Monday, April 8, 2013

Time Marches On!!!

Wow!  Kyle and I just said yesterday (as we were driving home from a 12 hour day at church) "why are we SO busy?"  Neither of us know what has changed THAT much to make us busy all the time.  Thankfully we both like to be going going going:) 

So I go back to the week before Easter and we had our second 'Beyer' visitor.  Sarah was on Spring Break and swung by our house for one night.  She came with us to the Easter Pageant at a local baptist church.  The music was amazing and the story very powerful.  It was a great way to set the mood for the week leading up to Easter.  Sarah also was great helper in my Pinterest decorating adventure.  She was a great sport and fit right into our family...she had kids crawling all over her, kids sitting on her lap, and watched the girls do a roller skating performance.  I meant to get a picture with her before she left but mornings are too busy and it completely slipped my mind...I know, imagine that:)
Pinterest Easter Egg Garland

Hours after Sarah left my parents arrived from a long 15 hour drive through the night.  It was great to have them visit.  Although this was not a relaxed restful trip, I think they came on our busiest week since we moved here.  We were very efficient and had our days packed with church activities, zoo trips, hilly walks, good eating, school visits, coffee stops and lots of talking.

 Elayna's 1st grade class had just started the 'tooth' unit in science, so Elayna was very excited that Grandma (dental hygienist) came to her school to give a talk about teeth.  The next day was Grandparents Day.  Very special that Elayna could have 2 grandparents with her.  I did warn her that this may not always be possible...but to enjoy it this time:)

We had a very exciting and encouraging Easter week/end at church.  Maundy Thursday service was a great reminder of the grief and anguish that Christ felt leading up to the cross.  The music and readings were powerful.  On Saturday we held our first annual Easter Egg Hunt and Festival.  We had sno-kone's, cotton candy, popcorn, face painting, games, and inflatables.  80 children came and over 35 families were represented.  We had a beautiful day for the event and LOTS of fun was had by all.  After that we were sun burned and tired.  Easter morning was an exciting celebration of Christ is Risen!  Kyle's message was great.  We had over 40 more people than usual in church.  Very exciting!!!  After church we had a short reprieve before we had an Easter feast with 18 people at our house.  So glad my parents were still here.  They are an amazing team.  We had great food and lots of laughs around the dinner table.  Before my parents headed out for their, once again, 15 hour trek home... they helped with the dishes.  Enough said, thank you dad and mom.

Once they left Kyle and I crashed before 9:00pm.  Exhaustion! 

I got up Monday morning to look at what the weather was going to be for our trip to South Carolina later in the week.  Terrible!  The two days that we were going to be there it was a 90% chance of rain.  Kyle and I chatted it over, we searched on the internet, he called his session members and in less than 2 hours we were packed on the road heading to South Carolina.  Our trip that was going to be Wednesday to Friday was now Monday to Thursday.  The trip was a surprise to our girls.  All we said was for Elayna's spring break we were heading to the beach.  Exciting, right? 

Beach Time
That's as close as I get to the beach...Brrr
The cold doesn't bother daddy
They tried the pool after the beach...it wasn't heated.
Ice Cream in Charleston
 

What we didn't tell them is that dear friends from Waukesha were also going to be vacationing at that beach.  So as we sat at dinner one evening the Mautz's walked in and sat next to us.  Lots of hugs. 
The weather was not great but we had a really nice time touring around Charleston, spending time with friends, eating good food, and doing a little bit of beach.

Elayna when she saw Ella
Aubs was in the bathroom when they got there:)

The special surprise

Great buddies!
 
The kids were not bothered by 55 degrees and rain...they were still in the ocean     




Horse drawn carriage tour in Charleston

We got home at 1:30am on Friday...Kyle headed to work and we layed very low at home.  I had plans of potty training Amaria over Spring break but with the switch of vacation dates I was leaning towards not doing it.  Well after nap on Friday I thought, what the heck!  We are now 4 days into it and she has only had 2 accidents.  She has caught right on...I'm so proud of her.  I know you probably don't all want to know about the potty habits of our family, but I was dreading potty training her.  It is one of my least favorite things about parenting.  But now as she runs around the corner of the kitchen dashing towards the froggie potty in her Dora undies saying, "I gotta pee pee."  I just have to share my joy:)

This is the crazy I have to work with:)

So that is about it.  We are back on schedule and I LOVE that.  I am a creature of habit.  Vacation is nice but I like to feel like things are getting done and in control.  The trees are blooming and short weather is here in VA...at least for right now.  And that is enough for me, I'll take it for right now.
What I get to enjoy outside my front window.