A Beautiful Easter Day

We shared a beautiful Easter this past Sunday with family and friends. With the girls as pretty as can be in their Easter dresses, we attended a beautiful church service and placed our flowers on the cross of fresh blooms on the altar. Following church we returned home to discover the Easter Bunny had visited our house!! The girls were so excited about everything the Easter Bunny had brought and immediately started playing with the items.

After lunch we had several "Egg Hunts" in our front yard, with two of us hiding plastic eggs for the other two family members to retrieve. This kept the girls entertained for almost an hour!

We then spent the late afternoon and evening at Maureen and Patrick's house. The girls participated in another egg hunt in the backyard (compliments of Aunt Maureen and Uncle Patrick) and an Easter present hunt on their third floor (compliments of Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop). We all enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner, making the day complete!

Easter Egg Hunt

This past Saturday our church had an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids, as well as songs, an Easter story, crafts, games, and refreshments. Kate enjoyed all of the activities, while Lauren preferred to walk around and check out all the sites. However, when the egg hunt began both girls happily collected eggs, filling their baskets to the brim!

Tornadoes + Atlanta = Weekend Visit

Believe it or not, we were actually in the Atlanta vicinity last weekend when the tornadoes tore through downtown. Luckily, we were safe at our friend's house and only experienced rain and thunderstorms.

We went to visit our friends, Sean and Rachel, and their three daughters for the weekend. The FIVE girls had a blast playing together, which also allowed Mark and I some "down time" from watching the girls. Despite the weather, we fulfilled Mark's food cravings, took the 3 older girls to see "Enchanted," and played several games of Wii against each other. We had a wonderful time and hope to get back soon!

Swimmers

Due to the delay in uploading our photos, the pictures in the slide show are a couple of weeks old...yet, still enjoyable to look at.

We traveled to Roanoke to visit Dad and Pat two weekends ago. During our visit, we took the girls to the YMCA Saturday afternoon for a swim. Both girls love the water and thoroughly enjoyed playing with the "noodles," splashing around, and being "fish" for an hour. Their wrinkly fingers were proof enough!

What a cozy pillow

On Sunday, Maureen, Patrick and Peter joined us for breakfast. The cousins enjoyed playing together after the meal. Apparently, Lauren wore herself out and found the coziest place to lay her head for a rest...Peter's tummy!

Happy Birthday to Riley...a month early!

This past Friday the Gilmore clan joined us for dinner and a hidden agenda to give Riley her birthday present (from our family and Grandpa and Grandma) early. Rumor had it, she had been invited to her first sleepover and would need our gift for the party. So we were more than happy to present Riley with her first "adult" sleeping bag!

Uncle Mark consulted the L.L. Bean website and selected a bag that can be used in temperatures as low as 40 degrees and has its own monogrammed carrying case. As you can see, we believe Riley found the sleeping bag to be rather cozy, as did the other 4 cousins. Now Riley is ready not only for sleepovers, but camping with Uncle Mark!

Puppet Show

We ventured out to the puppet show in downtown Raleigh with a few of Kate's friends this past Wednesday. The puppet theater was putting on "Cinderella," and seeing as how we are all about the "princesses," we couldn't pass up the opportunity. As you can see, the girls didn't pass up the opportunity to wear their princess attire as well!