Pinwheel & Pack

This darling muffin got a backpack she loves... she wears it all over!

Is there anything in it?  Nope!  But, it makes her feel like one of the big kids! :)

Vacation Part 5: At the Park

We call this the "Spinny (not technically a word, I know) Park"... because pretty much everything spins.  These two laughed their heads off on this... which made it nearly impossible to hold on!  (This is the before picture.)

Tulip spinner

Frank has gotten disastrously motion sick here in years past... this year he decided to just stick to the slide!  (See his happy face because he isn't sick?)

The kids thought it would be fun to see how fast they could go with four of them stuck in this contraption... Let's just say--it's a good thing none of them get motion sick!

I want one of the tulip spinners in my backyard!

Vacation Part 4: Playing at the River

After our GORGEOUS hike the first day, we decided we wanted to go back and play by the river for a morning activity.  We packed a lunch, bought a few toys at the dollar store (trucks, army guys, a miniature tea set, and a couple of ponies), and set up camp.

The girls had a very civilized tea party--consisting of mud pies and river water.  (No, they didn't really drink it... but they DID give it to the ponies!)

Boys will be boys!

Sam set up the army guys on one side of the river... and everyone else chucked rocks from the other side to knock them down (usually after Sam had moved...).  (Perhaps a little less civilized than the aforementioned tea party... even if the tea party DID involve mud pies!)  We all had a GREAT time!

Vacation Part Three: The Dunes

Let's go fly a kite!  It was a windy, slightly cool day... this was the perfect activity!

Being the brilliant, innovative genius that he is, my husband likes to take broken remote-control cars/trucks and add a rope to them for the kids to pull around-- they still make that revving noise boys love so much, and it allows them to expend a world of energy!  (Thrift stores are a great place to pick these up for only a few dollars.  We used a jump rope from the dollar store for the rope/handle.)

Picnic in the sand

Climbing the dunes is harder than it looks!

These two love to play together!!!  If you notice, I didn't really get any great shots of the older two boys--they were busy running as far and as fast as possible with those trucks!  (They also took a bunch of slow-motion videos of the trucks crashing... pretty cool!)

Cousins

Nothing is better than a s'more straight out of the fire...

...except perhaps one in each hand!

These ladies were collecting petals to use for fairy beds!  They were oh-so-soft!

Boys.  You can just SEE the joy on their faces.  Enough said.

This beautiful (though tired) girl attracts small children like you wouldn't believe!  Every one of my babies has always loved her... even when she was still a tiny one herself!  She'll be a GREAT babysitter!  (Though, admittedly, she might like the wee ones to occasionally let her be.)

Easter

Easter Finery

We had a massive Easter brunch and egg hunt on Saturday!  I'm not posting pictures from that (since it involves other people), but here were some of the yummy treats we made!

Flower Cookies

"Carrot" Strawberries

During the egg hunt

After the party we were all really tired... but I managed to rally and set up everything to dye eggs that evening!  It was fun!

These two had to scour the forest to make sure no eggs were missed!

These were my beautiful eggs.  I would have taken pics of the kids' eggs, but they devoured them before I got the chance!