Five on Friday - The Easter Edition

1. First there was the egg-dying/coloring. We were in the middle of the Final Four and the four teams included mine, Ross and Zoey's. Needless to say, we had some smack-talking egg decorating! And Team Inspired Eggs! Zoey's knowledge of college (ha! rhymes!) has increased a thousand fold through this all, who knew? We did regular decorating too! Here is Zoey painting on one of her eggs:


2. So, my memory fails me. Apparently, living in different houses doesn't even help distinguish events, because I thought I saved all of the plastic eggs from last year and the Easter baskets, so I wouldn't have to buy them again! Nope, I did that a couple of years ago...in California! Oh well. So we had the Saturday before Easter scramble to find Easter baskets. We have been racing Mario Kart on the Wii and the kids love the characters and so they wanted Mario Easter baskets! Let's just say, not to be found at this late date... We improvised, they still love it:



3. I grew up decorating an Easter Tree. Zoey enjoys it as well. I was talking to my mom on the phone and she thinks the ornaments are over 30 years old! Nice!


4.

Do you see the egg?

We did an egg hunt just in the back yard with the kids. Always enjoyable for them. I am glad they still get a kick out of it. And even if Zoey was skeptical about the Easter Bunny helping Daddy hide the eggs (he knew to come via text message) she didn't dwell on it.









5. And what is a post from me without mention of the weather? Our Easter Sunday could not have been more beautiful! It was so nice. So finally, for number five... a couple of family pics!
I think this may be the face I capture a lot:


And this guy smiles, but tries not to look at the camera... hey, fifty percent!






Happy Friday... may Easter continue to be on the forefront of your mind. God Bless You.

Hello...

Mr GQ!


I seriously couldn't get enough of this kid on Easter.

And a girl cannot help but twirl, given the opportunity...


I hope you had a wonderful and blessed Easter! Alleluia!

Come Walk With Us

There are a couple of websites out there where you can input your address and see how "walkable" your house is. It is usually based on your location and its proximity to restaurants, stores, libraries, parks, etc. Well, our house still isn't on a map, but I can tell you, that our score would be pretty darn low! We like it though. Drive two miles in either direction and your by a mall or a farm.

What we can walk to right away is nature, and that is always a good thing. We got out for the first time in a long time the other day, and I thought I would share it with you!

If you walk out our backdoor and through the backyard, you hit a nature preserve with a path that winds in one way towards a pond...

It was pretty that day and we could see the white, puffy clouds reflecting in the water...




And Max says, "Look, Over There!"


A barn of some sort is always in sight around these parts!

So are animal skulls!





On a similar note, a sure sign of spring in Ohio- roadkill! It used to be gross, but now I find it kind of funny. If you didn't know the weather had warmed up, you need only look at the roads.


Zoey wasn't too in the mood for pictures that day, so this is the only one I have of her:


In the middle of our nature "walk" we decided to do some racing and action shots!
Go, Max, Go!!


Daddy's trying to beat ya!



Max ponders the race results... Something's fishy...




Okay, Mom... I'm done with the pictures!

And that's the end!


Hope you enjoyed our journey today:) Come again soon!

Signs of Spring

Along with celebrating Ross' birthday as his day of birth, we also celebrate the fact that it is the last day of winter! We won't see too much green for a little while up here, but we are seeing some signs.



And I know there are a lot of photography "wrongs" in the next pictures, but sometimes, something about them is just right, ya know? That's how these are to me and I just like them:

Ross' Happy Birthday

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate."
-Oprah Winfrey

I am a big fan of birthdays. And I think Oprah's quote is a nice way to look at them. I am working on Ross and his thoughts on the whole birthday thing and I think he is finally coming around! It is just one day a year, right? I don't think you need anything grand, but I don't think you should knock it off as just another ordinary day! So, I think Ross had a very happy birthday this year! We dropped the kids off at school, and went to breakfast. Ross then went to one of his favorite stores in the area. We hung out in the nice weather, the kids made cards and sang Happy Birthday, and we finally ended the day with a nice dinner at the Melting Pot! yum!!

I got a nice picture of Ross and the kids before going to dinner... So Sweet:

March Madness

My Dad set up a fun March Madness competition for our family to participate in! I explained the whole set up to the kids and Zoey has really taken to it!! She knows all of the teams that she has and we have been checking scores and watching games over the past couple of days! She is really into it! It is very cute. Her best seeded team is Duke and she calls it "My Duke" when she talks about it. It is neat for her to see the upsets as well as the wins, because she is learning some lessons as well! Here she is with the tournament bracket, gotta love it:



Max's teams don't have as good of a chance at winning so he is not as excited. Probably next year, since we are making it an annual thing!!

St Patrick's Day

As soon as Ross had his first Corn Beef and Cabbage Dinner one St Patrick's Day... he was hooked. Along with a Guinness, it quickly became a favorite! He jokes that it is seriously his favorite holiday meal! I had a burst of inspiration at the beginning of the week, so I decided to make the celebration last a couple of days!

We made Irish Soda Bread and Rumbledethumps (I think its also called colcannon?) one night!

And then on St Paddy's Day, we had the Corn Beef and Cabbage Dinner with a Guinness! And for dessert... yummy chocolate mint brownies. I don't think that's Irish, but I thought it would be fun. I only had neon food coloring though, so the brownie looked like a nuclear spill happened! Still tasted good. Here is Max helping me make the frosting for the brownies:

I love how most people embrace the green wearing and celebrating. It makes me smile! I helped in Zoey's school that day, and 85% of the kids were wearing green! Too fun.

and here is a toast to you!