Easter Weekend!

Easter weekend and I am truly loving the probity of family and how my sister and her family can come down and we all get to spend the holiday together.  I hope I will never take for granted that is was once MUCH harder to get all together.

Truly a weekend to celebrate

Lets start by egg dying - 

The kiddos got rather into it this year.

Noted - next year we will amp it up just a bit - Love this stuff and it used to be such a hassle because they were so little - now they can help!

Love family dinners that look like this

Pretty sure these 2 trouble makers should not be sitting next to each other - seating error

Saturday morning we hosted the annual Easter Egg hunt - 

Thanks to my sis and Chris for your help stuffing the eggs and thanks to the hubby's for your help hiding them this morning - wonder how many we will find this summer =)  

All the eggs discovered and tine to hang out in the props

He kinda makes that look comfortable

Now lets take this crew on a bike ride - everyone on wheels! - THAT is an accomplishment!

They stopped for this photo!

We went to the river tossed some rocks - and came back for a little easter prepping - 

Pinterest can be a fun thing - honestly enjoyed making these with my sis while the kiddos played and the boys had beer.  She was a good sport!

Dont they look so cute?

Soaking in a little hair braiding time.

Smiling at the finished product =)!

Crafting #2 - birds nest - so fun to make - thankful for little helpers

Look so pretty - but for some reason they aren't a favorite in the consumption

Now this one was a HUGE success - both making and eating - they are called Empty Tomb rolls - we had the whole description of the steps and how they correlated with Jesus on Easter.

Meaningful AND yummy!

Ready for dinner

Bit of a better seating arrangement - love this photo of these 2

Love the full table

Both sides of it - 

My mom had her own little pinterest project - Go mom!

Sunday at church - someone didn't like the Sunday school - worked himself into a nap - snored all the way through Church - Nice work jackson!

Glad we caught this photo of everyone all together on the ground of the Church - beautiful crew

Just the Grandkids

Thanks so much for making this all work - To my folks who put so much effort into the meals, bringing us together - hosting my sister and her family and keeping up with us all.  To my sister and her family for packing up and heading our way all the time (even though Riley informed me that they won't be coming next year as she would like to host at her house!  You got it girly!) But I know its not easy to be the ones traveling and I hope you were all settled Sunday night for your week back at school.  Holidays come in many shapes and sizes, I believe the best part of them is being surrounded by those you love.  

Happy Easter - He has Risen!

The Abbey of Regina Laudis

Thursday afternoon, my mom Drew and I took a little excursion - being the week before Easter I was feeling a bit more spiritual.  

My neighbors daughter is a nun here at the Abbey and they speak about the grounds and the little gift shop - all in Bethlehem CT (folks often have their Christmas cards stamped here before sending them off - maybe that will be us next year - )!

Drew snoozed on the way up so I poked into the gift shop solo and snagged some yard sheared from their sheep - Once Drew was up, my mom walked him into their little green house.  Love seeing these 2 together.

Drew did a little posing for us so I could send the photos to Meredith and se if she recognized where we were.

A few photos of inside their chapel as well

Beautiful serene place - lots of windows and truly surrounded by a very spiritual presence.

Simple afternoon together - love little excursions like that.  Loved the beautiful drive through horse country too =)!

A chapter in Mom's R+F

When I started R+F I honestly wasn't totally sure where it would take me - I just knew I loved the products and I knew that since my skin felt good, I feel good and I wanted to pass that along as feeling good it a gift and sometimes not easily achieved by something so simple.

Melanie Mcquarrie started her journey with R+F as she is a SAHM and wants to stay that way - I met her at MOPS years ago and connected in many ways as she is originally from CT and has family still in CT - her first time trying the products is when her consultant kit arrived!  She seems the potential in this business to change life financially for her family.  and with her constancy and honestly - she will do just that.

Now when this one texted me she wanted to grab a consultant kit I about fell off my rocker - one of the first people I reached out to, the girl with which we have experienced so much, been there through so much - deployments, kids, husbands, moves, traveling.  Her personality fills a room and there isn't anything she won't tackle.  The girl I want to talk to every day and now we have even more reason too.

So just like that - Team Real life is growing - A thing I wasn't really sure was going to happen.  and yet it is.  Megan and I are closer than before (challenging each other) and I have R+F to thank for my growing relationship with Shannon - 

So boys, when you read this years later about your momma, this crazy R+F thing I get to pass along to you - remember I did this not only to change our financial footprint and create opportunity and breathing room for our family - yet more importantly are the people I got to do this with 

They are the true blessing.

Drew

9 more Mondays that we declare PJ day - 

he is LAST to get up - 

last to get going and LOVES to be home by himself without his brothers - 

we do laundry, we vacuum and little stuff.  

Most of the time we DON'T get out of our PJs.

We even read until we are so tired we take a nap.

Yes, we will miss these days - I am SO thankful I got to enjoy them with him!  I got to really love you Drew - 

Now he talks about how when he goes to school next year I will be so sad as I will be all by myself.

Beaver work

The Beavers have a mission and these beavers are pretty motivated.  This is the pond by our local pool - And we think we have beaver issues in Maine!

These boys took a quick break from Biking to check it out.

Passports

Its that time - In Germany we HAD to have passports - now, not so much.  This summer we are traveling to MI for my cousin's wedding so it begged the question on if they were still valid - nope, they have expired.  We went to Walmart and snapped these photos - 

Seriously love the line up!  Chris was the only one with a valid passport!

I posted these on FB to see who looked like who - got some gummy responses to include on being able to smile on photos - what is this world coming to?  No smiling?

So far we received 3 out of 4 back.  Just waiting on Shane's

Megan Wilt Phew--all done! You all look adorable but yes Drew wins the prize for best passport pic 

Like · Reply · 1 · March 15 at 9:30pm

Jennifer Niemasz Lambdin Nick is all Chris! Drew is def all you!

Like · Reply · 2 · March 15 at 9:35pm

Jeannine Brinkerhoff Cute kiddos, all three of them! Where are you headed with passport pics?

Like · Reply · March 15 at 9:37pm

Sara Carlson Leadbetter Through Canada this summer - not nearly as flashy as their previous german, austrian, france, italy excursions!

Like · Reply · 1 · March 15 at 9:54pm

Heidi Hribernik We only needed the kids birth certificates to go through Canada. Did something change ?!? 

Like · Reply · March 16 at 7:08am

Write a reply...

Meghan Callahan Pugliese Drew is allllll you

Like · Reply · 1 · March 15 at 9:38pm

Kristen Jones Tangarone #passportsarentcheap

Like · Reply · March 15 at 9:44pm

Sara Carlson Leadbetter not at all - especially 4 at once - geesh!

Like · Reply · 1 · March 15 at 9:54pm

Write a reply...

Amy Baird Perez Cute! Do they allow smiles in passport photos now? We weren't allowed to show our teeth. Hope you are going somewhere fun!

Like · Reply · March 15 at 10:09pm

Lynn Azuma our boys just got them - their pics sans smiles look like they could be on "america's most wanted!"

Like · Reply · March 16 at 12:02am

Sara Carlson Leadbetter No idea about the smiles!! Geesh-more of a pain!

Like · Reply · March 16 at 8:15am

Write a reply...

Michael Carlson All good looking kids. I don't know ole blue lips looks pretty good

Like · Reply · 1 · March 15 at 11:16pm

Jill Brinkerhoff Forchielli Nick = Chris
Shane = Les
Drew = YOU!!

Like · Reply · 1 · March 15 at 11:28pm

Amy Laurenzano Orschel I think Nick is the ONLY one who looks like Chris. 

Like · Reply · 1 · March 15 at 11:46pm

Janell Price Herring Hey, did you get the passports yet? If not, i want to warn you that you can't use those pictures!! They won't take ones with smiles. Has to be no expression... We just went through this and it took several pictures. My recommendation is to get them taken at the post office. They will do them again and again (and again, if you have a 3 year old!!) Until they are right and only charge you once.

Like · Reply · March 16 at 6:39am · Edited

Janell Price Herring replied · 2 Replies

Lisa Marie We just did our passports and had the pics taken at Walgreens. They told us not to smile. We looked miserable!!!

Like · Reply · March 16 at 9:12am