Easter Time

Every year, on the Saturday preceding Easter, we eat breakfast with the Easter Bunny.   The kids have an opportunity to scream and wave and hug the big Bunny before he delivers all his special treats Easter morning - and of course it's just a photo op for the parents.

It's a rarity when we are all dressed nicely, hair brushed and mouths wiped, so I took advantage of our breakfast outing by setting up my trusty tripod when we got home.  I bribed everyone to sit together on our front stoop for a family picture.  Believe it or not, the kids did a perfect job.  It was us (the parents) that caused a redo with our silliness - case in point...Robert's humor had its way with this one.

After 10 or so takes, we finally got one with which we were satisfied.  Never underestimate the power of a tripod and a self timer.

As usual, Easter morning came waaay too early.  It came so early that we made Evan patiently wait for Mattie (and us) to get up before he could rummage through his basket.  So instead, he just ran back and forth between the living room and our bedroom screaming at the top of his lungs the things he could see in his basket.  "Mama!  Mama!  I got a new monster truck!!"  "Daddy!!  Daddy!!  The Easter Bunny got me a new movie!!!"  After the fifth announcement, I finally just got up.  Mattie was also up by that point because nobody was gonna sleep through that excitement.

The kids ripped through their baskets in a matter of about 2 minutes and devoured the little bit of candy we the Easter Bunny brought them this year.

After breakfast (and a few cups of coffee), we did our annual egg hunt...inside.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature was kicking us in this year.  The kids actually really enjoyed it and that just gave us more time to be in our pajamas :)  Well, most of us anyway.  Mattie Jane chose to hunt eggs in her bathing suit.

Oh - and bless the makers of the school calendar for giving us the Monday after Easter off!  Hallelujah!

The Ultimate Catch Up

It's not even possible to adequately cover the last four months (I'm so disappointed that I let it go this long), but I'm gonna do by very best to highlight some events so that I can catch myself up enough to not feel completely defeated.

JANUARY
Evan joined his first basketball team.  He played in Belin Methodist's Church League (K-2) and really enjoyed it.  He went from barely being able to dribble at the beginning of the season to scoring a basket in the last and final game!

We also got a new puppy!  We were on the fence about getting another dog for awhile and we figured there may never be a perfect time - so we just did it.  We originally wanted a goldendoodle, but decided to go for what we knew and that was a boxer.  My brother, Todd, had a boxer for 14 years and we all just loved his dog.  RIP Marley!  So we welcomed Stevie (born Dec. 10th) to the family at just six weeks of age.

We experienced one of the coldest - or should I say wettest - winters so far in SC.  We had a total of SEVEN snow days this school year!  The first snow/ice we received kept us home for four days.

January was rounded out with a special visit from my niece, Olivia.

FEBRUARY

We must've laid pretty low in February because the only notable event I can think of was celebrating Olivia's 1st birthday.  Todd, Barnes and Olivia spent the weekend with us and we all wished Miss O a happy birthday on February 15th.

MARCH

The soccer season began for both Evan and Mattie Jane.  This was Evan's second season playing, but Mattie Jane's first.  Evan showed BIG improvement from last year - more confidence, tons of hustle and, most importantly, the desire to compete.  Mattie, on the other hand, wasn't quite sure what she thought about soccer.  She did a lot of somersaults on the field and loved to rub her coach's bald head, but she didn't show much interest in actually playing.  This was pretty common among her teammates, so I didn't worry about it too much.  It goes with the age, I guess. :)

Grandma and Grandpa Stinnett came to town for a short visit.  The kids had a blast swimming at their hotel pool!

APRIL

We started April off with two visits from the Tooth Fairy!  Evan lost a tooth the first week in April and just a over a week later, he lost another tooth.  The tooth Fairy was very generous and gave Evan $5 for each tooth - waaay more than I ever received.

For Spring Break, we took a few days to visit family members in Tennessee, but also visited Todd, Barnes and Olivia at their new place in the NC mountains.  We spent a day in Pigeon Forge and ate dinner with my dad (no picture).  We headed to Knoxville where we spent time at the zoo with Grandma Bopp.  We also welcomed Grandpa Bopp back from Washington D.C. where he and other veterans of the Korean War were taken to visit the sites together.  It was quite an honorable experience.  We were able to spend some quality time with Grandpa and Grandma Stinnett too.

Whew...I'm all caught up.  Now, to keep it going again.  Life sure does get in the way, but documenting the details has always been my goal, so I'm gonna do my very best to get back at it!