Go Fly a Kite

More spring fun! Here are the boys flying the kites Grandma Betsy the Easter Bunny brought:

Adam's froggie kite

Andrew's parrot kite

Back to the Zoo

This spring has been unbelievably gorgeous. Warm weather, sunny skies, and green exploding everywhere (thanks to the wildly high pollen counts). So it was the perfect time to head back to one of the kids' favorite spots -- the zoo! This year was fun because Libby could walk around a little bit and enjoy it like a "big kid." It was also fun because our friends the Streckers were able to join us. Andrew, Adam, and Libby were excited to explore the zoo with their buddies Michael, Adah, and baby Maggie.

Ready to have a good time! What a beautiful day. I heart the Carolinas!

One of my favorite pictures from our day -- the kids eating lunch overlooking the river.

Adam, Andrew, and Adah checking out the spider monkeys. Those were some loud monkeys.

Andrew on the carousel

Standard solemn expression notwithstanding, Libby's favorite part of the day -- first ride on a carousel!

Andrew's favorite part of the trip -- hanging out with buddy Michael

Adam's favorite part of the day -- feeding the "camel." (I know. You try telling him it's a goat.)

Easter Focus

We had a lovely Easter this year. For the first time in a long time, we were able to go to our own church and then go to Poppa Keith and Grandma Betsy's without worrying about a baby missing a critical nap and melting down. Cousin Mary Caroline was there with Aunt Abby and Uncle Adam, and so were Aunt Lindsay, Aunt Gwen, and Aunt Whitney. Grandma Betsy The Easter Bunny left some wonderful baskets for the kids -- they had a great Christmas Easter.

My adorable children and their adorable cousin were dressed in adorable outfits. The weather was beyond perfect for outdoor pictures -- 80 degrees and sunny. No one was too cold or too hot. No one was hungry or uncomfortably full. No one's shoes were hurting. It was a good day for everyone. True to form, the majority of our pictures looked like this:

or this:

or (sigh) this:

This is (seriously) probably the best Easter 2010 photo we got:

Not all the photos were awful. We did get some cute shots. Couldn't you eat this up?

Love the sweet look on Adam's face here. Notice Andrew is carefully cropped out. You can guess the reason.

Libby's not too thrilled but at least not actively unhappy:

Poor Mary Caroline was in need of a nap but gamely tried to be a part of pictures:

Well, at least the Easter cookies stood still!

I just read a magazine article (I think in Southern Living) that suggested the reason most Easters are so cold is that God is reminding all the people who end up freezing in their Easter finery that Easter isn't about that. Amen. Easter isn't about my adorable children, their adorable cousin, and certainly not their adorable clothes. It isn't about the perfect family Easter picture. (Whew. That's definitely good news for us.) It actually makes me kind of glad to see our crazy, imperfect family captured in crazy, imperfect pictures this Easter. It puts Easter -- the real Easter -- into focus.

Christ is risen indeed.

A Meaningful Easter Moment

Tonight's Bible reading: Matthew chapter 27 -- the story of the arrest, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus.

Me (after reading and discussing the passage with Andrew, who really was comprehending and asking intelligent questions up to this point): ...and that's what we remember tonight. That this day, many years ago, Jesus had already died on the cross and was in the tomb.

Andrew (snuggling his head against me trustingly): Mom?

Me (expecting another deep theological question): Yes?

Andrew: Does the Easter Bunny bring our baskets tonight when we're asleep?

Catching Up

This has been quite the busy month around here. My little online family journal is so wildly far behind that I can't hope to catch it up properly. Clearly the only recourse is to do a quick March recap and start anew in April.

So here, in brief, is a snapshot (or two or sixty) of all the reasons I've been too busy to blog:

Training the children to be rednecks/biker chicks

Trying to keep Libby from running away from home. Here she is with her collection of lunch bags. She thinks they're purses and calls them her "bye-byes." She has several adorable little purses of her own, but no amount of cajoling can persuade her to abandon the lunch bags.

Borrowers' Dinner. Steve and Andrew finished the book The Borrowers and were ready for movie night. So we "borrowed" dinner and buddy Seth from our friend Miss Jen for the evening. Fun times!

Girls' Weekend! Friends Jen, Elizabeth, Anna Barrett, and I met in Durham for an overdue reunion with AB and a much-needed getaway. The weekend could be summed up in two words: shopping and food. We had a great dinner at The Melting Pot, where, as Anna Barrett so aptly put it, "We ate for three hours." **I would also like to state for the record that, despite my larger-than-life appearance in this picture, I am not 8 months (or any months) pregnant, nor have I suddenly gained 40 pounds. I do not know WHAT was going on with that shirt.**

And, finally, new floors! We removed all the old flooring and put down hardwood in the front half of the house -- living room, dining room, hallway, and powder room. Steve helped our friend from church (who works in construction and knows how not to mess up these projects) lay the new floors. It is like having a whole new house!

And finally...just for fun, some adorable pictures of THE RETURN OF THE PIGGIES!

I May Have to Change the Name of Our Blog...

to "Pirates and Pirates."

Mary Caroline Is 1

Unbelievably, my tiny little niece is a year old. So Libby and I hitched a ride with Poppa Keith and Grandma Betsy and headed to Virginia for Mary Caroline's first birthday party.

I was so excited for Libby to be there. My cousin Molly and I are also a year apart, and we were inseparable from the time we were babies. To this day, 30-a-lot years later, we are the best of friends -- in fact, now that I think about it, Molly is my oldest friend. And I soooo want that for Libby and Mary Caroline. MC is the only "girl family" Libby's got -- all the others are brothers and boy cousins. I want the two of them to spend summers traveling back and forth between each other's houses. I want them to read books together. I want them to go to horse camp together (oh, the stories...) I want them to spy on their siblings together. I want them to know each other's pets. Braid each other's hair. Respect each other's blankies. Have stupid girl squabbles and make up. I want them to write letters to each other during the winters. I want them to be able to call each other one day and say, "Can you believe what my kid just did?" I want them to have the comfort of their earliest memories including each other when they're older. In short, I want them to be able to say, "Look, I was there at your first birthday party. I know you."

The weekend was so fun. Everyone was there. All the aunts. The crazy uncle. Two sets of proud grandparents. Seriously, we've had very few major holidays with this kind of attendance. MC's birthday just about trumped Christmas.

I think the birthday girl quite enjoyed herself. When people ask me to describe Mary Caroline, the only answer I can give is "shriekingly happy." And that's just when she sees the picture of the baby on the Yo-Baby yogurt at breakfast. Put that baby at a party with a ball pit, cupcakes, adoring relatives, and a bunch of little munchkins at her eye line everywhere, and she takes it to a whole new level.

All too soon the weekend was over. Libby and MC had to go their separate ways for now, but I am hopeful that this was first of a lifetime of good times for the two of them.

Happy Birthday, Mary Caroline!