Easter 2016

This Easter has been a bit....backwards.

You see, the kids had Spring Break March 21-27.  Steve really wanted to take Ethan and Allison somewhere.  I would have been okay staying nearby or even renting a beach house, but he wanted to do something more elaborate with them.  I was not up for traveling cross-country with Olivia and trying to appease the vacation desires of everyone.  What Ethan & Allison like doing is very different from what Will & Olivia like doing.  So, I insisted that Steve take them somewhere, just the 3 of them.  After much coaxing, he decided to take them to Los Angeles Thurs-Sun and then send them back by themselves because he had to travel for work the next week anyway.  Sure, this makes for a long trip, but I can handle it.  Except...we did not realize that Easter was in the middle.  So, long story short: Steve was not home for Easter.

Per my earlier post, Nick and Toy had an Easter egg hunt at their house the weekend before, so at least Steve got to do an egg hunt with the kids and see them dressed up.  To reiterate:

Still, Easter is Easter.  Our church actually had service on our very own campus (as opposed to the Amway Arena) this year, which was nice.  However, we are always scheduled for nursery the 4th Sunday of the month and guess what??? Easter fell on that Sunday.  So, I had nursery duty.  Because of huge crowds, we were not supposed to have our children in nursery for more than one service on Sunday, so we went to Easter service on Saturday night.  Will decided he wanted to come to the service with me.  Such a big boy!

On actual Easter, the kids got their baskets.  Will actually gasped, "This is a very special morning" after seeing his Lion Guard basket.

We always have an Easter party at George and Ashley's house.  It's their thing.  It's like I do the Christmas Party and they do the Easter Party.  Only, at 9pm on Saturday night, Ashley texted me that their house was struck by lightning and they had flooding and their a/c was out.  Could I maybe host?  Well, the house was an absolute mess and Steve is gone.  But sure.  People look forward to the party every year.  We couldn't cancel it.  So, I cleaned the house and hosted an impromptu Easter party.  Surprisingly to everyone, it was a very low key affair.  It made not having Steve there bearable because I was surrounded in my home by friends who are like family.

On Monday, we painted Easter eggs and on Tuesday night, we did our own Easter egg hunt.  It all made for a backwards, but fun Easter.

Will Turns 5

I do not know what it is about five. Five seems big.  Five seems old.  Whereas newborn-4 seem the ages of a little kid, once a kid turns 5, time really does fly.  Before I know it, he will be ten.  I want to slow time down and really savor ever second.  Can I do that?  Perhaps by attempting to be better about capturing the memories on here, I can at least revisit.  I will try to work on that.

Will had an AMAZING birthday weekend!  We started Friday by checking into Will's favorite place in the world....the "Tempry Resort".  Will wanted to stay at the place where they have all of the cookies (the concierge level) and watch the Water Parade.  Done and done, m'boy, with a few extras.

First, we rented a pontoon boat on the marina and drove around Bay Lagoon.  Will thought it was really cool that Daddy drove the boat.

We then went to the pool, but I did not take any photos because, well, we were in the pool.  Will had a lot of fun and even went down the water slide twice!

We then met up with our friends, the Daffrons, whose son Griffin is turning 5 this week too.  Will and Griffin are good buddies, so they had a blast together.

The parade ended at 9:35 and we somehow made it back to the Contemporary by 10 to watch the fireworks from the concierge level balcony.  As soon as that ended, we hightailed it to our room across the hall to watch the Water Parade (Will's favorite) by 10:15.  As soon as we opened our the balcony door, the music began.  Will was amazed at our timing, and so were we.

The next day, we went into the Magic Kingdom in the morning and went on some rides, met some princesses and got Daddy/son haircuts at the barber shop on Main Street USA.  We then headed back to the hotel and by golly, it started raining as soon as we got back.  We had the perfect weather while we were at the park and could not have timed it better.

When we left the Tempry, we drove straight to Chuck E Cheese where we celebrated Ryker's birthday.  Will's friend Reynelle came over that night and they had some fun with her and Mr. Matt and Daddy while Mommy went to Book Club

Sunday was Will's actual birthday!  We went to church where he got to be the leader (I have no idea what that means) and then we went to an egg hunt at our friends Nick and Toy's house.  Nick saw on Facebook that it was Will's birthday, so they even had a cake there and a birthday hat, which Will wore the rest of the day.  Super sweet!  Will was even the finder of a limited edition golden egg.  It had 3 gold coins inside and some of Will's favorite candy!  Sister found one too!  There were only 5 total.

After the egg hunt party, we started decorating our house where we had a small get together with some of Will's best friends for pizza and cake.  He got to pick out a special Oreo cake and open his presents.

Overall, it was a great birthday.  Will is happy.  He feels loved.  That's the most important thing.  There will be a lot of changes this next year.  He will start Kindergarten at a new school and make all kinds of new friends.  I wish I could keep him little forever, but he keeps on growing.  But I love him more every day that passes. He is such an amazing kid and I am so grateful that God chose me to be his mommy.

Happy Birthday, Booga Bear!

Easter Hat Parade

Even though today is St. Patrick's Day, it is also the last day of school before Spring Break and Easter falls within Spring Break this year, so therefore, the Easter Parade was today.

I really like Will's Easter hat this year.  I think "Will" did a very good job.  He is just such a huge part of my heart.  I could write a book about how much I love that kid.