Packing has Begun

We closed on our house. Renovations are happening there and I am packing here. How many days should this take? Seems to always take longer than it should (especially when I stop to blog!). 

I think we'll take this guy with us. (Have you seen the new Christmas Veggie Tales? The kids were singing the Silly Songs with Larry song called "I wrapped Myself up for Christmas" while putting Joshua in the box.) 

Happy Easter!

Today we were joined at church by my mom and dad and my grandma, Meema. Afterwards, we came home and ate a traditional Easter meal - traditional for us anyway - complete with coconut pie and chocolate truffle cheesecake. We took pictures right before our egg hunt. There were over 700 eggs! Thank you, Grandmamma! It was a wonderful day....

Weko Beach on Lake Michigan

Less than an hour from our house is Weko Beach. We took the kids there on Friday and we loved it! The temperature was in the low 80's and the crowd was perfect. It was a wonderful time of laying under the sun, building sand castles, going in the water (some of us more than others!), foot ball, chasing seagulls, and finding pretty rocks. I took a ton of pictures but I'll just post a few of my favorites....

Attempted Easter Pictures

Easter was wonderful.

Easter pictures, however, not so much.

We tried.

And tried.

But between bright sunshine issues, cranky children, and one child who thought funny faces would actually be funny....

This is the best we could do.

Other than Joshua, the picture with my parents turned out pretty well.

Aulora felt the need to take a bow.

Thank you, Gran, for the beautiful clothes!

John David - of course he doesn't make the goofy faces here.

Julia is usually the easiest to take pictures of.

She's getting so tall!

Joshua, on the other hand, had NO desire to have his picture taken. He turned his back on the camera.

He hid his face with a stuffed animal.

This is what I was finally able to get.

I bet you can't guess who the cranky kid was.

Family Game Night

A couple of weekends ago we had a family game night.

It involved the lego gamed "Creationary"

some pizza

and some homemade "Maggie Moo" creations.

It was Joshua's turn to clean the table.

Basically, the game is like pictionary except you build things with legos instead of drawing a picture.

There were lots of snuggles and hugs.

I'm pretty sure that John David randomly chose to build something different several times during his turn. No wonder we couldn't guess the answer!

Daddy was very, very precise in his building. Like, annoyingly precise. ;)

On my turn I had to build a pyramid. At first I thought I had an easy one, but then I started. Legos are not for the faint of heart, dear friends. My little pyramid was surprisingly difficult. (Do not make fun of me until you have tried it.)

Here are some sweet sisters enjoying their ice cream.

Whipped cream anyone?

John David got more than he bargained for.

At least Julia knew it was coming!

Daddy had to show them how it's done.

Joshua wanted a turn too!

This is what Friday nights were made for.

(Well, that and staying up late to watch a movie after the kids are in bed because you know you can sleep late the next morning. That's pretty good too!)