Last Spring they were the "Riverdogs"!
The Spring of '08, they were the Rockies.
And finally, Beckett's first year of baseball.....the Astros!
This one just hurts me......they were so little! Look at that little Astros cheerleader! Precious!
Oh well, just a quick trip back down memory lane!
I'm so excited that Sean and I are getting to go to this event! Yes, it will be awesome to see and hear Steven Curtis Chapman! And yes, I am fired up to hear the Watoto Children's Choir made up of orphans from Uganda! But I think most of all, I'm excited to spend the evening with others who have felt the call to care for the orphans of Africa through adoption and to help with the HIV/AIDS and water crises. I know it is going to be an amazing night!Here is a link to a great article about the Hamilton family. They traveled about one month after we did last summer to meet their three new children. I just love the story about their daughter's name and the significance about "getting the word out"!
After lunch, the cousins (minus Ty and Marley) headed outside to hunt for eggs. Nana and Papa had hidden LOTS of eggs for their grandkids to find and they were ready to go!
Connor helped Will look for eggs!
Nana and Will looking for eggs in Papa's grapevines! 
We dyed Easter eggs on Saturday evening......
and Will thought it looked very fun! He didn't stay up at the table for long or we would have had a permanently rainbow stained kitchen table! He was really wanting to get into those glasses of colored water!
We tried a new activity this Easter eve. I found the recipe for these Easter cookies through a link that another Ethiopian adoptive family blogging friend posted. I was so excited to find this recipe, as I had been looking for one for a while! The recipe for the cookies completely explain the events up to Jesus' crucifixion through His resurrection. Each step of the recipe includes the scripture reference to read. It was a great family activity and the kids were excited to find that the cookies were hollow inside when we took them out of the oven on Sunday morning! So cool!
Grankaki and Granbob had a dinner party to attend in Knoxville on Friday night, so they came to stay with us and play with the kids. On Friday afternoon, it was warm enough to put on swim suits and play in the water. Grankaki sprayed them with the water hose and they had a great time!
Just catching up on all of our recent activites.....so rewind to LAST weekend when we got together with several of our friends and had a cook-out/egg hunt! Here is a pic of all of the kids with their baskets of eggs. So much fun!
Justin is so good with all of the young kids! He should be.....he has 5 younger siblings! I loved walking up and finding him sitting at this little picnic table with Helen and some buddies!
I guess this event was technically Will's first egg hunt, so here he is showing me what he found!
And last, I just had to share this sweet picture! We love Will's "springy" curls. They are seriously little coils of curls that just spring up and down! You would never believe how long they are, until you pull one up, or you get his hair wet! This particular evening, we really soaked his hair during his bath time and just loved his new look with bangs!
So, I think I've gotten caught up with an overview of the last few weeks! Blessings to you all this Spring season. May we each live every day with the understanding of what Christ did for us and and in the comfort that we have hope for a wonderful future because of His amazing love!
We usually celebrate half birthdays with a trip to get some ice cream, but we are having company for dinner tonight and probably won't have a chance to do that. SO! I'm planning to let Will celebrate by giving him a chance to "do over" his first birthday cake experience! I'm going to give him a cupcake and see if he will dig in and get it all over himself! He did not enjoy his personal birthday cake AT ALL! I hope he will enjoy his cupcake tonight! I'll keep you posted!
Our morning began with green eggs and ham for breakfast. Not to mention some green milk as well. Some were happy about it.......
Some were not so sure. Will usually LOVES eggs, but he would not touch the green ones! Fortunately, the biscuits were not green! :)
After breakfast, Will, Helen and I went to BSF and Beckett went to enrichment class. After BSF, we picked Beckett up from class a bit early and headed to church where we were having our Homeschool Family Connection St. Patrick's Day party! Here is a picture of Beckett with his buddy Matt. Check out Beckett's green shirt! It is perfect for him! He would eat pizza every day and every meal, so a pizza food pyramid would be right up his alley!
At the party, we learned all about Ireland's favorite patron saint, St. Patrick; and then we talked about many of the other symbols that are associated with St. Patrick's day. This is a picture of the kids playing a game called "Leprechaun, leprechaun where's your gold?" Helen was the leprechaun and someone was stealing her gold. She had to figure out who had taken her gold coins.
A little later, the kids sorted and graphed Lucky Charms marshmallows! A yummy math activity!
Just a couple of my cutie leprechauns!
Beckett back at the refreshment table going for seconds! Lots of green goodies and drinks to enjoy!
Here is a picture of the whole group! It was a fun afternoon!
I'm serving corned beef and cabbage for dinner. Hope it goes over better than the green eggs!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
