryer!

 Our creations turned our perfect.  Very eclectic but lots of fun!

 After egg dying we headed over to Granna and Grandaddy's for the first fire and s'mores of the year.  The weather was beautiful and we all enjoyed roasting marshmallows and making s'mores.

Everyone was worn out after a long day of fun!