So, We Had A Blast At St. Simons….

Some of us…

more than others…

But!  I have lots more to blog about than just St. Simons.  However I want to post mostly pictures, so I’ll let them do the (majority of the) story telling…

We got to see Grandpa!!  He happened to have a flight that brought him to St. Simons and so we stopped by for a tour and some treats:



And then!!  We got to go to Gin’s house!!

We played with Richard…

And Paul!

And Richard’s toys!

‘Richard, I know it’s a minivan..but think of how many ladies you could fit in there!’

It was so fun to visit!! 

Cousin’s chillaxin’. 
And then…we had Casino night!!

Hannah’s first time in the ‘Money Machine’

Also Ben’s first time…and he’s already cheating.  (you aren’t allowed to pick the money up off the floor!).

All the kids try to help each other out by pointing to the big money.

And the ice cream bar was of course, a huge hit:

As was the open bar…


The rest of the trip was made up of swimming, crab hunting, wave riding and lots of fun:

Colorful Kites

Kids are out of school today and tomorrow, so we dug the kites out of the garage and had some fun!

Done And Done

HOORAY THE HALF MARATHON IS OVER!!!!  We did it!!

Yikes, I know.   But I wanted to have something to document the event and sadly, this was the best picture we got.  Race results are here…there were 28 racers, and Matt finished in 3rd!  He ran it in 1:58:58.  I finished 8th and ran it in 2:09:16.   While I am so so happy that we did it, I’m mostly glad it’s over!  We are going to take some time off before we do another one for sure.  I am so very sore this morning (Matt said his legs were hurting just a little bit-*jerk*; meanwhile it is agony for me to walk down the stairs)  The course was four loops and an out and back (the sign in the picture was the turnaround right before the end) and pretty hilly on the back end of each loop.  However it was around a pretty lake and through a really nice park so that was nice. 

Anyway, I am sure everyone is sick to death of hearing about this race (I certainly am) but it was nice to have all the support-don’t know if I could have done the race without it!

Even Though We Can No Longer Afford to Send the Kids to College…

…it was worth every penny-

*This family bonding moment brought to you by the letter I(pad).*

Happy Easter!

We had the most wonderful Easter weekend!  The weather was perfect-breezy, sunny and around 75 degrees-and we tried to stay outside and enjoy it as much as possible.

First thing Saturday morning we took the kids to the local furniture warehouse where they had an Easter egg hunt.  The kids didn’t have too much luck, but they did see most of their friends there (there were so many people!) so that was fun. 

Matthew & Caitlin waiting in line.  Matthew was a little embarrassed that his sister was hugging him.  Caitlin was enjoying his embarrassment. 

Pea, hunting for eggs among the couches

After that, Matt threw a Boston butt on the smoker and decided to wash the cars.  The kids and I decided to make some fruit punch and watch daddy work:

Ben at least offered daddy some of his punch.

The punch idea was Caitlin’s so we found an easy recipe online (three ingredients) and mixed it up.  It was a huge hit:

In ten years he’ll be spiking it…

Later we decided it was time to dye Easter eggs:

and blow bubbles:

and help (I use the term loosely) daddy wash the cars:

We even brought one of the hamsters out to enjoy the weather:

Sunday morning we went to church and then came home for family pictures:

 

We couldn’t find anyone to take a picture of all of us so we did it in shifts:

Then it was time to hunt for Easter eggs:

The rest of the day was spent watching TV (Caitlin) eating bubble gum (Matthew) and being lazy.  Nana and Dee brought Easter “Happys” for everyone and later we helped our friends clean out some leftovers they had . 

All in all it was a magnificent Easter!!  And while I try not to brag too much about my kids , I do have to mention how proud I am of Caitlin and Matthew.  They both picked really difficult things to give up for lent…Caitlin television and Matthew bubble gum-and they really stuck to it.  It is really hard at that age to give up things that you love for that length of time but they did a great, great job.  I’m one proud mama!