Easter 2019!

 

Easter has typically been while we are down in Florida so it's been awhile since we dyed Easter Eggs. We were already to go and I realized I had the "brown eggs". Welp, not really for sure how those would have dyed. We should have tested it! Side Note: Ben was at work and the van was at the dealership getting an oil change. SO, for the first time I invited Luke to ride his bike, by himself, to the corner store to go buy some eggs for us to dye. I gave him a few bucks and a backpack and within 5 minutes he was back with no cracked eggs in his backpack! Way to go, kiddo.

Men in aprons. A must!

I am loving these new sponge applicators! They are way more fun then just soaking the eggs.

Hamilton! Woot, woot!! Uncle Tom and Aunt Cathy gifted us tickets to go see the show in Detroit AND Aunt Cathy came to the house to watch our kids for us AND they all made a yummy treat called Bunny Butts while we gone. What a great gift!

First Stop: Olga's for dinner. Sounds odd for the night but that's exactly what I wanted!

Second Stop: HopCat for drinks and dessert!

Last Stop: Hamilton at the Fisher Theater!

Checkout that stage! Just in case you were wondering, yes it is worth the hype! SOOO good!

Easter Sunday and the Easter Bunny stopped by in between our late night at Hamilton and the early morning before 9 am church! That Easter Bunny!!

We are so blessed BECAUSE He lives! Happy Easter!

Off to Gigi Budd's for Easter Dinner! The Bunny stopped here as well!

 Ben and his Gma. So sweet!

 Elle with Gma and Aunt Debbie.

 Cousins!

 Harlow and Aunt Cathy!

The girls. (Harlow, Elle, and even Baby Girl) 

The day was so beautiful, we were right back outside to take a walk to the park!

Happy Easter!! Also, don't ever ask Uncle Chad to take a group selfie pic. Ever. 🤣

Weekend Warriors

I am WAY, WAY behind on the blog. Life has been busy, with a capital B. Sometimes we have to slow down to re-calibrate a bit but we all have been having fun. Also, tomorrow is my last day of school and I just got report cards done SOOO of course, I am now in the mood to stay up late and look at all these sweet pics!! Comments will be short and sweet but I'm cool with it. It's a reflection of the times. :)

Drewman holding down the cookie-making station like a champ. 

Elle was in Math Pentathlon this year AND Ben coached her team!!

She was a rockstar and won 3 of her 5 games! Ellie, "nobody puts you in a corner baby" (or box for that matter!). Dance, soccer, swim, bookmark contest winner, bball, MATH...The world is yours sweet girl.

The best Daddy. We love him so.

Elle working it.

AND just like Luke and Ayrton were at their Tourney together these last 2 years, now their sisters are following suit! We love you, Zaydee!

This is Elle's BFF at school, Jonah.

The TEAM!

Drew tried soccer. Loved it for the first 30 minutes during practice.

But then he and a bigger 6 year old were told to face-off. Bigger kid scores and Drew was done. Sweet, sensitive boy. We tried a few more Saturday practices but after the "grocery shopping" drill, Drew wanted nothing to do with it. SO, we stopped early. He's 4. We will see where this leads. :) 

Haha, the ball kept slipping out from under him at first. He FINALLY got it not roll away from under him. I was dying! Drew, you have my heart.  

There. It stopped rolling. :) 

The sun is out. We're at our park. Bring on the last few months before summer break! Next up, Easter, baseball season, soccer season, and Dance recital time!!

Florida 2019!!

Off we go! The kiddos had a plan that they were going to have a "kid's row" again on the plane. It started that way but then my girl decided she wanted to sit with me.

These 2 though...

Ben joined in with them and they played Yahtzee on the flight. Drew got a Yahtzee!

My sweet gal.

We arrived early afternoon to Florida and after some lunch we all got some R&R. We were so happy to be back in Florida with Gpa and Gma!

These lips. I love his pucker when he sleeps.

LOTS of going to the pool! On this trip, Luke actually caught not 1 but 2 geckos in his "gecko catcher" net. Of course, Ellie wanted to hold them right away.

A new addition this year, we stuffed the kids' scooters into our luggage! They had so much fun zipping all around! 

These 3 swam ALL day as long as they could. Drew even made his first little friend here and they were inseparable at the pool. Her name was Julianna, from New York, also 4, and visiting her Gma with her mom and baby brother. 

All of this gave me lots of time to do this....AHHHH, the life!

Out to eat downtown Ft. Myers at our favorite Mexi spot!

AND of course, ice cream!!

We love our time in Florida. We love our time with Gpa and Gma and we love all of the extra snuggles and cuddles we all have.

Each night, every kiddo had their own reading buddy. Papa read Harry Potter book #5 to Luke each night.

Gma read Drew's favorite Florida read, Dr. Seuss' ABC Book.

Elle read with Daddy all types of books. Well, Ellie read TO her daddy each night. :) 

Beach day!

This year all 3 all jumped in and loved it!

Nobody else was really around and see that head bobbing out to the left?! I was like, " Everyone get closer to Dad!" 

Dancing in the wind...

Drew collected all of these seashells for his friends back home at his preschool. Gma helped him wash them all out!

A visit to the Lakes Park! First up, a ride on the train!

And these boys went crazy at the spray park. We may or may not have had to get an employee to grab the ball they threw over the blue gate into the water pump area.

A big move happening at Whiskey Creek! Mom and Dad remodeled Grandpa Johnson's condo and fully moved in on May 1st. It was a treat and healing to be a part of the process of the move. 

Ben and Luke helping move in the new bathroom vanity. 

Elle teaching Gma the Mexican Hat Dance!

So, Easter was late this year and didn't fall over our Spring Break in Florida BUT the Easter Bunny knows that this is such a special tradition that she showed up as were grilling out one night at the Clubhouse. The Easter Bunny also knew that there was a long, black snake spotted in Gpa and Gma's courtyard and decided to not hide the eggs in those bushes. Like 3 feet long! Eek!!

Hunting, inside this year!

When they got back to the condo, there were baskets too! Drew was cracking me up. Luke was doing an inventory of what he had in his basket and Drew raised his hand to let us know he had gotten each item too. Hand up, hand down. Hand up, hand down. 😆

Happy birthday to the best Mom I could ever have!!!! I love you so much, Mom! We celebrated at Dock Ford's!! 

Ellie made these sweet cards for us one afternoon while we were there. We love you, Ellie!

Our good friend from our Orientation days, Victoria, came and stayed with us for the night! How great it that??!! She drove up from Daytona, booked a hotel next to the condo, and hung with us for the night. We drove my Gpa's car to her hotel where we all hung out at the pool. Then we dropped the kiddos back off with Mom and Dad and hit downtown Ft. Myers! We were cracking up because in the car, we sat 3 across in front because yes, there is a front middle seat and the 3 kiddos in the back. It was so fun!! Ben was riding middle, front. 😁

Mom and Dad, we love you.

 Florida, we always think about you.

Till next time...

Can you spot the passed out 4 year-old. He slept this way the entire flight home!

Ellie took this picture!

Sharing an ear bud, and a show on a cell phone = true love.

This year we found out a GREAT saving tip...Fly out of Cleveland! This saves a lot of money on tickets. Anywho, we were driving home from Cleveland and MSU was playing in the Final Four game. We, of course, mapped our route home to the nearest BW3's and stopped to eat to watch the game.

What a life. 💜