Easter happenings

I'm going to start with my "first thing in the morning" picture that Julie challenged us to do. I hadn't even made it out of bed yet, and the red-eye reduction light made it next to impossible for me to keep my eyes open...reduce red eyes it did indeed! It was like looking straight into the sun.

Happy Easter to everyone! "Cora what is Easter about?" "Um...Is it when we celebrate John Smith's birthday?" "John Smith??? Who is that?" "Jesus's cousin who baptized him." So today we spent some time reviewing what Easter is all about and who John the Baptist is. On Friday, we went down to the park to play and I actually took some pictures. Since Mark is home for the weekend I'm able to use his computer to upload photos so here we go!

Here are a few pictures from last weekend when our cousins came over to play. AJ and Eli always find something cute to get into. Abe and Garret, and probably Eli too, would play xBox the whole time if we let them. They enjoy playing Ninja Turtles and X-Men, but we don't let them play X-men anymore because of Lady Death...Garret's favorite, half dressed character. Below are some pictures from the park.
Garret was blowing me a kiss.

Friday night we went to an Awesome Easter egg hunt in Julie's neighborhood. There were so many eggs scattered over the field at the Grant, Cora's elementary school. The kids had a great time. I'm so thankful this was put on because my kids might not have had a hunt this year otherwise.



Thanks to all who were involved with the hunt. We had a great time!! We went to Wal-Mart early yesterday evening to get Easter basket stuff. Why do I do that to myself?? Wal-mart on the eve of any holiday is maddening. I had to dig through carts just to find any candy because there was none left on the shelves. When stores put holiday stuff out months in advance it bothers me, but I'm going to actually start supporting this and buy what I need the first chance I get so I never have to do last minute holiday shopping again!!!!! But we made it complete with baskets, candy, and an actual dinner.

Someone needs to wipe that kids nose! Cora and Garret really wanted another egg hunt in our backyard so they took all the plastic eggs and stuffed them with their candy. Daddy hid them and then the hunt was on. I'm so happy I have kids that can compensate for my lack of enthusiasm most of the time anyways...


Anyone want to buy our house? We have a goal to get our house up for sale in the next 2 days and hopefully it won't be long after that. So if anyone knows anyone looking to buy a house...

My most favoritest books ever!

When I was a kid I used to love love love books. I carried around books like some kids carry around stuffed animals, and I still have many of them to this day. I was going through all my stuff the other day and came across my old books, and decided today I wanted to make a visual list of all the books I remember loving as a kid. They were a big part of my childhood and I even taped pieces of paper with a number on the backs of them to create my own library. I have copies of most of these books and have even had to scan a few covers in. I hope somebody out there sees a book they remember as a kid that they haven't seen in 20+ years!

These two used to be my most favoritest ever. I'm not sure why, but they were. The Lincoln one is just a history book with old photos and I remember just sitting there looking at the pictures. My name "Jemmy" is even written on the front page. I don't know why I couldn't write Jenny because if you can write a m you can make a n. Anyways. My mom likes to tell the story of how I would sit and stare at the picture of the Lincoln Memorial and say, "Nincoln could not under-tand." I'm still a big history lover today.

Does anyone remember watching that movie Rikki Tikki Tavi??

If you look closely you can see duct tape in the binding of Oh What a Busy Day. I have the old Best Word Book Ever and it too has duct tape on the edges.

Charlot's Web was the first chapter book-well long one anyways-that I read followed by Island of the Blue Dolphins. Island of the Blue Dolphins is great, but it's kinda depressing in a lot of ways.

When I was 5 I got my tonsils taken out, and my parents brought me this book in the hospital. Want to talk about weird...I remember, very vividly, waking up from being put under for that surgery and looking into the eyes of the other little girl that was laying on the bed next to me. I just don't understand what it is about some memories that keep them so fresh in our minds while yesterday slips away???

I was thinking about making a list of the movies I remember watching as a kid, but decided not to after getting through Dirty Dancing, Return to Oz, Platoon, and Exorcist. All the holiday classics are among my favorites, however: Garfield's Halloween, Mickey's Christmas Carol, Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Carol. I have so many Christmas movies I love. It was fun getting this post together.