A-Day on the Plains

Well who knew in mid-April we would be bundled up and the girls would be wearing tights to an Easter Egg Hunt!? Especially when the weekend before, they were sweating in their little bubble outfits! Oh the life of living in the South! =) The real reason for all the festivities today was to enjoy A-Day but we threw in some Easter and Birthday celebrating as well to round out the day! Sure is fun to make a few extra memories with the little ones when we can! We loved having Mimi & Grandpa + the Atlanta cousins/Aunts & Uncles here for the day! We crammed in as much as could for the day and sprinkled in one nap for the babies!

We kicked off the morning by heading to Opelika for some Easter Egg-travaganza fun =) We rode on the train ride, snapped some pictures with the Easter Bunny, and let the kids participate in a city-wide egg hunt, complete with not very tasty candy, ha! But fun was had by all and the cousins were together! Win-Win!

After shoveling food in the toddlers, we switched gears and got them all decked out in their tiger attire! They do make pretty cute tigers/tigerettes if we do say so ourselves! Besides going as babies, this was the twins first football game experience and boy were they excited! They knew that daddy went to all the "ball games" this past fall so to get to go with him was a might big treat! Daddy thanks Aunt Sarah for sacrificing her own enjoyment for the sake of taking on the role of "tot watch!" He couldn't have done it without her help! We'll let you guess which one of the twins was a tad more wild to corral! =) But everyone was able to enjoy the game and even made it through most of it before calling it a day.

Aunt Sarah and Maddie Grace are big buddies!! =)

And to wrap a day full of fun, we did one last mini-birthday celebration with family for the twins. Even with a small crowd, these two were SO bashful when being sung Happy Birthday. You would think they didn't have a rambunctious wild bone in their body based on this response. But they livened up after the singing ceased and managed to eat their chocolate cupcake with no problem! 

SO thankful the rain held off for most of the day and we were all able to enjoy the day! Always chaotic with 5 little ones, but always memorable as well! Thankful for family to walk through life with! Now let's go get some much needed rest...=)

First Pres Picnic & Egg Hunt

It has been such a joy this Easter season to remind our little ones the real meaning of Easter. And while they might not be able to truly comprehend what it means in their hearts, they for sure can verbalize the Easter story and what took place on the cross. What a privilege to be a part of teaching these two what it meant when Jesus went to the cross on our behalf. And to begin to see their hearts process this information and be even somewhat sensitive and even saddened over His death on the cross. We praise Him for enabling us to plant these truths in their hearts and we pray that they take root and grow over the coming days and months ahead. And an even greater joy is proclaiming to them that the story doesn't end there. That Jesus is not dead, but He is alive! Oh that Kendall and I's hearts would possess the same kind of joy that their childlike faith has when hearing that news! 

They know that Easter egg hunts and dying eggs are not what Easter is about, although they definitely have enjoyed them! This is the first year that they have understood the concept of an egg hunt and truly been able to participate! And as a family, we thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship and community with our friends from First Pres as we gathered for a picnic! The Lord has been so gracious in providing families to live life with during this new season for us!

These big 3 year olds definitely understood the whole "there's candy inside an egg" this year for sure! They were a tad hesitant to get started with so much commotion and kiddos running in every which direction but it didn't take them long to join in this year!

These precious girls are truly best friends! They literally do everything together and seem to be "lost" without one another. We sing praises to the One who has given each of them life and we will sing even greater praises Lord willing when He gives them NEW life in Him!

And let us not forget this adorable girl! We couldn't ask for any more joy from this sweet one! She blesses us immeasurably! One day baby girl, you'll be right there with your older sisters running around! (Lord willing!) Until then, you stay just as sweet and content chillin' in your stroller for us!

Easter is coming!

Blowing Out Candles Time! A party for these two...and Celebrating their Precious Lives on April 2nd!

Excited little THREE year olds with their sprinkled, whipped cream #3 pancakes to kick off their special day! =) Do notice the difference in the final product of the decorating of the pancakes. Exhibit A-sprinkles dumped immediately and in no pattern whatsoever & Exhibit B-strategically placing her sprinkles in an organized fashion...this is a perfect representation of their vastly different personalities! And we love celebrating the differences in these two precious girls!

Managed to squeeze in this fun breakfast and still make it to Bible Study by 9am! It's always quite a feat getting out the door on time on days with no special occasions to acknowledge so I'll add this day on my mommy resume! =) They love going to "church school" so it worked out great that it fell on their actual birthday and would give them an extra outing before their party that afternoon!

Passed out and had to wake them up to make it to their party in time! A rare occurrence to have to "wake" them up from their nap-of course it would happen on a day where we were under time constraints. Maddie Grace had to practically be dragged out of bed and Makenzie, believe it or not, said she wasn't done sleeping yet. (GASP! =) But we made it in just enough time to get everything set up!

IT'S BIRTHDAY PARTY TIME NOW!.....

So as a mommy with lots of young ones and having just gotten settled into a new town and a new house with a new baby, I had resigned myself to the fact that we would just do a little celebrating with family this year and call it a day. After all, we had done an all out bash for their 1st and 2nd birthdays! I felt ok in my mommy guilt mind to skip a year. =) And then as it got closer, the girls began talking more and more about their "birfday" and "candles" so I decided we would just do a tiny little party in the back yard with the hopes that a few friends could come. And then that grew a tad bigger than planned so we moved the party idea to Felton Little Park. And about a week before the party, every single sweet family we invited was gracious enough to take time out of their busy schedules and lives and bless our sweet little girls by coming to celebrate the twinsies! (side note: We continue to be blessed and humbled by the sacrificial love from our church body here but we'll save that for another post on another day!) Once I counted up the numbers for the party the teacher/creative side of me decided to take the plunge again and even if it was simple to make it fun for the twins! So we settled on a Dora theme and made Backpack invitations for their friends (and they LOVED passing them out!), came up with some snacks that fit our Dora theme, and then simply enjoyed time at the park with cupcakes, sunshine, and friends! What more could three year olds want!? =) Nothing! And they haven't stopped talking about their party since...and all their "friends..." So thank you to all of our sweet, dear friends that made our girls day super special! We're so grateful to God for providing new friendships here in Auburn!