Easter egg hunts and volunteering at the soup kitchen

Easter celebrations started a week early with some Easter decorations by Eli,

and a nice visit with GG Rita at her rehab facility that had a fantastic Easter egg hunt for any kids that could make it.

Brian's cousin Christi came from south KC with her kiddos as well as Chris brought Daniel and Bennett.

It was a nice little get together!

They even had an Easter bunny show up for pictures

This looks like Eli was the only one out there egg-hunting, but there were quite a few other kids in a different section.

Maggie was so sweet going around with Bennett and helping him find eggs.  In turn, she didn't get nearly as many eggs as everyone else, but she didn't mind.  Such a caring girl!

They brought in actual bunny rabbits for the kids to pet/hold at the end of the egg hunt.  Colin thought it was pretty neat!

The next day, a group of women in my church retreat from 2 years ago volunteered at the soup kitchen on Sunday morning, handing out over 275 lunches for those in need.

We  got a sitter for Eli and brought Colin and Maggie with Brian and I to help.

Colin with my good friend, Amy

A few of the Teson boys

And a few of the women of CRHP group 8

It was a very fulfilling morning and was so nice to help serve others!

Eli found these glasses and thought he was pretty funny :)

And the kids brought home their school pictures the other day.

I knew we weren't going to purchase them, so I let them each pick out a background they wanted.

Ordinary days in April

Maggie's classmates each mailed a 'flat stanley' to someone that lived out of state.  Maggie sent hers to Brian's cousin Claire (who used to nanny for us during the summers a few years back).  Anyway, Claire has been doing all sorts of fun things with flat stanley and Maggie is always so excited to show the pictures to her class at school. 

Flat Stanley went to a crawfish boil - so fun!

My work had a kids fun zone at our company's kickoff party for Corporate Challenge.  As usual, the kids had a blast and did tons of fun obstacle courses and other projects

Drawing on a huge mural

Getting some golf advice from a golf pro

We left the kickoff party early and went to Johnny's 8th birthday party.

So much fun!  The cousins just love playing together!

Colin's in the thick of spring soccer season.

We love going to the games on the weekends - they are currently in 2nd place in their division with just a few games left.

Colin with his buddy CP who guest plays on our team this year.  He'll likely play on their team next year, too.  Such a good group of boys.

Brian's 38th birthday

Brian turned 38 earlier this month - we are slowly, slowly inching our way closer to the big 4-0.

He got up super early with the kids before school so we could have our traditional birthday donut.

We sang to him and he had a special old-fashioned donut to for breakfast

Eli wasn't feeling a birthday picture with Dad so early (Colin was just being silly), so we let him be angry on his own and got a cute picture of Brian with the older two kids

Can you tell it wasn't even 7 am yet?!

There are some tired eyes in this picture...

Later that afternoon, we grabbed everybody after school and went to a Tokyo japanese steakhouse for dinner.  Everyone was super excited to eat dinner at the place where they cook in front of you!

Eli wouldn't stop talking about how he was going to 'catcha da chrimp' in his mouth, so they were practicing the best way to catch the shrimp before dinner started (side note: Eli chickened out and wouldn't try it)

Intently watching our dinner being prepared right before our eyes!

And we got a pretty cute picture of our little family of 5.

When we got home, Brian opened his gifts (which for some reason I didn't get any pictures of).

The kids all picked him out a gift with all of his favorite candy - which was eaten quickly by the entire family, some window decals for his new-to-us car (Royals and Sporting KC), and an Apple Watch so he has no excuses to not answer me when I try to get a hold of him during the day :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!!!

We love you!

More ordinary days in March - fun times with friends

All the random pictures from my phone the last couple weeks of March

Brian took the kids to Power Play again one afternoon

Then was able to take them to an NAIA tournament game while they played in Kansas City.

The kids had a ton of fun, watched some good college basketball, Maggie made the jumbo-tron while she was dancing, and they got some free sandwiches, too!

The family went to watch the Comets play, an indoor soccer team.  

We walked up to the gate just a little before game time and asked them to trade our passes in for the best seats they had available.  Man, were they good seats - we could feel the breeze as the players ran past us on the field. 

Maggie loved watching the cheerleaders, of course!

So close to the field, it was tons of fun!

We were right behind the penalty box, which was cool to see the players when they were in there.

One of our favorites, his name was Nacho, waved and smiled at us when he was in the penalty box for a couple minutes.  

Aunt Caitlin took Maggie and Olivia out on a 'girls date' one afternoon.

She's not used to do these girly activities with her little ones, so it was a few hours enjoyed by everyone!

They got their toes painted, went and got a special drink from Starbucks, and did tons of laughing and giggling.  Thanks Aunt Caitlin!!

We had the opportunity to see the Parks cousins one Tuesday afternoon (randomly, due to returning a borrowed car to Meemaw since Brian's car was 'totaled' by the insurance company and we had to buy a new-to-us- one).  Anyway, the kids all had a blast together, as usual!

Girl power!

Dudley cousins

Silly face picture!

Maggie had a birthday party at Power Play one afternoon

Maggie with her friends Quincy and Sylvia

I love that Maggie has such great friends in her class.

Busy weekends in March - birthday parties, St. Patricks day Parades, and kickoff to Spring Break fun!!!

This post is going to be a long, slightly random collection of our days lately...

We FINALLY celebrated Colin's 1/2 bday with a cookie cake at school.

I love this local cookie decorating shop that will customize the cookie cakes for you!

Ignore the slice through the bottom - I had started to cut it before I realized I hadn't taken a picture yet!

I stayed and had lunch with the kiddos - and Eli was with me since our daycare was closed that day.

Maggie picked her friend Chloe to sit by us at the lunch table

My boys

So fun visiting for lunch!

Then we had some other friends over to play - the kids were being silly with their dinners

Waiting at school drop off in the morning - love these kiddos

Then we hit up both of Daniel and Bennett's birthday parties in one weekend

They had a fun Build-A-Bear party for Bennett

Where Eli got to stuff his own bear!

We hit up a really cool new park near our house - so much fun!

A huge climbing rock that the older kids loved

Maggie and I swingin...

These 3 smiling cutie patooties...

Then we went to Daniels party at Hyvee

The kids LOVED frosting their own cupcakes

Some of the Teson cousins

Maggie being silly after church with her friend Katelyn.  

Then we went to a Mavericks game (ice hockey) that night (without Brian since he was helping out at a church retreat)

It was Game of Thrones night so they gave us these pictures to hold in front of our faces while we were cheering on the Mavericks

Hairy Eli

Eli got to meet Cheez while coming back from the restroom

A quick family pic (We missed you, Brian) before we left for the evening

Brian was at a church retreat and missed ALL of the fun that Saturday...

More Game of Thrones action that we hit up on the way out of the hockey game

Maggie's 2nd grade class marched in the KC St. Patricks Day parade 

It was chilly, but the sun was out and everyone had so much fun!

Their class won 1st place for school floats

Love this sweet girl

Maggie being silly with her friends

After the parade, we grabbed Meemaw to come stay for a bit before a doctor's appointment she had

And of course, Moose got some extra special loves from her!

Then we hit up a fun arcade using our Winter Passes from Santa

This ride is always a hit with the kids!

We were not good at all on this game...

We had so much fun over Spring Break - not doing anything too crazy, just having little bits of fun each day.