Let me try to summarize...

 Our Easter weekend began on Friday with a special visit from three of the cutest guys I know... Carter, Colton and Caleb  came to visit for a photoshoot with the greatest photographer I know and while Sarah was creating magic, I was getting to snuggle with triple the cuteness!

All that cuteness must have been exhausting for Landry because she just fell asleep in the floor - mid crawl. We had the best day and I am dying to see all the images that Sarah captured!

Saturday began with a pajama party in the park to celebrate the fifth birthday for Miss Caroline. Once again Cindy hosted a great party that everyone LOVED! From the donut cakes ...

to the pillow case races...

to the mandate of pjs...

and egg races...

it was clear that everyone was having a ball - especially the birthday girl!

(Emmy and Anna decided to sit out the egg races)

And if Landry ever learns how to use her legs, she may get to join in the fun, too!

After allt he Happy birthday celebrations, we loaded the kids up inthe car and headed to Gigi and Pops' for Easter weekend. We were of course greeted with hugs and kisses and...

150 stuffed plastic eggs waiting to be discovered. 

Radley kept bringing all the pink eggs to Emmy.

He could seriously hide and find eggs all.day.long.

And she could eat all the chocolate inside.

And she could just sit there and be cute.

We had a great afternoon just being outside, playing in pjs, and surrounded by family.

After some convincing - we got everyone inside to begin the time honored tradition of egg dying. Same coffee mugs, same kitchen table, same loved aprons, and even the same egg "holders" (bc Gigi doesn't throw anything away).

The only thing that has actually changed is that we are now the adults and Ryan is the one picking on me instead of Jeremy and Jody. 

(I think I gave him the same look they once received)

;)

(ps. let's not discuss my hair....mmkay?)

The kids loved this of course - each wanting  a specific color for their very own eggs.

Radley likes to try new designs but isn't very good at the patiently waiting part.

Landry just liked the show while eating her snacks.

She did get to dye her first egg - if by "dye" you mean dropping an egg into a coffee mug of green vinegar and water. 

These two were just mesmerized by the whole process and couldn't wait to see what the eggs would turn out like.

I'd say they turned out perfectly!

(and that was the longest, most random summary of all time)

Can you feel it...

...the excitement that comes when Mommy picks you up early for a random trip to the park? 

The love that is shared between siblings as that excitement grows when they see that "we get the park ALL to ourselves!!"

The wonder of a child as she discovers a new opportunity to explore?

Can you hear it?

The giggles that don't fade in the wind? 

The laughter that grows as the swing goes higher and higher with Mommy running in between and under trying to grab your feet? 

Can you sense it?

The pride in the big sister as the baby learns new skills? 

The love that only siblings can share? 

Can you see it?

The desire for her to be like him? Stopping every time he does to pick up a stick - her's just a little smaller. Step for step, climb for climb - she doing every thing that he does. 

Can you understand it?

The joy that a child feels when we stop our whole world to focus on theirs? What moments have I missed with my senseless distractions? What could possibly be more important than giggles and dirt? Sticks and tadpoles? Swings and slides? 

Nothing. Nothing is more important than these moments. Now or ten years from now - I hope that they always know that my world will stop on a dime for them. I hope they can ... 

feel my prayers... 

hear my words... 

sense my pride... 

see my love...

and

understand my joy in raising them....

always.

Tiny Tales Thursday...

In yesterday's post I mentioned that we drove out to the ranch of our new friends. The ride took about 25 minutes from our house. Along the way we passed lots of homes on around 10 acres. Ryan and I were talking about how it may be fun to one day live "out in the country"...

Me: Wouldn't this be fun, kids? What if we lived out here?
Emmy: ::sweetly ignoring us while singing a song::
Me: Rad, what do you think? You want to live out on a ranch?
Rad: Hmmmm. No.
Me: Really? Why not?
Rad: Well, I mean.... look at all those animals, Mommy. That seems like a lot of work. You have to feed them and take care of them and stuff.
Me: That's true - but wouldn't it be fun to have all that land?
Rad: Maybe. I mean we could build a soccer field and play golf.


And Ryan King has never been more proud.

Where two or more are gathered...

Let there be a party!

(Just kidding ... I know that's not the end of that sentence)

(Mostly because I hung out with some baptists this weekend - I know they let us hang out with them!)

I talked about how amazing dotMOM was a few weeks ago. One of the best parts was the new friends that I got to meet from Cindy's Sunday school class (see baptist joke above). I was thrilled to get to know these women as we not only absorbed lessons on this crazy ride of mommyhood but also to worship with a new group of friends. 

Fast-forward a couple of weeks and an evite pops up in my inbox from one of my lovely new friends inviting us to her parents ranch for an Easter Egg Hunt. We knew that the kids would love it and of course made plans to attend. 

The ranch is beautiful - sheltered among layers of trees and winding roads. As soon as we entered their property Radley and Emmy were convinced it was heaven - dirt, sticks, and a giant playground complete with a splash pad - yes this was a "ranch" for my people. ;) 

 Melissa and Jennifer's dad had let us know that they had a heated pool so we brought the swim gear just in case.  I was not; however, convinced that anyone needed to actually get in the pool. It was a gorgeous Texas spring day but really windy.

Guess who won that battle...

and....

Guess who was the smart one and didn't try to get in...

About 17 seconds later they decided it was cold and they were going to die from hypothermia. 

These are my kids, afterall... we do love a good exaggeration. 

We quickly gave them a big fat I-told-you-so and dried them off. They ran back outside to play and make new friends, eat some home made deer sausage and yummy southern sides from all the party goers...all the while patiently awaiting "the hunt".

Melissa and Jennifer stuffed and hid easily 200+ eggs and the kids LOVED it! They had a hunt for the little kiddos...

Landry didn't qualify since she refuses to walk.

And then the big kids were lead out in "the woods" for their turn.

(please note the stick in Radley's hand. We now have enough twigs and branches in our backyard to start a fire big enough to melt the remaining icebergs).

 Radley almost didn't get to compete after an immediate injury due to a run-in with a cactus. But I lovingly told him to suck it up shake it off and he forged ahead...

I may have to adopt Easter as a year round event...

They could hunt eggs for hours.

After the eggs were all picked up from obvious view found - it was time for the kiddos to test out that playground they saw on the way in...

Mills was the only HMM to sit still long enough to let me snap a pic!

We had a great day with some new friends...

I'm so glad for this small community of people that He has given us and thankful for the blessings of new friends...

and old, too! 

(Not as in you are "old" Cindy...just a seasoned friend!)

:)

A Roll Acosta Gender Reveal...

Hi. 

I'm Katy.

I like to plan things.

And not just life - but FUN things.

Like photo shoots and parties and gatherings.

This is my friend Cindy. 

She's a planner like me.

We also dream a lot about what it would be like to make all that "nonsense" our real life and we got to test that dream out last week when we convinced my friend Amber to let us throw her a gender reveal!!!

Amber's blog them is "the Roll- Acosta Life" so we went with a carnival theme and it turned out just lovely. We got the envelope in our hands on Tuesday afternoon and had to keep the secret until Friday evening - so glad that Amber and I didn't see each other on Thursday or Friday!!

Cindy and I had a blast pulling everything together - We used navy and hot pink as the main two colors and used pops of yellow to add some fun. Guests were able to make their guesses at a photo booth, by pinning their vote "under the big top", with jelly beans and even with the straw they used for their drink. 

Amber's mom is a fantastic cook so they made all the food and we just provided all the serving platters so the colors remained neutral and the focus could be on the decorations surrounding the table. Amber and Julian have a great open floor plan which made it easy for guests to mingle and chat before the big reveal!

The photo booth is always a big hit and a fairly inexpensive way to add fun to any event! Everyone had their guesses and it looks like most people were choosing a boy to join big sister Jillian... 

And they were right!!!

Baby BOY Acosta coming August 2013!!!

This series of pictures make me tear up - what a beautiful moment to capture.  

Everyone of course had hugs and well wishes to share - even Julian's parents that we face-timed for the big moment!

Probably one of the most fun parties I had the pleasure of planning - we of course had to document the moment where we could look at each other and say "WE DID IT!!" 

(I see a few more of these "success selfies" in our future!)

 Thanks to Julian, Amber and Jillian for letting us be part of your special moment!!

Whirlwind Weekend...

This weekend has been a jam-packed whirlwind of fun.

Crazy, exhausting, wonderful fun!

We started out with goodbyes on Friday. Landry has officially moved up from the baby room and while we are excited about all the fun that "growing up" will bring, I am so sad that she isn't going to be loved on by Mrs. Pam and Ms. Mabel every day. 

 Friday night we got to say "hello" - well kind of. The Acosta's are awaiting the arrival of baby number 2 and Cindy and I got to plan the reveal - which will be getting an entire post of its on because it's just too good not to!

Cindy and I stayed up late on Thursday to put the final touches on everything and then we were up late again on Friday cleaning up. By the time I got home and settled I decided to sit down "for a minute" which meant I woke up on my bed with all the lights on at 3am. Ha! I decided to admit defeat and let myself stay asleep until 5:30.

Why were we up so early on a Saturday? Because we had two more parties to attend that morning! I got the kids ready and took the bigs with me to celebrate Will turning 5. He had a Star Wars party at a bouncehouse in The Woodlands and the kids LOVED it!

I brought their Halloween costumes just in case and Miss E decided that she wanted to be C3PO. 

Radley settled on his Darth Vader tee because he would get "too hot" dressed up.

It was a solid hour of laughter, squeals and light saber battles before heading the party room for lunch, cake and presents.

They weren't messing around with the cake!

:)

Radley also had his first OVERNIGHT trip. He stayed with Will for the rest of the day and they had a BLAST. I can't wait to ready Carolyn's blog post. She sent us a video of them at dinner and I'm not sure how they managed to chew with all the laughter! 

After Will's party, Emmy and I loaded up and drove around Houston to meet Ryan and Landry at the Munson gender reveal. Stu and Kelly had already found out so they were revealing to all of us that they are having a ....

BOY!!!!

The kids had a fun time running around and kept giving us heart attacks by creeping closer and closer to the pool.

Ryan, the girls and I left around 2 and headed home. We started some laundry, vacuumed, cleaned and made dinner before heading over to the Munson's for our quarterly dinner party. 

This month's theme...

BRINNER!

We shared lots of laughs with all that yummy food. So glad that I am following through with this resolution - these nights with friends are good for the soul.

Tasty. Fun. Tired.

And as much as I'm trying to figure out how to round out this post in style - that's all I got!

:)