Easter 2014

We started off Easter by visiting the Walmart Easter Bunny.  The kids heard he was going to be there...offering FREE photos....and I'm a sucker for FREE.  BUT, I guess you have to okay with the "Walmart" look!  Is it just me or is his body and head just a wee bit out of proportion? Maybe it's me.

Then on to egg dying and Easter Bunny Cupcakes (courtesy of Mimi Sue).

 

 

Here are a few shots of the kids in their Easter duds before we took off for church. It was a beautiful sunny day!  And was BRIGHT everywhere we tried!

 

 I bought these hats for the kids when Hudson was a baby.  It has become a funny tradition that we wear them every Easter for a few pics.  I wonder how long they will keep doing this?  They haven't really questioned it yet!  The first year we wore them Lawson was 2 and I took their pics in the Eater clothes before church.  Hudson was a baby and pulled his right off after the pic.  I could not talk Lawson out of hers....she wanted to wear them to church!  I was like whatever!  She strutted in wearing those ears and still had them on when we left church! Wore them out to eat lunch!  She turned a few heads!  She was just so serious walking around wearing Easter Bunny ears....as if that was what everyone did on Easter! 

We had a wonderful day celebrating God's amazing power in raising Jesus from the dead! Thank you, Jesus, for loving us.  May we celebrate everyday the freedom we have because of you!

The Easter Bunny threw us  "God's Great Dance Floor" dance party this am!  We woke up to a house bumpin to Chris Tomlin and glowing Easter Eggs!  What? What?! Lots of fun at 6am!

 

Back to Baseball

 Awww...Spring Baseball!  Love it!  The weather is so nice and these kids are so fun to watch!  Perfect way to spend several evenings a week! Hudson LOVES it!

Hudson is playing with his same coach from last year on the Cubs. He was thrilled to have Coach Brad again.

 They start the season with a pre-season tournament!  Ya know...let's just right to it! If you lose you are out.  Well we won all 7 games and took home the trophy!  Pretty amazing! 

The last game was a nail biter!  This team gave us a run for the trophy for sure!  We were up 5-3 going in to the last inning.  We made some mistakes and let them tie it up.  Ended up going in to 2 extra innings before we finally got lucky enough to pull out the win!  It was exciting for sure..and LATE! We didn't leave the ball field until 10:30 on a school night!  Not sure it was my best parenting! But look at those faces!

 I went to several of the practices before the tournament and I must admit I had pretty much written this season off.  No one was hitting the ball at all! Guess they were saving it up for real games.  Because they have all bit hitting so well!

 This little guy has got a hit every time he is up to bat so far....which would be about 15-16 times now!  Because he is more mentally more mature, than previous years, "nerves" have started to set in with him.  He tells me he is nervous when he bats sometimes.  Bless his heart!  It is "all eye on you" kind of sport!

Here are some of his hits!

Lawson's 10th Birthday Party

Lawson decided that she wanted to have a painting party this year!  So, she got on etsy and picked out her invitation and we got started with planning the party!  She found so many cute paint party invites on etsy in different color schemes.  I always try to steer her towards trendy new color schemes/patterns and she ALWAYS lands on a rainbow colored scheme.  If you know her, that does NOT suprise you!  So, a rainbow themed painting party it was!

I can see why she likes the rainbow scheme...it is fun and bright!  Just looks like a party!

 This was one of my favorite elements.  The banner was made from paint sample cards you pick up at home improvement cards!

 We tried to decorate with "paint" items!  Putting some flowers in a paint can. And water colors were the party favors.

  

 We (I) tried to tie the invite into the party decor...by incorporating the red/white polka dots with the rainbow chevron used in the invitation.  I'm not sure why...but somehow it gives me joy!

  

 Lawson painted these paintbrushes in "rainbow" colors to create a little garland to add to the front of the food table. She also cut out the water bottle labels and party favor labels by herself.  She LOVES to work on her parties! So cute!

The girls and Hudson all seemed to really enjoy the step by step painting process.  They were so focused.  It was really fun to watch them all paint...and watch how their masterpieces turned out!

 Hudson was quick to say he didn't really want to paint a tye dye rainbow heart.  So, the kind people at Painting with a Twist allowed him to tackle another painting of his choice.  He chose a landscape which really surprised me!  He did a great job on it!

Time for the paintings to dry and get to the cake!

Miss Independent wanted to light her own candles this year! 

 Then time for the group shot!  Such fun! Thanks to everyone for making this such a fun party for Lawson!

Happy 10th Lawson!