4.30.2014

Happy Birthday, Dad....

Today (or yesterday, depending on when I finally finish this post) is my Daddy's birthday. The big 6-5 (let's pretend I didn't share his age). I think Dad is the hardest person to buy for in the world. Because, like most men, when he wants something he just gets it for himself. He loves two things tennis and golf. He buys two things - tennis and golf stuff. And after 41 years of being a Dad, he has just about every coffee mug, tie, shaving kit, and random desk decoration that you can think of. 

However, you can never have too may wishes and since it's such a fun milestone birthday, I thought it would be fun to collect as many wishes as I could for him! 

So thank you friends, for contributing and Dad... may this be the best year yet! Here is to 65 more! 

WE LOVE YOU!





Hope your day was as great as you are, Dad! Thanks for the wonderful gift of you. For teaching us right from wrong, for making us do our homework, for letting us help with projects. For making sure we appreciate the art of a great kung fu movie, and fresh food, and long naps on the ground. For changing my kiddos diapers even if you never actually changed one of mine! ;) Thanks for never missing anything important in our lives. And for sacrificing your dreams so that we could achieve ours. 

Love you!!


4.28.2014

Easter Joy...

Can you tell that April is a busy month for me? I am so behind on this blog and all 10 of you are sad, I can just feel it. I apologize for not giving you a 5 minute break in your day to read about the exciting lives of the Kings. As a treat for your patience, I have about 30 pictures to many in this post.

But, I'm not sorry because we have some cute kids. ;)

So, Easter morning arrived and these three were pumped. So excited in fact, that they totally dug into their baskets before I could snap a pic. So I asked them to turn around and Emmy and Landry obliged, chunking their stuff back in the basket. 

Radley, my sweet child, took his time to put everything back "just like EB" so he could remember. Bless him. 



We do Easter like we SHOULD do everything. Small. 

And they love it. They love every little toy...



every personalized drawing...




and all that yummy chocolate.


Yeah. She ate about 15 pieces at 6am. Bless her.
;)


This year the Easter Bunny finally left eggs for them to find. This requires the EB to visit the house at 4:30am, but it was worth all the cuteness that ensued. 


I mean... hunting eggs in fairy wings? 

Stop.



Radley appreciated that EB didn't just hide eggs "on the ground" so he could find some too.


Landry was delighted every time she spotted one.


And Radley was THRILLED that EB had left their initials on the eggs.

(Shout out to Gigi for dying 3 dozen eggs in Waco, having her NEIGHBOR write their names so they didn't recognize the writing and then hauling them down here without the kids discovering them).

#bestgigiever


Because check out their over-exposed and blurry excitement!


We all got dressed and headed to early morning mass. I love mass during Holy Week and I really look forward to when the kids are old enough to sit through them all. For now, we tackled Easter Sunday and were delighted to see that the kids had an egg hunt waiting for them after! 
(We always forget about this, but they had bags for the kids without baskets).


Emmy and Landry had fun finding their share, but Radley opted to sit out because it was "for babies".

Clearly he is a grown man.


Clearly she needs to quit growing.



Then we headed home to snap some pics in our Easter best.



















Hope you all had a blessed Easter Sunday, too!

4.23.2014

An "egg"cellent weekend...

After our neighborhood egg hunt, we walked home and met the Acostas for some cascarone making! This is fun family tradition they have and they were sweet enough to share it with us.


The kids had a lot of fun picking the colors they wanted to dye their eggs and ever-so-gently THROWING them in the cups. 



And they even did an ok job waiting. 

(And yes, I am the mom that buys brown eggs... they still looked pretty!)


Then it was time for lunch while all the dye dried.


We attempted to let them help us fill them with confetti but that may have to wait a few more years. Radley did ok, but the littles...notsomuch. Instead they got to run around outside with Ryan while Amber and I finished up! How cute are these!??


On Saturday we took a little break from gardening for a confetti war... 



we all took our places.... 


And it was every mom, dad and sibling for themselves!


Yes, she dressed herself.


I look a little too evil in this one, but I got him good!


My favorite part was watching Radley and Emmy let Landry crack eggs on their heads. 


And when they sabotaged Ryan, of course. 


So naturally after all of that egg-cracking fun, we had to dye our family Easter eggs. 


After seeing some other mommas do the outside egg dying tactic, I decided to follow suit and I must admit, it was pretty ingenious. Less mess and easy clean up.


This is one of those activities that I remember as a kid. I remember us sitting at our kitchen bar all making our own creations and having fun and laughing and talking. I do not remember giant messes and spilled dye and loud sighs from Jody and Jeremy when I messed up their creations. 


I don't remember Mom worrying about dyed fingers. Or hair. Or teeth. Or clothes. I just remember the fun.


And I am pretty sure that's what they will remember too!



On the hunt...

Let me tell you something about my kids.

They are amazing hunters.

You don't believe me?

Well, it's true. 

They can hunt an Easter egg like a boss. 

Or something else that's a really good hunter.

And that's a good thing, because a) we have tons of plastic eggs and 2) they had tons of egg hunts this year. 

Starting with the annual Kindergarten Egg Hunt at Rad's school. (That also doubles as a "math lesson". #publiceducationloophole)



Parents got help "hide" the eggs and let me tell you that Radley was sorely disappointed that they were "just in the field". He was hoping for some hard core hunting.


Each kid got 8 eggs filled with candy or stickers or money(!) and then they got to hang out at the park for an hour or so. I love his teacher... she is really the best!


The hunting continued on Friday morning at a neighborhood egg hunt. This was seriously a morning of answered prayers. We were playing outside one day and this lovely momma is jogging by with her two kiddos and stops.

"THERE ARE KIDS ON THIS STREET!!"

Our thoughts exactly.

We all introduced ourselves and a few days later an invitation to this egg hunt appears in our mailbox. 


We had the best morning with amazing weather, new friends and lots of fun.


LOTS of new friends.


Marci and her husband had the best set up and the kids got to enjoy lots of yummy food, games and crafts. Then she gathered them all together to talk about the real meaning of Easter.


You know, the part other than all the candy and suckers.


They sat and listened so well and when she asked what Easter was about, I was proud to hear Emmy and Radley pipe up "JESUS!!!" And then Emmy continued, "Yeah. He died. On a cwoss. Mean people killed him." 


And then it was time to line up for the hunt.


They sent them in age groups so Emmy and Landry got to start first.



Landry was not thrilled.

(But she was well accessorized.)



Holding back the stampeded...


And then they were off!


Radley found more than his fair share, and was only a little miffed when I made him forced him politely asked him to share.



Hope your Easter weekend was full of answered prayers, too!