Our Trip to Florida and Georgia

April 10, 2012 AT 11:16 am 10 Comments

 

Spring Break was last week, and we headed down to Destin, Florida with my sister, Cyndi, and my brother, Blake, and his family.

It was the first time that Eli had been to Florida, and he thoroughly enjoyed playing in the sand.

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Jonathan got to spend time with his cousin, Kinsey.  They are only six months apart. Smile

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The boys also got to spend time with their cousins, Ryan (far left) and Drew (far right).

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Eli pretended he was surfing in the shoreline…

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My sister, “Aunt CeCe” covered Eli up with sand….

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Luke had fun on the boogey boards…

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We stayed in some villas at Baytown Wharf.  It is the coolest place to hang out with your family!

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The boys couldn’t help but climb on this giant chair!

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Here is a shot of all the cousins…Kinsey, Luke, Drew, Eli, Adam, Ryan, and Jonathan.

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The Wharf was absolutely gorgeous!  destin 083

Just like something out of a movie!

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The boys loved checking out the fish in the bay.

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There are all kinds of fun activities for the children.

Jonathan and Adam took their turn at the ropes course…

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Luke jumped on the trampoline-thingy…

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So did Eli!  Smile

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He put on quite a show!  He was jumping so high and was doing flips.   He even got an applause from the crowd when he did a DOUBLE FLIP!  I was laughing out loud!

He gave the bungee thingy “two thumbs up!”

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Jonathan, Luke, and Adam all took their turn on the zipline.  Here is Luke in action…

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Of course we made room for food!  There are many delicious restaurants around the wharf.  We ate at Poppy’s one night.

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Here are my sister and brother getting ready to chow down on some snow crab!

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Here is Cyndi soaking up some time with her niece and nephews.  They love hanging out with her!

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Off to Georgia…

We left Florida in the middle of the week and headed to Georgia to spend time with my husband’s side of the family.

My boys loved hanging out with their cousins.  All grandsons (10 in all) on this side of the family, NO granddaughters!  Can you believe that?!

 

They had a great time riding around in the “gator.”

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Watching tv together at Pop and Grandma’s pool house…

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We love spending time at Pop and Grandma’s farm. 

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Getting ready for meal time!…

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We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon swimming at the Reynold’s Plantation swimming pool.  Cy and I loved spending time with his sister, Sarah and her husband, Tim.  Though I didn’t dare get pictures of  us in our swimming suits. Smile

 

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We got home from Georgia Saturday night, and headed to our church on Sunday morning to celebrate Easter. 

Our church always has an Easter egg hunt after church for the little children.  Here is big brother, Jonathan, trying to help Eli find the eggs…

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I think there is nothing much more precious than a field full of children hunting Easter eggs.  So sweet and innocent.  I know God smiles down on such a scene.  Smile

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Eli and his best bud, Jacob were excited about the hunt!  Could the weather be any  more gorgeous?!

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To top off a wonderful week, we headed to my Aunt Tassy’s house Sunday afternoon for our annual Easter egg hunt on my mom’s side of the family.  I wish I could take each of you to my Aunt Tassy’s house.  She and my precious Uncle Tommy have lived here every since I can remember.  It is the most gorgeous piece of property.

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The picture perfect place for an Easter Egg Hunt!

 

Eli is ready to roll, again!…

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The kids hunt extra hard for these eggs because many of them are filled with money!

(I teased my Aunt Tassy that we didn’t have money in our eggs when I was a little girl!  We just hunted a bunch of hard boiled eggs!  Boy have the times changed.) Smile

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Then we sat around, ate the loot, and enjoyed the sunshine. 

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Precious and priceless memories.

My husband and I have been so blessed with such wonderful families!

 

Did you have a good Easter?  What was your favorite memory?




A Bunny Trail Full of Easter Memories!

March 24, 2012 AT 11:28 pm 24 Comments

 

 

When I was at Blissdom in February, I had a chance to visit the Hershey’s booth!

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It was a great booth to visit because they had baskets full of Easter candy that they were handing out all day long!  I may have stopped by that booth one or two or three… (ahem) times a day

Oh my, I love Hershey’s chocolate, don’t you?!

One of the cool things we were able to do was create our very own Easter basket full of Hershey’s goodies.  easter 003

We chose our basket items on a computer screen, and then a couple weeks after Blissdom, I received my basket in the mail!

Yum!

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I chose:

Cadbury Crème Mini Eggs – 12 ct.

Cadbury Mini Eggs

Jolly Rancher Sour Bunnies

Reese’s Mini Reester Bunnies

Reese’s Reester Peanut Butter Bunny

 

I got items that I thought my boys would like, so I could use them in their Easter baskets this year.

Over at the Hershey’s website site, they have a place for us to share our favorite Easter memories.

 

Two years ago, I shared with you some childhood Easter pictures that I found.  Here are a few of my favorite memories…

Every year we colored Easter eggs to take

to my grandmother’s house for the big Easter Egg Hunt.

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(Cyndi, Blake, Me)

I was always so excited on the night before Easter when we got to sit our Easter baskets outside our front door.  I knew that the Easter Bunny would be hopping down the street as I slept and would fill my basket with lots of goodies.   We would awake on Easter morning, open the front door, and find our beautiful Easter Baskets wrapped in colorful cellophane!

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(me, Cyndi, Blake)

 

 

I loved getting dressed up for church on Easter morning.

It was always a special day of celebration!

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(me and Mom)

I especially loved it when we got to wear a corsage!  I loved the smell of those Easter flowers below my nose!

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(Cyndi, Me, Blake, Mr. Inchworm)

 

But my favorite Easter memory of all has to do with my mom.  I shared this story two years ago, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to share it with you again.

 

I don’t know exactly what year it was, but I was in elementary school.

Mom was our Sunday School teacher at church, and she was always inviting other little children to come with us.

I remember for a while that every Sunday morning we would pick up a little girl across town and take her to church with us. She was probably 5 or 6 years old.

I don’t remember much about our relationship with this family, I just remember that this little girl was very poor and didn’t have much.

Easter Sunday was approaching and this little girl had told Mom that she didn’t have a dress to wear on Sunday morning. (She usually wore jeans and a shirt.)

Mom asked her what kind of dress she would wear if she had one? The little girl said she always wanted a pink dress with lots and lots of ruffles!

(I could see the wheels turning in Mom’s head.)

Mom was an amazing seamstress. She could sew anything. And her mind was set on making this little girl an Easter dress.

Because Mom was always busy and usually did things last minute (just like me), she started making the dress the night before Easter.

I remember going to bed and hearing the whirl of the sewing machine as Mom worked quickly to get the dress sewn before morning.

When I woke up the next morning, I could still hear Mom working on the sewing machine. She was putting the finishing touches on the dress. She had stayed up all night, never sleeping, to finish the dress.

Finally it was finished, and Mom held it up for me to see. It was the most beautiful dress you have ever seen! A beautiful pale pink with 3 or 4 layers of ruffles in the front. I remember touches of white lace on the sleeves and bottom, and it tied with a big pink bow in the back.

Mom quickly got dressed, and we were off to deliver this Easter surprise to the little girl.

Of course, she was so excited, and she ran in the house to put on her new Easter dress! I don’t know who was smiling more…her or Mom. (or me.)

That memory not only made it into my mind, but it made it into my heart as well.

I saw first hand what joy it brings to do things for others.

Mom had sacrificed her sleep and her time to bless this little girl, and I saw first hand the rewards our sacrifices can bring.

Mom showed me how to put the interests of others above my own.

She had always told me to do this, but she also showed me how to do this. Our actions speak so much louder than our words, don’t they?

It is an Easter memory I will never forget, and you can bet that little girl never will either!

 

Have a blessed Sunday!




A Cute, Healthy Treat for Easter Baskets!

April 21, 2011 AT 4:04 pm 10 Comments

This could be the shortest tutorial I have ever posted!

I saw this idea a couple of weeks ago at a linky party.

 

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Isn’t that carrot adorable?!

I found this idea at The Moody Fashionista.

I decided to make some for my boys’ Easter Baskets.  (To counter-act the abundance of chocolate and jelly beans!) ;)

I used these materials:

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Green Ribbon

Green Tissue Paper

12 inch Disposable Cake Decorating Bags

Whale Crackers

I just snipped the top off the bag to make it a little smaller, then I filled it with Whale Crackers.

Next I bunched a half sheet of green tissue paper in the top of the bag…

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and tied a ribbon around it.

DONE!

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Love it!

It’s kind of like a little present with the tissue paper and ribbon.

My boys are going to love unwrapping it, and eating the crackers.

That’s all, ya’ll!

Have a blessed day!






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