Family Easter Pictures

We did a photo shoot on the driveway after church...always an adventure with lots of kids! Graham closes his eyes when he smiles and Carsyn wasn't into getting her picture taken....but we managed to get some good ones!!

 the cutest boys ever!

 Graham Charles - 3 weeks shy of being 3 years old!

 Avery Brooke - 2.5 months away from being 7 years old!

 Griffin Patrick - almost 5 1/2 years old

 the Parnell dudes

 Daddy and his girls

 the parnell ladies!

 cutest girls ever!

 Carsyn Ashley - 11 months old

Easter Baskets

We have had a great, low key Easter weekend. We stayed in town this year...Friday we had a playgroup party here at our house...we play outside all day Saturday, followed by grilling brawts and eating outside...and today we went to church, had brunch and an egg hunt at the club, and are going to some friends house for dinner. 

 Our littlest Eater Bunny!

 The kids were anxious to find their baskets first thing this morning!  Griff got an Avengers book, Star Wars figurines, and a Superman thermos.

 Graham was hysterical - he did a happy dance all around his basket before even looking in it!  He got a drill, water colors/book,  and a watering can.

 Our big girl got a new "chapter book," a CD with songs she knows from church, and new head bands.  (seems so grown up!)

after the happy dance!

PlayGroup Easter Party

We hosted an Easter party for our SBS playgroup friends today. If I counted correctly, we had 19 kids - 16 of them were age 3 and under!!!!  That's  a lot of little people!  We were so blessed that it warmed up enough this morning that we could primarily play outside!

ready for the egg hunt

and he's off!  

The boys were off from school today for Good Friday so I let Avery skip school and stay home for the party. She stuffed lots of eggs and hid almost all of them for me. Graham watched from inside as she hid them  and was beside himself that he couldn't go "pick eggs" - what a mean mommy to make him wait until his friends came! 

Avery and Griffin were the oldest kids at the party so I set a limit on the number of eggs they could get...I wanted all the little guys to have a chance!!  And Graham got over twice as many as the big 2- he was hard core! 

investigating their loot! (griffin, avery, liam, millie)

here are the mommies - avery took our picture! (amanda, rachel, holley, michelle, emily, me, brooke, chris)

this little one loved the plastic  eggs!

Avery and Millie found the dress up stuff and then spent some time decorating foam easter eggs

Griffin's School Easter Party

This week has been full of extra activities....Avery's spanish program, Griffin's school Easter party, and a playgroup Easter Party....I helped with Griff's party and egg hunt on Thursday. The kids made bunny ear headbands, had brunch, went egg hunting, and read a book. 

caught him mid-flight!  the kids were doing their "Friday Dance" a day early since they didn't have school on Good Friday!

playing Easter BINGO

post-egg hunt

this is one of Griff's best buddies - Jackson

1st Grade Spanish Program

The first grade classes at Stevens Creek had their Spanish Program last night. We left the little 2 home so we could actually pay attention to what was going on and took Griff with us so that he could get a glimpse of what he will be doing next year. According to Avery, she was only singing - not doing a speaking part - because she is too shy to talk in front of people!!

 They sang about the alphabet,  vowels, parts of the body, etc and showed off their spanish skills! Avery did a great job - knew all the words and motions. 

Easter Eggs

I bought stuff to dye eggs with the kids weeks ago but finally got around to doing it this afternoon!  I must admit that I am not a huge fan of dying eggs...its really messy and has potential for great disaster...but I kind of feel obligated to let them do it!  Plus, they always enjoy it. 

 Avery is very type A (doesn't like her colors to mix,  etc) so I planned on letting her dye her eggs first before the boys got a hold of them!  But Griff discovered that she was out there so she was glad that he joined her.  He was much more methodical than last year and did great!

 Graham and I dyed his eggs once the other 2 were finished. He enjoyed it - splashed dye everywhere and ended up spilling the entire cup!  Good thing we were in the garage!

 These are Avery and Griffins final products.

and here are Graham's!

St. Patty's Parade

 Griffin's preschool has an annual St Patty's day parade...each of the K3-K5 classes dress up and make instruments to use. Griffin's class was hilarious in their bearded hats!

 waiting on the parade

 my little irishman!

Skating Party

The 4 year old classes at FBC had a skating party last Friday...whoever thought putting a bunch of 4 year olds on wheels was a good idea was way off!!!  Most of the kids couldn't stand on their skates, let alone skate!!  Griffin lasted less than 5 minutes - and those 5 minutes were spent with me holding him up and attempting to let him skate!

 the only way he could even stand was on the brakes on the front of the skates!

 good thing they had other stuff to do!  balloons and broom...what could be better? 

 Carsyn enjoyed some freedom

 and parachutes are always a hit!