April 15

It was a busy day today! Lily woke me this morning to show me a picture she drew of herself. She was so proud of her work that I stopped her after one sentence so that I could record the explanation of her art.

Cute, huh?

 I spent the day cleaning and preparing for our family's Easter celebration, and Chris took the kids to the YMCA pool for Caleb and Daisy's first swim lessons of the season. Actually, they were Daisy's first swim lessons ever, and she was decidedly NOT looking forward to them. We explained that the lessons were to prepare her so that she could begin swimming on the neighborhood swim team as soon as the pool opens this summer, but she was still un-interested. 

She returned home from swim lessons telling a totally different story. She loved them, and had so much fun. Funny how that goes!

Jenny and her new boyfriend, Aaron, came over early to help fill and hide eggs for the little ones, while Chris and I cleaned and set up tables and chairs. Lily woke up from her nap feeling needy (again) but thankfully she was eager to wear her new Easter clothes, and she was much happier once I put her up on my back.

This carrier is a Lillebaby CarryOn Air, which is a mesh toddler carrier, but we call it the "Lily Baby" or "Lily-sized carrier" and she loves that it's just for her.

Speaking of Lily, our lilies of the valley are in full bloom, and so lovely!

I snapped some portraits of most of the kids before the festivities began, but somehow I didn't manage to get one of all four of mine together.

Hi, Jace!

Daisy liked this azalea flower.

Are they cute, or what? I didn't even pose them like this.

Hi, handsome!

(The kids chose their outfits from The Childrens Place website. The girls were adamant about matching, and adamant about the butterfly dresses. The boys also insisted on matching, and selected clothes that were much... brighter... than I would have chosen. But they all felt really snazzy in their Easter outfits, and I love that they had some say in what they wore.

This one of Caleb just makes me laugh. Also, do you see the new gap in his teeth? One of his top teeth is SO loose and ready to fall out that it has created a new gap. 

Hi, Max! Max is a year younger than Caleb, but he has lost one tooth and has two more ready to go. 

Eli would not stand still to have his picture taken.

I did get this one of all of my boys (and a kickball), though.

Our table!

Easter dinner was a variety of meats, breads, and cheeses, baked beans, my mom's grandma's homemade potato salad, spinach salad, and chips and salsa.

Plus our cake.

Not too shabby!

After dinner, we hunted for eggs.

(Daisy found ants in her basket)

Jace is always so sweet and kind to Eli!

We continued with the color-coded eggs, and each kid got 12. It made things significantly easier, and more fair.

Those are six happy kids!

Jenny and Aaron appreciated seeing the fruit of all their labor. Or maybe they appreciated the sangria. Whatever.

After the egg hunt, my mom showed the kids how to make Easter basket cupcakes.

It turns out, Caleb has quite a knack for it! He made this one for me. What a sweet boy! 

We all had such a lovely evening. Maybe low-key, last-minute celebrations are the way to go!