Easter 2014

Since Karson was born, four years ago, we haven't had a "normal" Easter.  Karson was only a few weeks old, had his days and nights mixed up, and Molly had just had her knee replaced in 2010.  We didn't leave the house, but my Mom brought Easter dinner over.  In 2011, Kars had a 103 degree fever, and we spent the day in the rocking chair.  In 2012, I was in labor with Ellary.  Last year, the whole family was sick.  I didn't have high hopes this year, but thankfully no one was sick, and we had a fun family filled day!

 

I have learned that you don't get good pictures of kids on holidays.  We dressed up the kids a few days before, and snapped a few pictures.  Just incase we didn't get any on Easter.

 

The dress Ellary was wearing, my Grandma got for me when I was her age. 

 

 

The Saturday before Easter, we colored eggs.  The kids had so much fun.  And Mommy, Daddy, and Nana laughed really hard watching them. 



We may not have had the prettiest eggs, but their faces every time they pulled their eggs out of the dye were priceless!

They each colored a dozen eggs.  When they were done, they colored them all again.  We had a lot of brown-ish eggs. :) 

Easter morning, two very excited kids woke up to see what the Easter Bunny brought.  He hid all of their Easter eggs too.  They loved running around finding them all!

 

In order to make it somewhat fair, and to make the fun last longer, we made the rule that you could bring ONE egg at a time back to the basket.  Our little rule follower never brought more than one, and constantly reminded Ellary she couldn't have more than one in her hands at a time. :)

After they found all the eggs, we opened all the ones with "special treats" inside.  When Ella was finding the eggs, she would sake them.  If it was a real egg with nothing inside, she would put it back and find one she knew had candy in it. :)

After opening all their "special treat eggs," we headed to church and then to Grandma & Grandpa Smedley's for an Easter Egg hunt with the Smedley cousins.

After a quick visit with the Smedleys, we headed to Nana & Bumpa's for Easter dinner and another egg hunt.  It was beautiful out, and Ella had another Easter dress of mine that fit.  It was a good excuse to change her. :)

Egg hunt at Nana's.

It was nice to have our first "real" day of Easter celebrations.  We spent the rest of the day playing outside at Nana's house, and enjoying the first really warm day this Spring!

Hudsonville Fair

We live in the same town both DJ and I grew up in.  It is a {not so small} small town.  It is a {sort of used to be} farm town.  Every summer we have our town fair.  It is one of the high lights of summer.  The fair runs for 1 weeks, we went every day, except one.  The kids' loved it!

One of the first days, the is a deal for $1 rides.  It was packed, but the kids had so much fun. 

Poor Ellary was too short to ride anything, but we sneaked her on the slide and train.

Waiting for the train....

Silly Daddy thought she would be ok riding on the same seat as him, while Big Brother got to ride in the seat in front of them. :)

Two minutes later, and Sister was up next to Karson.

Also, it is impossible to get a picture of them both smiling and looking at the camera.

 

Or a picture of them both looking away from the camera...

I could not tell you how many times we walked through the animal barns.

They loved the bunnies and the chickens.

Ellary LOVED the horses.

Sister likes horses, a lot!

Also, farm animals stick.

 

Outside the animal bars is full of tractors and farm equipment...Little Boy Heaven!

Karson loved, loved, loved the rides this year. 

Last year we put Kars on this ride, because he wanted to ride it.  Two seconds later and he was sobbing, and we couldn't get him off.  He asked a million times to ride it, and we said no a million times.  They he told me "Mama, Me big and strong now.  Me not going to scream and cry."  So I let him on it.

I lost track of how many times he rode it.

He loved it!

The next day a guy waked up to me and asked if he could give Karson tickets to ride a ride.  So sweet.  Karson was so excited to ride the Monster Trucks again!

 

While I have no doubt that Ellary would have loved it, Sister is much too short.  Maybe next year...

The fair is such a fun summer memory!   I have so many memories of the fair as a kid, I love that my kids are making the same memories.

Also, if you are at a fair and you see a sign for deep fried oreos buy them.  A.ma.zing.  We bought them purely out of curiosity.  But only eat one, or just a bite of one, because you will feel like death if you eat more than that. YUM! It may be my new favorite fair food.

Feeding the Ducks {Holland State Park Camping}

We just got back from 3 back-to-back camping trips.  We have basically been gone since the middle of July.  The first trip, we just went 30 minutes west, to Holland State Park.  I wanted three days on the beach...get up,  go to the beach, go back to the trailer, go to sleep, get up and go back to the beach.  Yea...that didn't happen.  Thank you Michigan weather...it was freezing.  And raining.  Like it was in the low 60s.  The water temperature was in the 40s.  We didn't get to play on the beach, we we had a lot of great family time in the trailer while it rained. :)

We had a break from the rain one day, so we headed out with some duck food to feed the ducks.  My kids LOVE to feed ducks, and I carry around a container of duck food in my car always.    

 

Of course, it started raining again when we started walking back to the campground...