First Fish

Our friend, Heger, had his 4th birthday party at Swanny's. It is a restaurant with great food but it also has LOTS of wonderful things to do...fishing, golf, a playground, karoake. I am embarrassed to admit that it is less than 5 minutes from our house and this was the first time in the 10 years we have lived in Houston that we have been to Swanny's. Needless to say, we all loved it and will be back!

The birthday boy 'rescued' a crawfish from the boil. Mike baiting the line so the kids could do some fishing.
Lily caught the very first fish in the Hall family. We were very surprised and very proud of her. Lily isn't normally the adventurous one (she is more shy and reserved when it comes to trying new things) so this was an exciting moment.
Carter barely stopped to eat he was having so much fun fishing.
Carter's first fish...can you see it?
There it is!

We are not sure which is more comical...Carter catching his first fish with a little pink/purple fishing pole or the size of the fish. Either way, all that matters is he was very proud of himself and that little fish!
Although fishing was the highlight of the party, there was plenty of other fun stuff to do including swinging...
...golfing......and hanging out listening to people sing karaoke.

Emery, Lily, Sydnie, Sally and M.K.

Dying Eggs

Just a few pictures to capture the annual tradition of dying Easter eggs. This was Carter's first time to be a part of it. Aubrey definitely did her best to be 'in charge' of the situation. (She is more and more like her mom each day :-)

Everyone chose an egg...

...wrote their name on it...

...patiently waited for their turn...

...took a moment to smile for the camera......watched very carefully...
...as they dyed the eggs.

Good Friday Family Service

The kids and I went to our annual Good Friday family service. It starts at 5:00 so Mike wasn't able to meet us. Gabby (8th grade) and Mackenzie (7th grade) are two girls who are very helpful for me whenever we have events/activities at church. They love the kids and are very good with them. We started in the sanctuary with some praise time and then a brief drama presentation of the Easter story. The kids don't get to be in the santuary too often so when they do, it is very impactful.
How does a panda fit in with the Easter theme???

It doesn't...since this was a community event we were doing some advertising for VBS. The theme this year was PandaMania.
Then we headed outside for an egg hunt and to play with the bunnies and chicks.

Gotta show Momma what I collected!

Easter Tea Party

Sweet coach Ellen promised the girls another tea party based on if they all got one of the hardest skills they need to know for Level 3...the front mill! They did it so they were able to enjoy an Easter tea party with cookie decorating, nail painting and egg exchanging.

Aubrey with her teammate and friend, Annie
Ellen is also Emery's coach so she graciously included her in the party. She was thrilled to be hanging with the big girls.
It isn't a tea party without painting fingernails!

Gettin' ready to pass out her eggs. By the look of that hair, she practiced really hard that day :-)

Carter wasn't invited to the party so he watched through the window and made plenty of attempts to be silly to get the girl's attention.

the (Level 2, almost Level 3) girls

Preschool 3's Field Trip

Foundry Preschool 3's does their field trip to Bear Creek Park the week before Easter so they can have the kids do an Easter Egg Hunt. It was a beautiful spring day for the event.

First we played on the playground.

Emery with her favorite buddy in her class, Fisher.

What is down there?

Listening to the teacher's instructions for the egg hunt.

Collecting eggs.
We got all of our eggs.I really enjoyed getting to spend some special time with my twins.
The best part of the day is digging through the eggs to find out what they got and eating as much of the candy as possible right before lunch.
Lily's class
Emery's classAll four kids got to enjoy an Easter activity at school!

Palm Sunday

The preschool children get to sing in church twice a year...the first Sunday in December and Palm Sunday. It is so precious to watch and listen to them sing. They are all three dressed alike so it should make it easier to find them in these pictures :-)