Spring at Pullen Park

We visited our favorite park during Mike's leave.  Spring is the perfect time to go--apparently everyone else thinks so too--it was pretty busy for a weekday!

We rode the carousel a few times, cause the kids always love it so much. 

 this trip, Holden tried some new things and climbed higher than i've ever seen him do before.  

 i had to really push Nora to climb up to the top of this...notice the death grip :)

 see-saw

 Davis is big enough to ride the boat!

Darius Rucker

While Mike was still in Afghan he found out Darius Rucker was coming to Fayetteville soon after he was scheduled to be home.  He is quite a Darius fan, so we took the risk of buying tickets, even without knowing for certain if he would be home.  Thankfully, it all worked out and Darius was our first date after Mike got home.  

If i'm being honest, big arena's aren't my favorite venue for concerts but it was still a good show and we had a great time. It didn't hurt that Darius threw some Hootie in the mix :) Not to mention we haven't been to a concert since before the kids were born--and the last one we were at together was The Beach Boys, haha.  For two people who really love some music, we gotta start doing better! 

USO Sesame Street Live

The USO does a lot for our soldiers and their families.  A few weeks after Mike came home we were able to go see a Sesame Street show for free on base. The theme of the show was about a girl who was having to leave Sesame Street because her daddy was a soldier and it was time for him to PCS.  The show was a lot of songs about how to keep in touch with old friends and how to make new ones.  Perfect timing for our family, with our best friends leaving this week.  The kids had a really good time, but i think Davis liked it best.  He couldn't take his eyes off all the dancing monsters!  

MC Egg Hunt

The weekend before Easter, we met up with my college roommate, Dee, and her two boys at Meredith for the annual Alumni Easter Egg Hunt.  The kids got to see the Easter Bunny and there were some activities/games too. Honestly, the hunt was disappointing.  I'm not sure what happened exactly, but the 3 older kids only got 1 egg each, and Davis got 2.  We did our best to keep our attitudes positive and totally over-exaggerated how well they did finding their egg so the kids wouldn't be too disappointed or think something was wrong.  They were all happy about the toy/piece of candy they got in their egg and then us parents took them to play at a park and get a treat to make up for the Egg Hunt debacle :)

Davis did LOVE the Easter Bunny.  That child isn't afraid of anything!

 

the bubble station was a hit, as always with my 3

Davis likes to eat his bubbles.  I'm not sure that the girl beside him thinks that is a good idea :)

EGG!

twins with their "egg"

decorating cookies

sidewalk chalk...another favorite with this princess

at the park with Braxton and Micah

our first real picture since Mike got home...it's one of my faves 

and my roomie...love my DeeDee

Easter

How have i not even gotten to Easter yet?  Seriously ya'll.  We've been so busy having fun, i can't keep up.  If you aren't following us on facebook, where its a bit easier for me to keep up, then you are probably pretty lost on what we've been up to.  Life gets back to some normalcy this week with Mike going back to work full-time and we still have a couple weeks of school/activities before summer so hopefully i will have time to catch-up here. 

So back to Easter... Our first holiday with Daddy back! and of course the Easter Bunny came for a visit, so we had lots of happy faces :)

 The weather was pretty cool and rainy--almost what it was last year...and what happened multiple years while we lived in HI.  I think we might be Easter rain magnets.  You'd think i'd plan for that with our outfits.  But every year Easter Sunday comes around and it's too cold to wear our matching Easter clothes and every year i scrounge around trying to make our Easter outfits "warm".  This year I gave up and but the kids in other things.  Oh well...clothes really aren't the point of Easter anyway...i know that :) 

my pretty babies (i promise D is happy here and not being strangled)

see? 

silly silly at church with Jackie

Later that evening the Sweatlands came over for food and egg hunts--our last holiday with them for a while :( I'm reminded of a few Easter's in Hawaii we celebrated together like this one here.  Kids sure make things look different!)

Egg Hunt On-Lookers, Jake and Judah

Holden looking confused

 Davis on the hunt

 Nora has only gotten better at this with age...haha.  Egg Hunts are serious business!

 happy he found his "special" carrot

 first winner!

 Davis gets the 1 Yr Old advantage...Egg Piles!

 not that he needed it! he found these before the older kids

 it was a fun evening as usual with these 5 cuties!